It can be in pockets, and the problem is when they get organized, they get emboldened enough to make their thoughts known. Especially in rural areas, people will have latent racists tendencies and go their whole lives without acting on it or mentioning it other than with other racist assholes. You can spend your whole life with Uncle Ricky around, and then one day when you’re 30, you find out Uncle Ricky has stored every racist idea ever put online in his head as “facts,” and is 100% in agreement with it all. But he would likely never go the extra step and join a KKK rally or get a swastika tattoo unless a small group of peers really pushed him to do that. White supremacist ideology doesn’t require you to have joined your local KKK chapter or biker gang unless you’re already predisposed to being an active asshole in life already, and that’s the specific way you decide to spend your time. Some people simply do crossfit.
A lot of it is simply tribalism in action, prodded along by fear and polarizing stuff online, and a lack of exposure to external ideas during formative years.
It can be in pockets, and the problem is when they get organized, they get emboldened enough to make their thoughts known. Especially in rural areas, people will have latent racists tendencies and go their whole lives without acting on it or mentioning it other than with other racist assholes. You can spend your whole life with Uncle Ricky around, and then one day when you’re 30, you find out Uncle Ricky has stored every racist idea ever put online in his head as “facts,” and is 100% in agreement with it all. But he would likely never go the extra step and join a KKK rally or get a swastika tattoo unless a small group of peers really pushed him to do that. White supremacist ideology doesn’t require you to have joined your local KKK chapter or biker gang unless you’re already predisposed to being an active asshole in life already, and that’s the specific way you decide to spend your time. Some people simply do crossfit.
A lot of it is simply tribalism in action, prodded along by fear and polarizing stuff online, and a lack of exposure to external ideas during formative years.