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.”
This is the kind of shit people talk about when people say the GOP supports white supremacy.
Also the current House Speaker…
Wow, she’s deep into the paradox of tolerance and clearly doesn’t realize it.
Sorry, I mis-pronounced that last sentence - I’ll try again.
Wow, she’s openly racist.
Nazi Cunt!
No need to associate cunts with that kind of filth
Been to Franklin a few times. This is not some shithole, backwoods Tennessee town. Franklin is basically the richest suburb of Nashville.
These people aren’t backwoods yokels, but they are the sort to hold their nose, sniff about racism, and then vote for whatever/whoever keeps the status quo.
I’m a middle-aged white guy, long hair, but well-groomed and non-stinky. Seems a bulletproof demographic in a town like that, right? I was carrying my CamelBak backpack with my laptop and such, back and forth across a private parking lot between my office and hotel. Let’s just say it’s the kinda place where I was waiting for the cops to be called. Haven’t been on the lookout for cops like that since I was a teen in 80s-90s Tulsa.
Now imagine being black. Pretty sure that’s already outlawed in Franklin, but just try.
“I’m not gonna denounce Nazi’s”
Ookkkkkkey then, that about sums it up.
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She was his realtor, I though you guys didn’t want buisness to discriminate against people.
I though you guys didn’t want buisness to discriminate against people…
… on the basis of race, gender, sexuality, etc.
Nazis can fuck right off.
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:
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 paradox of tolerance has to do with being tolerant of abhorrent ideas.
The original concept never limited it to just ideas:
Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them
This concept is still relevant to people themselves, which is why I brought it up.
It has nothing to do with mistreating people that think different than you.
Nazis do a bit more than just think differently. They kill people.
But regardless, what do you think the “even by force” part means?
I do not imply, for instance, that we should always suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies; as long as we can counter them by rational argument and keep them in check by public opinion, suppression would certainly be most unwise. But we should claim the right to suppress them if necessary even by force; for it may easily turn out that they are not prepared to meet us on the level of rational argument, but begin by denouncing all argument
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 labeled them nazis to justify mistreating them.
You could at least read the article:
Brad Lewis, who has described himself as “an actual literal Nazi”
If calling yourself a Nazi isn’t enough then what is?
The people you want oppress are not nazis and were not part of a genocide in the 40’s.
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.
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.
Actual white supremacists, or just people you disagree with, so you name call and lie about?
Brad Lewis, who has described himself as “an actual literal Nazi”
Meanwhile, on every single conservative platform: “Everyone I disagree with is a pedophile and therefore fine to kick to death”
Nah, just those that demand access to kids.
I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that they’re all on neo-nazis “undesirables” list.
Best of luck with Gym Jordan.
Well, yeah. No one likes pedophiles. I bet neo-nazis also think the sky is blue and drink water. What are you getting at?
I suppose if you had any capacity for self-awareness, you wouldn’t have been a reactionary in the first place.
Such as…?
For example, the gender queer author wants to show blowjobs to little kids.
Honestly, I don’t get why its an issue in the first place. Libraries don’t have every book ever written, so why make not having a particular book an issue? Especially when it has a picture of a blowjob in it. We don’t libraries with playboys, do we?
For example, the gender queer author wants to show blowjobs to little kids.
Who?
She wrote gender queer. This article has a bunch of pictures from it, including the blowjob and sex scene.
My question is why do lefties want this book specifically in schools?
I’m a lefty and this is the first time I ever even heard of that book. By that description, I find it hard to believe there’s any movement to get that specific book in schools.
For middle school it’s a bit much, but for high school I don’t see a problem. I’m guessing like 50% of students will have experimented with self-pleasure by freshman year and at least 25% will have had some kind of sexual activity with another person. These pictures are not very sexy nor are they meant to be. When I was in high school (before smartphones were everywhere) I still had easy access to porn. The big problem is that porn is a terrible resource for learning about sexuality AND it’s way easier to find than someone’s honest account of their own sexual journey. Porn has no educational value, but I believe this does. If there’s at least one book in the library depicting bloody violence and gore then I can’t see a good reason to ban a book with a single-frame, 2D drawing of a penis in someone’s mouth.
Unclutch your pearls already.
Can’t you read?
They can read, it’s just that many conservatives have a knee jerk reaction of defending white supremacists and nazis.
many?
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never come across one that would tolerate Nazis.
Nazis tend not to say they’re nazis publicly.
I’ve already talked to a few people in this community who openly expressed fascism. Just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
The very article this post is about, is about Gabrielle Hanson, a conservative, who is tolerating nazis.
Guess you’re running on that (other) definition of Nazi.
There’s that knee jerk reaction.
But no, I’m not using some bad definition:
Brad Lewis, who has described himself as “an actual literal Nazi”
I’ve known no shortage of conservatives my whole life in multiple states and never come across one that would tolerate Nazis.
Here is another one for you right in this very thread!
https://lemmy.world/comment/4506452
We mustn’t dare mistreat nazis, those poor poor nazis. Why doesn’t anybody ever think about the discrimination and oppression they face?
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I never said you said that verbatim. I was mocking you for being tolerant of a nazi.
But here’s where you said what you said:
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You got called out over the holidays for being a racist, didn’t you?
Nah, I called my liberal aunt a racist.
It was an interesting conversation, to say the least.
Also, that comment was 3 months ago. How did you find it?
I googled ‘stupid fucking takes by disingenuous toolbags’ and it was on the first page of results.
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Lol, bingo
You ought to inform yourself before speaking:
Brad Lewis, who has described himself as “an actual literal Nazi”