On the eve of far right protests announced for the nation’s capitol this weekend, Newsweek is reporting that the Proud Boys street thugs are in the midst of an internal split.
Infighting has broken out between two leading members of the Proud Boys group, with one announcing he will be taking control of the far-right organization to address "White Genocide" and the "failures of multiculturalism."
White nationalist Kyle Chapman—who set up the "tactical defense arm" of the Proud Boys, the Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights (FOAK)—has criticized the group's chairman Enrique Tarrio while announcing a so-called rebranding of the organization.
Since it’s formal inception by founding leader Gavin McInnes in 2016, the group has tried to pass itself off as a “Western Values” advocacy group but the pretense has never been very convincing.
In early 2017, McInnes began to distance himself from the alt-right, saying their focus is race and his focus is what he calls "Western values". This rebranding effort intensified after the Unite the Right Rally.[18][19][48] In 2018, McInnes was saying that the Proud Boys were part of the "new right".[49
What they actually advocate is violence against people on the political Left.
The organization glorifies political violence against antifa[26] and leftists, re-enacting political assassinations, wearing shirts that praise Augusto Pinochet's murders of leftists and participating directly in political violence.[29][34] In April 2016, McInnes, who believes violence is "a really effective way to solve problems", has said: "I want violence, I want punching in the face. I'm disappointed in Trump supporters for not punching enough."[26][29] In August 2017, he further stated that "[w]e don't start fights [...] but we will finish them."[50] Heidi Beirich, the Intelligence Project director for the SPLC, said that this form of intentional aggression was not common among far-right groups in the past. She further said the far-right's claim that "[w]e're going to show up and we're intending to get in fights" was new.[51]
Now it appears that some in the organization have decided it’s time to cast all pretense aside.
Writing on encrypted messaging app Telegram, Chapman used racial slurs against Tarrio and other neo-Nazi rhetoric while announcing that the "grifting leaders" had been deposed and the group would be renamed the Proud Goys. The term "goy"—a Hebrew word for a non-Jewish person—is sometimes used by white supremacists to signal their anti-Semitic beliefs, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Antisemitism? Check.
"We will no longer cuck to the left by appointing token negroes as our leaders. We will no longer allow homosexuals or other 'undesirables' into our ranks. We will confront the Zionist criminals who wish to destroy our civilization.
"We recognize that the West was built by the White Race alone and we owe nothing to any other race."
White supremacy? Check. Homophobia? Check.
The Proud Boys have been a key player in organizing for the planned protest this Saturday in Washington DC. With this development you have to wonder whether we are looking at another potential Charlottesville. This time in the nation’s capitol.
Will Donald Trump address the mob?