Stefan Molyneux

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Not to be confused with Stephen Molyneux.

Stefan Molyneux

Stefan Molyneux 2014-02-10.jpg

Molyneux in 2014

Born

Stefan Basil Molyneux

September 24, 1966 (age 54)

Athlone, Ireland

Nationality

Canadian

Education

History (B.A., McGill University, 1991; M.A., University of Toronto, 1993)

Occupation

Podcaster

Years active

2005–present

Movement

Alt-right

Identitarian movement

White supremacy

Spouse(s)

Christina Papadopoulos[1]

Website

freedomainradio

Stefan Basil Molyneux (/stəˈfæn ˈmɒlɪnjuː/; born September 24, 1966) is a Canadian far-right, white nationalist,[2][3] white supremacist,[4][5] banned YouTuber and podcaster, who is best known for his promotion of conspiracy theories, scientific racism, eugenics, and racist views.[6][7][8][9][10] As of September 2020, Molyneux has been permanently banned from PayPal, Mailchimp, YouTube, Twitter and SoundCloud, all for violating each sites respective hate speech policies.[11][12][13][14][15]

Molyneux is described as a leading figure of the alt-right movement by Politico and The Washington Post, and as a far-right activist.[16][17][18][19] Tom Clements in The Independent describes Molyneux as having "a perverse fixation on race and IQ".[20]

The Freedomain internet community which Molyneux leads is often referred to as a cult, and Molyneux has been described as a cult leader, using cult indoctrination techniques on his followers.[16][21][22][23][24]

Contents

- 1Background

- 2Career

- 3Views

- 3.1Promotion of white supremacy and conspiracy theories

- 3.2Men's rights activism

- 3.3Family-of-origin relationships

- 4Cult accusations

- 5Notes

- 6References

- 7External links

Background

Molyneux was born in Ireland and raised mainly in London before moving to Canada at age 11.[25] He attended Glendon College at York University in Toronto, where he was an actor at Theatre Glendon[26] and a member of the Debating Society.[27] He then attended the National Theatre School of Canada in Montreal.[25][28] In 1991, at age 25, Molyneux received a B.A. degree in History from McGill University. He received an M.A. degree in History from the University of Toronto in 1993.[22][28]

Molyneux describes himself as an anarcho-capitalist and a philosopher.[16] Academic philosophers do not take the idea of Molyneux as a philosopher seriously. American philosopher David Gordon wrote of Molyneux's 2007 book Universally Preferable Behavior: A Rational Proof for Secular Ethics that, "He fails, and fails miserably. His arguments are often preposterously bad."[29]

Career

In early 1995, Molyneux and his brother Hugh founded Caribou Systems Corporation, a Toronto-based provider of environmental database software. The company was sold in 2000.[28][30]

In 2005, Molyneux began writing articles for the American libertarian website LewRockwell.com,[31] before starting a podcast called Freedomain Radio (FDR).[32] In 2010, Molyneux appeared on the Press TV program On the Edge hosted by Max Keiser, and first participated on Alex Jones' InfoWars show the following year. In that year and 2012, he appeared on the RT program Adam vs. the Man, hosted by the libertarian Adam Kokesh.[6]

In 2017, Molyneux interviewed James Damore, the Google employee who was fired after writing the Google's Ideological Echo Chamber memo.[33]

In July 2018, Molyneux and Canadian political activist Lauren Southern toured the Australian cities of Sydney and Melbourne.[34] NITV quotes Simon Copland, an SBS freelance writer, who thinks that Molyneux disparaged pre-colonisation Australian Aboriginal culture, calling it "very violent", and downplayed massacres perpetrated against Aborigines, saying that the European takeover of Australia had been less violent than other such takeovers, and that the settlers "were trying to stop infanticide and mass rape".[35] Molyneux and Southern subsequently traveled to New Zealand for their speaking engagement at Auckland's Powerstation theatre. The event was cancelled at the last minute when the Powerstation's owner rescinded the booking, citing opposition from local groups and the offensive content of their speech.[36][37][38]

Molyneux has frequently hosted prominent white supremacists on his podcast, such as Peter Brimelow (founder of the white-nationalist website VDARE), and Jared Taylor (founder of the white-supremacist magazine American Renaissance).[19]

In November 2019, PayPal suspended Molyneux's account. He had previously received donations via the service. PayPal's actions came after activist group Sleeping Giants campaigned for him to be removed, citing Molyneux's bigoted attitudes including his promotion of antisemitic conspiracy theories concerning the media.[11][12] In January 2020, Molyneux released a video in which he asked his followers for money and complained that he would not be able to find regular employment after saying racist things online. He was subsequently mocked by observers.[39] Later that month, email marketing platform Mailchimp suspended Molyneux's account, which he used to send out his newsletter.[13]

Molyneux's YouTube channel was banned on June 29, 2020 alongside white supremacists David Duke, Richard Spencer, and Jared Taylor, for violating YouTube policies enacted in 2019 against hate speech. Molyneux said it was a "systemic, coordinated effort" in which YouTube had "just suspended the largest philosophy conversation the world has ever known".[14][40] Molyneux funds his efforts through listener support.[41] Molyneux's Twitter account was permanently suspended on July 8, 2020 for violating Twitter's policies.[42][43]

Views

Promotion of white supremacy and conspiracy theories

Molyneux is known for his promotion of white supremacist views and conspiracy theories.[9][2][44] He is a proponent of the white genocide conspiracy theory,[45][46][47] interviewing several South African advocates of the theory in his podcasts.[48] In 2017, he stated that the film Star Wars: The Last Jedi has a concealed sub-text about the persecution of white people and predicted the "quasi-extinction” of whites “in the not so distant future". He further indicated that “Whites are not allowed to have a history to be proud of, not allowed to have in-group preferences" leading to "the end of a lineage. It’s the end of a history. It is the end of culture".[49] In a podcast broadcast on August 9, 2014 he stated that he did not "view humanity as a single species".[6][11]

Molyneux describes himself as an anarcho-capitalist and a philosopher.[16] According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Molyneux initially used the Freedomain Radio website "to amplify his views on anarcho-capitalist ideology, atheism, philosophy, anti-statism, pseudo-therapy and anti-feminism." The SPLC also stated that Molyneux's views become more politically extreme and racialized around 2013 or 2014 when his ideology shifted to include far-right and ethno-nationalist thinking.[6] The SPLC describes him as an "internet commentator and alleged cult leader who amplifies 'scientific racism', eugenics and white supremacism to a massive new audience" and that "Stefan Molyneux operates within the racist so-called 'alt-right' and pro-Trump ranks". He gave his support to President Donald Trump and Marine Le Pen of the French National Rally, as well as the Dutch politician Geert Wilders, during their election campaigns in 2016 and 2017.[6] Molyneux’s self-styling as a philosopher has been heavily criticised by academic philosophers; American philosopher David Gordon states, “He fails, and fails miserably. His arguments are often preposterously bad“.[29][50]

Molyneux has been described as a part of the "alt-right" by Politico, Metro, New York magazine, Vanity Fair, and CBS News, and has been described as "one of the alt-right's biggest YouTube stars" by Washington Post columnist J. J. McCullough.[17][18][51][52][53][54] Business Insider, CNN, The New York Times, and BuzzFeed News have characterized Molyneux as far-right.[19][16][55][56] Data & Society, a research institute, described Molyneux as "a Canadian talk show host who promotes scientific racism".[44]

According to The New York Times, Molyneux is fixated with "race realism". He has hosted white supremacists such as Jared Taylor on his show. Molyneux has blamed "rap culture" for unarmed black men getting shot by police.[16]

indy100 describes Molyneux as a provocateur who "has been allowed to promote a racist, transphobic, misogynistic and Islamophobic agenda on various platforms but has started to see his revenue diminish," while including a tweet by Molyneux in which he asserts that he is not a "white nationalist" in response to being banned from a popular platform.[13]

Men's rights activism

Molyneux describes himself as a men's rights activist.[16] He was a panelist at a 2014 Detroit conference held by the men's rights movement and manosphere organization, A Voice for Men. According to Jessica Roy of Time magazine, Molyneux argued that violence in the world is the result of how women treat their children, and that: "If we could just get people to be nice to their babies for five years straight, that would be it for war, drug abuse, addiction, promiscuity, sexually transmitted diseases, ... Almost all would be completely eliminated, because they all arise from dysfunctional early childhood experiences, which are all run by women".[57] Molyneux believes feminism is a form of socialism.[16]

