Two decades ago, American History X brought to life the ugly realities of white supremacy. Never before had moviegoers seen the horrifying minutiae of Neo-Nazi skinhead culture—flowing blood and cracking bone, the hypocrisy, the devotion to hate, the difficult journey of leaving hate for good. It was billed as a “message” picture that showed how adherents to this horrifying ideology might leave that life behind. That they might even work toward redemption.

Today, the hate that American History X tried to explore as a cautionary tale of sorts is part of establishment political discourse. The film deeply underestimated the extent to which hate can infect, spread, and achieve widespread influence in American culture. That underestimation reflects our current ignorance of the origins of hate, of how hate can be combated, and suggests that greater awareness might ease its grip on our society.

“I don’t think anyone watching American History X in the nineties thought its white supremacist characters would ever become mainstream,” says Heidi Beirich, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center. “In the nineties, these views were way outside the mainstream. Today, some of them are being echoed from the White House.”

The film depicts a young skinhead (played by Edward Furlong) analyzing and interpreting the events surrounding the incarceration of his older brother for voluntary manslaughter. The latter, however, leaves prison ready to abandon white supremacy for a life free of hate. The result overflows with racist rhetoric that reflects statements made by President Donald Trump himself.

The following, for instance, is from a speech shouted by Derek Vinyard (Edward Norton, in an Academy Award-nominated role) to his neo-Nazi cohort prior to assaulting the non-white employees of a grocery store: "Our border policy's a joke! So, is anybody surprised that south of the border they're laughing at us? Laughing at our laws?” The idea of foreigners wantonly “laughing” at America’s immigration laws is a metaphor Trump has used for years. On July 30, Trump tweeted: “Illegal immigration is a top National Security problem. After decades of playing games, with the whole World laughing at the stupidity of our immigration laws…” The tweet goes on to suggest that the Democrats are conspiring to undermine America’s immigration system.

The laughter is gone from this discourse as the president, his advisors, and his allies have shifted to more militant language. Referring to the Migrant Caravan traveling north from Central America, Trump tweeted “This is an invasion of our Country and our Military is waiting for you!” Trump has followed-up his venomous bluster against these migrants, in particular, by ordering the Pentagon to send up to 14,000 troops to the US-Mexico border as well as threatening to eliminate birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.