In the wake of prosecutions that decimated the former leadership of extremist groups like the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, white nationalist “Active Clubs” are growing, Rolling Stone reported.
“The Active Clubs are who the Proud Boys thought they were,” said John Lewis, a research fellow at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University. “They’re who the Proud Boys wanted to be.”
Active Club don't sport their racist ideologies out in the open. Instead, they wrap it in a veneer of physical fitness, self-improvement, and “white unity," the report said.
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"The Active Clubs are flying below the radar of law enforcement," Rolling Stone's report stated. "But as described in a new 50-page report from the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), the network is evolving into a dangerous 'stand-by militia' of well-trained, white-nationalist fighters 'who can be activated when the need for coordinated violent action on a larger scale arises.'"
The clubs were started by a white supremacist from Orange County, California, named Robert Rundo after a previous and similar project of his was cracked down on by the feds, prompting him to escape to Eastern Europe.
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"The funding of the Active Clubs is opaque," reports Rolling Stone. "But at least part of the money comes from sales of a lifestyle apparel brand founded by Rundo called Will2Rise, which sells 'militant active wear.' The slick store site not only sells 'Active Club' track jackets and hoodies, it also serves as recruitment propaganda and a reinforcer of the aesthetics Rundo wants to model for the network."
Read the full report over at Rolling Stone.
