US Hate Groups Decline in Number. The Reason Isn't Great

The number of white nationalist, hate, and anti-government groups around the US dropped slightly in 2024—not due to shrinking influence, but rather the opposite. In its annual "Year in Hate and Extremism" report, released Thursday, the Southern Poverty Law Center said it counted 1,371 hate and extremist groups, a 5% decline from the previous year, per the AP. In 2023, "record numbers" of white nationalist and anti-LGBTQ groups were found.

• Hate groups: Last year, there were 533 active hate groups in the US. These include groups who express views that are anti-LBGTQ+, anti-immigrant, antisemitic, and anti-Muslim. This number has been steadily declining since reaching a historic high of 1,021 in 2018.

• Anti-government groups: Last year, they totaled 838, an increase from recent years, according to the law center based in Montgomery, Alabama. These groups see the federal government as "tyrannical" and include militias and self-described sovereign citizens.
• A rising influence: Male supremacy continues to gain influence as well. The SPLC documented seven new male supremacist hate groups, making the total 16. Their rhetoric espouses misogyny and strict gender roles. "I'm not sure it's a direct result of the candidacy of Kamala Harris," says Rachel Carroll Rivas, interim director of the SPLC's Intelligence Project. However, SPLC researchers went into white supremacist chatrooms during the election and found "intense vilification, the claiming of demonization of Harris, as well as just the pushing of the idea falsely that women would not be qualified" to run for president.
• 'White Christian' angle: Some people on the far right have also pushed a belief that white Christian culture is being threatened by a "demographic crisis," including fewer births.
• Why the downtick? The SPLC attributes the decline in the number of hate groups to a lesser sense of urgency to organize, as the groups' beliefs have infiltrated politics, education, and society in general. Some of the ways they've achieved this are through pushing for bans on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and book bans, the report says.

More here. (More extremism stories.)