Gavin McInnes

Normally we don’t start our articles at Resisting Hate with so and so is a berk. But with the berk behind the thuggish Proud Boys we were tempted to make an exception.

Canadian Gavin McInnes is the founder of Vice Media, a conservative publication started in the 2000s. McInnes ran it personally for some time but, when his views moved further right than the centre right publication was comfortable with, he left Vice and worked as a freelance journalist, appearing on a number of right wing channels including the discredited and nonsensical “Alex Jones Show” and Fox News.

McInnes has also worked for Tommy Robinson’s ex employer – Ezra Levant at Rebel Media.

McInnes founded The Proud Boys in 2016, arguing against his critics who believed the organisation to be a White Nationalist group. McInnes view of the group was as a protector of Western values rather than race and he was vocal on the subject that he did not consider his group to be racist.

Racist or not, the Proud Boys have been present at many of the White Supremacist rallies in America and has been officially designated a Hate Group by the Southern Poverty Law Centre (a definition McInnes disputed and for which he tried to bring a defamation case against the SPLC.)

The Proud Boys were essentially a street fighting gang. Even the recruitment process involved extreme violence. One of the initiation challenges was to name five different breakfast cereals while being viciously beaten by other group members. The final stage of initiation was to be arrested for involvement in a major fight.

Proud Boys were encouraged not to watch pornography or masturbate. The rationale for this is unclear. Possibly such pursuits were considered a poor use of time or energy. Given that most of the Proud Boys fit the ‘incel’ stereotype it seems a bit cruel of McInnes to deprive them of the only sexual relief they are likely to obtain.

In 2018, McInnes was banned from Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for hate speech.

Later in 2018 the Proud Boys account was permanently suspended by Twitter for hate speech.

In November 2018 McInnes stepped down as the leader of the Proud Boys. He claimed this was for ‘legal reasons’ to protect nine of his members who had been arrested and linked to the group after a public fight at the Metropolican Republican Club. He confirmed his legal team had advised sentencing may be lighter if the Proud Boys were disbanded.

In the wake of the publicity of the Proud Boys violence McInnes was banned from conducting a speaking tour in Australia due to Australian authorities deeming him to be ‘of bad character’.

Quotations from McInnes:

I love being white and I think it’s something to be very proud of. I don’t want our culture diluted. We need to close the borders now and let everyone assimilate to a Western, white, English-speaking way of life.

Violence doesn’t feel good, justified violence feels great, and fighting solves everything. … I want violence. I want punching in the face.

I love being white and I think it’s something to be very proud of. I don’t want our culture diluted. We need to close the borders now and let everyone assimilate to a Western, white, English-speaking way of life.

We’re all transphobic. We aren’t blind. We see there are no old trannies. They die of drug overdoses and suicide before they’re 40 and nobody notices because nobody knows them. They are mentally ill gays who need help, and that help doesn’t include being maimed by physicians. These aren’t women trapped in a man’s body. They are nuts trapped in a crazy person’s body.