I mentioned in another thread that they held a rally near Portland last weekend. One of their leaders (don’t recall which) boasted there would be attendance of around 20,000. About 500 showed up. I’ve seen estimates of up to 1,000, but from what I saw of the crowd photos, I thought 500 was being generous.
Of course, this doesn’t account for those who claim affiliation but weren’t in attendance, and it was before they received the big boost from their Number One Proud Boy last night.
It’s worth noting the Proud Boys were behind the Charlottesville nastiness and – I learned only tonight – it was their movement behind the Oklahoma City federal building bombing carried out by Timothy McVeigh.
And don’t forget overlap with Three Percenters, Boogaloo Bois and, as already mentioned, Patriot Prayer. All these groups are spoiling for a violent confrontation with “libruls.”
The bit that I find weirdly amusing is the origin of their name - a second-rate song from Aladdin (that didn’t make the film, although it’s in the stage show) about wanting his mother to be proud of him. And then, having started from that, their response is to act like massive immature violent dicks.
I suppose it’s possible that their mothers are proud of that sort of thing but I wouldn’t put any money on it.
I don’t know anything about Three Percenters and Patriot Prayer but like Proud Boys, I heard the name Boogaloo Bois started out as a joke. And I agree with anny_m’s assessment that there’s probably a huge overlap between these groups and the incel movement. There’s an undercurrent of immaturity to it-- It’s like they are a bunch of unhinged frat boy types who grew up lonely and sheltered, on their computers all day, not getting laid, and instead of making positive changes in their own lives they turn all their angry energy and frustration outward towards the rest of the world.
Yeah, your org is going to have to require compulsive masturbation if it wants me to join. Who wants to join a group of folks where a requirement is the vast majority of the group lies about whether they’re masturbating or not? I don’t believe that even a 10th of the group is holding to the revised once a month policy.
They’re basically racist skinheads without the guts to shave their heads and with an attachment to a political party. The second part is pretty worrisome.
I also did not think that sort of thing was part of either their tactics or strategy not to mention the timeframe, although of course the membership of radical groups overlaps.
Now, on the other hand, it does track better with the goals of the Boogaloo Bois, even though they also were not around to the best of my knowledge back then.
I think @Aspenglow means far-right groups in general rather than specifically those guys.
[Dr. David Licate, a professor of criminal justice studies at the University of Akron,] said there was “a rise in right-wing extremism during the Clinton administration, which really culminated in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City,” and that the FBI was “very aggressive in rooting out those groups after Oklahoma City.”