SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the keep-your-friends-close-and-your-enemies-closer? dept.
An article at vice.com reports The Number of U.S. Hate Groups Keeps Surging, Largely Thanks to Young, White men:
The number of hate groups nationwide reached a record high in 2018, driven partly by the persistent growth of white nationalist groups catering to young, college-aged men.
There are currently 1,020 active hate groups in America — up from 954 in 2017, and 917 the previous year, according to an annual tally by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The new, young face of hate emerged from the shadows during the 2016 election and organized through a shared language of memes and under the banner of the “alt-right.” Many hailed then-candidate Donald Trump, with his hard-line views on immigration, as a hero. In celebration of his election, the alt-right’s one-time de facto leader Richard Spencer led a room full of young men in suits to give Nazi salutes.
Since then, Spencer and other prominent actors, entangled in costly lawsuits and tired of being heckled by anti-fascist protesters, have faded into relative obscurity.
At the same time, groups like Identity Evropa — whose khaki-clad members were a formidable presence at the violent “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017— have proliferated and expanded their reach by setting up new chapters across the country. Patriot Front also grew significantly in 2018 after splintering from Vanguard America, the group linked to the 19-year-old neo-Nazi who rammed his car into a crowd of protesters during the Charlottesville rally and killed Heather Heyer.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday February 23 2019, @04:53AM (2 children)
To continue on my previous remark, this is vague and pedantic scorekeeping. We're discussing groups with minute presence who might be getting slightly more numerous, maybe. It's an SPLC thing to make mountains of molehills. That's their bread and butter.
I think it's pathological to puff up such things. This isn't some weird war of entrenchment where slight moves in relative power have long term consequences. It's just short term shifts, which might not have even happened.
My view is the best defense against racism is fair and equal treatment for all ethnic groups and elimination of favoritism/patronage and double standards in this area. I think that has mostly happened.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Saturday February 23 2019, @06:01AM (1 child)
One in 20,000 people, sure. One in 3000, I'm a little less comfortable calling minute. I'm saying they don't have to be numerous to influence a halo of people they know, unless they mostly spend time within their echo chamber (which is probable) and less with 'outreach'.
Agreed; I see it more as a recurring ground-level tendency across a reasonably-sized population and those sympathetic or on the fence with those ideas, not movements of monolithic power structures.
And it's a sufficient portion of the voting population thing to elect someone based on his promise of making a giant fence out of a border with a country that's 'not sending us their best people', to keep out people who (ostensibly) come here for work and a more stable civil situation and aren't bringing their own tools, much less weapons. No question that that part of the voting bloc would rally behind someone who promised another shot at making that happen.
Fundamentally, I see it as a bunch of seeds and less as a state of affairs. I'm not saying they'll necessarily grow, thrive, convince, or disperse themselves sufficiently to the general population, but if they do and they're spread widely enough, there are enough of them to influence others. Kind of like both the contagion-vs-vaccine situation. And we have daily evidence that a lot of the population is fertile ground and welcomes that kind of ideology.
Well, it seems like more police brutality stories nowadays cover people roughly equally re: skin color, so ... progress?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Saturday February 23 2019, @01:51PM
Are you joking?
The 2999 in 3000 also have halos too, you know.
Who before Trump was creating a more stable civil situation? It's nice that you're applying standards to Trump, but I'm not seeing a lot of presidents meet even those limited standards before him. And what's the point of caring that a part of a part of a voting block is anti-immigration to some degree?
Then maybe you should start caring about the allegedly fertile ground then. For example, you wondered [soylentnews.org] why the supporters didn't have time to do other things.
Check the economy. We had a big crisis back in 2008 from a poor attempt under Bush II to recover from the dotcom bubble way back when, then Obama was more interested in attacking business than fixing what was broke. There's been almost two decades of ham-handed efforts economically.