According to a Tuesday report from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Virginia and Texas had the most white supremacist propaganda activities in 2023, which reached a national record high.
According to the ADL’s Center on Extremism study, California, New York, Massachusetts, Missouri, Tennessee, Michigan, Maryland, and North Carolina also had quite high levels of white supremacist propaganda activity in the United States in 2023.
According to the research, white supremacist propaganda incidents, defined by the ADL as “the distribution of racist, antisemitic, and anti-LGBTQ+ fliers, stickers, banners, graffiti, posters, and laser projections,” increased from 6,746 in 2022 to 7,567 in 2023, or a 12% rise.
“Propaganda campaigns are hugely popular among white supremacist groups and movements because they provoke media and online attention for the groups and messaging while limiting the risk of individual exposure, arrests, and public backlash that often accompany more public activities,” the authors of the report stated.
“Propaganda, which can affect entire communities, allows a small number of people to have an outsized impact.”
The ADL also reported an increase in propaganda instances “that included antisemitic language or symbols, targeted Jewish institutions, or both,” with 1,112 registered, up from 852 in 2022, or a 31% increase.
The ADL reported that in the two weeks following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas, antisemitic events increased by 388 percent compared to the same period the previous year.
“When conflict erupts in Israel, anti-Semitic incidents quickly follow in the United States and around the world,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement.
