The SPLC has written a dumb article on the Unite the Right rally.
It is disingenuous even by their standards. There hasn’t been an explicitly pro-White event of this size in the United States in the 21st century. For all the talk about bickering, about 200 more people say they are coming on Facebook than was the case a few weeks ago.
No one knows how many people will ultimately show up in Charlottesville on August 12th. The event has been advertised all over social media. Undoubtedly, many of the people who say they are coming on Facebook won’t show up, but many more will come through other platforms like Twitter where we spend the majority of our time. Many will come through anonymous forums like 4chan or will just show up without indicating they are coming on social media to avoid doxxing.
As far as the White Wing is concerned (Alt-Right, Southern Nationalists, White Nationalists), there has never been an event in which there has been more cooperation. The normally fractious “movement” has found greater cohesion and is becoming much more active in the real world. Traditionally, these groups have been preoccupied with expressing their differences and posting anonymous messages on the internet. The trend for over a decade was away from real world activism.
The politically correct wings of the Alt-Lite, Patriot and Southern heritage movements won’t show up at #UniteTheRight because they have reputations to preserve with the mainstream media. We never expected them to come anyway. At the same time, there are emerging leaders involved in all of those movements who aren’t so timid and they will be there. The Proud Boys are divided over the event and the ones who were inclined to come are free to do so. There are Patriots and Southern heritage activists who are accustomed to being called “racists” and don’t care anymore. Everywhere they go they are called “racists” anyway and Charlottesville won’t be any different.
Compared to #UniteTheRight, the Berkeley protests were comparatively small. None of the Alt-Lite’s Free Speech rallies have been anywhere near the size of this event. There have been large Patriot rallies in Texas and elsewhere, but it has been old people and none of them have been major clashes with Antifa. The Charlottesville Police Department is expecting around 4,000 people to participate on August 12th. This event is going to be a whole different magnitude of size and intensity.
The only event that #UniteTheRight will compare to that comes to mind is the Hammerfest 2002/Rock Against Israel rally at the peak of WN 1.0 in Washington, DC after the death of William Pierce in August 2002. There were around 500 White Nationalists at that event. Just out of curiosity, what does a block of White Nationalists that big look like marching into a town?
Note: The aesthetics are going to be very different a week from now. There were will also be more of us in Charlottesville than were in DC that day. You’re crazy to miss this.