What's the SPLC source there? This SPLC articles documents an increase over the past two years using a variety of statistics. But you're right that there appear to have been more of a all-time peak around 2011 (thanks, Obama!), a drop since then, and a more recent uptick over the past two years.

I was trying to research this topic a few days ago, and it turns out it's apparently hard to get a legitimate estimate of the number of participants in hate groups. The hate groups themselves, e.g. KKK, don't report their membership numbers. Go figure. So the SPLC can only report the #'s of groups, not the membership. And most participation is online these days, so it's not like you can sneak into a Klan chapter meeting and do a headcount.

And there's the FBI statistics on hate crimes.

That's about it.

It is interesting that the SPLC reports that the number of anti-government "Patriot" groups has dropped while the number of white supremacy groups has risen. SPLC speculates that this is because the militant right-wingers as a whole are happier about the government, so are focusing on other agendas.

SPLC is more than a little dubious in their estimations, so I'd go FBI for the win. As to numbers, it's actually heartening to see that they ended with the 3-500 in Charlottesville, given they had the July run-in and vowed to come back bigger and stronger, so probably worked hard to get their haters out. Hundreds too many, but I don't think it indicates America has a real racist hate problem, and still IMO keeps this size group in the "ignore" range.

You know what gets me. Radical islamists have killed more people than the nazis/white nationalists in the U.S in the last 10 years - and scores of thousands across the world - but we don't see anyone marching against their hate? What is pathetic, is that many of the same people marching against the nazis are the ones who defend the islamists.

To me, that tells me that they're marching based to make them feel good about themselves. Plus, it looks good to post on their facebook page.

What's the SPLC source there? This SPLC articles documents an increase over the past two years using a variety of statistics. But you're right that there appear to have been more of a all-time peak around 2011 (thanks, Obama!), a drop since then, and a more recent uptick over the past two years.

I was trying to research this topic a few days ago, and it turns out it's apparently hard to get a legitimate estimate of the number of participants in hate groups. The hate groups themselves, e.g. KKK, don't report their membership numbers. Go figure. So the SPLC can only report the #'s of groups, not the membership. And most participation is online these days, so it's not like you can sneak into a Klan chapter meeting and do a headcount.

And there's the FBI statistics on hate crimes.

That's about it.

It is interesting that the SPLC reports that the number of anti-government "Patriot" groups has dropped while the number of white supremacy groups has risen. SPLC speculates that this is because the militant right-wingers as a whole are happier about the government, so are focusing on other agendas.