The 2000 report on hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center showed five hate groups active in Oregon. Its 2024 counterpart report just released this month found 24.

The difference is a matter of apples and oranges between these reports, which reflects a changing landscape in the area of extremism and hate groups. The SPLC’s traditional focus on hate groups — it started as an anti-racist tracker and researcher, after all — has been expanded to include groups more devoted to relatively extreme positions on various cultural and political issues.

Inclusion of anti-government groups, as distinct from groups more specifically focused on race, religion or other identifiers, has changed and even muddied the picture. Oregon’s experience — as the new report shows — suggests how.

Hate groups have been a factor in Oregon for a long time. The state’s early founders included many sympathizers with the Confederacy, and a century ago, Oregon was the number two state in the nation for Ku Klux Klan activity. It has been more notable in recent decades for pushback against bigotry, but hatred has not disappeared. 

The SPLC long has been a national touchstone for tracking angry extremist groups. It said its current report “documented 1,371 hate and anti-government extremist groups across the United States. These groups use political, communication, violent, and online tactics to build strategies and training infrastructure to divide the country, demoralize people, and dismantle democracy.”

They’re not all exactly “hate groups,” however.

A minority of the groups were labeled as anti-immigrant (Oregonians for Immigration Reform), anti-LGBTQ (Pacific Justice Institute), “general hate” (Proud Boys and Rense Radio Network), Neo-Völkisch (Asatru Folk Assembly), and white nationalist (Active Club, Occidental Observer, Patriot Front). The Asatru Folk Assembly formerly was called the Viking Brotherhood. 

But the real growth has been in the anti-government category. 

The SPLC categorizes more than half of those listed in Oregon as anti-government (American Patriot Party, ASN Study Guide & University, American State Nationals, Constitution Party, Embassy of Heaven, Moms for Liberty Deschutes and Douglas, Oregon Parents Involved in Education, Oregon Statewide Jural Assembly, Parents Rights in Education Oregon, People’s Rights, State of Jefferson, American State Assembly, Timber Unity). 

In 2000, of the five extremist groups listed for Oregon, three were neo-Nazi and two were racist-skinhead. In 2012, the nine groups cited for Oregon included white nationalist, Christian identity, Black separatist, neo-Nazi, racist skinhead and general hate, but none described as principally anti-government. Even as those groups steadily expanded over successive years, to 15 in 2021, no anti-government groups were listed. Since 2021, the number of groups other than “anti-government” has diminished or stabilized.

The makeup of the list changed dramatically in 2022, and has remained so. The previous roster of hate groups remained similar but diminished slightly, while in 2022 a large group of anti-government groups were added. You can find similar trends in other states.

SPLC said of that, “For the last several years, the conspiracy theories and claims made by anti-government groups have penetrated the mainstream, making extremism and fascism central to discourse and politics in the country. In 2021, the conspiratorial and dubious view of government was pervasive, as evidenced by the movement’s popular rhetoric on such issues as COVID-19 regulations, local school curriculum, the ‘Big Lie’ of voter fraud, and border security. These views largely continued in 2024, but with a marked and troubling rise in anti-government activity against inclusive public schools and the continued incorporation of white Christian nationalist ideas. The Jan. 6 insurrection was the most public moment for the movement since the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995.”

Many Oregonians will point out that however extreme some positions taken by some of these groups may be, many are largely political actors, such as Moms for Liberty, Timber Unity and the State of Jefferson. The Constitution Party is a political organization in Oregon and many other states, fields candidates and argues for policies recognizably within our political system. 

One of those listed for Oregon in recent years is not an organization but rather a podcast, or bundle of podcasts, based at Ashland, called the Rense Radio Network. 

There’s a clear argument for tracking extremist groups, which can in some cases make cause with hate groups. But they still aren’t quite the same thing.  

So what should count as a hate group? When does a political stance — albeit a harder-edged and more extreme one — slide over into something that fits more neatly with hatred and bigotry?

And should the two be meshed together with only categorical distinctions?

Maybe the SPLC will come up with some new thoughts by the time its 2025 report comes out. 

Randy Stapilus has researched and written about Northwest politics and issues since 1976.