The Proud Boys: Chauvinist poster child of far-right extremism

Abstract

The Proud Boys is a far-right, anti-immigrant, all-male group who have been known to use violence against left-wing opponents. The group describes themselves as “Western chauvinists,” by which they mean “men who refuse to apologise for creating the modern world”. The group, which is the new face of far-right extremism, one that recruits through shared precarity and male grievances promotes and engages in political violence.

Multimodal Genealogy: The Capitol Hill Riot and Conspiracy Iconography

“…Another example can be provided by the Proud Boys, an extreme right-wing group founded in Canada in 2016 whose members define themselves as "Western chauvinist[s] who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world" and profess, among other things, a radical libertarianism ("give everyone a gun"; "end welfare") and traditional gender roles ("venerate the housewife") (Kenes 2021). This "misogynistic, Islamophobic, transphobic and anti-immigration" (McBain 2020) group owes its name to a song titled "Proud of Your Boy", contained in the first version of the Disney movie Aladdin (Kenes 2021).…”