Violence, chauvinism, and no masturbation allowed: 'We Are Proud Boys' details the 4 tiers of membership in the extremist group

• A new book, "We Are Proud Boys," details the four tiers of membership in the extremist organization.
• Author Andy Campbell explains tiers involving tattoos, breakfast cereals, and a ban on masturbation.

When Gavin McInnes, the far-right Canadian shock jock, announced the formation of the Proud Boys back in 2016, the stated aim was defending the historical contributions of white men and their champion, former President Donald Trump.

Its members identify as "Western chauvinists" and they see their enemy as "antifa." Chapter leaders mimic the operational security language of a military organization at war and celebrate violent clashes with leftists in the streets.

Over the past six years, Proud Boys have shown up at Black Lives Matter demonstrations and marched through liberal cities, serving as the self-styled vanguard of the MAGA movement. They were on the front lines of the January 6 insurrection, its leaders collaborating with paramilitary groups such as the Oath Keepers in an effort to halt the certification of the 2020 election, and several have since been charged with offenses ranging from illegal gun possession to seditious conspiracy.

But as journalist Andy Campbell details in his new book, "We Are Proud Boys," while the group ultimately takes itself very seriously, mimicking the operational security language of a military organization, complete with tacticial units on the prowl for trouble at street protests, it is essentially a drug-and-drink fueled fraternity based on a cult of personality and cultural grievances; still potentially dangerous, as evidenced by its arrest record, but also cringe-worthy.

That is perhaps no more clear than in the rituals required for members to advance within the organization.

How a man becomes a boy

Based on extensive research and information gleaned from a left-wing informant within the organization, Campbell, a senior editor at HuffPost, details four tiers of membership within the Proud Boys. The first is easy enough: a simple pledge.

"At the first degree, a new recruit has to declare allegiance to the Proud Boys, often and at every opportunity, whether it's online or in his personal life," Campbell writes.

The organization is steeped in white supremacy, demanding that its members commit to the belief that European civilization was, remains, and will always be superior to all others. "The Proud Boys' actions," notes the Southern Poverty Law Center, "belie their disavowals of bigotry: Rank-and-file Proud Boys and leaders regularly spout white nationalist memes and maintain affiliations with known extremists."

Unlike similar far-right groups (or its "antifa" foes), this is also not a group or political tendency that wishes its followers to remain anonymous. In fact, members, including small business owners, have openly boasted of their membership, sometimes managing to obtain press coverage that paints them as simple, color-blind patriots.

While Proud Boys are encouraged to boast of their membership, obfuscation is an essential part of being in the group. Although some key leaders have been outed as neo-Nazis, the group as a whole tends to avoid explicit racism, trumpeting the fact that some of its members are indeed non-white (women, however, are not allowed).

But as Campbell notes, racial supremacy is at its core. You don't have to be white to be Proud Boy, per its founder, but you do have to know your place.

"If you're Black or Hispanic, whatever, I don't really care," McInnes said on one of his online broadcasts, as reported by Campbell. "I'm all about the culture. Now, part of that is recognizing that white males seem to be the ones who made it, and respecting that, but it doesn't mean you're not invited to the party."

McInnes did not respond to a request for comment sent to his media company.

Western chauvinism as white pride

Prospective Proud Boys, to be initiated into the group's first tier, pledge allegiance not to white supremacy, per se, but to what is cast as white culture: "I am a Western chauvinist and I refuse to apologize for creating the modern world."

As the informant told Campbell, this ceremony can be impromptu, taking place in the middle of a drunken march through a city, and entails a recruit — who has gained sufficient trust by attending public events — and a superior within the organization facing each other, raising their right hands and reciting the oath in a call-and-response manner. With that, a recruit becomes a member.

To get to the second tier, a Proud Boy who is deemed ready by leadership stands in the middle of a circle, surrounded by their cadre, who then start pummeling him — Campbell's source got a cracked rib — with the violence also ceasing when the man in the middle can recite the names of five breakfast cereals, ostensibly to test their coolness under pressure.

"If the embarrassment of the punching ceremony isn't enough," Campbell writes, "a second-degree Proud Boy is also expected to subscribe to one of the truly more bizarre facets of the group. This is the 'no wanks' policy outlined by McInnes: he's only allowed to masturbate once a month, and he's otherwise only able to ejaculate when he's 'within one yard of a woman with her consent.'"

From there, things "get permanent," Campbell writes. The third tier: "The recruit must get a Proud Boys tattoo or brand," with the former being far more popular.

At this point, the initiation into various tiers could be mistaken for fraternity rites. But while much of the group's antics and internal policies are laughable, there is still danger in groups of intoxicated, radicalizing men who believe they are engaged in a war against a godless enemy.

The final tier: violence

McInnes himself explained the fourth and final tier of Proud Boys members in a 2017 appearance on Joe Rogan's podcast (since deleted by Rogan's publisher, Spotify): "Fourth degree," he said, "you get arrested or get in a serious violent fight for the cause."

That violence is supposed to be in self-defense. But part of being a Proud Boy is looking for a fight — and apparent efforts to obtain that fourth-tier have led some to prison. Outside a Manhattan venue in 2018 where, inside, founder McInnes was venerating a far-right Japanese assassin, members of the Proud Boys assaulted counter-protesters outside. Two were later convicted in state court of "attempted gang violence," among other charges.

The Proud Boys' former, formal leader, Henry "Enrique" Tarrio, has also been charged with engaging in a seditious conspiracy on January 6, when pro-Trump insurrections, members of the Proud Boys front and center, picked fights with police in an effort to overturn the 2020 election, their anti-fascist opponents nowhere in sight.

"Our client is looking forward to his day in trial and showing a complete picture of all the pieces of evidence the government intends to show," Tarrio's attorney Nayib Hassan told Insider.

Tarrio was not in DC the day of the attack but, prosecutors allege, helped direct his fellow Proud Boys' actions from afar. He has proclaimed his innocence (another former leader, Jeremy Bertino, recently pleaded guilty).

McInnes, meanwhile, has managed to avoid the sort of legal trouble his followers now face. He ostensibly cut ties with the group he founded back in 2018, following the arrests outside his Manhattan speech. His own purported "arrest," during a live broadcast in August, turned out to be a publicity stunt: the man who founded a far-right street gang was not in jail, but vacationing in the south of France.