He has ties to the racist right and has contributed to such hate sites as and American Renaissance, which publish the work of white supremacists and so-called race realists. McInnes plays a duplicitous rhetorical game: claiming to reject white nationalism while espousing a laundered version of popular white nationalist tropes. On “The Southern AF Podcast,” one former Proud Boy who went on to embrace white nationalism said he was originally drawn to the group because of its “pro-white sentiment.” “All his jokes, all his content when I first started listening to him,” he said of McInnes, “was all freakin’ alt-right stuff and racial issues and funny, comedic ways to like try to point out that white civilization has been superior.” Many Proud Boys like him have moved on to more extreme groups and ideologies. White nationalists and neo-Nazis themselves have cited McInnes as a gateway to the alt-right. If the Proud Boys “were pressed on the issue, I guarantee you that like 90% of them would tell you something along the lines of ‘Hitler was right. “Let’s not bullshit,” Brian Brathovd, aka Caerulus Rex, told his co-hosts on “The Daily Shoah,” an antisemitic podcast popular with the alt-right. Other hardcore members of the alt-right have argued that the “Western chauvinist” label is just a “PR cuck term” McInnes crafted to gain mainstream acceptance. Kessler was expelled from the group after the violence and near-universal condemnation of Charlottesville rallygoers. Former Proud Boys member Jason Kessler helped organize that event, which brought together a broad coalition of extremists including Neo-Nazis, antisemites and militias.

Proud Boys have appeared alongside other hate groups at extremist gatherings such as the “ Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. They are known for anti-Muslim and misogynistic rhetoric. The Proud Boys’ actions belie their disavowals of bigotry: Rank-and-file Proud Boys and leaders regularly spout white nationalist memes and maintain affiliations with known extremists.

Proud boys