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I do not rise in defence of the Proud Boys, a truly goofy sort of organization, so odd I can’t help but think it’s a joke perpetrated by its founder, Gavin McInnes, the Canadian ex-hipster and comedian who co-started Vice Media and is infamous for what in the United Kingdom is known as taking the piss.

McInnes started the Proud Boys just last year, and until recently, the group seemed to have been regarded as kooky but benign.

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Two of its weirder tests, for instance, call for the prospective member to be beaten up by at least five guys until he can spit out the names of five breakfast cereals, and, secondly, to stay away from his own member and masturbate no more than once a month (its infamous #NoWanks policy) on the grounds that this gets young men off the couch and talking to actual women.

(I do rise somewhat in the defence of cereal, which like the Proud Boys I adore and eat at least twice daily, and in defence of the other as well.)