This should go well! A gathering of "patriots" who support "free speech" will be descending on Berkeley on March 4 to show all those silly liberals what America really looks like. The already offensive flyer shown below promoting the event refers to the organizing group as alt-right "Proud Boys," and they're promising some "special guests" which... god only knows.

It was tweeted out by local anarchist "counterinformation" group Fireworks Bay, so you can see where this might be heading, especially if anyone decides to show up armed.

Such tea party-type protests have been a rarity in the Bay Area, however as we saw during the presidential campaign there are at least enough Trump supporters in the South Bay who come out of the woodwork when their man is town. And even then, before he even seemed like he had a tiny shot at getting the presidency, there was violence from anti-Trump protesters.

The account @ProudBoysUSA is just one of several promoting the event, and they describe themselves as "Western chauvinists who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world." And I guess "Western" in this case means "not Middle Eastern" and "not Chinese"?

The Proud Boys movement, now also a popular hashtag, tattoo, and a subreddit, stems from Vice co-founder turned far-right pundit Gavin McInnes, who's now part of the internet-popular triumvirate of alt-right heroes that also includes Milo Yiannopoulos and InfoWars editor Paul Joseph Watson, all shown below in an illustration calling them the "new punk."

#miloyiannopoulos #gavinmcinnes #pauljosephwatson #punk @milo.yiannopoulos @thegavin2000 @pauljosephwatson A photo posted by Jon Selwyn (@jon_selwyn_art) on Feb 11, 2017 at 12:54am PST



While very much sounding like a White supremacist and calling himself "pro West," McInnes also says he's pro-gun, pro-gay, and pro-life, and anti-Nazi, anti-censorship, anti-Drug War, anti-political correctness, anti-Islam, and anti-feminist (although he's also called himself a feminist in the past, but he rails against the "war on masculinity" in the culture). McInnes, and his many fans, also like to say that they are "anti-antifa," which is to say they're anti-anti-fascists  but in this upside-down world of rhetoric they inhabit, this doesn't actually mean pro-fascist per se, it means they hate the "antifa," whom they define as the type of young, militant liberal protesters who showed up to protest Yiannopoulos in Berkeley and wreak havoc in the streets. McInnes has also said that he's "anti racial guilt," which is a popular thing on the alt-right in general, stopping short of saying they're White supremacists. Because they're just "Western chauvinist."

A Proud Boys Facebook group only has about 5,800 members at present, and the Twitter account just over 3,000 followers, but prepare to hear more of this term as it gains traction.

It remains to be seen how many Proud Boys will make it out for the Berkeley march.