Report: Hate Groups Decline in U.S.

[alp227]

Source: Time.com

Demoralized by the reelection of President Barack Obama but calmed by Washington’s failure to enact new gun control laws, hate groups are on the decline in the United States.

That’s according to a new report out Tuesday from the Southern Poverty Law Center, which found that the number of hate groups in the U.S. declined by seven percent in 2013. After a dramatic rise following Obama’s first election and the worst of the recession, the number of anti-government “patriot” group identified by the SPLC also fell 19 percent between 2012 and 2013.

The author of the new report, SPLC senior fellow Mark Potok, said momentum on the far-right experienced a marked turnaround in 2013 when it became clear that congressional efforts to enact significant gun control legislation would fail. “Guns and gun control are so much at the heart of the radical right,” Potok sad. “That looked like an issue that was going to become white hot, but it essentially died and went away.”

The failure of Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform also left some hate groups without a clear target for their messaging, Potok said. Nativist groups that oppose immigration have declined dramatically since a peak in 2010, when SPLC counted 319 such organizations in the U.S. In 2013, there were just 22 nativist groups in operation, according to SPLC. And Potok said growing public support for liberal causes such as same-sex marriage and the legalization of marijuana have left the far-right feeling “depressed and deflated.”


Read more: http://nation.time.com/2014/02/25/hate-groups-southern-poverty-law-center-obama/

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Also reported by the Florence (SC) Morning News and Columbus (OH) Dispatch.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

1. Probably because they joined in with the Republican Party.

They have a better port-a-potty plan.

[onehandle]

2. I was going to say, They're now known as Tea Party Republicans. nt

[liberal N proud]

3. Hate has become concentrated

The GOP and Teabaggers have rolled it all up in one focus.

There is more hate there than anyone can understand and it makes all other groups pale.

[JoeyT]

4. I'm not sure a decline in the number of hate groups is a big thing.

Right wing authoritarians will rally to the strongest group they can find that will push their ideals...So there may be just as many people in hate groups, while the number of splinter factions is decreasing. Which means less hate groups, but much stronger ones.

Edited to add: So it's like natural selection for ignorant assholes.

[Tom Ripley]

5. All of the above

[cosmicone]

6. Natural evolution

A number of people wanting to hate have become older, debilitated and/or died. The new generation is brought up with different ideals and doesn't hate anywhere near what the older generation used to. In 10-20 more years, hate groups will be remembered at the Smithsonian.

[Earth_First]

7. There are half a dozen states which have pending legislation or introduced bills that discriminate

based on 'moral and/or religious grounds' and hate groups are on the DECLINE?

Pardon me, but state-sponsored discrimination is still hate and these individuals group themselves together collectively known as the GOP.

There is no exemption from being a hate group in my mind here whatsoever.

[olddad56]

8. I think this story is bullshit.

maybe by some out-dated definition of what constitutes a hate group, but in general, I think this nation is more divided, across more issues that I have ever witnessed in my life. I would say that in the days of intense discrimination against minorities, this country was more divided and hatred was very high, but primarily across one major issue. Now the country is splintered into so many pieces that I think more people have something they hate than ever before. And I think most of us would say that we were not haters. I think we all have some hatred toward something or some group of people that we don't understand or who don't understand us.

I hate the tea party, I hate the Koch Brothers, I hate corrupt politicians, I hate climate change deniers and the people who fund the denial. I hate Faux News. When I chose to be introspective, I'm clear that I have a lot of anger toward many people who share a different view than I do. I think there are a lot of people in this country who hate me because of my political beliefs. I think that it all boils down to everyone being afraid of what they don't understand and everyone wanting to be right.

[cprise]

10. Not the same as hating gays, blacks, hispanics, independent women, etc.

I've been here since 2001 and its taken a long time for progressives to get to the point where they have the temerity and presence of mind to call out the preaching of such false equivalency.

I think this late-20th century mindset emanating from those who took over from the 'old left' is a major contributor to the nasty failures we've experienced since Reagan took office. If you don't want to deal with the politics anymore, just say its 'everyone'.

[olddad56]

12. oh yeah, I hate the people who hate those groups also. I hate haters, which makes me one.

[cprise]

14. It's like some postmodernist devolution of language

*quack* *quack* *quack*

All you need is a hearty round of proclamations where every 5th word is either 'faith', 'liberty' or 'freedom', and you'll sound like a guest on some 1998 airing of the Rush Limbaugh show.

[cprise]

16. LOL

[blkmusclmachine]

9. The haters are moving to friendlier territory--Uganda, Nigeria, and Russia.

[pampango]

11. "Tea party figures have adopted views that previously only existed outside the political mainstream"

Despite a steady downward trend in the number of hate groups identified by the SPLC, there are still far more such organization than in the past. There were 602 hate groups in the U.S. in 2000, rising to 1,018 in 2011. In 2013, according to SPLC, there were 939 hate groups across the country.

The power of hate groups is largely rooted in their ability to exist as an alternative to mainstream political debate. In recent years, as local, state and national political figures affiliated with the tea party movement have adopted some views that previously only existed outside the mainstream political system, the far-right has struggled to rally support for its organizations. Various scandals within the hierarchies of some hate groups, as well as deaths and arrests of some leaders, have also hurt organizations’ ability to recruit and build their ranks.

If immigration reform becomes a reality in Congress this year, far-right groups could be re-energized, according to Potok.

“If comprehensive immigration reform moves forward in any serious way and there is not an extremely hot reaction from those within the political mainstream,” Potok said, “these groups will start to grow again.”

Certainly not a good thing that one factor in the decline of hate groups is the adoption by tea party leaders of some of their views thus stealing much of their thunder. Sad that part of one party's base has stolen the thunder of far-right hate groups.

[durablend]

13. Did they find the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus too? n/t

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. Kick (nt)