Hate Strategies Exposed

Jeff Tischauser and Lydia Bates

Hate groups descended into public spaces across the U.S. in 2022 to protest against LGBTQ inclusive programming, reproductive rights and classroom discussions of systemic racism.

Whether hate groups were responding to calls for action from mainstream far-right groups or were directing their membership themselves, protests attacking civil rights drove public performances of hate and the circulation of hate group messaging. As the lines between hate group and mainstream political rhetoric become thinner, hate group messaging in public spaces increased across the U.S. in 2022.

Hate groups perform media spectacles as a tool to recruit, generate publicity and intimidate targeted communities. A spectacle creates a visually compelling display designed to grab public attention. In the hands of hate groups, they are crude, designed to provoke outrage and driven by a need to market their movements to new audiences.

Hate group spectacles in this sense are always transactional and involve selling hatred to the public. Hate group performances include designing and displaying banners with messages that use slurs to refer to targeted groups, participating in racist and antisemitic chants, heckling participants of inclusive events and often openly carrying firearms and other weapons — all while dressed in their organization’s uniform, which often includes face coverings to conceal their identities.

Flyering, which is a relatively low-risk activity, is used to recruit and intimidate and draws media attention, decreased for the first time since 2018, dropping to 5,063 incidents in 2022 from 5,680 in 2021 — a 10.8% decline. The drop is due to hate groups shifting their focus to public performances, as well as steep drop in flyering incidents from the white nationalist group New Jersey European Heritage Association, which slid dramatically to nine in 2022 from 423 in 2021. This 97.8% decrease is likely due to members joining other hate groups and a change in tactics to prioritize public performances of hatred.

However, flyering incidents have been on the rise for the last five years. Flyering incidents overall rose 291% from 2018 to 2023, which suggests flyering is still an important tactic hate groups deploy. White nationalist and neo-Nazi groups disseminated the most flyers in 2022, which is a trend that has remained the same since 2018. White nationalist group Patriot Front continues to produce and circulate the most hate group flyering, with 4,801 flyers distributed across all of the lower 48 states.

White nationalist Patriot Front, neo-Nazi National Socialist Club and neo-fascist Proud Boys performed the most hate spectacles in 2022. Patriot Front participated in six public performances of hatred across the U.S., while National Socialist Club participated in 13 performances of hatred, with the majority occurring outside LBGTQ inclusive events.

Holding small protests against LGBTQ inclusion, women’s rights and perceived reverse racism have been part of the organized hate movement for decades. What is notable now is how clearly the larger far-right movement has acted in lockstep with hate groups, whose on-the-ground protests and harassment follow the path laid out by members of the GOP. When Republican officials and right-wing influencers attacked inclusive education and public health measures, hate groups were on the ground to intimidate people at schoolboard and city council meetings. And when the GOP shifted its attack to LGBTQ people, women and people who can get pregnant, hate groups like the Proud Boys and Patriot Front did the same.

In a political landscape in which messaging of hate groups is becoming increasingly indistinguishable from messaging of conservative movement influencers and elected officials, hate groups struggle to stay relevant. Creating spectacles is one way hate groups are attempting to gain attention during a period in which extremism is being routed through the conservative movement.

Public performances of hatred in 2022 also provide groups opportunities to network within the organized white power movement and from the larger conservative movement that attends protests. On many occasions, multiple hate groups have attended the same protest against LGBTQ-inclusive programming and reproductive rights. Protect Texas Kids, New Columbia Movement, Patriot Front and neo-Nazi Aryan Freedom Network participated in the same protests at least twice in Texas, one in September in Katy and another in December in Grand Prairie.

On June 4, outside an LGBTQ inclusive event at Mr. Misster, a bar in Dallas, Texas, members of the “Groyper” movement — which is led by white nationalist Nick Fuentes — appeared alongside white nationalist New Columbia Movement and reactionary anti-student inclusion group Protect Texas Kids — two groups added to the SPLC Hate Map in 2022. About 50 protesters in total appeared with some holding placards and chanting anti-LGBTQ messaging.

In November, a chapter of the reactionary anti-student inclusion group Moms for Liberty protested a drag show event outside of the Seed Theatre in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The group was joined by Patriot Front and League of the South. After hurling insults and veiled threats at event participants, the group of about 30 protesters held a prayer circle before leaving, according to on-site accounts and photographs shared with Hatewatch.

