A new report from the Anti-Defamation League reveals that white supremacist propaganda nearly doubled in 2020 from the previous year. Christian explained to the Associated Press that the surge in propaganda tracks with white supremacist and extremist recruiters seeing crises as periods of opportunity.
“They use the uncertainty and fear caused by crisis to win over new recruits to their ‘us vs. them’ narrative, painting the ‘other’ as the cause of their pain, grievances or loss,” he said. “The current uncertainty caused by the pandemic, job loss, a heated election, protest over extrajudicial police killings of Black Americans, and a national reckoning sparked by our country’s long tradition of racism has created a perfect storm in which to recruit Americans who are fearful of change and progress.”