Family-of-origin relationships

Molyneux refers to the family that people are born into as their "family-of-origin", or "FOO". He suggests that family-of-origin relationships may not necessarily be desirable, and under given circumstances may even be detrimental, and thus, for those individuals unsatisfied with their childhood relationships, it would be advantageous for them to sever such involuntary relationships as adults, or "deFOO".[58][a] In this way, he views all adult relationships as being voluntary and discretionary rather than obligatory. Molyneux has been quoted saying:

Deep down I do not believe that there are any really good parents out there – the same way that I do not believe there were any really good doctors in the 10th century.[58]

A disciplinary panel at the College of Psychologists of Ontario spoke critically of "deFOOing" after a professional investigation into Molyneux's wife,[1][59] saying that by the standards of the College, it "may be appropriate to recommend family separation in cases of abuse" only after a suitable evaluation of patient history to "ascertain whether the advice [is] warranted in the circumstances".[60] According to a 2008 article in The Guardian, both Molyneux and his wife have dissociated from their families of origin.[58]

Cult accusations

According to Steven Hassan, a mental health counselor with experience on cults, "Partly what's going on with the people on the Internet who are indoctrinated, they spend lots of hours on the computer. Videos can have them up all night for several nights in a row. Molyneux knows how to talk like he knows what he's talking about, despite very little academic research. He cites this and cites that, and presents it as the whole truth. It dismantles people's sense of self and replaces it with his sense of confidence about how to fix the world".[24]

In 2009, Tu Thanh Ha wrote that Molyneux was called the leader of a "therapy cult" after Tom Bell, a Freedomain Radio community member, severed contact with his family.[22] In April 2008, Bell had called in to the show asking about his veganism and his feeling of disgust towards people who eat meat.[21] Molyneux suggested that this disgust could have come from witnessing an authority figure who was cruel to animals.[21] Bell responded by describing memories of his father being verbally and physically cruel to the family cat, causing him to feel intimidated by the father, and then described his emotional detachment toward his mother and the rest of his family.[21]

The following month, Bell left a note stating he no longer wanted contact and left home referring to Molyneux's concept of "deFOOing".[21] It was reported that, of the estimated 50,000 users of the website, about 20 (0.04%) FDR members had also disassociated from their families-of-origin, and that many parents chose not to speak to the media in an effort to avoid alienating their children further.[21] The British Cult Information Centre (CIC) has described Freedomain Radio as a cult.[61] A representative of the CIC said they were following FDR, and said that one sign of cults was that they cut people off from their families. Molyneux responded by saying, "If I advised a wife to leave an abusive husband, there would not be articles about how I am a cult leader".[21]

Molyneux and "deFOOing" were subjects of an investigative documentary by Channel 5 in the United Kingdom, which aired on August 20, 2015.[23][62] The same subjects were also featured on the February 18, 2016 episode of the documentary series Dark Net. The episode calls Freedomain Radio a cult.[63]

Notes

1. ^ Molyneux is quoted saying, "Family relationships are voluntary and you should really work, if you're unhappy in these relationships, to improve the quality of those relationships – but to remember they do remain voluntary. And that gives people the motivation, I think, to try to improve them. But if you can't improve them – and we can't change other people, as we all know – for sure you should have the option to disengage."[58]

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Peter Brimelow

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Peter Brimelow

Born

13 October 1947 (age 72)

Warrington, Lancashire, England

Nationality

British

American

Citizenship

Naturalized U.S. citizen

Education

University of Sussex, B.A. (with honors), 1970

Stanford University, M.B.A., 1972

Occupation

Financial journalist, columnist, writer

Employer

- 1986–2002 editor, Forbes

- 1993–98 editor, National Review

- 1999– editor, VDARE

- c. 2002 fellow, Pacific Research Institute

Awards

- Gerald Loeb Award, 1990

Peter Brimelow (born 13 October 1947) is a British-born American columnist, journalist, magazine editor, and writer. He is the founder of the website VDARE, an anti-immigration site associated with white supremacy,[1][2] white nationalism,[3][4][5] and the alt-right.[6][7][8] He believes that "whites built American culture" and that "it is at risk from non-whites who would seek to change it".[9][10][11]

Brimelow was previously a writer and editor at National Review, and columnist for Dow Jones' MarketWatch.[12] Brimelow founded the Center for American Unity in 1999 and served as its first president. He describes himself as a paleoconservative.[13] Brimelow has also been described as a leader within the alt-right movement.[14]

Contents

- 1Early life and education

- 2Career

- 3Views and publications

- 3.1Alien Nation

- 3.2The Worm in the Apple

- 3.3The Patriot Game

- 4Writings

- 5Awards

- 6References

- 7External links

Early life and education[edit]

Brimelow was born in 1947 in Warrington, Lancashire, England, the son of Bessie (née Knox) and Frank Sanderson Brimelow, a transport executive. Brimelow (and his twin brother) studied at the University of Sussex (BA, 1970) and Stanford University (MBA, 1972).[15]

Career[edit]

After a brief period as a securities analyst, he settled in Toronto, becoming a business writer and editor at the Financial Post and Maclean's magazine. From 1978 to 1980, he was an aide to US Senator Orrin Hatch. In 1980, Brimelow moved to New York and worked for Barron's and Fortune. He was the senior editor of Forbes magazine from 1986 to 2002.

Views and publications[edit]

Brimelow opposes both illegal and legal immigration,[16][17] and has referred to Spanish speaking immigrants as "completely dysfunctional".[16] He said California used to be a "paradise" but was "rapidly turning into Hispanic slum".[16] Brimelow has been described as a white nationalist[18] and a white supremacist.[19] In 2020, Brimelow sued The New York Times for labeling him a "white nationalist".[20]

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has described Brimelow's website VDARE as a hate group,[5][21][22] that was "once a relatively mainstream anti-immigration page", but by 2003 became "a meeting place for many on the radical right". The SPLC also criticized VDARE for publishing articles by white nationalists Jared Taylor and Sam Francis.[23] It has been called "white nationalist" by the Rocky Mountain News.[24] It has also been described as white supremacist.[10] VDARE has also been described by the Anti-Defamation League as a racist anti-immigrant group.[25][26]

Brimelow has appeared as a guest on The Political Cesspool, a "pro-white" talk-radio show. Following the 2008 United States elections, he advocated that to win, the Republican Party should focus on "white votes".[27][28][29]

Brimelow appeared on a panel discussing multiculturalism during the 2012 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC 2012), and gave a talk titled "The Failure of Multiculturalism: How the pursuit of diversity is weakening the American Identity." In the face of condemnation from MSNBC and PFTAW, Al Cardenas of the American Conservative Union denied knowing him or his reputation.[30]

Alien Nation[edit]

Alien Nation: Common Sense About America's Immigration Disaster criticizes US immigration policy after 1965.[31]

A review in Foreign Affairs acknowledged that the book raised a number of persuasive objections to contemporary American immigration policies, but criticized Brimelow for "defining American identity in racial as opposed to cultural terms", and for the "extreme character" of his proposals.[31]

The SPLC described it as an "infamous anti-immigrant book", and pointed to Center for Immigration Studies executive director Mark Krikorian's positive review of the book as evidence his organization had close ties to white nationalists.[32]

The Worm in the Apple[edit]

The Worm in the Apple discusses public education and teachers' unions, considering unions as "highly destructive".[33] Among views in The Worm in the Apple: "to attempt so far-reaching a goal as universal high school education is foolish."[34] and John O'Sullivan[35] praised the book. For the Hoover Institution journal Education Next, public policy consultant George Mitchell wrote: "Brimelow... demonstrates how collective bargaining for teachers has produced labor agreements that stifle innovation and risk taking. He makes it clear that the dramatic rise in influence enjoyed by the teacher unions has coincided with stagnant and unacceptable levels of student performance." However, in the same journal article, education consultant Julia E. Koppich took a more critical angle: "Brimelow uses a variety of linguistic devices to drive home his points. But his over-the-top language soon grates on the nerves... His argument is not that teacher unions are destroying American education, but that they labor long and hard to preserve the status quo... But this book contains so little about education-virtually nothing about classrooms, schools, or districts-even that point gets lost." Koppich called the book "an anti-public school polemic".[36]

The Patriot Game[edit]

In an article in Maclean's which was published in 2011, the author Mr. John Geddes says that Brimelow's book The Patriot Game: National Dreams and Political Realities "offered a bracingly of-the-moment conservative critique of Canada," and said that it was instrumental in shaping the thought process of Canadian Prime Minister Mr. Stephen Harper.[37]

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Jared Taylor

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the rugby league player, see Jared Taylor (rugby league).

