Active Clubs are quickly expanding their presence in the United States, and one such group is wreaking havoc in a Tennessee mayoral race
The city of Franklin, Tennessee, has exploded into a political firestorm in the wake of an alliance between conservative mayoral candidate Gabrielle Hanson and a white supremacist “Active Club.”
Last week, Hanson arrived at a candidate forum with members of the Tennessee Active Club acting as her escort. Rolling Stone reported last month on Active Clubs, which are an emerging form of open-network groups that blend martial arts and combat training with white supremacist ideology. According to a report by the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), more than 46 of these clubs have been established in the United States since 2020, one of them in Tennessee. When the group arrived in Franklin, they claimed to be there to “protect” Hanson, a current alderman for the city. Brad Lewis, who has described himself as “an actual literal Nazi” and owns a gathering place and training center for the Active Club, told News Channel 5 that Hanson was a “friend” and that they came at her request.
The members of the Franklin Board of Mayor and Aldermen (save for Hanson) released a statement last Wednesday declaring they would not “tolerate any form of hatred, intimidation, or violence directed at our residents, media representatives, or anyone else attending or participating in the democratic process.”
Tuesday night, members of the board took Hanson to task in person, accusing her of sowing division and endangering the community. Hanson refused to condemn the group. “This is the old adage of ‘you reap what you sow,’” Hanson told the board, claiming the Active Club was in Franklin partially as a result of alleged discrimination against Christians. “You’ve planted seeds for years and years against our citizens, and they are coming to harvest, this is what the citizens of Franklin are getting because of bad decisions.”
“It’s easy to shift all the blame,” Hanson added. “I just happened to arrive at a time when everything was starting to crumble.”
Active Clubs are the brainchild of Robert Rundo, a California white supremacist who, after failing to launch one racist group and being charged with incitement of riots in the U.S., moved to Eastern Europe to craft what he calls “White Supremacy 3.0,” a style of white supremacist ideology that eschews flashy, aggressive public displays of past neo-Nazi movements. Active Clubs have also taken on a self-appointed status as a “stand-by militia,” primed for violent action.
Hanson claimed that the Tennessee Active Club came to Franklin because they were an “anti-antifa group” and “the dark web is showing massive antifa activity” in and around the city. At one point on Tuesday, Hanson referred to Brad Lewis, the “actual literal Nazi,” as her “client.”
“I’m a realtor, I’m not going to denounce anybody their right to be whatever it is that they want to be, whether I agree with what they do in their personal life or not,” she said, adding that “we don’t discriminate in this community” and that the Active Club “never laid a hand on anyone and they were very respectful while they were here.”
Alderman Matt Brown rebuffed Hanson, questioning the assertion that her relationship with the Tennessee Active Club was just a business. Brown pointed out that Hanson had publicly shared social media posts from the group, including screenshots of Telegram chats that contained the phrase “there is no political solution,” and accused Franklin’s current mayor of having antifa connections.
“We cannot allow this kind of hate to take hold in Franklin or else we have lost everything,” Brown said, before addressing Hanson directly. “Is it your mission to divide our city? Because you are doing a bang-up job of it right now.”
I’m always amazed at how the people who rail against nazis and facism always want simular policies that fascists and nazis used.
Kicking nazis out of your store is not fascism.
Related:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance
The paradox of tolerance has to do with being tolerant of abhorrent ideas. It has nothing to do with mistreating people that think different than you.
The original concept never limited it to just ideas:
This concept is still relevant to people themselves, which is why I brought it up.
Nazis do a bit more than just think differently. They kill people.
But regardless, what do you think the “even by force” part means?
How is that not a form of “mistreating people”?
The Nazis did do more than just think differently, their thoughts didn’t round up millions of Jews and slaughter them. Their actions is what should have been stopped but they were brainwashed into thinking the people they were mistreating deserved it. The people you want oppress are not nazis and were not part of a genocide in the 40’s. You labeled them nazis to justify mistreating them.
You could at least read the article:
If calling yourself a Nazi isn’t enough then what is?
You’re being ignorant if you think that’s the definition being used here. Nobody is saying these people literally were there in the 40s. You’re being deliberately obtuse.
The article made the claim he said he was a “literal Nazi”. To most people the literal part is a cue that the author is exaggerating. Never the less what has he done? Has he rounded up “undesirables” in concentration camps? Has he participated in a genocide?
You’re a lost cause if you don’t think a self described nazi is a problem.
Are you saying nazis and fascists shouldn’t be subject to the policies they promote?
Using those tactics makes you no better than them. You don’t get moral high ground because the people you treated poorly are the “bad guys”.
The irony is lost on them. Don’t argue with idiots. They’ll only drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.