Throwback to that time in June f r e a k i n 2018 when we published the first of a series of articles--all chock full of concrete evidence--taking an in-depth look at the core components of the Proud Boys' white nationalist ideology.
Time for some quotes?
"McInnes has argued that the Proud Boys are the revitalization of an American tradition, a lineage that can be traced back to 19th century fraternal orders like…the violent anti-immigrant political party, the Know-Nothings."
"Another men’s club from the era of McInnes’ nostalgia, the first iteration of the Ku Klux Klan, invented deliberately absurd ranks and titles (Grand Cyclops, Imperial Wizard), and rituals to both intimidate and entertain.”
“[T]he Proud Boys organize around the perception that this fantastical, preeminent “West” is losing its natural position of dominance. Openly white supremacist groups label this same myth of losing ground “white genocide.”"
"...[B]oth [Proud Boys and openly white supremacist groups] agree that this allegedly lost power must be re-claimed and defended through violence, directed at whomever they deem to be enemies or usurpers of their culture.”
“The Proud Boys oppose access to abortion and women's health resources. Like many fascists, they use myths of 'traditional' sexual orientation and gender roles to impose control over women, and as a rationale in targeting feminist activists for violence."
"[The Proud Boys] substitute the sanitized phrase 'venerating the housewife' to mask their intent to eliminate women's civil rights and bodily autonomy.”
“[The Proud Boys] have consistently singled out people they believe are gay or trans at protests as targets for assault and subsequent online harassment."
"One of the Proud Boys, in a speech to fellow Proud Boys at Joey Gibson's June 3, 2018 rally, exhorted the crowd to 'show these f—–s what we're made of,' before rushing into the crowd to attack anti-fascist activists.”
“[A]longside garden-variety Trump-era anti-immigrant hatred...[t]he Proud Boys’ “Western chauvinist” narrative also includes racist arguments about the inferiority and danger of Black culture in the U.S. and 'Islamism' internationally.”
“[The Proud Boys’] fondness for memes and articles that depict fanaticized mobs of immigrants, Muslims, Black people, etc. raping and killing white women is straight out of the playbook of white nationalist organizations, a narrative long used as excuse for violence and murder.
"In the Proud Boys’ ideology, people of color are only acceptable so long as they aren't considered a threat to 'Western' (aka white) culture and supremacy.”
The ideological patterns people see being enforced violently and voiced explicitly by Proud Boys in Telegram channels, at events, and on social media recently are not new, nor are they simply the result of an initially apolitical group becoming suddenly radical.
The reactionary, bigoted, fervently nationalist, proto- and overtly fascist nature of the Proud Boys' views and actions has been present since the creation of their group, it's been expressed and publicly enforced since then, and anti-fascists have reported on it since then.
Half the receipts in our 2018 article--and please check out the entire series, as each piece includes more receipts relevant to the specific PNW Proud Boys covered in it--date back to 2017, the same year a Proud Boy helped organize the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville.
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