Welcome to extremely, the new weekly newsletter from the ADL Center on Extremism and your go-to resource for emerging trends and developments in extremism and hate.
Sign up here to get this newsletter directly in your inbox.
1. Bluesky Finally Enjoys Day in the Sun, Immediately Gets Heatstroke
Social media platform Bluesky has seen a surge in new users in recent weeks, thanks in part to controversial changes to X’s terms of service. Despite how this has gone in the past on a slew of other platforms, people are hopeful that Bluesky will do something to effectively address misinformation, disinformation and hate speech. Bad actors jumped to test that optimism: Anti-Zionist users have created and promoted lists of “Zionist” users, including disparaging (and super creative) descriptions like “Zionist scum” and “Zionist watch.”
Why it Matters
Bluesky had a few days of peace and high traffic, but its newfound popularity almost certainly presages an absolute deluge of users whose content crosses multiple red lines. As those users increase, so will the headaches that already plague Bluesky’s moderation teams.
2. Neo-Nazi “Hate Club” Makes Personal Beef Everyone’s Problem
On November 16, approximately 12 people associated with the neo-Nazi "Hate Club" marched through Columbus, Ohio, wearing black clothes and red face masks, carrying firearms and waving swastika flags. This was the group’s first official event since its creation last month. White supremacist events continue to impact communities nationwide; we’ve tracked 136 events through June of 2024, and recorded 282 events in 2023.
Why it Matters
If the guns and swastikas didn’t tip you off, Hate Club falls into the “hardcore” category of white supremacist groups, alongside Blood Tribe, National Socialist Movement and Goyim Defense League (GDL). Their public displays are designed to be aggressive and intimidating. Behind all that vitriol, however, lies some truly petty drama: Hate Club probably chose Columbus to provoke Blood Tribe Ohio, whose leader disavowed Hate Club founder Anthony Altick after he held an “unsanctioned” October Blood Tribe demonstration in St. Louis.
3. League of the South Announces Rebrand. Spoiler: Still Terrible
Because nothing says “my hate group is doing REALLY well, thanks,” like a complete revamp, on November 12, Michael Hill, the leader of the long-standing white supremacist League of the South (LoS), announced the group had a new name (The Southern Nationalist League (TSNL)), a new website and new status as a registered non-profit LLC. The glow-up is superficial, and TSNL will maintain LoS’s original mission of advocating for an independent and white-dominated South.
Why it Matters
LoS is struggling to remain relevant in a changing white supremacist landscape, a fact Hill pointed out in the announcement, in which he disturbingly uses female pronouns to describe the fading 30-year-old hate group: “She [LoS] stands no more like the staunch bulwark of Southern White racialism and separatism as she once did.” He can chalk that up to the growing public profile of newer white supremacist groups like Patriot Front and the Active Club network.
4. Why Should Right-Wing Loons Have All the Fun? Leftists Embrace Election Fraud Lies
Left-leaning conspiracy theorists, evidently tired of sitting on the sidelines, are diving into the cesspool of election denial. On the morning of November 6, viral posts on X, TikTok and Threads falsely claimed 15 to 20 million votes were “missing” compared to the 2020 election, and baselessly claimed that Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites, connected via internet to certain electronic voting machines, were programmed to switch or manipulate votes in favor of President-elect Trump. In most cases, voting machines are not connected to the internet.
Why it Matters
In contrast to the violent threats that surfaced in the days and weeks following the 2020 election, which culminated in the January 6 insurrection, to date we have not seen a parallel crusade to challenge the 2024 election results.
5. The Far-Right Anti-Israel Crowd is Having Fun with Wordplay
Far-right influencers critical of President-elect Trump are peppering social media, particularly X, with the phrase “Make Israel Great Again” (or “MIGA,” a riff on MAGA). The acronym is meant to denigrate the incoming administration’s pro-Israel stance and insinuate that its policies will prioritize Israel over the U.S.
Why it Matters
While this slogan isn’t new – or unique to the far-right – it has proliferated wildly since the election, with posters frequently pairing “MIGA” with antisemitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric, caricatures and conspiracy theories. It’s a reminder that for some extremists, support for Israel is the only unforgivable sin.
More from COE
→ Glossary of Extremism: A comprehensive overview of the many individuals, events, groups and movements that populate the extremist landscape.
→ Hate on Display: The preeminent index of extremist and hate symbols, tattoos, flags and numerology.
→ H.E.A.T. Map: A first-of-its-kind, interactive tracker of hate, extremism, antisemitism and terrorism incidents across America.
→ Podcast: extremely: Hosted by COE V.P. Oren Segal, this podcast will change the way you think about extremism – and the people who have dedicated their lives to fighting it.