Jared Taylor

2008 Jared Taylor.jpg

Jared Taylor, 2008

Born

Samuel Jared Taylor

September 15, 1951 (age 69)

Kobe, Japan

Education

Yale University (BA, 1973)

Sciences Po (MA, 1978)

Occupation

Editor of American Renaissance

Partner(s)

Evelyn Rich[1]

Children

2 daughters

Website

American Renaissance

Samuel Jared Taylor (born September 15, 1951) is an American white supremacist[2] and editor of American Renaissance, an online magazine espousing such opinions, which was founded by Taylor in 1990.

He is also the president of American Renaissance's parent organization, New Century Foundation, through which many of his books have been published. He is a former member of the advisory board of The Occidental Quarterly and a former director of the National Policy Institute, a Virginia-based white nationalist think tank.[3] He is also a board member and spokesperson of the Council of Conservative Citizens.[4][5]

Taylor and many of his affiliated organizations are accused of promoting racist ideologies by civil rights groups, news media, and academics studying racism in the United States.[6][7][8][9]

Contents

- 1Early life and education

- 2Career

- 3Views

- 3.1Race

- 3.2Judaism and anti-Semitism

- 3.3Donald Trump

- 4Influence

- 5Reception

- 6References

- 7External links

Early life and education

Taylor was born on September 15, 1951, to Christian missionary parents from Virginia in Kobe, Japan.[10][11] He lived in Japan until he was 16 years old and attended Japanese schools up to the age of 12, becoming fluent in Japanese in the process.[10]

He attended Yale University, where he earned a BA with a major in philosophy in 1973.[11] Taylor then spent three years in France and received an MA degree in international economics at the Paris Institute of Political Studies in 1978.[12] During a period that interrupted his undergraduate and later graduate college years, he worked and traveled extensively in West Africa, improving his French in the Francophone regions of the continent.[10][11] Taylor is fluent in French, Japanese, and English.[11]

Career

Taylor worked as an international lending officer for the Manufacturers Hanover Corporation from 1978 to 1981, and as West Coast editor of PC Magazine from 1983 to 1988.[9][11] He has also taught Japanese at the Harvard Summer School, and worked as a courtroom translator.[13]

In the 1980s, at the time of the country's strong economic growth, Taylor was viewed as a "Japan expert" in the mainstream media. In 1983 he published a well-received book on Japanese culture and business customs entitled Shadows of the Rising Sun: A Critical View of the Japanese Miracle.[14] While critical of certain aspects of Japanese culture, Taylor argued that Japanese society was more successful in solving social issues than the West, with lower crime rates and a similar or higher standard of living.[15]

Sometime in his early thirties, Taylor reassessed the liberal and cosmopolitan viewpoint commonly professed in his working environment, which he had himself shared until then.[11] He became deeply convinced that human beings are tribal in nature and feelings, and that they differ in talent, temperament and capacity.[16] In the mid-1980s, he developed an interest in the emerging fields of evolutionary biology and evolutionary psychology, especially in the controversial works of Richard Lynn, J. Philippe Rushton and Helmuth Nyborg,[17] and came to believe that differences between human beings are largely of genetic origin, and therefore quasi-immutable.[16] All the social miracles of Japan, Taylor averred by 1991 under the pen name Steven Howell, were at least partly a result of Japan's racial and cultural homogeneity.[18]

In November 1990, he founded and published the first issue of American Renaissance, a white supremacist[2] subscription-based monthly newsletter.[16] He created the New Century Foundation in 1994 to assist with the running of American Renaissance.[19] Many of the early articles were written by Taylor himself and were intended to put white racial advocacy on a higher intellectual level than the traditional Klansman's or white skinhead's discourse that dominated the media at that time.[20] The journal ceased its print publication in 2012 to focus on a daily webzine format.[16]

In 1992, Taylor published a book titled Paved with Good Intentions in which he criticizes what he deems the unwise welfare politics that contributed to the economic situation of the African-American underclass. Unlike many of his American Renaissance articles, the work avoids genetic-based reasoning due to fears of not being able to get it published had he talked about IQ differences.[21] In 1994, he was called by the defense team in a Fort Worth, Texas black-on-black murder trial, to give expert testimony on the race-related aspects of the case.[22] Prior to testifying in the trial, Taylor, presented as a "race-relations expert and author" by the Washington Post, called young black men "the most dangerous people in America" and added "This must be taken into consideration in judging whether or not it was realistic for [the defendant] to think this was a kill-or-be-killed situation."[23]

Views

Taylor has been described as a white nationalist,[24] white supremacist, and racist by civil rights groups, news media, academics studying racism in the US, and others.[6][7][8][25][26][27] Taylor has "strenuously rejected"[10] being called a racist, and maintains that he is instead a "racialist who believes in race-realism."[28][29] He has also disputed the white supremacist label, preferring to describe himself as a "white advocate",[30] and contends that his views on nationality and race are "moderate, commonsensical, and fully consistent with the views of most of the great statesmen and presidents of America's past".[10] Taylor has said he does not know what "white nationalist" means.[31]

News coverage of Taylor has associated him with the alt-right.[32][33]

Race

Taylor is a proponent of scientific racism and voluntary racial segregation.[8][34][35][36] Taylor also asserts that there are racial differences in intelligence among the various ethno-racial groups across the world.[37] Taylor argues that Blacks are generally less intelligent than Hispanics, while Hispanics are generally less intelligent than whites, and whites are generally less intelligent than East Asians: "I think Asians are objectively superior to Whites by just about any measure that you can come up with in terms of what are the ingredients for a successful society. This doesn't mean that I want America to become Asian. I think every people has a right to be itself, and this becomes clear whether we're talking about Irian Jaya or Tibet, for that matter".[38][39][40]

Taylor describes himself as an advocate for white interests.[41] He states that his publication, American Renaissance, was founded to provide a voice for such concerns, and argues that its work is analogous to other groups that advocate for ethnic or racial interests.[42] American Renaissance, however, has been described as a white supremacist publication and a "forum for writers disparaging the abilities of minorities".[43] In the journal in 2005, he stated, "Blacks and whites are different. When blacks are left entirely to their own devices, Western civilization – any kind of civilization – disappears."[44] A 2005 feature in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette described Taylor as "a racist in the guise of expert".[6]

Taylor describes his segregationist project as based on civil liberties and freedom of association. Taylor has described government-mandated segregation as morally unjust. He believes that all anti-discrimination laws "from the Civil Rights Act of 1964 onward" are an unacceptable expansion of federal power. Taylor also opposes anti-miscegenation laws as impinging on the freedom of association of private citizens.[45]

Taylor believes that the multi-racial American society is "doomed to failure", and that non-white groups should not constitute a significant part of the American population, especially Hispanics, Africans, Afro-Caribbeans and Middle Easterners, although he also includes Northern Asians, who he holds in high regard.[46] He thus supports immigration policies that would favor white immigrants over other groups. Taylor has said: "Whites deserve a homeland," and when questioned about the US immigration laws passed in 1965, under the Hart-Celler Act, said that "Whites are making a terrible mistake by setting in motion forces that will reduce them to a minority."[47]

Taylor supports the white genocide conspiracy theory,[48] and has hosted the Suidlanders on his AmRen podcast to discuss the topic,[49] while encouraging donations to the South African organisation.[50] He has recommended Jean Raspail's The Camp of the Saints to his followers.[51]

Judaism and anti-Semitism

Taylor welcomes Jews to his organization and views American Jews as potential powerful allies. He has never sought to either welcome or expel anti-Semitic voices, and several speakers of Jewish descent have participated in American Renaissance conventions. This position has sparked tensions with far-right anti-Semitic organizations claiming that Jews are infiltrating their movements.[39] In 2006, a clash erupted at one convention between anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist David Duke and Michael Hart, a Jewish astrophysicist sharing many of Taylor's ideas.[52] The Forward reported that Taylor "has been trying to de-Nazify the movement and draw the white nationalist circle wider to include Jews of European descent. But to many on the far right, taking the Jew-hatred out of white nationalism is like taking the Christ out of Christmas — a sacrilege."[53]

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) comments that Taylor is unusual among the radical right in "his lack of anti-Semitism."[54] Scholar Kathleen R. Arnold states that "unlike many other white supremacists, Taylor is not anti-Semitic, and in fact encourages Jews to join his fight...however many within the white supremacist/anti-immigration movement disagree with Taylor..... and he has been under tremendous pressure to break ties with the Jewish community."[55]

