The Southern Poverty Law Center works to dismantle white supremacy in public forums and online, exposes hate and anti-democracy extremism, and counters disinformation and conspiracy theories with research and community resources. The Intelligence Project monitors and exposes white supremacy and its impact on communities.
White nationalist and neo-Nazi movement activity
- In late August, members of the white nationalist Active Clubs network and their allies gathered in Southern California for “Frontier,” their annual mixed martial arts and boxing event. Videos that Robert Rundo, the co-founder of the Active Club network, and other affiliates shared on social media indicate that in addition to members of Active Clubs, the meetup brought together leaders and members of Patriot Front, skinhead crews and multiple neo-Nazi bands. Bellingcat, an investigative journalism outlet, identified the meetup as having taken place at a venue in San Diego.
- A Tennessee-based white supremacist named Skyler Philippi, 24, pleaded guilty on Sept. 9 to charges of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to destroy an energy facility, according to a Department of Justice announcement. Philippi, a self-described “accelerationist,” told an undercover employee that he intended to use a drone and explosives to attack electrical substations. He is set to be sentenced in January 2026 and could face up to life in prison.
Prevention
- “Part of the problem is, we don’t create spaces for young men and young women. They’re increasingly isolated and divided online into different worlds and then we get these real-world effects,” explained Oct. 2 episode of 1A. In the conversation about her new book, Man Up: The New Misogyny and the Rise of Violent Extremism, Miller-Idriss discussed how a lack of engagement around and understanding of young people’s online lives is contributing to increased harm and violence in their offline worlds.
- According to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, 84% of the victims of nihilistic violent extremist (NVE) groups are female. This trend is part of a trend in the rise of NVE movements online and violent destruction in the lives of individuals, families and communities. To confront and mitigate this harm, parents, caregivers, educators and all adults who interact with young people need to create intentional space for open-ended conversations about what young people are encountering online. The SPLC and American University’s Polarization & Extremism Research & Innovation Lab (PERIL) have produced a guide for this purpose: Not Just a Joke: Understanding & Preventing Gender- & Sexuality-Based Bigotry.
Anti-immigrant/anti-Muslim activity
- In a flurry of Truth Social posts on Sept. 29, President Donald Trump shared a link to an X social media account, claiming, “The Great Replacement is no longer conspiracy theory!” The post includes a report from Newsmax claiming the Joe Biden administration was sending undocumented immigrants Social Security numbers and “importing democratic voters” — a common narrative among “great replacement” conspiracy theorists. The post came days after Trump’s Sept. 23 speech at the United Nations in which he railed against “uncontrolled migration,” accused the United Nations of “funding an assault on Western countries and their borders,” and said of European leaders accepting migrants: “You’re doing it because you want to be nice, you want to be politically correct, and you’re destroying your heritage.”
Militia and antigovernment movement activity
- Beth Bourne, chair of Moms for Liberty’s Yolo County, California, chapter, made headlines for stripping down to a bikini at a recent school board meeting to speak out against the district’s junior high locker room policy involving students’ gender identity. Bourne was in the news last year for verbally attacking drag queens at a Hawaii hotel during a family vacation.
- Kevin Bushey, who has served as Maine’s Aroostook County coordinator for antigovernment group Tactical Civics, is running for a seat in the state’s House of Representatives. His personal website includes a page dedicated to Tactical Civics that encourages potential recruits to join its weekly virtual meetings. Tactical Civics has a national network that spreads antigovernment ideas like the use of citizen-led grand juries and militias.
- Lewis Herms, founder of the antigovernment conspiracy group “Screw Big Gov,” has announced he plans to run for governor of California. His campaign website states he has “sacrificed immensely in this battle to free our planet from tyrannical control.” Screw Big Gov’s website has a banner at the top of the page promoting Herms’ candidacy.
- Montana state Rep. Tom Millett owes at least $427,000 in unpaid income taxes after repeatedly losing in court. He claims only residents of the District of Columbia need to pay the federal income tax, a standard talking point of the anti-tax movement of the 1970s and 1980s that served as a precursor for the sovereign citizens movement. During the 2025 Montana Legislature, Millett sponsored unsuccessful legislation to allow citizens to convene grand juries, which was pushed by Montana Tactical Civics supporters.
- Not long after her husband’s assassination, Erika Kirk was chosen as CEO and board chair of Turning Point USA. At the Arizona memorial service for Charlie Kirk, she said she forgave the assassin, a sentiment that President Donald Trump didn’t share. “I hate my opponent, and I don’t want the best for them,” Trump said at the memorial.
