Hate is on the rise. Last week, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a rare National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin warning of the threat from home-grown extremists, anti-government militias, far-right hate groups and white supremacists. This week, the Southern Poverty Law Center released its annual report, The Year in Hate and Extremism 2020. The report documents the existence of 838 hate groups around the country, including 30 hate groups in New England. It includes a Hate Map, which shows the location of all the groups. SPLC says the number of hate groups are “a barometer of extremism in the country.”

“The insurrection at the Capitol was the culmination of years of right-wing radicalization,” said Susan Corke, director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project. “Most recently, it was the product of Donald Trump’s support for and encouragement of radicalized individuals and groups to buy into conspiracy theories about a ‘stolen election.’”

Cassie Miller, Senior Research Analyst with SPLC, discusses the state of hate from around the US to New England. “My biggest worry is what we’re seeing right now is the growth of a mass social movement that is anti-democratic,” she tells The Vermont Conversation. “It’s not going to go away just because we have a new president.”