Donald Trump

Taylor supported Donald Trump's presidential campaign, and recorded robocalls to support Trump before the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary.[56][57]

Taylor attended Trump's inauguration with front-row VIP tickets,[58] and he described the event as "a sign of rising white consciousness".[59]

A spokesperson told CNN that the candidate "disavows all super PACs offering their support and continues to do so."[60] When asked about the robocalls in an interview with CNN, Trump responded "I would disavow that, but I will tell you people are extremely angry."[61]

Influence

Madison Grant, the author of The Passing of the Great Race (1916), and Lothrop Stoddard, the author of The Rising Tide of Color (1920), each the object of celebratory articles in American Renaissance, seem to have influenced or reinforced Taylor's belief in separate racial homelands.[62] Southern conservatives Samuel Francis and Sam Dickson, who have been regular speakers at American Renaissance conferences, are also cited as influential on Taylor's views. According to scholar Russell Nieli, "the combination of southern regional conservatism and Taylor's experience of living in (...) Japan has undoubtedly had a formative effect on his thinking about race."[63]

Hoping his ethnonationalist project will go global, Taylor has sought in recent years to establish relations with populist radical right parties in Europe such as France's National Rally, Britain's UKIP, Austria's Freedom Party, Germany's Alternativ für Deutschland, and Flanders's Vlaams Belang.[63] Nieli notes that Taylor appears to have a special intellectual affinity for the French New Right author Guillaume Faye, whose books were favorably reviewed by Taylor in American Renaissance; both of them believe that white people need to join in a worldwide fight for their racial, cultural, and demographic survival.[64]

According to Nieli, Taylor "may well have been as central to structuring the fledgling [America's radical Right] in the 1990s as the late William F. Buckley Jr. was in the 1950s and 1960s in structuring post-World War II American conservatism. The growing Alt Right movement in America today owes a great deal to Taylor's past efforts."[65]

Reception

The Southern Poverty Law Center describes Taylor as "a courtly presenter of ideas that most would describe as crudely white supremacist—a kind of modern-day version of the refined but racist colonialist of old."[54]

Mark Potok and Heidi Beirich, writers for the Intelligence Report (a publication of the SPLC), have written that "Jared Taylor is the cultivated, cosmopolitan face of white supremacy. He is the guy who is providing the intellectual heft, in effect, to modern-day Klansmen." They have also stated that "American Renaissance has become increasingly important over the years, bringing a measure of intellectualism and seriousness to the typically thug-dominated world of white supremacy".[66]

On December 18, 2017, his account (as well as the account for American Renaissance) was suspended by Twitter, after Twitter adopted new rules prohibiting accounts affiliated with the promotion of violence.[67] In February 2018, Taylor filed a lawsuit against Twitter, claiming that the suspension violated his right to free speech.[68] Taylor's lawsuit was dismissed, and an appeals court upheld the dismissal, agreeing that services can control what is published on their sites.[69]

In March 2019, Taylor said on his website that he had been banned from the Schengen Area for two years on the instigation of Poland.[70]

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Sleeping Giants

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the internet activism initiative. For other uses, see Sleeping Giant.

Sleeping Giants is a liberal[1] social media activism organization aiming to persuade companies to remove advertisements from conservative news outlets. The campaign started in November 2016,[2] shortly after Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 United States presidential election, with the launch of a Twitter account aiming to boycott Breitbart News.[3][4] The first tweet targeted personal finance company SoFi.[2] Most tweets on the account are messages to companies advertising on Breitbart. Of these, most are retweets from other accounts.

The campaign operated anonymously until The Daily Caller identified freelance copywriter Nandini Jammi as a co-founder with Matt Rivitz.[5] Shortly afterward, a New York Times profile of Rivitz and with freelance copywriter and marketing consult Nandini Jammi, said the two ran the campaign's Twitter account "along with other still anonymous contributors."[6] Other reports identified Jammi as "co-founder."[7] Jammi has since left Sleeping Giants, saying that Rivitz "gaslighted me out of the movement we built together."[8]

Contents

- 1Campaign

- 2Other campaigns

- 3See also

- 4References

- 5External links

Campaign[edit]

The organization primarily operates from its Twitter account, and also has a Facebook account. It has regional Twitter accounts for Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

As of February 2017, 820 companies had joined the campaign and stopped advertising on Breitbart News, according to statistics provided by the organization.[2] By May 2017, thousands of advertisers had stopped advertising with Breitbart.[4]

The list of advertisers includes Allstate, AT&T, Autodesk, BMW, Deutsche Telekom, HP Inc., Kellogg's, Lenovo, Lyft, Visa, Vimeo, Nest, and Warby Parker.[9][2][10][11] The Canadian government also stopped advertising on Breitbart News after declaring that its contents "did not align with the Government’s Code of Value and Ethics". Sleeping Giants' strategy combines traditional approaches to pressure advertisers with direct online activism, aiming to recruit and mobilize a large population of social media users. According to Slate, Sleeping Giants' strategy is similar to the one adopted in 2014 by the Gamergate movement against Gawker Media.[12]

Breitbart News responded to the response to the initiative by Kellogg's with a campaign to boycott its products.[11][13]

Other campaigns[edit]

Sleeping Giants was involved in the campaign pressuring advertisers to drop The O'Reilly Factor after the discovery of five sexual harassment settlements by host Bill O'Reilly and Fox News, which resulted in the show's cancellation.[14]

Since May 2017, the Canadian section has used the same methods to persuade advertisers to remove ads from the Canadian conservative news outlet The Rebel Media.[15][16]

The French section also campaigns in a similar manner with regard to the French far-right website Boulevard Voltaire.[17]

In Brazil, Sleeping Giants gained traction[18] against Jornal da Cidade On-line, Conexão Política and Brasil Sem Medo, far-right and fake news outlets which support Jair Bolsonaro.[19] They also tried to defund Olavo de Carvalho's YouTube channel and online courses. PayPal decided to remove their services from Carvalho's online seminars.[20]

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David Duke

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the white supremacist. For other people with the same name, see David Duke (disambiguation).

David Duke

David Duke.jpg

Duke in 2002

Member of the Louisiana House of Representatives

from the 81st district

In office

February 18, 1989 – January 13, 1992

Preceded by

Chuck Cusimano

Succeeded by

David Vitter

Grand Wizard of the

Knights of the Ku Klux Klan

In office

1974–1980

Preceded by

Position established

Succeeded by

Don Black

Personal details

Born

David Ernest Duke

July 1, 1950 (age 70)

Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S.

Nationality

American

Political party

Republican (1989–1999; 2016–present)[1]

Other political

affiliations

Reform (1999–2001)

Populist (1988–1989)

Democratic (1975–1988)

American Nazi (before 1975)[2]

Spouse(s)

Chloê Eleanor Hardin

( 1974;  1984)

Children

2

Education

Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge (BA)

Website

Official website

David Ernest Duke (born July 1, 1950) is an American white supremacist, far-right politician, convicted felon, and former grand wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. From 1989 to 1992, he was a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives. He has advocated neo-Nazi and antisemitic conspiracy theories such as Holocaust denial and Jewish control of academia, the press, and the financial system.[3][4] The Anti-Defamation League has described Duke as "perhaps America’s most well-known racist and anti-Semite".[5]

Duke unsuccessfully stood as Democratic candidate for state legislature during the 1970s and 1980s, culminating in his campaign for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination. After failing to gain any traction within the Democratic Party, Duke left and successfully gained the presidential nomination of the minor Populist Party. In December 1988, he became a Republican and claimed to have become a born-again Christian, renouncing antisemitism and racism.[6] He soon won his only elected office, a seat in the Louisiana House of Representatives. He then ran unsuccessful but competitive campaigns for several more offices, including United States Senate in 1990 and Governor of Louisiana in 1991. His campaigns were denounced by national and state Republican leaders, including President George H. W. Bush. He mounted a minor challenge to President Bush in 1992 and has continued to run for public office through 2016, though his campaigns have become increasingly marginal.

