Why are the Proud Boys so violent? Ask Gavin McInnes
Last Friday, Proud Boys leader Gavin McInnes riled up a crowd of supporters at New York City鈥檚 Metropolitan Republican Club with what he played off as a comedy routine: the commemoration and celebration of the 1960 televised assassination of a socialist.
McInnes鈥 talk kicked off an evening marred by violence. After his remarks ended, Proud Boys聽streamed onto the street and, just blocks from the original venue, violently beat three protesters. One bragged that he had 聽鈥渞ight in the f------ head.鈥 鈥淗e was a f------ foreigner,鈥 he said. Then he and another Proud Boy congratulated each other with a brotherly embrace.
Last week鈥檚 beating generated an exceptional amount of media coverage of the Proud Boys 鈥 and led police to announce they鈥檒l be pursuing 聽against nine of their members. But the behavior on display that night on New York鈥檚 Upper East Side was anything but unexpected in light of the group鈥檚 recent conduct and, at a broader level, their guiding philosophy. Violence is at the core of their ideology and their primary tool for silencing their political foes.
"We will kill you. That's the Proud Boys in a nutshell."
During his speech at the Metropolitan club, McInnes told the audience that the 鈥淲estern chauvinist鈥 beliefs he espouses 鈥 which overlap almost wholly with President Donald Trump鈥檚 鈥 should not be confused as 鈥渄ictums.鈥 鈥淚鈥檓 not enforcing them upon anyone,鈥 he argued. But as the Proud Boys credo goes, violence is 鈥渁 really effective way to solve problems,鈥 and, according to McInnes, the political left poses an existential threat to the nation鈥檚 future. While the Proud Boys leader might not be issuing dictums, he and his reactionary troops are using violence to shut down and punish those whose views conflict with their own and, as was the case with the 鈥渇oreigner鈥 the group beat on Friday, those they believe do not deserve a place in the body politic.
McInnes has a well documented and long-running record of blatantly 聽and making threats. 鈥淲e will kill you. That鈥檚 the Proud Boys in a nutshell. We will kill you,鈥 he said on his Compound Media show in mid-2016. His followers often repeat his calls for violence and seemed especially emboldened this past summer as they participated in a number of large-scale 鈥渇ree speech鈥 rallies across the country.
Portland has seen the most action thanks in large part to Joey Gibson, the leader of the West Coast Proud Boys鈥 companion group, Patriot Prayer. After a particularly brutal clash there on June 30 between those two groups and antifascist counter-protesters, Proud Boys took to social media to amp each other up for the next brawl planned for Aug. 4. 鈥淲e鈥檙e coming at you,鈥 California Proud Boy Gabe Silva threatened聽in a Facebook video aimed at members of antifa. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e not gonna run your mouth about communism to us without getting smacked.鈥 At a September rally聽in Austin to support the right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, Tusitala 鈥淭iny鈥 Toese, a Proud Boy from Washington state, repeated the sentiment on stage: 鈥淢y daddy always tell me, you know, 鈥業f you can鈥檛 talk sense into them, smack some sense into them,鈥欌 he said to applause.
At the June 30 rally the Proud Boys found a new hero in Ethan 鈥淩ufio Panman鈥 Nordean, who struck a counter-protester in the face so hard he knocked the person unconscious. The Proud Boys immediately turned him into a meme. They promoted video of the violence on social media and even created a commemorative challenge coin featuring an image of Nordean鈥檚 punch and sold it on their official online store. McInnes 聽as 鈥渢he turning point in our war against antifa.鈥 鈥淚 honestly think that that knockout is a pivot in the movement, it marks the beginning of the end of antifa, and the beginning of being safe and proud to be Trump.鈥
In many ways, this summer鈥檚 violence did mark a turning point because it made Proud Boys 鈥 who faced very few legal consequences for assaults they committed in public and often on video 鈥 feel they had been given license to share their darker violent fantasies. 鈥淎nyone ELSE hear about FEMA camps, and think: 鈥楤oy鈥hat would be an EXCELLENT place for all you shitbags to have your little communist experience!鈥欌 an Oregon Proud Boy and administrator of the Patriot Prayer of Oregon page recently posted on Facebook. 鈥淚 know it鈥檚 a fairy tale鈥ood things like that don鈥檛 occur in real life. But鈥anta said if I was a good boy鈥︹
Perhaps the most obvious example of just how far the Proud Boys are willing to push the discursive boundaries are the 鈥淧inochet did nothing wrong鈥 they鈥檝e recently been wearing to rallies. The Chilean dictator, who came to power through a military coup in 1973, was responsible for the torture and death of thousands of his political foes. At times, murders were carried out by death squads who dropped dissenters from helicopters. The back of the Proud Boys鈥 shirts read 鈥淢ake communists afraid of rotary aircraft again,鈥 and feature figures bearing the antifascist logo tumbling from a helicopter. Toese wore the shirt at the Aug. 4 Portland rally where HuffPost journalist Christopher Mathias , 鈥淒idn鈥檛 Pinochet kill like 35,000 people?鈥 鈥淎ren鈥檛 they all communists?鈥 he responded.
