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Responding to Hate Propaganda: What You Need to Know
In 2024, the ADL Center on Extremism (COE) documented white supremacist propaganda distributions in every U.S. state and the District of Columbia, except Hawaii. Our 2024 assessment focuses on messaging-- the common themes behind the thousands upon thousands of propaganda incidents that have plagued American cities across the nation. White supremacist groups chose to respond to current events and the elevation of certain narratives in the media by tailoring their propaganda accordingly. In other cases, groups simply continued to distribute propaganda targeting minority communities with generalized hatred and vitriol.
The majority of white supremacist propaganda distributed in 2024 included antisemitic or anti-immigrant language and themes. Some leaned into both narratives – blaming Jews for the existence of America’s non-white immigrant and refugee populations. Recruitment is common as well; white supremacist fliers, stickers, banners and posters almost always include a group name or symbol, a URL, a QR code or a phone number connected to the group.
Themes related to Israel and Zionists also remained popular in white supremacist propaganda, but the sentiment was not as prevalent as it was immediately following the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. Similiarly, anti-LGBTQ+ propaganda saw a significant drop in 2024, after a massive jump in 2023.
White supremacist groups and networks use propaganda campaigns to provoke media and online attention, while limiting the risk of individual exposure, arrests and public backlash that often accompany more public activities. Propaganda, which can affect entire communities, allows a small number of people to have an outsized impact.
Further, white supremacists use propaganda to spread antisemitism, racism and other forms of bigotry to intimidate and harass their perceived enemies and so they can recruit new followers. These days, much of that propaganda occurs online, but white supremacists still spend time and effort spreading propaganda in the physical world. They do this to convey hateful messages, spark fear and anxiety in communities targeted by their propaganda distributions and direct people to their online content to attempt to recruit individuals to their cause.
Antisemitism
Antisemitism remained a key theme for white supremacist propaganda in 2024. Patriot Front, which remains the most prolific distributor of of white supremacist propaganda as a whole, also led antisemitic distributions. For example, they frequently distrubited red, white and blue fliers and stencils containing the phrase “No Zionists in Government, We serve one Nation.” Given the group’s neo-Nazi roots, there is little question that when Patriot Front mentions “Zionists,” they mean Jews.
The antisemitic Goyim Defense League (GDL) continued to distribute propaganda that casts aspersions on Jews and spreads antisemitic myths and conspiracy theories in hopes of turning Americans against Jewish people. GDL’s 2024 propaganda included baseless charges about Jewish power, blamed Jews for 9/11 and accused Jews of blood libel and pedophilia.
ADL documented propaganda distributions by the New England White Network (NEWN) for the first time in 2024. The small, New Hampshire-based group put postcard-style propaganda on community bulletin boards, along hiking trails and on magazine racks. One of NEWN’s antisemitic fliers titled “Boycott Jewish businesses,” encouraged white New Englanders to start “separating themselves from Jewry as a whole.” The card blamed HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) and other immigration agencies for replacing white New Englanders with non-white immigrants. NEWN also distributed antisemitic postcards titled “Biden’s Slew of Jews,” claiming the Biden administration was “saturated by subversive, loxist [sic], supremacist kikes.”
Like NEWN, propaganda from the Florida-based National Socialist Front (NSF) included fliers that blamed HIAS for America’s immigration crisis. Another NSF flier, distributed in California, condemned the U.S. House Resolution 6090, known as the Antisemitism Awareness Act of 2023. The flier, titled “Stand Against Zionism,” stated, “We say enough! Americans, reject Jewish control!”
Previously active primarily in Florida and Texas, Order of the Black Sun, a small neo-Nazi group, distributed propaganda around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that read, “Caution! There’s [sic] kikes in your area,” “Jews control mass immigration” and “Jews control pornography.”
Several groups and networks also distributed antisemitic propaganda specifically mentioning Israel and Zionism including the Active Club network, American Blackshirts and the New Jersey European Heritage Association (NJEHA).
