Combat sport clubs have been used to boost recruitment for a white nationalist hate group, according to a report released by the legal advocacy organization Southern Poverty Law Center.
The report tracks the efforts of the Patriot Front — one of the most visible groups in the white nationalist movement, formed following the deadly ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 — and their focus on recruiting new members through Active Clubs.
These clubs are smaller, looser networks of white supremacist groups, where members train in mixed martial arts. Through sport, they bond over white nationalist ideologies, SPLC said. The clubs also maintain a robust online presence to encourage young men to become radicalized. Patriot Front is using these groups to expand their reach while maintaining a low profile, the report said, to evade researchers and law enforcement.
I feel like bonding over shared hatred doesn’t really create any kind of real bond.
Then you are incredibly wrong. Creating a siege mentality is literally one of the easiest tricks to make people bond and form a cohesive group. I’d say about half of Europe’s countries exist in large part as “we’re not English/French/German” as much as any real original common identity.
Hatred might feel like a bond, but it’s not one that actually lasts once the target disappears. It’s entirely dependent on an external “enemy.” That kind of connection isn’t about each other — it’s about not being someone else. That’s thin.
You’re not really bonded to the person next to you — you’re just reacting to the same thing. Yeah, siege mentality works to rally people, but that’s not the same as forming meaningful relationships. It’s a short-term trick, not a foundation.
Real connection requires something internal — shared values, trust, mutual investment — not just shared scorn. When the hate runs dry, there’s nothing left holding the group together except maybe paranoia and infighting. “We’re not them” only gets you so far before people start turning on each other too.
Yeah ok bud, I’ll let the Swiss know they can stop pretending to be a country now that France, Germany and Italy are unlikely to subsume them.
It is absolutely a foundation. Foundations dry and even crack but that doesn’t bring the whole house down if you’ve built something on it. Which in Switzerland’s case is insane rent (to keep the Italians out), mass armament (to keep the Germans out), watch making (to keep the French out), and cowbells (to keep one specific Dutch woman out).
Hey friend. Your comment reads as peak smug absurdity-as-argument — You mix bad analogies, pseudo-clever sarcasm, and a bonkers nationalist caricature, and try to pass it off as deep insight. Your rhetorical style signals more of a need to perform than to engage.
If your point is that Switzerland only exists because it keeps other people out, that’s a wild misread of how the country functions. Swiss cohesion isn’t built on mutual hatred or fear — it’s built on cooperation despite internal differences. The Swiss cantons are linguistically and culturally diverse, yet they manage to function through a shared system of governance and mutual respect. That’s the exact opposite of a hate-based foundation.
And saying hatred can be a “foundation” is like claiming you can build a house on quicksand if you just pour enough concrete on top. Maybe it stands for a bit, but it’s a constant maintenance problem — not a model of strength.
If you want to defend hate as a basis for meaningful connection, you’ll need more than glib remarks and half-baked metaphors.
The sport does the bonding, which provides these shitheads with an in for their ideologies.