Framework Explainer: Ideology
Understanding how the Active Club Assessment looks at ideology
Primer: The Active Club Assessment is designed to evaluate individual Active Clubs against a scoring rubric. There are 5 main categories in the rubric, collectively representing how organized and extreme they are. I outlined the full framework here. In this article I will further explain how ideology is scored in the assessment.
One of the five things scored in the Active Club assessment is ideology. Ideology is viewed as a reflection of a shared belief structure, in addition to building belonging. There is a general narrative structure that most extremist groups use, and Active Clubs are no exception. Most white supremacist narrative follows this basic pattern:
Promote a glorious past, exclusive to white identity. This is normally in the form of glorifying Roman soldiers, Greek gods, and the occasionally paganism. The specifics are generally devoid of history, and focus on superior identity.
Paint a dystopian future. Society will collapse. The white race will experience genocide. The government will control everything. Every cliched disaster is built into the narrative.
Build an urgent present. The future is the call to action. The past is justification for exclusion. In many narratives, such as the Turner Diaries, there is a specific action that is the impedance that causes revolution. You see extremist groups pointing to these things all the time. Immigration, a murder, some stat about interracial marriage. They are always looking for a trigger.
Once you understand this three part narrative pattern, you can spot it everywhere. Its one of the easiest ways to spot white supremacist ideology. Its not just the explicit statements (such as racism), but the consistent narrative pattern that describes society. You can see many of these ideas in a recent post on X by Robert Rundo, the founder of Active Clubs. For example, here is a call to the glorious past:
Historically, the most enduring and powerful European societies have been those that institutionalized martial virtues and collective discipline. Sparta’s austere warrior culture, the Roman Empire at its height, and Prussia’s militarized society all elevated strength, courage, and discipline to near-sacred status - Robert Rundo
For this narrative to work it needs basic elements of story telling. Who, what, when, where, why. These elements begin to paint a picture that includes the intended audience at the center of an extremist world view. Who belongs, what is wrong with the world, who is responsible, what must be done, and why the cost is worth it. These are the building blocks of a story that exists on the white supremacist timeline.
Drip, Drip
What this looks like in practice is a constant barrage of these building blocks dripping out of every Active Club platform on a daily basis. Poking away at the minds of the vulnerable, or already initiated.
“White males are second class citizens!”
“We are being replaced!”
Statements about white victimhood perform a few functions. One, its identity framing. Us vs them. In/out groups color coded for simple sorting. These statements are important to an ideology built on race. Two, it creates an enemy/siege mentality. Calls to action are based on convincing young white men they are under threat.
"These immigrants are degenerates”
“The left is weak”
“This generation is soft.”
Diminishing the character of others creates a sense of moral superiority and order. Training in the gym and fighting equates fitness to morality, and then uses these actions to push moral superiority. We are are stronger, therefore have more moral worth, is the line of thinking. Its normally tied to historical myths. I am strong. Spartans were strong. Therefor, I am Spartan. An equation that allows these men to adopt all the myth and lore of greatness, without engaging in any of the historical, philosophical or ethical substance.
There is a strategic aspect to this messaging that is convenient: it focuses on low bar actions and not intellectual construction. People don’t need to study. They don’t need to get it. They just need to show up and train, and they are part of a movement.
“Its your duty as a white man”
“Tribe and train!”
As the narrative defines a sense of urgency about our times, it also builds a sense of obligation. A real man would fight. Men take care of their own. The strategy is to convince a man his “tribe” is under threat, and its his duty to protect it.
The net consequence of this constant drip of communication is white supremacy as a fixed identity that demands loyalty and sacrifice. This is where ideology turns into social structure. Of course, that’s the goal.
Scoring
There are some assumptions here. This isn’t a test to see if a group is in fact an Active Club that supports racism and fascism. This evaluation is being done on known Active Clubs. We know what they believe and how they function. Its an assessment of how ideology is being used. The example statements above are a reflection of how ideology functions within shared and public communication. Scoring these statements looks at the presence, pattern, and organizational role of ideology for each group. The depth and pattern of this communication is a reflection of how indoctrinated they are, and what they are attempting to communicate.
The TLDR on scoring:
0 → No coherent ideological framework visible
1 → Ideological elements appear, but are secondary or inconsistent
2 → A stable ideological worldview is present and repeatedly reinforced
3 → Ideology is central, explicit, and organizes identity, duty, and meaning
A rating of 0 reflects communication that doesn’t revolve around white supremacist and fascist narratives. It would be an Active Club that promotes community and fitness, without utilizing the common fascist narratives.
A rating of 1 reflects borrowing frames, intermittent use of common phrases and statements, and generally not revolving an identity around the ideological framework. For example, “we need to get fit” vs “we must be strong and ready to fight for our people”. The former statement is a soft cue to their lifestyle. The latter is fitness as matter of duty to the cause. You can interpret this as a club with emerging ideological framing.
A rating of 2 reflects consistent messaging, connecting ideology to identity, and calls to action. This kind of communication treats white people as an inherently monolithic political class, that needs to lobby for their interest against some sort of social injustice. It often materializes about things like remigration, race based statements about crime, and references to white heritage.
A rating of 3 reflects a full indoctrination. Racist ideology is a central principle in most communication. Calls to action are stated as moral duties based on obligation to race and tribe. Original content is produced, and often forwarded by other groups.
This scoring reflects an escalation in how ideology represents their identity, and their call to action. You can see a relationship between this scoring and how messages within different Telegram channels are shared. The highest rated Active Clubs tend have large followings, with messages being forwarded to other channels more frequently. This amplification effect shows how messaging more entrenched in the ideology become more important to the ecosystem, and the people writing the content become more influential.
Trend Lines
By defining and tracking Active Club ideology over time, the assessment will be able to identify clubs that are becoming increasingly more radical, and clubs that will garner more influence. Understanding structure of their ideology also allows us to compare Active Clubs to other organizations. For example, the Patriot Front has adopted many of the Active Club practices, and much of its ideology.
A full analysis on Active Clubs will be done quarterly, with the first scoring done considered the baseline. Groups like the SoCal Active Club and Gym XIV already have a score of 3. We can track how their messaging influences the messaging in other clubs, whether ideologically or message by message. Groups like the Arkansas Active Club were scored a 1. Over time we will see how their communication evolves, and what sort of leadership role may develop within the organization.
Have information regarding extremist groups within martial arts? Contact me at SubmittingDisinfo@Protonmail.com