Active Clubs: How the body has become a battleground for ...

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The umbrella organization Aktivklubb Sverige, which brings together several Swedish Active Clubs.There are now Active Club chapters in Canada as well as Europe. (Compte X Aktivklubb Sverige) Active Clubs: How the body has become a battleground for the far right Published: December 2, 2025 3.11pm GMT Frédérick Nadeau, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), Tristan Boursier, Sciences Po , Université du Québec en Outaouais (UQO)

Authors

Frédérick Nadeau
Chercheur postdoctoral, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)
Tristan Boursier
Docteur en Science politique, Sciences Po ; Université du Québec en Outaouais (UQO)

Disclosure statement

Frédérick Nadeau received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the Fonds de recherche du Québec (FRQ).

Tristan Boursier received funding from the Fonds de recherche du Québec (FRQ).

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Université du Québec en Outaouais (UQO) and Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) provide funding as founding partners of The Conversation CA-FR.

Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) and Université du Québec en Outaouais (UQO) provide funding as members of The Conversation CA.

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DOI

https://doi.org/10.64628/AAP.kuthwcxrd

https://theconversation.com/active-clubs-how-the-body-has-become-a-battleground-for-the-far-right-269130 https://theconversation.com/active-clubs-how-the-body-has-become-a-battleground-for-the-far-right-269130 Link copied Share article

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Photos of young men with bare chests and arms crossed standing in front of flags with runic or Celtic symbols are multiplying on social media. These images are not of ordinary sports clubs, but show a transnational far-right network called Active Clubs.

Hidden behind innocuous rhetoric of self-improvement and calls to become “the best version of yourself,” these groups actually promote a form of virile camaraderie infused with white nationalism and accelerationist ideology. Their core belief is that forging a strong and disciplined body is essential to prepare for an anticipated racial war and for what they describe as the “reconquest” of western civilization.

Our analysis is based on a body of 1,000 publications from Telegram channels linked to Active Clubs, as well as internal media resources within the movement. With our colleague Isaac Gnochinni, we recently published the results in the journal Amnis.

An Active Club recruitment advertisement

An invitation to start your own local club. The infographic was created by Will2Rise, a branch of the Rise Above Movement. (Source: Anti-Defamation League)

Sport as breeding ground for indoctrination

Active Clubs originated in the United States, drawing inspiration from the Rise Above Movement, founded in 2017 by Californian neo-Nazi activist Robert Rundo. From exile in Romania, Rundo developed the idea of a network of local, decentralized clubs based on a simple principle: replacing large, hierarchical organizations with small autonomous cells that are harder to dismantle and where physical training becomes a vehicle for radicalization.

Chapters now exist in Canada, Europe and Australia. According to the American organization Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, their numbers have grown by 25 per cent since 2023, with 187 clubs in 27 countries.

Training together fosters bonds of solidarity rooted in shared hardships, discipline and loyalty, values that are central to fascist ideology. The muscular, resilient, combat-ready body becomes a marker of moral renewal and a symbol of an imagined racial order that must be restored.

Italian far-right thinker Julius Evola promoted by Active Clubs. (Message from Gym XIV on the SoCal Active Club Telegram channel, June 2025, accessed on June 11, 2025), CC BY

Influenced by accelerationist thinking — an ideology that seeks to provoke or hasten the collapse of liberal society to enable the “rebirth” of a white civilization — this worldview circulates in thousands of posts shared on encrypted messaging platforms like Telegram.

Videos, images and symbols combine to produce a unified visual culture of a globalized and visually appealing white nationalism.

Read more: A field guide to 'accelerationism': White supremacist groups using violence to spur race war and create social chaos

In Canada, some Active Club members have been linked to designated terrorist organizations like the AtomWaffen Division (AWD). After AWD propagandist Patrick Gordon MacDonald was convicted of terrorism charges earlier this year, several of the group’s supporters turned to Active Clubs.

