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Hate group

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A hate group is an organization or movement which hates some other group of people. Typically they prejudge each individual in the target group as "unworthy" or "inferior" and want to exclude or hurt them. A hate group commonly works to achieve its goals using fear, hate, and intimidation as its modus operandi (or commonly used methods).

In the democratic West, organizations dedicated to the incitement of racial violence, including white supremacist, black supremacist, and neo-Nazi groups, are commonly described as hate groups. Typically these groups make no bones about it; they openly admit hating their targets.

Other groups are more controversial, and little or no consensus has developed as to whether political or religious movements deserve the label "hate group". Some advocates have applied it to some radical activists who engage in "questionable and often illegal" methods to achieve their goals, such as Operation Rescue and the Animal Liberation Front.

Three main elements are present in hate group literature:

  • Dehumanizing or demonizing the target;
  • Conspiracy theories, possibly not well backed up or referenced;
  • Proclamation of scientific support for their theories.

Some advocates who regard certain fringe religious organizations as spurious (and condemn their methods) also call them "hate groups" (see cult).

New religious movements (or, controversially, cults) claim that ex-members (apostates) resort to tactics that may create a background favourable to extreme manifestations of discrimination and hate, and thus refer to groups of ex-members as "hate groups."

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