Hate Groups Evolution as they Become Marginalized

Via Peoria Pundit

Kevin McDermott writes a detailed column in the Post-Dispatch on hate groups and how they may be becoming more dangerous as the groups become more marginalized

White supremacist groups have been on the decline in the Midwest lately, with key leaders jailed or stepping down and membership in disarray. But experts warn the hate movement could actually become more violent under those circumstances, as angry “lone wolf” extremists take matters into their own hands.

McDermott is one of the few solid reporters left at the Post-Dispatch–or perhaps more correctly stated, one of the few hard news reporters left at the Post-Dispatch who is allowed to write worthwhile articles. I’m betting being outside of the mind numbing daily drag of the St. Louis based editorial team allows him to avoid inane supervision.

It’s a good overview of the state of hate groups. The one criticism I have is the same thesis has been bandied about since at least the murder of Denver Talk Show Host Alan Berg. It doesn’t make it wrong, it just means it lacks the historical context that this has been theorized for many years. The other critique of it that I’ve heard is that entirely depends if you are a black man in the South in 2005 or in 1955. I’ve got a feeling hate groups were a little more troubling at the time if you hit that demographic.

But the general trend appears to be true, as the groups become more marginalized the people in them have less to lose and violence like this is likely.

In Saint Louis, a rather bizarre radio station used to run two white supremacist radio shows. About two to three weeks ago, both of those shows were cancelled with one an idiot affiliated with the National Alliance and the other affiliated with the Council of Conservative Citizens–in fact the CEO of the CofCC, Gordon Baum, was the co-host of that show.

My run-in with the other co-host can be found here. That POS was a school board member here in St. Louis up until 1993.

Earl Holt is too much of a drunken ass to ever kill anyone (sue me Earl–I’d love to have you under oath).

While it’s true they are generally becoming more marginalized, it’s also true they aren’t so marginalized to not have connections to ‘mainstream’ politicians. As I pointed out the other day, Hailey Barbour has attended fundraisers by the CofCC for segregationist academy busing and let’s not forget David Duke who got about 60% of the white vote in a US Senate race in 1990 and did pretty well in later races. He now is active with the hate group Stormfront