EXTREMISMProud Boys: A Big Tent for Hate
Some of those pardoned by President Trump are leaders and members of the Proud Boys, a right-wing extremist group with a history of using violence, targeted harassment, and intimidation to achieve their political goals and combat perceived enemies – Jews, Muslims, gays, progressives, and feminists.
Key Points
· The Proud Boys are a right-wing extremist group with a history of using violence, targeted harassment and intimidation to achieve their political goals and combat perceived enemies like “antifa” and others.
· The group serves as a tent for misogynistic, anti-immigrant, Islamophobic and anti-LGBTQ+ ideologies and other forms of hate – including antisemitism and white supremacy – that oppose progressivism, feminism, multiculturalism and “woke” ideology in the United States.
· The Proud Boys played an integral role in the January 6 insurrection, organizing and leading participants during the 2021 attack on the Capitol. Proud Boys account for the highest number of extremist arrestees, with at least 58 members and chapter affiliates across the country apprehended to date.
· The intense legal scrutiny against the group post-insurrection effectively dissolved its national leadership and pushed it to grant local chapters more autonomy. Since this devolution, Proud Boys chapters have increasingly engaged in localized, on-the-ground activity, running for local elected offices and targeting school board meetings, public forums and local LGBTQ+ events, with a particular focus on drag-related performances.
· The Proud Boys claim to have 146 officially recognized chapters across the U.S., with international chapters in Canada, Australia and across Europe and Asia. There are also active unrecognized Proud Boys chapters in the United States.
Background
The Proud Boys are a right-wing extremist group whose members embrace misogynistic, anti-immigrant, Islamophobic and anti-LGBTQ+ ideologies, among other forms of hate, including antisemitism and white supremacy. Founded in 2016, the group rose to prominence in 2017 as an organization of self-described “Western chauvinists” and established itself as a dominant force in far-right circles. At events and protests, the Proud Boys became easily recognizable due to their black and yellow clothing, a makeshift uniform some continue to wear to this day.
Positioned against progressive politics, multiculturalism, feminism and social justice movements, the Proud Boys view the left as a dangerous enemy perpetually engaged in dismantling the traditional American way of life and destroying “family values.” They maintain that their worldview is “constantly under attack” from powerful forces ranging from “antifa” to the federal government and view themselves as a group made up of “warriors” and “patriots” willing to fight back, often literally.
