It will be seven years since violence broke out during a “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 11.
WMNF’s Meghan Bowman recently spoke to the founder of a group that got national attention after their involvement in the 2017 rally.
The group calls themselves “Western chauvinists” and they’re gaining traction in Florida.
A warning to readers and listeners, there is some language that you may find offensive.
Bowman: The Proud Boys is a men-only group created in 2016. In early February 2021, the Canadian government designated the Proud Boys as a terrorist entity, noting they played a pivotal role in the January 6th insurrection.
Gavin McInnes is the group’s founder. For him, everything is political – and it’s a battle between the left versus right. McInnes says members are relocating from more democratic-leaning states.
McInnes: We have left, so there’s no reason to riot or, you know, push for change. We moved. We left New York, we left California, we moved to Florida, and we moved to Texas.
Bowman: And across the state, the group is growing.
McInnes: Yeah. Florida’s massive. Texas is pretty populated. They just tend to be drinking dudes. But, Texas and Florida are very big boys states. There’s I think there’s 25 different chapters in Florida. The thing I love about it is I just go there and I’m like, I’m at a thing. It’s boring. Can someone come and get me? it could be anywhere in that state. And a pickup truck will show up in five minutes and take me to a fun bar. the interesting thing about Floridian Proud Boys is they’re involved in municipal politics. They’re really into local change. And I think that’s a healthy way to get into politics.
Bowman: The chapter in the Tampa Bay area is called Trigger City. It covers Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Polk, Hernando, Citrus, Levy, Marion, and Sumter counties.
McInnes: You’re not going to determine who the president is, but you can affect your own community. And, I think one of the great things about Florida is they’ve got a lot of Cubans, and Cubans have experienced socialism firsthand. So they know it’s not rhetoric for them. It’s not a hypothetical. They saw their grandparents had their land taken away. So they know what it’s what true socialism brings. So you get some. That’s my favorite kind of patriot is someone who’s an immigrant who has experienced, Czechoslovakia under Stalin or something like that. And they really know how to appreciate this country. And you see that a lot of that in Florida.
Bowman: Trigger City’s website calls itself the greatest fraternity in the world, and offers 10 ways to save America:
A few include abolishing prisons, giving everyone a gun, legalizing drugs, and honoring the housewife – saying Proud Boys are encouraged to quote “Put a ring on it and knock her up.”
McInnes: It started as a joke and then it became this white nationalist Nazi club. That’s just not true. And it’s what they say about Trump. I mean, look up Trump and Hitler right now and you’ll see a million pictures of him with the Hitler mustache. It’s just what people do to things they feel threatened by. They call it a Nazi thing. But there’s Proud Boys, Israel, there’s there’s gays, Jews, Blacks, whites, all that stuff. so it’s still the same as what it was.
Bowman: Last year, the Bold City Proud Boys chapter in Jacksonville, FL, posted to Telegram they were looking for dedicated men who wanted to join. While McInnes says the group doesn’t care what race or nationality its members are. The Jacksonville chapter had a few caveats – no Jews, Blacks, gays, or Zogbots — which is a derogatory term that stands for Zionist Occupation Government and refers to a police officer or member of the armed forces.
The Anti-Defamation League calls the entire organization a quote “right-wing extremist group with a violent agenda.” The ADL says the Proud Boys are primarily “misogynistic, islamophobic, transphobic, and antisemitic.”
But McInnes says that isn’t how the group started or operates today. He’s a member of the Knights of Columbus – a fraternity of sorts established in 1882 that, according to its website – empowers Catholic men to live their faith at home, in their community, and at work. McInnes says he initially created the Proud Boys as a joke to resemble the group, but says it’s more like the John Belushi film Animal House meets Knights of Columbus.
McInnes: Men love systems. And a club is a system. It’s got a series of rules. It’s got a budget. It’s got, events, it’s got fundraising, it’s got toys for tots and all that stuff. And it’s just what we do. That’s why we’re successful entrepreneurs. That’s why we kind of invented entrepreneurs. Because we love. We love making things.
Bowman: And while McInnes paints the club as an innocent men’s group meant to tell dirty jokes to each other, and not care what others think – he says now, although it’s not explicitly a rule, most, if not all, members are Trump supporters.
McInnes: When it started out, there was more political diversity. You had some Obama guys in there, especially the Black dudes. But, as of today, it is 100% MAGA. There is not a proud boy on God’s green earth who is not, an incredibly patriotic Trump supporter. He’s inexorably linked with the club, with the merch, with the t-shirts.
Bowman: The Proud Boys gained national attention in 2017 after its involvement in a white supremacist rally that turned violent in Charlottesville, Virginia. The U.S. Department of Justice also says the group played a central role in setting the January 6th attack on the Capitol into motion. But McInnes says there will be no rioting if Trump loses the upcoming presidential election.
McInnes: No, Proud Boys will not riot if Trump doesn’t win. Blah blah blah. But I think the reason the right isn’t going to riot is because the right is done. We are done with the left. We got divorced.
Bowman: McInnes prides himself on his quote “colorful” language. He’s made statements others have characterized as inflammatory and offensive. But he says he doesn’t care because they are just words.
McInnes: That whole, like, sticks and stones may break my bones. And words are sticks and stones. Like I saw some Black politician say that recently she goes, we’ve come to the point where it’s not just sticks and stones that break your bones. Words will break your bones. No, no. America was built on debate. America was built on controversy and color.
Bowman: When asked why he uses controversial language if he knows it offends people, McInnes brought up a recent BBC interview that asked him if he saw how using those words could be perceived as harmful.
McInnes: And I go, you’re endorsing a world of gray. You’re endorsing a world without color. I’m going to use colorful verbiage and I don’t care if it gets taken out of context. I’m going to say controversial things.
Bowman: He thinks the same for the “OK” hand symbol. It’s notoriously used by white supremacists and has now become a rallying cry for the Proud Boys.
McInnes: So all dogs are mammals. All cats are mammals. All cats are not dogs. Yes. Nazis used this. So do we. This is. It means fuck you, liberals. You’re obsessed with stupid shit. So Reddit, they were playing with their sort of media machine and they said let’s make something totally retarded racist.
Bowman: McInnes says the group tried a few different ways to take innocuous things and turn them into something people considered racist – like allegedly inventing “free bleeding.” That’s when people do not use feminine hygiene products during their menstrual periods. But it seems the “OK” hand gesture is what stuck.
McInnes: And then they said, okay, how about this? This is racist. Let’s pretend this is racist. And it worked. Just like free bleeding, it caught on…They’re essentially mocking the left’s obsession with racism. And yeah, Nazis do it because Nazis think liberals are retarded. But we do it too. We have a common enemy, but all dogs are not cats, so they call this a white supremacy symbol because white supremacists use it. But white supremacists use toilet paper too. Doesn’t mean you’re a Nazi if you wipe your ass.
Bowman: The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated The Proud Boys as a “hate group.” McInnes sued the SPLC in 2019 for defamation.
The full interview has been edited for clarity.
