Libertarian Librarian

Alright, maybe fun isn't the right word. But I did find this map of "active hate groups" to be quite interesting. A little disturbing to think there are that many KKK and neo-Nazi groups out there, but interesting nonetheless.

Things that struck me as odd about the results: Madison, the most liberal city in Wisconsin and probably one of the most liberal in the country has a KKK, neo-Nazi and white nationalist group in or near the city. Montana has an active neo-Confederate group. Montana? What are those southern boys doing way in tarnation up thataways?

Georgia, unsurprisingly, has a lot of neo-Confederate, KKK and neo-Nazi groups, but they also have a large number of black separatists. There are actually more black separatist groups (10) than KKK groups (8). And what's up with New Jersey? They have neo-Nazi and racist skinhead groups coming out of their ears! Just as an aside, however, isn't the phrase "racist skinhead" kinda redundant? I mean are there any non-racist skinhead groups? I'm sure there are non-skinhead racist groups, but I don't think there are any skinheads that aren't also racists.

Tennessee wins a... well, not gold star... puice star? for having the most active KKK groups (14), though Texas (13) and Ohio (12) are in the running (Ohio?). California easily has the most racist skinhead groups (17), though Pennsylvania's bunch of nutbag skinhead supremacists seems to be the most organized-- they have nine such organizations... all called the Keystone State Skinheads. It's a like a franchise.

As noted earlier, Georgia has a large number of Black Separatist groups-- the most of any state with 10-- and while there are a lot of Illinois Nazis (10) that number is only a close second to New Jersey's 11. There is no comparison when it comes to neo-Confederate. South Carolina has a staggering 29 branches of the "Stars and Bars" revering League of the South. Florida comes in a distant second with 16 League of the South franchises. Mississippi shows that the south still has it when it comes to white bigotry and intolerance, holding the most White Supremacist groups (11) of any state.

The hate of the Christian Identity group seems to lack focus-- Arkansas currently owns the title of most hate-filled Christian groups, but with only a grand total of four such organizations. And finally, California rules the roost when it comes to General Hate groups, hosting a whopping 20 such organizations to New York's distance second place of only seven.

So there you go-- betcha did not realize that intolerance, hatred and violence could be so much fun kiddies! And just so you don't think this sort of thing is limited to the U.S., please be aware that there is a lot of international competition to be the most hateful and intolerant. By international standards, we are sadly lacking. Based on this round-up, it seems that Iran is the clear front runner. What a surprise.