Violence is always a possibility when hate groups perform spectacles of hatred. Members of the New Columbia Movement have joined Protect Texas Kids in at least five anti-LGBTQ protests, including one at Coffee Park, in University Park, Texas, in which a protester unconnected to the groups allegedly assaulted journalist Steven Monacelli. And in the summer, some of the roughly 100 Patriot Front members who marched in Boston, Massachusetts, allegedly attacked a man named Charles Murrell who confronted the group about their bigotry and racism. As Murrell stood his ground, according to videos the group posted online, Patriot Front members appeared to encircle then crush him with their plastic shields. The attack came only a month after 31 members of the group were arrested on charges of conspiracy to riot after the group was stopped on their way to protest a Pride parade in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

“Not only did I get called a slur, but then as I decided to walk away from this protest, feeling kind of unsafe, given that I was by myself and was being singled out by the leader of the organization ... two people followed me away, and then one of them ended up assaulting me,” said Steven Monacelli, the special investigative correspondent for the Texas Observer.

In video Monacelli posted to social media, a white male wearing an “Arrest Fauci” T-shift storms past a police officer and angrily shoves Monacelli several times while repeating, “You talk all that shit about me.” Arrest Fauci refers to, Anthony Fauci who led the U.S. government response to the COVID-19 pandemic and who has become a common target for extremists who believe public health measures infringe on civil liberties.

“He’s someone I’ve seen at a number of [Protect Trans Kids] events before,” Monacelli said of his alleged attacker. “He describes himself as a Texas Nationalist and has menaced other journalists in the area as well.”

LGBTQ events and care facilities were especially targeted by hate groups and other extremists in 2022. Lies about health care services provided to LGBTQ communities at Boston Children’s Hospital have reportedly resulted in four bomb threats that led to the hospital and surrounding area being put on lockdown.

Across the U.S. threats of violence led venues to shut down a number of events showcasing LGBTQ inclusion, including one planned at Uprising Bakery in suburban Chicago, Illinois. The event was canceled after Joseph A. Collins, allegedly vandalized the business by breaking windows and destroying property inside. Collins was charged with vandalism and a hate crime for the incident and is awaiting trial. On Jan. 6, 2021, wearing Proud Boy insignia, Collins was photographed outside the U.S. Capitol alongside a leader of the group’s Illinois contingent.

As far-right propaganda assaults are becoming more aggressive and desperate, communities across the United States are seeking to stem the flow of bigoted, manipulative rhetoric. To bolster this effort, SPLC partnered with the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL) at American University in 2020 to build resources for parents, educators, coaches, community leaders and other types of caregivers. Our most recent publication, Building Networks & Addressing Harm: A Community Guide to Online Youth Radicalization, seeks to provide all trusted adults with the knowledge to recognize when a young person has been exposed to manipulative rhetoric like that on hate group flyers and provides tools to help them build resilience against it.

Similarly, to better understand the breadth of these hate spectacles, our Map of Hate Group Flyering in the U.S. shows where groups have been actively spreading disinformation and manipulative narratives over the past five years. When considered alongside our map of active hate groups, this information can help communities contextualize the threat of hate-filled flyers and banners within the broader landscape of far-right activity. While hateful materials are alarming and intimidating, such knowledge reassures communities that, despite the spread of such rhetoric, hate-fueled actors are in the minority.

To support the BTV Clean Up Crew and learn more about their efforts to make “every neighbor feel loved and welcomed,” click on image to visit their Facebook page.

When communities are resilient against manipulation and equipped with the facts about hate group prevalence and relevance, efforts to counter the spread of hateful messages are energized. Organized in Burlington, Vermont, the BTV Clean-Up Crew crowdsources donations to local nonprofits based on the number of hateful stickers they remove each month. For those trying to build similar forms of resilience in their communities, the Clean-Up Crew encourages making a strong distinction between hateful rhetoric that targets people’s immutable characteristics and political campaigns. “That’s the whole idea,” a Clean-Up Crew member explained, “that you’re supposed to love your neighbor. We’re not trying to attack your political beliefs; we’re just trying to help everybody who lives here feel like they’re welcome.”