- Oklahoma education official Ryan Walters has announced his resignation as superintendent of public education. This comes after a number of controversies involving him. He will now serve as CEO of Teacher Freedom Alliance, which opposes teachers unions.
- The U.S. Department of Education has announced the America 250 Civics Education Coalition, a partnership of right-wing organizations, including Moms for Liberty, Turning Point USA, Alliance Defending Freedom, Eagle Forum and PragerU. The coalition is designed to advance a nationwide initiative “to engage students, educators, and communities in conversations about liberty, citizenship, and America’s enduring values,” according to a press release.
- Jake Lang, a pardoned Jan. 6 participant and Florida U.S. Senate candidate, announced he had filed a $25 million lawsuit against the FBI for “LYING about the 274+ Undercover Agents that were at the Capitol INCITING the crowd on January 6!!!” The suit comes following social media posts by President Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel claiming 274 plainclothes FBI agents were present at the Capitol.
Conspiracy propaganda
- Conspiracy propagandist duo Alex Jones and Owen Shroyer of Infowars announced their breakup online. Shroyer told his audience that he was willing to “go down with the ship,” presumably meaning Infowars, but Jones told him he didn’t need him. Shroyer also claimed he was too anti-Trump for Jones. Jones gave his own on-air speech directed at Shroyer, saying: “You are a snake. You are a rat! You are a fraud! You are a backstabber! You are a hand-biter! You are a disgrace!” Jones doubled down later, declaring Shroyer was “dead to me” and “demon possessed.”
- On Sept. 1, James (Jim) Clinton Belcher died. Belcher was the “head of state” for the American States Assembly, the largest sovereign citizens organization in the United States. Belcher was, until the time of his death, married to Anna von Reitz, the de facto leader of American States Assembly.
Tech and digital extremism
- On Sept. 23, YouTube’s parent company, Alphabet, sent a letter to U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan that indicated the company would reinstate content creators who had been banned from the site for spreading misinformation/disinformation related to elections and/or the COVID pandemic. Additionally, Alphabet placed the blame for these content creators having been banned on the Biden administration, claiming that officials in the administration had pressured the company into doing so.
Confederate monument trends
- A group of Texans connected to the United Daughters of the Confederacy have joined with the SS American Memorial Foundation to preserve in a private park Confederate memorials that have been removed from public spaces. In September, the city of San Antonio donated a Confederate memorial to SS American. The city had removed the memorial from a public park in 2017 and placed it in storage for eight years. Now it, and other removed Confederate memorials from Dallas and New Braunfels, will be on display again. SS American has claimed that it will put the memorials “in proper context.”
- In a victory against the Lost Cause, a Virginia federal judge ruled in September that restoring a Confederate name to a Shenandoah County public school violated students’ rights. In the lawsuit, the Virginia NAACP argued that the name of Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson on a public high school created “an unlawful and discriminatory educational environment for Black students.” U.S. District Judge Michael F. Urbanski ruled that students “cannot be compelled to be carriers of Jackson’s name and the pro-slavery historical legacy he represents.” The school board had changed the name of Stonewall Jackson High School to Mountain View High School in 2020, in addition to removing the Confederate name from a nearby elementary school. In May 2024, a new school board voted to reinstate the Confederate names to both schools. The federal judge’s ruling that this change violates students’ rights is a good sign for further efforts to remove Confederate names from schools in Virginia — of which 12 remain.
- In September, the Trump administration ordered several national parks to remove signs and exhibits on the history of slavery. At Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, where abolitionist John Brown attempted to raid a federal arsenal to aid a slave revolt in 1859, National Park Service officials found more than 30 signs they said were out of compliance with Trump’s directive. In particular, they ordered the removal of a famous photograph demonstrating the violence and cruelty of slavery, known as “The Scourged Back.” This photo, taken in 1863, shows dozens of grotesque scars from whipping on the back of Peter Gordon, a formerly enslaved man. When this photo was distributed in the middle of the Civil War, it horrified white Americans and galvanized support for ending slavery and defeating the Confederacy. Trump’s censorship of this photograph — and the general attempt to minimize or erase the history of slavery and the struggle for freedom in this country — is in line with hundreds of years of Lost Cause propaganda. He is furthering Confederate lies and distortions about American history. In doing so, his acts attempt to erase not only the pain and suffering of enslaved Americans, but also the heroic stories of resistance and the fight for freedom led by abolitionists and all Union soldiers — Black and white, from the North and from the South.
Image at top: Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones hosts his show on the Infowars website from Austin, Texas, in 2020. (Credit: TT News Agency/Alamy)