During the 1990s, Duke defrauded his political supporters by pretending to be in dire financial straits and soliciting money for basic necessities. At the time, Duke was in fact financially secure and used the money for personal investments and recreational gambling.[7] In 2002, Duke pleaded guilty to felony fraud and subsequently served a 15-month sentence at Federal Correctional Institution, Big Spring in Texas.[8] Duke speaks against what he alleges as Jewish control of the Federal Reserve Bank, the U.S. federal government, and the media. Duke supports the preservation of what he considers to be Western culture and traditionalist Christian family values, as well as voluntary racial segregation, anti-communism, white separatism, and the abolition of the Internal Revenue Service.[9][10][11]

Contents

- 1Early life

- 1.11972 arrest in New Orleans

- 1.2Knights of the Ku Klux Klan

- 2Political and ideological activities

- 2.1Early campaigns

- 2.21988 presidential campaign

- 2.31989: Successful run in special election for Louisiana House seat

- 2.4As state representative

- 2.51990 campaign for U.S. Senate

- 2.61991 campaign for Governor of Louisiana

- 2.71992 Republican Party presidential candidate

- 2.81996 campaign for U.S. Senate

- 2.91999 campaign for U.S. House

- 2.10New Orleans Protocol

- 2.11Political activity (1999–2012)

- 2.12Donald Trump advocacy

- 2.132016 campaign for U.S. Senate

- 2.142020 United States presidential election endorsement

- 3Antisemitism

- 3.1Racial theories

- 3.2Claims of "Jewish supremacy"

- 3.3Supposed "Zionist control"

- 3.4Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel

- 3.5Activities in Ukraine and Russia (2005–2006)

- 3.6Iranian Holocaust conference

- 4Other affiliations and associations

- 4.1Stormfront

- 4.2British National Party

- 4.3Alt-right

- 5Legal difficulties and felony conviction

- 5.1Tax fraud conviction and defrauding followers

- 5.22009 arrest in the Czech Republic

- 5.32013 expulsion from Italy; Schengen Area ban

- 6Other publications

- 7Personal life

- 8In the media

- 9Self-published books

- 10See also

- 11References

- 12External links

Early life

Duke was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Maxine (née Crick) and David Hedger Duke, the younger of two children.[12] As the son of an engineer for Shell Oil Company, Duke frequently moved with his family around the world. During 1954, they lived a short time in the Netherlands before settling in an all-white area of New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1955.[13] His mother was an alcoholic; his father permanently left in 1966 for Laos taking a job with United States Agency for International Development (USAID).[14]

In 1964, Duke began his involvement in radical right politics after attending a Citizens' Councils meeting and reading Carleton Putnam's pro-segregation books, later citing Race and Reason: A Yankee View, 1961, as being responsible for his "enlightenment".[15] Putnam's book asserted the genetic superiority of whites. Also during his adolescence, Duke began to read books about Nazism and the Third Reich, and his speeches at CCA meetings began to be more explicitly pro-Nazi.[16] This was enough to gain him disapproval from some members who were more anti-black racists rather than antisemitic. While attending Riverside Military Academy, his class was disciplined after Duke was found to be in possession of a Nazi flag and, in public school, he vociferously protested the lowering of the flag after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.[16][17] In the late 1960s, Duke met William Luther Pierce, the leader of the neo-Nazi and white nationalist National Alliance, who would remain a lifelong influence on him. Duke joined the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) in 1967.[18][19]

In 1968, Duke enrolled at Louisiana State University (LSU) in Baton Rouge, and in 1970, he formed a white student group called the White Youth Alliance that was affiliated with the National Socialist White People's Party. The same year, to protest lawyer William Kunstler's appearance at Tulane University in New Orleans, In 1970, Duke appeared at a demonstration in Nazi uniform carrying a sign reading "Gas the Chicago 7" (a group of left-wing anti-war activists Kunstler had defended) and "Kunstler is a Communist Jew" In 1970.[16][17][18][20] Picketing and holding parties on the anniversary of Adolf Hitler's birth, he became known on the LSU campus for wearing a Nazi uniform.[20] While a student at LSU, Duke traveled on a road trip to an American Nazi Party conference in Virginia with white supremacists Joseph Paul Franklin (later convicted of multiple acts of racial and antisemitic terrorism and executed for serial murder) and Don Black.[21]

Duke says that he spent nine months in Laos, calling it a "normal tour of duty." He joined his father, who remained working there, and had asked his son to visit during the summer of 1971.[22] His father helped him gain a job teaching English to Laotian military officers, from which he was dismissed after six weeks when he drew a Molotov cocktail on the blackboard.[23] He also claimed to have gone behind enemy lines 20 times at night to drop rice to anti-communist insurgents in planes flying 10 feet (3.0 m) off the ground, narrowly avoiding receiving a shrapnel wound. Two Air America pilots who were in Laos at that time said that the planes only flew during the day and that they also flew no less than 500 feet (150 m) from the ground. One pilot suggested that it might have been possible for Duke to have gone on a safe "milk run" once or twice but no more than that. Duke was also unable to recall the name of the airfield that he had used.[22]

1972 arrest in New Orleans

In January 1972, Duke was arrested in New Orleans for "inciting a riot". Several racial confrontations broke out that month in the Crescent City, including one at the Robert E. Lee Monument involving Duke, Addison Roswell Thompson—a perennial segregationist candidate for governor of Louisiana and mayor of New Orleans—and his 89-year-old friend and mentor, Rene LaCoste (not to be confused with the French tennis player René Lacoste). Thompson and LaCoste dressed in Klan robes for the occasion and placed a Confederate flag at the monument. The Black Panthers began throwing bricks at the two men, but police arrived in time to prevent serious injury.[24]

In 1972, Duke was charged with soliciting campaign funds for presidential candidate George Wallace and then keeping the proceeds. He was also charged with filling glass containers with a flammable liquid, banned under a New Orleans ordinance. In due course, both charges were dropped.[16]

Knights of the Ku Klux Klan

David Duke outside the Houses of Parliament in London in 1978.

In 1974, Duke founded the Louisiana-based Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (KKKK), shortly after graduating from LSU.[16][25] He became the youngest ever grand wizard of the KKKK in 1976.[18] A follower of Duke, Thomas Robb, changed the title of Grand Wizard to National Director, and replaced the Klan's white robes with business suits.[26] Duke first received broad public attention during this time, as he endeavored to market himself in the mid-1970s as a new brand of Klansman: well-groomed, engaged, and professional. Duke also reformed the organization, promoting nonviolence and legality, and, for the first time in the Klan's history, women were accepted as equal members and Catholics were encouraged to apply for membership.[27] Duke would repeatedly insist that the Klan was "not anti-black" but rather "pro-white" and "pro-Christian." Duke told the British Daily Telegraph newspaper that he left the Klan in 1980 because he disliked its associations with violence and could not stop the members of other Klan chapters from doing "stupid or violent things."[28] It was asserted by Julia Reed in The New York Review of Books in April 1992 that Duke left the Klan for selling its membership to a rival Klan leader who was a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) informer.[18]

Political and ideological activities

Early campaigns

Duke first ran for the Louisiana Senate as a Democrat from a Baton Rouge district in 1975. During his campaign, he was allowed to speak on the college campuses of Vanderbilt University, Indiana University, the University of Southern California, Stanford University, and Tulane University.[29] He received 11,079 votes, one-third of those cast.[12][30]

In October 1979, he ran as a Democrat for the 10th District Senate seat and finished second in a three-candidate race with 9,897 votes (26%).[31]

In the late 1970s, Duke was accused by several Klan officials of stealing the organization's money. "Duke is nothing but a con artist", Jack Gregory, Duke's Florida state leader, told the Clearwater Sun after Duke allegedly refused to turn over proceeds from a series of 1979 Klan rallies to the Knights. Another Klan official under Duke, Jerry Dutton, told reporters that Duke had used Klan funds to purchase and refurbish his home in Metairie. Duke later justified the repairs by saying most of his home was used by the Klan.

