SPLC Intelligence Report Profiles 30 Leaders of the Rising Radical Right
Extremists leading a powerful resurgence of the American radical right are pushing baseless conspiracy theories and demonizing propaganda about minority groups into the mainstream, according to the latest issue of the SPLC’s Intelligence Report, released today.
Extremists leading a powerful resurgence of the American radical right are pushing baseless conspiracy theories and demonizing propaganda about minority groups into the mainstream, according to the latest issue of the SPLC’s Intelligence Report, released today.
Thirty key leaders of the radical right, both longtime agitators and newcomers, are profiled in the report. These extremists – including anti-government activists, racist neo-Nazis and propagandists who promote falsehoods about Muslims and the LGBT community – are making headway by exploiting anger over the nation’s ailing economy, non-white immigration and the shrinking white majority.
“Today’s radical right leaders are having remarkable success in pushing fringe ideas – typically based on sheer fantasy or just plain racism – into the political mainstream,” said Mark Potok, senior fellow at the SPLC and editor of the new report. “Their divisive propaganda, which is being embraced by opportunistic politicians and pundits and exploited for partisan gain, is doing real damage to our country.”
Examples include the unending controversy over the president’s birth certificate, the claim that Muslims are secretly trying to install Islamic religious law in U.S. courts, and the theory that Agenda 21, a nonbinding U.N. plan for environmental sustainability, is part of a “New World Order” plot for global control.
Also in the Intelligence Report:
•“The Scoop on Schoep” features an interview with Joanna Schoep, the soon-to-be ex-wife of one of America’s leading neo-Nazis, Jeff Schoep. Though the leader of the National Socialist Movement espouses a violently racist ideology, she says he accepted her non-white ancestry and that of her teenage daughter.
•“Shading the Truth” examines how the National Organization for Marriage, a mainstream opponent of same-sex marriage, sometimes promotes extremist propaganda.
The law enforcement edition of this Intelligence Report, which is being distributed free to about 55,000 officers, also contains a special training video designed to help officers deal with the threat of racist skinheads, some of the most violent extremists in the country today.
