The number of active hate groups in the United States reached a historic high in 2018, a new report has revealed, blaming the trend on a “toxic combination” of political polarization, anti-immigrant sentiment and online propaganda.
The Southern Poverty Law Center said Wednesday that last year saw the number of hate groups rose by 7 percent to 1,020, a 30-percent rise from 2014.
The center warned in its statement that most of the hate groups, including neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Confederates and white nationalists, promoted white supremacist ideology.
The number of white nationalist groups rose by almost a half over the same period, going from 100 all the way up to 148.
It was the fourth consecutive year in the rise of hate groups across the US, the law center said.
According to SPLC, the numbers correspond with other worrying trends in the US such as a 30-percent increase in the number of hate crimes reported to the FBI between…