The Proud Boys
Yesterday the January 6th, ‘seditious conspiracy’ trial of the Proud Boys started. ‘Seditious conspiracy’ is long-hand for ‘Trying to tear apart our democracy.’ You’ve seen me come back many times to the theme of the tearing down of American Democracy and the outsized role that race plays.
So who are the Proud Boys and are they a racist organization? The Proud Boys describe themselves as “Western chauvinists” and adamantly deny any connection to the racist “alt-right.” They insist they are simply a fraternal group spreading an “anti-political correctness” and “anti-white guilt” agenda. A fight club. Good old boys who enjoy a cold beer and a good fight. Nothing more.
The country’s most authoritative source of hate groups is un-arguably the Southern Poverty Law Center. So I turned to them to see what they thought about this fraternal group that the DOJ described yesterday as having played a major role in the insurrection.
“Rank-and-file Proud Boys and leaders regularly spout white nationalist memes and maintain affiliations with known extremists. They are known for anti-Muslim and misogynistic rhetoric. Proud Boys have appeared alongside other hate groups at extremist gatherings such as the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Former Proud Boys member Jason Kessler helped organize that event, which brought together a broad coalition of extremists including Neo-Nazis, antisemites and militias. Kessler was expelled from the group after the violence and near-universal condemnation of Charlottesville rallygoers.
Other hardcore members of the alt-right have argued that the “Western chauvinist” label is just a “PR cuck term” co-founder Gavin McInnes crafted to gain mainstream acceptance. “Let’s not bullshit,” Brian Brathovd, aka Caerulus Rex, told his co-hosts on “The Daily Shoah,” an antisemitic podcast popular with the alt-right. If the Proud Boys “were pressed on the issue, I guarantee you that like 90% of them would tell you something along the lines of ‘Hitler was right. Gas the Jews.’”
White nationalists and neo-Nazis themselves have cited McInnes as a gateway to the alt-right. On “The Southern AF Podcast,” one former Proud Boy who went on to embrace white nationalism said he was originally drawn to the group because of its “pro-white sentiment.” “All his jokes, all his content when I first started listening to him,” he said of McInnes, “was all freakin’ alt-right stuff and racial issues and funny, comedic ways to like try to point out that white civilization has been superior.” Many Proud Boys like him have moved on to more extreme groups and ideologies.
McInnes plays a duplicitous rhetorical game: claiming to reject white nationalism while espousing a laundered version of popular white nationalist tropes. He has ties to the racist right and has contributed to such hate sites as VDare.com and American Renaissance, which publish the work of white supremacists and so-called race realists. McInnes has himself said it is fair to call him Islamophobic. He announced the founding of the Proud Boys in the far-right Taki’s Magazine.
The Proud Boys stage frequent rallies around the country. Many have descended into violent street riots where members openly brawl with counterprotesters. Indeed, as early as summer 2018, a document circulated by Washington state law enforcement described the group’s involvement in a series of violent incidents in Oregon and Washington, as well as its involvement in Unite the Right. This report came to light a mere two months before 10 members were charged with assault after an attack on antifascist activists in New York City in October 2018.
Through 2019 and 2020, the Proud Boys were one of a handful of far-right groups instrumental in instigating violence and civil unrest in the Pacific Northwest. Likewise, a series of leaked chats showed Proud Boys and extremists associated with other far-right groups discussing how and when to use violence against leftist activists while planning rallies in the northeast in early-to-mid 2019.”
I’m not saying that the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers and such came to DC that day with racial hatred on their mind. They just came with hatred. But it was a hatred that had been born and nurtured in race and in a belief that people of color were unfairly somehow being given the upper hand by the country and especially by Democrats while they, the rightful Euro-heirs to all the good things the country has to offer, were getting screwed . A hatred brewed in a pot long-stirred by politicians and the likes of Tucker Carlson.
When a person tells you what or who he is – or what his organization is all about - believe him. Jason Van Tatenhove, former longtime spokesperson for the Oath Keepers – the other hate group tried for seditious conspiracy – described to the January 6 Committee how he grew concerned as he witnessed an embrace of straight up racism within the Oath Keepers and described the resurrection with these words. “This is all about race.”