How the Proud Boys brought far-right extremism into the political mainstream
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- The Proud Boys is a far-right extremist group. The FBI has said it has ties to white nationalism, and the Southern Poverty Law Center labeled it a hate group.
- Over the past four years, it has grown from a couple of guys in a bar to thousands of members across the United States, and it's been implicated in violent attacks in Charlottesville, New York City, and Washington, D.C.
- On January 6, members of the Proud Boys were among the violent extremists who stormed the Capitol.
- Here's how the group rose from obscurity to breach mainstream American politics.
Back in 2016, the Proud Boys was just a couple of guys in a bar. But over the course of the past four years, the far-right extremist group has grown to include thousands of members across the United States.
Enrique Tarrio, the Proud Boys' current leader, claims the group is merely "a drinking club with a patriot problem." However, the FBI has said members of the Proud Boys have ties to white nationalism, and the Southern Poverty Law Center labeled the organization a hate group.
"They are not a fraternal drinking organization," Samantha Kutner, a fellow at the Khalifa Ihler Institute who researches the Proud Boys, told Insider. "They are a radicalization vector."
In order to join the group, members of the Proud Boys have to take an oath, calling themselves "western chauvinists" who "refuse to apologize for creating the modern world." Extremism researchers say that is an example of laundered white supremacist language. "West" could be interpreted as code for "white," and some current and former members of the Proud Boys have documented ties to more explicitly white supremacist extremist groups.
According to Kutner, that kind of cloaked language - paired with Tarrio's brand of patriotism - is precisely what has enabled the group to continue to grow its ranks in plain sight.
"And this is why it's hard to detect groups like the Proud Boys, because you're not going to be looking for the type of extremism that comes wrapped in the American flag," she said.