After his first, abortive run for president (as a Democrat) and a series of highly publicized violent Klan incidents, In 1980, Duke left the Klan and formed the National Association for the Advancement of White People (NAAWP), a white nationalist organization[32] inverting the name of the NAACP.[33] Using the group's newsletter, he promoted Holocaust denial literature for sale such as The Hoax of the Twentieth Century and Did Six Million Really Die?.[18]

Duke allegedly conducted a direct-mail appeal in 1987, using the identity and mailing-list of the Georgia Forsyth County Defense League without permission. League officials described it as a fundraising scam.[34]

1988 presidential campaign

Main article: David Duke presidential campaign, 1988

In 1988, Duke ran initially in the Democratic presidential primaries. His campaign had limited impact, with the only exception—winning the little-known New Hampshire vice presidential primary.[35] Duke, having failed to gain much traction as a Democrat, then sought and gained the presidential nomination of the Populist Party, an organisation founded by Willis Carto.[36][37] He appeared on the ballot for president in 11 states and was a write-in candidate in some other states, some with Trenton Stokes of Arkansas for vice president, and on other state ballots with Floyd Parker, a physician from New Mexico,[38] for vice president. He received just 47,047 votes, for 0.04% of the national popular vote.[39]

1989: Successful run in special election for Louisiana House seat

In December 1988, Duke changed his political affiliation from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party.[40]

In 1988, Republican state representative Charles Cusimano of Metairie resigned his District 81 seat to become a 24th Judicial District Court judge, and a special election was called early in 1989 to select a successor. Duke entered the race to succeed Cusimano and faced several opponents, including fellow Republicans John Spier Treen, a brother of former governor David C. Treen; Delton Charles, a school board member; and Roger F. Villere Jr., who operates Villere's Florist in Metairie. Duke finished first in the primary with 3,995 votes (33.1%).[41] As no one received a majority of the vote in the first round, a runoff election was required between Duke and Treen, who polled 2,277 votes (18.9%) in the first round of balloting. Treen's candidacy was endorsed by U.S. president George H. W. Bush, former president Ronald Reagan, and other prominent Republicans,[42] as well as Democrats Victor Bussie (president of the Louisiana AFL-CIO) and Edward J. Steimel (president of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry and former director of the "good government" think tank, the Public Affairs Research Council). Duke, however, criticized Treen on a statement the latter had made indicating a willingness to entertain higher property taxes, anathema in that suburban district.[43] Duke, with 8,459 votes (50.7%), defeated Treen, who polled 8,232 votes (49.3%).[44] He served in the House from 1989 until 1992.[45]

Freshman legislator Odon Bacqué of Lafayette, a No Party member of the House, stood alone in 1989 when he attempted to deny seating to Duke on the grounds that the incoming representative had resided outside his district at the time of his election. When Treen failed in a court challenge in regard to Duke's residency, Duke was seated. Lawmakers who opposed Duke said that they had to defer to his constituents, who narrowly chose Duke as representative.[46]

As state representative

Duke took his seat on the same day as Jerry Luke LeBlanc of Lafayette Parish (who won another special election, held on the same day as the Duke-Treen runoff, to choose a successor to Kathleen Blanco), the future governor who was elected to the Louisiana Public Service Commission. Duke and LeBlanc were sworn in separately.

Colleague Ron Gomez of Lafayette stated that Duke, as a short-term legislator, was "so single minded, he never really became involved in the nuts and bolts of House rules and parliamentary procedure. It was just that shortcoming that led to the demise of most of his attempts at lawmaking."[47]

One legislative issue pushed by Duke was the requirement that welfare recipients be tested for the use of narcotics. The recipients had to show themselves to be drug-free to receive state and federal benefits under his proposal.[48]

Gomez, a longtime journalist, recalls having met and interviewed Duke in the mid-1970s when Duke was a state senate candidate:

He was still in his mid-20s and very non-descript. Tall and slimly built, he had a very prominent nose, flat cheek bones, a slightly receding chin and straight dark brown hair. The interview turned out to be quite innocuous, and I hadn't thought about it again until Duke came to my legislative desk, and we shook hands. Who was this guy? Tall and well-built with a perfect nose, a model's cheek bones, prominent chin, blue eyes and freshly coiffed blond hair, he looked like a movie star. He obviously didn't remember from the radio encounter, and I was content to leave it at that.[49]

Consistent with Gomez's observation, Duke in the latter 1980s reportedly had his nose thinned and chin augmented. Following his election to the Louisiana House of Representatives, he shaved his mustache.[50][51] Gomez, in his 2000 autobiography, wrote about Duke:

He once presented a bill on the floor, one of the few which he had managed to get out of committee. He finished his opening presentation and strolled with great self-satisfaction back up the aisle to his seat. In his mind, he had spoken, made his presentation and that was that. Before he had even reached his desk and re-focused on the proceedings, another first-term member had been recognized for the floor and immediately moved to table the bill. The House voted for the motions effectively killing the bill. That and similar procedures were used against him many times.[52]

Gomez said that he recalls Duke obtaining the passage of only a single bill, legislation which prohibited movie producers or book publishers from compensating jurors for accounts of their court experiences.[53]

Gomez added that Duke's "tenure in the House was short and uninspired. Never has anyone parlayed an election by such a narrow margin to such a minor position to such international prominence. He has run for numerous other positions without success but has always had some effect, usually negative, on the outcome."[54]

Gomez continued:

[Duke's] new message was that he had left the Klan, shed the Nazi uniform he had proudly worn in many previous appearances, and only wanted to serve the people. He eliminated his high-octane anti-Semitic rhetoric. He was particularly concerned with the plight of "European-Americans." He never blatantly spoke of race as a factor but referred to the "growing underclass." He used the tried and true demagoguery of class envy to sell his message: excessive taxpayers' money spent on welfare, school busing practices, affirmative action... and set-aside programs. He also embraced a subject near and dear to every Jefferson Parish voter, protection of the homestead exemption.[55]

Duke launched unsuccessful campaigns for the U.S. Senate in 1990 and governor in 1991.[56]

1990 campaign for U.S. Senate

Main article: United States Senate election in Louisiana, 1990

Though Duke had first hesitated about entering the Senate race, he made his announcement of candidacy for the nonpartisan blanket primary held on October 6, 1990. Duke was the only Republican in competition against three Democrats, including incumbent U.S. senator J. Bennett Johnston, Jr., of Shreveport,[57] whom Duke derided as "J. Benedict Johnston".[58]

Former governor David Treen, whose brother, John Treen, Duke had defeated for state representative in 1989, called Duke's senatorial platform "garbage. ... I think he is bad for our party because of his espousal of Nazism and racial superiority."[59]

The Republican Party officially endorsed state senator Ben Bagert of New Orleans in a state convention on January 13, 1990, but national GOP officials in October, just days before the primary election, concluded that Bagert could not win. To avoid a runoff between Duke and Johnston, the GOP decided to surrender the primary to Johnston. Funding for Bagert's campaign was halted, and after initial protest, Bagert dropped out two days before the election. With such a late withdrawal, Bagert's name remained on the ballot, but his votes, most of which were presumably cast as absentee ballots, were not counted.[60][61] Duke received 43.51 percent (607,391 votes) of the primary vote to Johnston's 53.93 percent (752,902 votes).[57]

Duke's views prompted some of his critics, including Republicans such as journalist Quin Hillyer, to form the Louisiana Coalition Against Racism and Nazism, which directed media attention to Duke's statements of hostility to blacks and Jews.[62]

In a 2006 Financial Times editorial, Gideon Rachman recalled interviewing Duke's 1990 campaign manager, who said, "The Jews just aren't a big issue in Louisiana. We keep telling David, stick to attacking the blacks. There's no point in going after the Jews, you just piss them off and nobody here cares about them anyway."[63]

1991 campaign for Governor of Louisiana

Main article: 1991 Louisiana gubernatorial election

Despite repudiation by the Republican Party,[64] Duke ran for governor of Louisiana in 1991. In the primary, Duke finished second to former governor Edwin W. Edwards in votes; thus, he faced Edwards in a runoff. In the initial round, Duke received 32% of the vote. Incumbent governor Buddy Roemer, who had switched from the Democratic to Republican parties during his term, came in third with 27% of the vote. Duke effectively killed Roemer's bid for re-election. While Duke had a sizable core constituency of devoted supporters, many voted for him as a "protest vote" to register dissatisfaction with Louisiana's establishment politicians. In response to criticism for his past white supremacist activities, Duke's stock response was to apologize for his past and declare that he was a born-again Christian.[65] During the campaign, Duke said he was the spokesman for the "white majority"[66] and, according to The New York Times, "equated the extermination of Jews in Nazi Germany with affirmative action programs in the United States."[6]

The Christian Coalition of America, which exerted considerable impact on the Republican State Central Committee, was led in Louisiana by its national director and vice president, Billy McCormack, then the pastor of University Worship Center in Shreveport. The coalition was accused of having failed to investigate Duke in the early part of his political resurgence. By the time of the 1991 gubernatorial election, however, its leadership had withdrawn support from Duke.[67] Despite Duke's status as the only Republican in the runoff, incumbent president George H. W. Bush (a Republican) opposed his candidacy and denounced him as a charlatan and a racist.[6] White House chief of staff John H. Sununu stated that "The president is absolutely opposed to the kind of racist statements that have come out of David Duke now and in the past."[68]

