There are 20 hate groups in Virginia. 5 of them are in our area
(WSET) — New numbers from the Southern Poverty Law Center show the prevalence of hate and extremist groups in the United States -- and in Virginia.
Last week, the SPLC unveiled its annual Year In Hate & Extremism Report. The report recorded 733 active hate groups and 488 anti-government groups nationwide for 2021.
Leaders with the nonprofit said the number of groups is down from previous years, but that's not necessarily a good thing.
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"Extremist groups are declining because the ideas that mobilize now operate so openly in the political mainstream," SPLC's Cassie Miller said.
The 2021 report showed 20 active hate groups in Virginia. In our region, there are five:
- A Voice for Men - Roanoke - Categorized as Male Supremacy
- American Immigration Control Foundation/Americans for Immigration Control - Monterey, Highland County - Categorized as Anti-Immigrant
- Beasst Productions - Roanoke - Categorized as Hate Music
- Christian Action Network - Forest - Categorized as General Hate
- Wolves of Vinland - Lynchburg - Categorized as Neo-Völkisch
Researchers for the report said far-right extremist groups have decentralized and have capitalized on the internet.
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Experts said the internet was a powerful tool in planning and promoting the Jan. 6 insurrection, especially as organizers used live streaming capabilities.
"When there is so many places online across so many different platforms where extremists can organize propagandize and recruit without ever having to join a formal group," Miller said.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders with the SPLC said hate and extremist groups have latched onto anti-vaccine and anti-mask rhetoric, adding that many have been involved with controversies at school board meetings.
"A key finding this year is hate and extremist ideas are operating more in the mainstream with those subscribing to these beliefs running for office and school boards and becoming law enforcement and judges and leveraging social media to manufacturer misinformation," said Susan Corke, with the Southern Poverty Law Center.
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The SPLC said far-right extremist ideology promoting violence has become more popular.
"Shockingly, since Jan. 6, many Republicans, not all to be clear, have embraced or allowed increasingly violent rhetoric and wondered aloud whether violence might become a political necessity. That's pretty scary stuff," Corke said.
Some of the groups the SPLC said it's tracking statewide in Virginia include:
- Asatru Folk Assembly - Categorized as Neo-Völkisch
- Dominion Active Club - Categorized as White Nationalist
- League of the South - Categorized as Neo-Confederate
- Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan - Categorized as Ku Klux Klan
- Patriot Front - Categorized as White Nationalist
- Proud Boys - Categorized as General Hate