Fitness should be about health, but allegedly, the white supremacist fitness clubs have twisted it into a tool for hate. White supremacist “active clubs” are growing in number across the United States. A former member told VICE News that there were around 300 to 500 participants in the U.S. and worldwide.
This group shames people who don’t fit their idea of fitness, using weight as a measure to discriminate. Even worse, they’ve started attacking former president Donald Trump’s supporters. The groups target unhappy or disaffected white men and recruit them to prepare for what is believed to be “race wars.”
The clubs give these men a feeling of belonging by meeting regularly to practice martial arts or exercise. To attract disillusioned young white men, these groups would initially downplay their racism and sexism. Instead, they would focus on spreading messages of self-improvement and brotherhood.
But their real intentions are much more disturbing, based on white supremacist beliefs. Their Telegram channels show their extreme views and are full of symbols linked to neo-Nazis. They also share memes that are racist and antisemitic and news articles that put down people of color and LGBTQ+ people.
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“They are quickly becoming one of the most prominent vectors for white terrorist radicalization in the United States in recent years,” Jon Lewis, a Research Fellow at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, told Business Insider. “They’re training for what they view to be this kind of inevitable race war, this inevitable violent clash for the future of civilization,” he added.
Last year, a former member of an active club told Vice News that the group gradually introduced extremist ideas to new members. They did this by sharing racist jokes and discussing news stories where ethnic minorities were portrayed as attacking white people.
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“They believe that there’s an inevitable cultural war that’ll come, and because they tie culture directly to race, a culture war means race war,” they said. “They never were like, ‘You need to learn how to fight so you can beat up people of color. It was like, ‘You need to learn how to fight because people want to kill you in the future,'” they added.
Some members of active clubs generally avoid direct violence. However, some have been reported to intimidate their enemies, especially journalists. For example, the Tennessee Active Club is known for threatening local journalists, activists, and politicians. Its leader, Sean Kauffman, holds extreme views; he’s a neo-Nazi and denies the Holocaust.
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In addition to their activities, these groups occasionally engage in mocking and fat-shaming not only Trump but also his supporters. Eff Tischauser, a researcher at the Southern Poverty Law Center who focuses on investigating active clubs, shared insights with B.I.
“The groups I track have long since turned on Trump,” Tischauser said, adding that some viewed Trump as a “puppet to Jewish interests who steals their nationalist rhetoric to win votes” and who “cannot be counted on to enact nationalist policies.”
In a latest video, some active clubs criticized Trump for not being revolutionary enough and also fat-shame him and his supporters. On Telegram, the Alamo active club shared a video from Trump rallies. In the video, some attendees were either overweight or people of color, and the club labeled them as “Average conservatives.”
The video then shifts to footage of white men engaging in exercises like sparring and weightlifting, with the caption saying “average nationalists.” Although some view Trump as helpful, many don’t trust the political system or sdon’tt any candidate.
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