Gabriel Helupka, Megan Khalife, Benedetta Bisaccia, Kyle Dillon, Johnathan Koch, Emanuela Bulferetti, Jayde Dorland, Dan Flanagan, Sonia Savci, Ludovica Leccese, Charles Massey
Álvaro Picón, Editor; Jennifer Loy, Chief Editor
The Counterterrorism Group (CTG)'s latest specialty report investigates and analyzes the emergence of Active Clubs (ACs). ACs are a network of localized, decentralized, and loosely structured chapters formally affiliated with the network that possess far-right, white supremacist, and neo-Nazi ideologies. They have a significant presence throughout the continental United States and Europe, with clubs in over twenty-five US states and operations in France, Canada, Finland, Sweden, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The AC movement revolves around white racial consciousness among impressionable young white men through the appeal of focusing on physical fitness, self-improvement, and establishing a fraternal brotherhood. ACs actively avoid shock, attention, vulgarity, menacing, or showing extreme and controversial online personas, criticizing past white nationalist movements for being "edge lords." ACs actively participate in demonstrations, sometimes alongside similar groups, targeting events such as LGBTQ+ drag events. They aim to garner attention for recruitment while occasionally confronting leftist counter-protestors or agitators through hostile and threatening rhetoric. While ACs are very unlikely to carry out large-scale attacks due to insufficient evidence of possessing weapons or past violence, there is a roughly even chance that they will eventually resort to violent confrontations with counter-protestors due to their participation in military-style training exercises, extensive MMA training, and their consistent use of hostile, dismissive, and threatening rhetoric in response to recent protests. Training in combat sports makes it very likely that it is only a matter of time before someone uses their skills against another, likely counter-protestors. Fulfilling daily tasks and regular training very likely foster members’ perceived ability to make decisions, as they almost certainly view themselves as capable authority figures willing to take action in their respective regional bases.