人兽性交

鈥淭he intel on this wasn鈥檛 100%,鈥� Welch sheepishly conceded later.

That may have been the understatement of the year. The 鈥渋ntel鈥� on what came to be called 鈥淧izzagate鈥� was utterly and completely false. It soon transpired that Welch had been taken in by a 鈥渄ocumentary鈥� he watched on the Infowars site of Alex Jones, America鈥檚 most unhinged conspiracist and a man who sees the federal government as being the author of almost every terrorist attack since 1995.

But the most remarkable thing about the whole bizarre episode wasn鈥檛 that significant numbers of Americans are so taken in by Jones鈥� 鈥渇ake news鈥� that a man like Welch actually begins shooting. What鈥檚 genuinely stunning is that then-presidential candidate Donald Trump had in late 2015 gone on Jones鈥� radio show, where the future U.S. president pronounced his interviewer鈥檚 reputation 鈥渁mazing.鈥�

That statement, along with Jones鈥� claim that Trump called him personally right after the election to thank him for his support and to promise to go on his show once again, was a reflection of just how far the radical right in America has come in recent years. And it wasn鈥檛 the only such sign. During the campaign, Trump retweeted a white supremacist鈥檚 completely false claim that 80% of white murder victims in America are killed by black people. He described Mexican immigrants as rapists and drug dealers, said Muslims should be banned from the country, and seemed to encourage violence by his supporters against black protesters.

During the campaign, Trump only weakly disavowed the white supremacists who were electrified by his candidacy. And once elected, he selected appointees known for their hardline anti-LGBT, anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant ideas. Chief among them was Breitbart News executive Stephen Bannon, a partisan of right-wing populism who many observers see as having promoted white nationalism.

After half a century of being pushed to the very margins of American society, the radical right has entered the political mainstream in a way not even imagined since the 1968 run for the presidency by segregationist George Wallace.

In this issue, we take a look at the state of the radical right in America in the aftermath of one of the most remarkable presidential races in history. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center鈥檚 latest count, the number of hate groups in the U.S. remained at near-historic levels, increasing from 892 in 2015 to 917 last year. That approaches the all-time high in some 30 years of counting groups, 1,018 in 2011, when hatred of President Obama on the political right was white hot.

These numbers don鈥檛 tell the whole story. Increasing numbers of extremists 鈥� like Dylann Roof, who was convicted late last year of the 2015 murder of nine black churchgoers in a bid to start a race war 鈥� are lurking on the Internet, absorbing radical ideas without actually ever joining a hate group. Some small proportion of these people, anonymous and invisible until the very last moment like Roof, go on to kill.

America is at a crossroads. On one hand, the country has come a remarkable distance from a past marred by slavery, Jim Crow and discrimination against minorities of all kinds. On the other, like most European countries, we are facing a resurgence of racial nationalism that imperils the progress we鈥檝e made.

Alex Jones may try scrub the evidence of his role in promoting extremism, as he did immediately after Welch鈥檚 attack in the nation鈥檚 capital. But it is imperative that we remember the Joneses of the world, and that we work to identify, isolate and neutralize those who would make America less than the country it could be.