White Supremacist Propaganda Hit Record Levels In 2022, ADL Says

Topline

The spread of white supremacist propaganda in the United States hit record levels in 2022, Anti-Defamation League said in a report published Thursday, part of an uptick in hate and violence that is incubated and amplified in extreme online communities.

The ADL said white supremacist propaganda hit record levels in 2022.

Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Key Facts

The ADL’s Center on Extremism recorded 6,751 white propaganda incidents across the U.S. in 2022, the highest level recorded since the group began publishing data in 2016 and a nearly 40% jump from the year before.

Antisemitic propaganda incidents more than doubled last year, the report said, rising from 352 incidents in 2021 to 852 in 2022.

Propaganda campaigns—such as distributing racist, antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ+ fliers, stickers, banners, graffiti and posters—allow a “small number of people to have an outsized impact,” the ADL said, maximizing media and online attention while minimizing negative risks like public backlash, arrests and negative media coverage.

Propaganda was reported in every state barring Hawaii, the report said, with the highest levels occurring in Texas (538), Massachusetts (379), Virginia (357) and Michigan (270).

Of at least 50 white supremacist groups and networks tracked by ADL, three—Patriot Front, Goyim Defense League (GDL) and White Lives Matter (WLM)—were responsible for the overwhelming majority (93%) of propaganda activity.

Texas-based Patriot Front was the most active white supremacist group in the nation, ADL said, accounting for 80% of propaganda distributions in 2022—it distributed material in all states except Alaska and Hawaii—followed by antisemitic group GDL, which was responsible for 7% of total incidents but 58% of antisemitic propaganda incidents, and WLM (6%).

Crucial Quote

“There’s no question that white supremacists and antisemites are trying to terrorize and harass Americans and have significantly stepped up their use of propaganda as a tactic to make their presence known in communities nationwide,” ADL chief executive Jonathan Greenblatt said, adding there is “no question” that white supremacists and antisemites trying to terrorize and harass Americans “have significantly stepped up their use of propaganda” in recent years. It is “a cowardly attempt to intimidate marginalized communities and those who don’t align with their twisted worldview,” Greenblatt said, as well as a tactic to “draw in new recruits.” Oren Segal, Vice President of ADL Center on Extremism, said such actions are documented by the extremists themselves to amp up engagement with white supremacy and hate. Segal said a society-wide approach is needed to combat such hateful activity, “including elected officials, community leaders, and people of good faith coming together and condemning this activity forcefully.”

Tangent

Methods of distributing white supremacist propaganda are changing, according to the ADL report. Propaganda incidents on campuses, for example, dropped for the third year running to 219, the lowest level since ADL began tracking campus incidents in 2017. Patriot Front was responsible for nearly three quarters of these. Meanwhile the number of banners, often draped over highway overpasses, increased nearly 40% in 2022 and the number of white supremacist events documented was up 55% from the year before.

Key Background

The ADL’s finding illustrates the well-reported uptick of antisemitism and hate in the U.S. in recent years. The group reported antisemitic incidents in the U.S. reached their highest levels in 2021 since the group started tracking in 1979 and threats even extend to plots against elected officials. Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff called for a greater push to combat the issue on a visit to Auschwitz concentration camp in January, a visit that followed a spate of high-profile antisemitic incidents in the U.S., including public comments by rapper Kanye West and former President Donald Trump’s brazen association with an outspoken antisemite and Holocaust denier. Social media has played a crucial role in spreading white supremacy and hate, with President Joe Biden vowing to combat the problem and urging Congress to do more to force companies to rein in hate on their platforms.

Big Number

18.5. That’s how many white supremacist propaganda incidents there were on average each across the U.S. in 2022, according to ADL’s figures. In Texas, the state with the most incidents, there were an average of three every two days.