(CN) — A significant rise in the number of extremist anti-government and hate groups could threaten the 2024 election and democracy in the United States, according to organizers of a webinar hosted by the Southern Poverty Law Center on Wednesday.
Rachel Carroll Rivas, interim director of the SPLC, introduced the researchers and conclusions of the organization’s latest “Year in Hate and Extremism” report, which has been published every year since 1990. In 2023, the report found more than 835 active anti-government groups in the United States, an increase of 133 from the year before. Active hate groups meanwhile increased in number from 523 to 595.
Together, they account for “the highest number of active anti-LGBTQ+ and white nationalist groups ever recorded” by the SPLC and as a result, there was a similar increase in the number of direct actions or protests by such groups. Rivas and authors of the report said the groups have been multiplying and mobilizing since the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection attempt, while divisive concepts pushed by the groups have moved from the fringe to the mainstream.
“Extremists and those opposing inclusive democracy spent the last year legitimizing the insurrection, painting hate as virtuous and transforming conspiracies into mainstream narratives,” Rivas said. “This dangerous activity will continue as the election nears, unless we do more as a society.”
According to the report, the groups have increasingly targeted illegal immigrants and those they believe are enabling unchecked immigration, the LGBTQ+ community, Muslims, Jews, schools, libraries, institutions of higher learning and hospitals. They embrace rhetoric espousing the “great replacement” — a conspiracy theory that there is an active effort to replace white populations — or advocating the incorporation of more Christian nationalist influence into government and policy.
They include national organizations with thousands of members — such as the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and Moms of Liberty — that have been the focus of countless headlines. But there are dozens of anti-government and hate groups operating on a much smaller or less visible scale, though their influence can be just as significant.
Lead senior research analyst Travis McAdam detailed militia movements and student inclusion efforts, noting militias were diminished after Jan. 6 but are currently reorganizing and rebranding as “benign groups training to help communities after emergencies.” He noted 80 of the 1,200-plus people charged with crimes related to the Jan. 6 protests were members of anti-government groups and prosecutions were moderately successful at reducing enrollment.
Meanwhile, McAdam reported the sovereign citizen movement — its followers believe they are not under the jurisdiction of the government and are exempt from its laws — has seen significant growth as it has helped drive speculation about Covid and vaccines, while also spreading economic and QAnon conspiracies.
McAdam pivoted to Christian supremacy and dominionism and referred to the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) movement specifically as “the greatest threat to U.S. democracy that many people have never heard of.” The NAR movement believes in demons and spiritual warfare, McAdam said, and “desires to seize influence over the entire country and implement their narrow, authoritarian views of the Bible in the form of law, policy and culture.”
“They are organizing to transform the country into an authoritarian state,” McAdam warned. “Or to put it more plainly, it’s about replacing our democracy with a theocracy.”
Senior research analyst Caleb Kieffer reported that even members of Congress have adopted rhetoric from extremist movements. The Heritage Foundation’s controversial Project 2025, a 900-page blueprint for a conservative president and Congress, included feedback or participation from nine extremist groups, Kieffer said.
The result is a mandate rife with various tenants of white Christian nationalism, anti-LGBTQ measures and attacks on diversity, equality and inclusion efforts, critical race theory and other efforts at equality and inclusion in schools, workplaces and government institutions.
“They are working to sweep away any information about the horrors white supremacy caused in our culture and society … and to erode civil rights and further vilify people based on their immutable characteristics,” Kieffer said, adding such extremist ideology was embraced by white gunmen who killed 23 people at an El Paso Walmart in 2019 and who shot and killed eight people at a mall in Allen, Texas in 2023.
“It is not okay for members of Congress and our elected officials to use the same rhetoric that is prevalent within anti-immigrant, white nationalist and neo Nazi circles,” Kieffer said.
Research analyst Rachael Fugardi reported a 50% increase in white nationalist groups from 2022 to 2023, while at least 143 white supremacy events were held in public spaces nationwide. Nearly half of those demonstrations targeted LGBTQ issues or events, while one-fifth were antisemitic in nature. Another 35% were focused on “broader white supremecist ideology.”
Fugardi said antisemitism has increased since the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack in Israel and added that during the election season and beyond, the threat of political violence remains “significant.” She also reported an increase in “male supremacy” groups and language online, including a “misgynist incel” forum in Alabama that gained 4,000 members in the past year.
Fugardi described the movement as “a hateful ideology rooted in the belief of cisgender men’s supposedly innate superiority and their right to subjugate women, trans men and nonbinary people.”
Aaron Flanagan, deputy director of the SPLC Intelligence Project, warned that extremist organizations often look for young new members online, frequently targeting teenagers on social media or in video game networks.
“It’s often the first place to be introduced to dehumanizing language and where young people can encounter references to extremists and terrorism,” Flanagan said.