The Louisiana Coalition against Racism and Nazism rallied against Duke's gubernatorial campaign. Beth Rickey, a moderate member of the Louisiana Republican State Central Committee and a PhD student at Tulane University, began to follow Duke to record his speeches and expose what she saw as instances of racist and neo-Nazi remarks. For a time, Duke took Rickey to lunch, introduced her to his daughters, telephoned her late at night, and tried to convince her of his worldview: the Holocaust was a myth, Auschwitz physician Josef Mengele was a medical genius, and that blacks and Jews were responsible for various social ills. Rickey released transcripts of their conversations to the press and also provided evidence establishing that Duke sold Nazi literature (including Mein Kampf) from his legislative office and attended neo-Nazi political gatherings while he held elective office.[69][70]

Between the primary and the runoff, called the "general election" under Louisiana election rules (in which all candidates run on one ballot, regardless of party), white supremacist organizations from around the country contributed to Duke's campaign fund.[71][11]

Duke's rise garnered national media attention. While he gained the backing of former Alexandria mayor John K. Snyder, Duke won few serious endorsements in Louisiana. Celebrities and organizations donated thousands of dollars to former Governor Edwin Edwards' campaign. Referencing Edwards' long-standing problem with accusations of corruption, popular bumper stickers read: "Vote for the Crook. It's Important",[72][73] and "Vote for the Lizard, not the Wizard." When a reporter asked Edwards what he needed to do to triumph over Duke, Edwards replied with a smile: "Stay alive."

The runoff debate, held on November 6, 1991, received significant attention when journalist Norman Robinson questioned Duke. Robinson, who is African American, told Duke that he was "scared" at the prospect of Duke winning the election because of his history of "diabolical, evil, vile" racist and antisemitic comments, some of which he read to Duke. He then pressed Duke for an apology and when Duke protested that Robinson was not being fair to him, Robinson replied that he didn't think Duke was being honest. Jason Berry of the Los Angeles Times called it "startling TV" and the "catalyst" for the "overwhelming" turnout of black voters who helped Edwards defeat Duke.[65]

Edwards received 1,057,031 votes (61.2%), while Duke's 671,009 votes represented 38.8% of the total. Duke nevertheless claimed victory, saying, "I won my constituency. I won 55% of the white vote", a statistic confirmed by exit polls.[20] Duke, rather than Edwards, was on network television the following day; his rival refused to appear with him.[18]

1992 Republican Party presidential candidate

Main article: Republican Party presidential primaries, 1992

Duke ran as a Republican in the 1992 presidential primaries, although Republican Party officials tried to block his participation.[74] He received 119,115 (0.94%) votes[75] in the primaries, but no delegates to the 1992 Republican National Convention.

A documentary film, Backlash: Race and the American Dream (1992), investigated Duke's appeal among some white voters. Backlash explored the demagogic issues of Duke's platform, examining his use of black crime, welfare, affirmative action and white supremacy and tied Duke to a legacy of other white backlash politicians, such as Lester G. Maddox and George Wallace, and the use in the successful 1988 presidential campaign of George H. W. Bush of these same racially themed hot buttons.[76]

1996 campaign for U.S. Senate

Main article: United States Senate election in Louisiana, 1996

When Johnston announced his retirement in 1996, Duke ran again for the U.S. Senate. He polled 141,489 votes (11.5%). Former Republican state representative Woody Jenkins of Baton Rouge and Democrat Mary Landrieu of New Orleans, the former state treasurer, went into the general election contest. Duke was fourth in the nine-person, jungle primary race.[77]

1999 campaign for U.S. House

A special election was held in Louisiana's First Congressional District following the sudden resignation of Republican incumbent Bob Livingston in 1999. Duke sought the seat as a Republican and received 19% of the vote. He finished a close third, thus failing to make the runoff. His candidacy was repudiated by the Republicans.[78] Republican Party chairman Jim Nicholson remarked: "There is no room in the party of Lincoln for a Klansman like David Duke."[78] Republican state representative David Vitter (later a U.S. senator) went on to defeat former governor Treen. Also in the race was the New Orleans Republican leader Rob Couhig.[79]

New Orleans Protocol

Duke organized a weekend gathering of "European Nationalists" in Kenner, Louisiana. In an attempt to overcome the splintering and division in the white nationalist movement that had followed the death in 2002 of leader William Luther Pierce, Duke presented a unity proposal for peace within the movement and a better image for outsiders. His proposal was accepted and is now known as the New Orleans Protocol (NOP). It pledges adherents to a pan-European outlook, recognizing national and ethnic allegiance, but stressing the value of all European peoples. Signed by and sponsored by a number of white supremacist leaders and organizations, it has three provisions:[80][81]

1. Zero tolerance for violence.

2. Honorable and ethical behavior in relations with other signatory groups. This includes not denouncing others who have signed this protocol. In other words, no enemies on the right.

3. Maintaining a high tone in our arguments and public presentations.

Those who signed the pact on May 29, 2004, include Duke, Don Black, Paul Fromm, Willis Carto (whose Holocaust-denying The Barnes Review helped sponsor the event), Kevin Alfred Strom, and John Tyndall (signing as an individual, not on behalf of the British National Party).[80]

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) said that the "high tone" of the NOP contrasted with statements at the event where the pact was signed, such as Paul Fromm's calling a Muslim woman "a hag in a bag" and Sam Dickson (from the Council of Conservative Citizens, another sponsor) speaking about the "very, very destructive" effect of opposing the Nazis in World War II—opposition that caused people to view Hitler's "normal, healthy racial values" as evil.[80] The SPLC described the NOP as a "smokescreen," saying that "most of the conference participants' ire was directed at what they consider to be a worldwide Jewish conspiracy to destroy the white race through immigration and miscegenation".[82]

Political activity (1999–2012)

Duke joined the Reform Party in 1999 while working for Pat Buchanan's 2000 presidential campaign. Duke and Buchanan would both leave the party after the election.

In 2004, Duke's bodyguard, roommate, and longtime associate Roy Armstrong made a bid for the United States House of Representatives, running as a Democrat, to serve Louisiana's First Congressional District. In the open primary, Armstrong finished second in the six candidate field with 6.69% of the vote, but Republican Bobby Jindal received 78.40%, thus winning the seat.[83] Duke was the head advisor of Armstrong's campaign.[84][85]

Duke claimed that thousands of Tea Party movement activists had urged him to run for president in 2012,[86][87] and that he was seriously considering entering the Republican Party primaries.[87] However, Duke ultimately did not contest the primaries won by Mitt Romney, who lost the presidential election to incumbent Barack Obama.[88]

Donald Trump advocacy

In 2015, it was reported by the media that Duke endorsed then presidential nominee Donald Trump.[89][90] Duke later clarified in an interview with The Daily Beast in August 2015 that while he viewed Trump as "the best of the lot", due to his stance on immigration, Trump's support for Israel was a deal breaker for him. Duke claimed that "Trump has made it very clear that he's 1,000 percent dedicated to Israel, so how much is left over for America?"[91] In December 2015, Duke said Donald Trump speaks more radically than he does, advising that Trump's radical speech is both a positive and a negative.[92][93]

In February 2016, Duke urged his listeners to vote Trump, saying that voting for anyone besides Donald Trump "is really treason to your heritage." Trump, Duke believed, was "by far the best candidate".[94][95] Trump's responses to Duke varied from denying knowledge of him to rejection of his support, with Trump commenting on Duke calling him "a bigot, a racist, a problem. I mean, this is not exactly the people you want in your party.”[96]

For the 2020 presidential election, again endorsed Donald Trump.[97] Duke urged President Trump to replace his vice president Mike Pence with talk show host Tucker Carlson claiming such a ticket was the only way to "stop the commie Bolsheviks".[98] Carlson has not expressed support for David Duke.[97]

2016 campaign for U.S. Senate

Main article: United States Senate election in Louisiana, 2016

On July 22, 2016, Duke announced that he was planning to run for the Republican nomination for the United States Senate seat in Louisiana being vacated by Republican David Vitter.[99] He stated that he was running "to defend the rights of European Americans". He claimed that his platform has become the Republican mainstream and added, "I'm overjoyed to see Donald Trump and most Americans embrace most of the issues that I've championed for years." However, Trump's campaign reaffirmed that Trump disavows Duke's support, and Republican organizations said they will not support him "under any circumstances".[100] On August 5, 2016, National Public Radio (NPR) aired an interview between Duke and Steve Inskeep in which Duke claimed that there was widespread racism against European Americans, that they have been subject to vicious attacks in the media, and that Trump's voters were also his voters.[101][102]

