The phalanx of MAGA teens, denizens of alt-right groups such as Kekistan, Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, and the greater diaspora of white male rage and impotence gathered at the [Boston Common] for a Free Speech Rally…On one side came shouts of “Nazi scum!” On the other “Commie faggots!” On one side chants of solidarity with immigrants and people of color. On the other oaths to white chauvinism, a refusal to apologize for “creating the modern world” and invitations for a “free helicopter ride.”
Luke O’Neill, “Scenes From Boston’s Ugly “Free Speech Rally“
Resources & links:
Boston Free Speech Coalition prefigures the later and more long lived Super Happy Fun America/Resist Marxism, and organized the Boston Free Speech Rally and the Second Boston Free Speech Rally. These rallies represent the Boston-area iteration of national attempts to unite various factions of the right wing – alt-right activists, white nationalist organizations, paramilitary formations, and male supremacist organizations – in the wake of Trump’s election and in the lead up to Unite the Right in 2017.
Our profiles of these rallies illustrate both the ways in which public outcry and exposure of white supremacist ideology successfully hamper white supremacist organizing and amplify fractures in the movement that make it difficult for organizations to cohere and grow. BFS has been largely inactive following those actions, but its members have abandoned the façade of flatly defending free speech and over the past 3 years have become members or founders of other white supremacist organizations in the area such as Patriot Front and Nationalist Social Club,
- “Scenes From Boston’s Ugly “Free Speech Rally,” Luke O’Neill, Esquire, May 14, 2017
- “Who Is the Boston Free Speech Coalition behind Saturday’s Rally?” Meghan E. Irons, Boston Globe, August 16, 2017
Known members/affiliates:
- John Medlar
- Matthias Thorpe
- Matt Smaller
- Chris Hood
- Trevor Carey
Known supporters:
- Samson Racioppi
- Kyle “Based Stickman” Chapman
