SPLC Report Says U.S. Hate Groups Slightly Decreased Last Year. Here's Why That Might Not Be A Good Thing
Source: BRYAN DOZIER / Getty
On Thursday, May 22, the Southern Poverty Law Center released its annual 'Year in Hate and Extremism' report, and the results reveal what may sound like good news until it's placed in proper context.
According to the Associated Press , the SPLC found slightly fewer hate groups in 2024 than in previous years. That's good, right? The report found only a 5% decline in hate groups, but that's still progress, isn't it?
Well, apparently not.
From AP :
The nonprofit group attributes this to a lesser sense of urgency to organize because their beliefs have infiltrated politics, education and society in general. Some of the ways they have done this are through pushing for bans on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, book bans and protests of drag story hours, the report says.
Last year, there were 533 active hate groups. These include groups who express views that are anti-LBGTQ+, anti-immigrant, antisemitic and anti-Muslim. This number has been steadily declining since reaching a historic high of 1,021 in 2018.
'The trends have slightly sort of gone up and down but let's just say generally, since our tracking, have increased. And that's not just on a total numbers level but also on a per capita,' said Rachel Carroll Rivas, interim director of the SPLC's Intelligence Project.
In other words, white supremacists don't necessarily need to ramp up their organizing efforts in a nation where 'DEI hire' has effectively become the new n-word, white grievance placating has become the top priority of the White House and red-state America, and anti-woke propaganda has become so normalized that roughly half the country doesn't even raise an eyebrow when the government goes to war against civil liberties for virtually every demographic outside of white, cisgendered, heterosexual identifying Christians. Right now, we have a sitting president who is gleefully arresting and deporting non-white immigrants without due process after labeling them gang bangers and terrorist sympathizers without offering unimpeachable evidence to support it. That same president has been (falsely) shouting 'white genocide' from every mountaintop he can find in order to justify giving white Afrikaners from South Africa a free, unvetted pass into the United States.
Why would white supremacists need more white supremacist organizations when there's already one running the country?
On the other hand, the SPLC's report also indicated a slight increase in 'male supremacy' influence in America, which means the same logic isn't necessarily applicable when it comes to an increasingly sexist and misogynistic government and the seemingly increased normalization of 'women need to know their place' discourse.
More from AP :
Male supremacy also continues to emerge as an influential hate group. The SPLC documented seven new male supremacist hate groups, making the total 16. Their rhetoric espouses misogyny and strict gender roles. Their rising influence came during an election year when the country saw a woman of color be the first presidential nominee for a major political party.
'I'm not sure it's a direct result of the candidacy of Kamala Harris,' Rivas said. However, SPLC researchers went into chat rooms of white supremacist organizations during the election and found 'intense vilification, the claiming of demonization of Harris as well as just the pushing of the idea falsely that women would not be qualified.'
If the SPLC's findings and what the organization attributes them to are accurate, America has to be one of, if not the only, nation where hate groups decrease, and that's still not really a positive thing.
Sad.
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SPLC Report Says U.S. Hate Groups Slightly Decreased Last Year. Here's Why That Might Not Be A Good Thing was originally published on newsone.com
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