State’s white supremacist propaganda on the rise
Anti-defamation League says hate groups increase
Hate groups and their propaganda are thriving in Connecticut, according to a new report by the Anti-defamation League’s Center on Extremism, released Tuesday.
The report shows white supremacist propaganda increased in the state in 2023, with 235 incidents, a 17.5% increase over 2022 and a 115% rise since 2017. There were just two incidents in 2017, the ADL said.
The propaganda, including fliers, stickers, graffiti, posters and laser projections, target Blacks, Jews, LGBTQ people and non-white groups.
“White supremacy is a term used to characterize belief systems where … whites should have dominance over people of other backgrounds, that whites should find themselves in a whites-only society, that white people have a culture of their own that is superior to other cultures and that white people are genetically superior to other people. Those are the tenants of white supremacy,” said Stacey Sobel, regional director for the ADL in Connecticut.
The most active group is the Patriot Front, which the ADL said was allegedly responsible for 60% of propaganda actions nationally. It was allegedly responsible for 196 incidents in Connecticut in 2023.
“They believe that their ancestors conquered America and bequeathed it to them,” Sobel said. “And they justify their ideology of hate under the guise of preserving the ethnic and cultural origin of its members and European ancestors.”
She said the Patriot Front makes their fliers and stickers look patriotic “if you didn’t really know what you were looking at. They make them red, white and blue. … It’s only when you go to their website and dig into it (that) you really see.”
Others are the New England Nationalist Social Club, also known as 131 Crew, which Sobel said is the second most active group in Connecticut, allegedly responsible for 20 incidents, and the Aryan Circle, with two alleged incidents.
In 2023, white supremacist propaganda was reported in the District of Columbia and every
U.S. state except Hawaii and Alaska, the ADL found.
“Behind all this is the great replacement theory,” Sobel said. She referred to the 2017 Charlottesville, Virginia., rally, “where they chanted ‘Jews will not replace us,’” she said. “That’s referring to the great replacement theory, which accuses Jews globally, its democratic leaders and others, using democratic institutions and processes to eliminate white Christian
Americans.”
“You can also say that of many of the mass shootings that have happened over the last several years,” Sobel said. “They all harken back to white supremacist propaganda.” Those include the Christchurch, New Zealand, mosque shooting, the Buffalo, N.Y., supermarket shooting and the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, she said.
“If you examined the social media of all of those shooters, the mass shooters involved, they all share manifestos citing white supremacist
jargon,” Sobel said.
In Hartford in June 2023, a Black Lives Matter mural was defaced with a swastika and the number 1488. The “14” stands for the 14 words in “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children,” Sobel said. And the “88” stands for “Heil Hitler,” because “H” is the eighth letter in the alphabet, she said.
There also was a white supremacist gathering in Bristol in August 2023.
Commonly, the hate groups distribute their material randomly, Sobel said.
“They put fliers inside baggies and the baggies have either rocks or rice or beans in them or oatmeal,” Sobel said. “And they close the bag up and they throw it out the car window so it’s on your front lawn when you get up in the morning.”
She said the impact is dramatic because people worry whether they’ve been targeted or whether a neighbor is distributing the material.
“People get rightfully scared and really upset when this happens,” she said. “Our white supremacist report shows that 89 towns in Connecticut were impacted last year. … That’s more than one in every two towns was impacted by white supremacist propaganda last year.”
Nationally, antisemitic propaganda rose 30% in 2023, with 1,112 incidents, largely because the Patriot Front began using antisemitic rhetoric after it had not for a few years, the ADL said.
Also, white supremacist groups praised Hamas for its Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
The ADL also reported that propaganda against LGBTQ people nationally increased 141% in 2023 from 68 incidents to 164.
White supremacist propaganda on college campuses declined, however, the ADL reported.
“I want to emphasize this really impacts communities,” Sobel said. “The ADL has a brand new toolbox to help communities stand up and speak out against this. It’s called U.S. Citizens Toolkit for Responding and we really encourage town leaders, elected officials to speak out about this when it happens to send a clear message that Connecticut is no place for hate.”