Sampling of antisemitic and anti-Zionist propaganda.
Anti-Immigration
White supremacists sharply focused their hate on immigrants and refugees in 2024, framing migrants as “invaders” and therefore a threat to white Americans.
In September 2024, following a viral, racist disinformation campaign focused on Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, a range of white supremacist groups held demonstrations and distributed anti-immigrant propaganda in the city. Patriot Front hung a banner that read “deport them all” on an area overpass; individuals associated with the White Lives Matter (WLM) network held a banner in front of city hall that read in both English and Haitian Creole, “Haitians Have No Home Here;” the Ohio chapter of the Aryan Freedom Network posted images of recruitment propaganda they claimed to have distributed in the area; and there were reports of fliers promoting the Trinity White Knights that read, “Foreigners & Haitians Out.”
Patriot Front’s anti-immigrant propaganda heavily reflected their belief that Americans of European ancestry have an exclusive right to live in the U.S. with slogans such as “keep America American,” “deport them all” and “deport invaders.” Propaganda from the NJEHA urged people to report “illegal aliens” to U.S. Immigration and Customs. Another called for the arrest of “sanctuary mayors.”
Both the Active Club and WLM networks also increased their focus on anti-immigrant themes in their propaganda. The networks referred to the presence of immigrants and refugees in America as “an invasion,” with phrases such as “stop the invasion” and “remove all invaders.” Several WLM chapters distributed propaganda using the white supremacist slogan “Auslander Raus!” which translates to “foreigners out.”
The ADL Center on Extremism also tracked an uptick in anti-immigrant propaganda from both the American Freedom Party (AFP) and American Blackshirts in 2024. Many stickers and posters distributed by the groups had slogans such as “Invaders are here for conquest, not asylum,” “Smash immigration, invaders get out,” “America for Americans! Invaders Out!” and “It’s not immigration it’s an invasion.”
Sampling of anti-immigrant propaganda.
Other Findings
Though the narratives described above were used the most in white supremacist propaganda last year, white supremacists still distributed anti-LGBTQ+ and racist propganda in 2024. For example, on May 10, 2024, WLM and GDL both distributed propaganda that read: “Every Single Aspect of the LGBTQ+ Movement is Jewish” in Three Rivers, Michigan. The Aryan Freedom Network also distributed fliers that read “Straight Pride” with their typical recruitment fliers during Pride Month.
In addition to the racist and anti-immigrant propaganda campaigns targeting the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio, white supremacist propaganda containing overt racism persisted in 2024. For example, on April 24, 2024, two individuals associated with WLM held a demonstration outside of an elementary school holding signs that read, “End Black Violence! Protect White Children!” The group also distributed white supremacist propaganda nearby that read: “White Lives Matter,” “Stop White Replacement” and “Make White Children.”
Additionally, on July 9, 2024, residents in several neighborhoods across Johnson County, Indiana, were targeted with racist stickers from the neo-Nazi group, National Alliance that read: “NA [National Alliance] Health Warning #1 for White women and girls. Straight Black males are infected with HIV at a rate over 19 times the rate of straight White males. The media won’t warn you, but the National Alliance will.”
White supremacist propaganda referencing alleged crimes committed against white people by Black people also remained popular. For example, in June 2024, after a period of inactivity, Eastern NC Active Club began distributing unique WLM stickers memorializing victims of alleged crimes with white victims and alleged Black perpetrators.
Donor Acknowledgements
The work the ADL Center on Extremism is supported, in part, through the generosity of:
Anonymous (3)
The ADL Lewy Family Institute for Combatting Antisemitism
Lillian and Larry Goodman Foundations
Lisa and Douglas Goldman Fund
MasterCard Impact Fund
The Morningstar Foundation
Quadrivium Foundation
The Charles and Mildred Schnurmacher Foundation
Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation
The Zegar Family Foundation
Rhonda and David Cohen