The body as an instrument of radicalization

Active Clubs’ online content frequently features group workouts, forest hikes and outdoor boxing sessions. The messages circulating on Telegram emphasize rigour, virility and brotherhood. One channel puts it bluntly:

“We reject weakness, passivity, and the decay of the present age. In their place, we cultivate physical readiness, mental toughness, and unwavering commitment to our people and our mission. Through training, discipline, and shared struggle, we grow stronger — as individuals and as a collective. (…) This is not a social club— it’s a commitment to a higher standard, to a code of conduct that rewards strength, courage, and loyalty.”

This illustrates what we have elsewhere described as an “esthetic mode of political engagement:” a form of embodied politics in which ideologies are lived and experienced through bodies, lifestyles and everyday habits. In this logic, politics begins as a relationship with yourself. Activists are encouraged to modify their diet, appearance, leisure activities and even intimate relationships in order to conform to the ideal promoted by the movement.

Such strategies give ideological commitments a tangible and emotional dimension. They make radicalism experiential: you don’t merely believe in ideas; you inhabit them, feel them and perform them. This dynamic helps explain why Active Clubs can be particularly attractive to some young men seeking purpose, community and masculine role models.

Active Clubs want to give the far right a respectable face. (Telegram channel AC x OFFICIAL), CC BY

Fascism with a friendly face

Unlike explicitly political organizations, Active Clubs operate in ordinary, everyday spaces. On social media, members showcase themselves training together, volunteering or cleaning public areas — activities that function as rituals of sociability while projecting the image of disciplined and respectable young men. This stands in stark contrast to the stereotypical figure of the skinhead or neo-Nazi often portrayed in popular culture. As the SoCal Active Club’s Telegram channel puts it:

“Active Clubs should not be menacing or scary; that image is burnt out and distasteful to the youth who would rather be bettering themselves through the brotherhood and positive influence of the active club model.”

Active Clubs promote community action. (Published on the AC x OFFICIAL channel, accessed on 22 July 2025), CC BY

But behind the facade of sport and camaraderie, Active Clubs quietly politicize their members by instilling narratives of identity, hierarchy and moral or racial purity. Their posts routinely revive a dichotomy at the heart of fascist ideology: the divide between the “strong,” imagined as healthy, disciplined and virile, and the “weak,” dismissed as parasites or degenerates.

These images foster a sense of belonging rooted in the pride of being on the “right side” while excluding those deemed unworthy.

Read more: Grok, l’IA de Musk, est-elle au service du techno-fascisme ?

Estheticized violence in the language of wellness

What makes Active Clubs particularly dangerous is their ability to shift political radicalization into the realm of everyday life, reframing it as a culture of well-being. By adopting the language of self-improvement, brotherhood and discipline, they don’t reject violence: they estheticize it. Where neo-fascist or skinhead crews displayed overt brutality and a clearly marginal esthetic, Active Clubs recast violence as a moral virtue, presenting it as a sign of health, honour and loyalty.

This blurs boundaries, making radicalism attractive, even aspirational, by tapping into positive emotions to legitimize authoritarian ideals.

Drawing on the rhetoric and visual codes of wellness, fitness and performance culture, Active Clubs turn fascism into a lifestyle — not only something to believe in, but something to live.

Through Active Clubs, we are witnessing the transnationalization of white nationalism, write the authors. (Message spotted on the Telegram channel Nationlist-13, 21 April 2025, accessed 3 June 2025), CC BY

Extremism taking root in everyday life

To understand these new forms of radicalization, it’s no longer enough to study political discourse or party policies. We must pay attention to bodies, gestures and emotions. We must look closely at everyday life.

Active Clubs show that today’s culture wars are also fought in gyms, on Instagram reels and through self-help podcasts. The message is simple: to change the world, you must first change yourself.

Read more: Masculinité et politique à l’ère du trumpisme

By giving radicalism the appearance of personal growth and camaraderie, Active Clubs help normalize the far right. They translate classic fascist tropes — hierarchy, purity, masculinity — into the neoliberal language of performance, well-being and health.

By merging bodily discipline with extremist narratives, they make fascism not only acceptable but desirable. In doing so, they contribute to the rise of a new form of white nationalism: less overtly political, more cultural and therefore more difficult for law enforcement — but also for parents, educators and civil society in general — to detect and challenge.

This article was originally published in French