It鈥檚 within this context 鈥 of months of repeated street brawls, of praise lavished on the group鈥檚 most violent fighters, of fantasies of injuring and killing leftists, and of the fetishizing of brutal dictators 鈥 that last Friday鈥檚 events are best understood. McInnes has always tried to play off his references to violence as a joke, but what鈥檚 happening on the ground is more than enough evidence that his followers don鈥檛 receive his words that way.
"The only good leftist is a dead one."
At the 聽Friday, a costumed McInnes reenacted the 1960 assassination of Inejiro Asanuma, the head of the Japanese Socialist Party. He played the part of Otoya Yamaguchi, the young Japanese ultranationalist who killed the party leader with a sword during a live television broadcast. McInnes鈥 performance was conducted in slow motion and hammy, but the theatrical way he acted out the assassination doesn鈥檛 erase the fact that he was 鈥 in front of an audience of Proud Boys and other supporters 鈥 celebrating the murder of someone he considers a political enemy.
The assassination is, notably, a feted meme within the alt-right. The Pulitzer Prize-winning image of both men taken just moments after Asanuma was stabbed has been styled to fit the movement鈥檚 retrofuturist 鈥fashwave鈥 aesthetic and appears in racist 鈥渁lt-right鈥 spaces across the internet. The white supremacist clothing company Right Wing Death Squad printed the image on a shirt with the words 鈥淧hysical Removal.鈥 In online聽, mentions of the assassination are usually accompanied by comments like 鈥渢he only good leftist is a dead one鈥 and 鈥淭he commieshit got killed good.鈥
McInnes also openly praised Yamaguchi, calling him a 鈥渇------ badass鈥 on his podcast the day after the Proud Boys fought with antifascists in New York City. 鈥淗e didn't get him in his scope on a grassy knoll, he charged him on stage with a samurai sword. And his mugshot looks really cool...I just thought 鈥榃hat a great icon, what a great hero!鈥欌 he gushed.
After reenacting the murder on stage, McInnes told the audience, 鈥淣ever let evil take root,鈥 a phrase that appears on the fashwave version of the Asanuma assassination photo. If there was any doubt who McInnes believes to be evil and, by implication, deserving of physical retribution, he continued by warning that 鈥渟ocialists are taking root in America.鈥 But it鈥檚 not just socialists or even antifa, in McInnes鈥 estimation, who are deserving of punishment. He does his best to paint the political left broadly as the enemies of the Proud Boys and Trump supporters more generally. He called antifa the 鈥減aramilitary wing鈥 of the Democratic Party on his podcast and, on his CRTV show the next day, went even further: 鈥淭he media, the DNC 鈥 and I鈥檓 talking about the government, I鈥檓 talking about [Andrew] Cuomo, the top brass 鈥 and antifa are all the same,鈥 he said before suggesting Democrats sent left-wing protesters to his event to 鈥済et some violence going.鈥 He later again suggested all his ideological opponents were acting against him in tandem.聽He told Mathias, the HuffPost聽reporter, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 see you as a journalist 鈥 I see you as antifa.鈥
McInnes implies that all those who disagree with him are, using his own phrase, 鈥渟ocio-fascists,鈥 who deserve a good beating so they鈥檒l fall in line and hold their tongues. He argues that America doesn鈥檛 need any progressive changes, but that we should instead 鈥済et back to this era where you could insult someone鈥檚 religion, you could insult their ethnicity, you could insult everything about them.鈥 鈥淲e鈥檙e not starting over again,鈥 he said on his podcast, 鈥淵ou can come along for the ride or get the f--- off the road.鈥 And that鈥檚 essentially his and the Proud Boys鈥 creed: support our bigoted beliefs or face the consequences. In their words, 鈥渇--- around and find out.鈥
With McInnes鈥 performance on Friday and the violence that followed, coming at the end of a long summer of clashes that sometimes descended into riots, it鈥檚 clear he and the Proud Boys are feeling emboldened. And with good reason: their narrative of an unhinged and unruly left 鈥 which they use to justify their own violence 鈥 has been gaining acceptance by Trump and his ilk. Several Republicans recently 聽those who opposed Brett Kavanaugh鈥檚 appointment to the Supreme Court as a 鈥渕ob,鈥 and Trump used similar language to describe Democrats more generally. He told an audience at a Kansas rally that members of the party had 鈥渂ecome too extreme and too dangerous to govern.鈥 At an 聽in Missouri, he insisted that the 鈥淒emocrat party is held hostage by far-left activists, by angry mobs 鈥 antifa 鈥 by deep-state radicals.鈥 鈥淚 would never suggest this, but I鈥檒l tell you 鈥 they鈥檙e so lucky that we鈥檙e peaceful,鈥 he said and smirked.
In some ways, McInnes can read Trump鈥檚 words like the cheers he received on Friday at the Metropolitan Republican Club: a sign that everyone is in on the joke, even when its implications could be deadly serious.