A Mason-Dixon poll released on October 20, 2016, showed Duke receiving support from 5.1% of voters in the state, barely clearing the 5% requirement for a candidate to be allowed to participate in a November 2 debate.[103]

Duke received 3% of the vote on Election Day, with a total of 58,581 votes out of nearly 2 million cast. He came in 7th place in Louisiana's open primary.[104]

Those who made donations to the campaign were publicly outed in several states in 2017, leading to boycotts, lost business, and one restaurant to close entirely.[105][106]

2020 United States presidential election endorsement

In February 2019, the media reported Duke had endorsed presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard for the Democratic ticket and changed his Twitter banner to a picture of Gabbard. He tweeted "Tulsi Gabbard for President. Finally a candidate who will actually put America First rather than Israel First!"[107] Gabbard refused Duke's support: "I have strongly denounced David Duke’s hateful views and his so-called 'support' multiple times in the past, and reject his support."[108]

Antisemitism

Racial theories

In 1998, Duke self-published the autobiographical My Awakening: A Path to Racial Understanding.[15] The book details Duke's social philosophies, including his advocacy of racial separation:

We [Whites] desire to live in our own neighborhoods, go to our own schools, work in our own cities and towns, and ultimately live as one extended family in our own nation. We shall end the racial genocide of integration. We shall work for the eventual establishment of a separate homeland for African Americans, so each race will be free to pursue its own destiny without racial conflicts and ill will.[9]

A book review by Abraham Foxman, then the National Director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), describes My Awakening as containing racist, antisemitic, sexist and homophobic opinions.[15]

Duke promotes the white genocide conspiracy theory and explicitly claims that Jews are "organising white genocide".[109][110][111][112][113] In 2017 he accused Anthony Bourdain of promoting white genocide.[114][115]

Claims of "Jewish supremacy"

David Duke (right) and Udo Voigt (left), the former leader of the National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD)

In 2001, Duke promoted his book, Jewish Supremacism: My Awakening to the Jewish Question in Russia. In this work, he purports to "examine and document elements of ethnic supremacism that have existed in the Jewish community from historical to modern times."[116] The book is dedicated to Israel Shahak, a critical author of what Shahak saw as supremacist religious teachings in Jewish culture. Former Boris Yeltsin press minister Boris Mironov wrote an introduction for the Russian edition, printed under the title The Jewish Question Through the Eyes of an American. The work draws on the writings of Kevin B. MacDonald, including multiple uses of the same sources and citations.[117]

The Anti-Defamation League office in Moscow urged the Moscow prosecutor to open an investigation into Mironov. The ADL office initiated a letter from Alexander Fedulov, a prominent member of the Duma, to Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov, urging a criminal case be opened against the author and the Russian publisher of Duke's book. In his letter, Fedulov described the book as antisemitic and a violation of Russian anti-hate crime laws.[118] Around December 2001, the prosecutor's office closed the investigation of Boris Mironov and Jewish Supremacism. In a public letter, Yury Biryukov, First Deputy of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, stated that a psychological examination, which was conducted as a part of the investigation, concluded that the book and the actions of Boris Mironov did not break Russian hate-crime laws.[119]

The ADL has described the book as antisemitic.[120] At one time, the book was sold in the main lobby of the building of Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament).[121] The first printing of 5,000 copies sold out in several weeks. In 2004, the book was published in the United States.

After the publication in March 2006 of a paper on the Israel lobby by professors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, Duke praised the paper in a number of articles on his website, in his broadcasts, and on MSNBC's March 21 Scarborough Country program.[122] According to The New York Sun, Duke said in an email, he was "surprised how excellent [the paper] is. It is quite satisfying to see a body in the premier American university essentially come out and validate every major point I have been making since even before the war [in Iraq] even started. ...The task before us is to wrest control of America's foreign policy and critical junctures of media from the Jewish extremist Neocons that seek to lead us into what they expectantly call World War IV."[123][124] Stephen Walt stated: "I have always found Mr. Duke's views reprehensible, and I am sorry he sees this article as consistent with his view of the world".[123]

In 2015, after 47 Senate Republicans warned Iran that agreements made with the US that were not ratified by the Senate were liable to be repudiated by a future President, Duke told Fox News' Alan Colmes that the signatories "should become a Jew, put on a yarmulke because they are not Americans, they have sold their soul to the Jewish power in this country and the Jewish power overseas."[125][126] His website has hosted articles by authors claiming that Jewish loan-sharks own the Federal Reserve Bank,[127] and that Jews own Hollywood and the U.S. media.[128]

Supposed "Zionist control"

In the post-9/11 issue of his newsletter, Duke wrote that "reason should tell us that even if Israeli agents were not the actual provocateurs behind the operation [on 9/11], at the very least they had prior knowledge. ...Zionists caused the attack America endured just as surely as if they themselves had piloted those planes. It was caused by the Jewish control of the American media and Congress."[129]

In an interview for the Iranian Press TV on September 11, 2012, Duke said: "There are Israeli fingerprints all over the whole 9/11 aspect. ...Israel has a long record of terrorism against America... there are a lot of reasons that Israel wanted 9/11 to happen. Of the Iraq War, according to Duke, "The Zionists orchestrated and created this war in the media, the government, and international finance."[130] In another appearance on Press TV the following year, Duke said Congress "is totally in the hands of the Zionists. The Zionists control the American government, lock, stock, and barrel." According to him, the supposed control of America by Jews is "the world’s greatest single problem".[131]

Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel

Duke expressed support for Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel, a German emigrant in Canada. Duke made a number of statements supporting Zündel and his campaign of Holocaust denial.[132] Zündel was deported from Canada to Germany[133] and imprisoned in Germany on charges of inciting the masses to ethnic hatred. After Zündel died in August 2017, Duke referred to him as being a "very heroic and courageous European preservationist".[134]

Activities in Ukraine and Russia (2005–2006)

In the 1990s, Duke traveled to Russia several times, meeting anti-Semitic Russian politicians such as Vladimir Zhirinovsky and Albert Makashov.[16] In September 2005, Duke received a non-accredited "PhD in history"[135] from the Ukrainian private university Interregional Academy of Personnel Management (MAUP), an institution that has been described by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) as a "University of Hate."[136] Duke's doctoral thesis was titled "Zionism as a Form of Ethnic Supremacism."[135] However, the PhD program of MAUP was not accredited by the Higher Attestation Commission of Ukraine and is not accredited by that state body's successor, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine,[137] so the PhD diplomas issued by MAUP are not recognized by the Ukrainian state as real academic degrees.[57][138]

The ADL has said that MAUP is the main source of antisemitic activity and publishing in Ukraine,[139] and its "anti-Semitic actions" were "strongly condemned" by Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk and various organizations.[140][141][142][143]

Duke has taught a course on international relations and a history course at MAUP.[144]

On June 3, 2005, Duke co-chaired a conference named "Zionism As the Biggest Threat to Modern Civilization" in Ukraine, sponsored by the Interregional Academy of Personnel Management. The conference was attended by several notable Ukrainian public figures and politicians, and Israel Shamir described by the ADL as "an anti-Semitic writer".[145]

On the weekend of June 8–10, 2006, Duke attended as a speaker at the international "White World's Future" conference in Moscow, which was coordinated and hosted by Pavel Tulayev.[146]

Iranian Holocaust conference

From December 11–13, 2006, at the invitation of then Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Duke took part in the International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust, an event held in Tehran questioning the Holocaust. "The Zionists have used the Holocaust as a weapon to deny the rights of the Palestinians and cover up the crimes of Israel," Duke told a gathering of nearly 70 participants. "This conference has an incredible impact on Holocaust studies all over the world," said Duke.[147] According to Duke: "The Holocaust is the device used as the pillar of Zionist imperialism, Zionist aggression, Zionist terror and Zionist murder."[148]

Other affiliations and associations

Stormfront

In 1995, Don Black and Chloê Hardin, Duke's ex-wife, began a bulletin board system (BBS) called Stormfront. The website has become a prominent online forum for white nationalism, white separatism, Holocaust denial, neo-Nazism, hate speech and racism.[149][150][151] Duke is an active user of Stormfront, where he posts articles from his own website and polls forum members for opinions and questions. Duke has worked with Don Black on numerous occasions, including on Operation Red Dog (the attempted overthrowing of Dominica's government) in 1980.[152][153] Duke continued to be involved with website's radio station in 2019.[154]

British National Party

In 2000, Nick Griffin (then leader of the British National Party in the United Kingdom) met with Duke at a seminar with the American Friends of the British National Party.[155] Griffin said:

instead of talking about racial purity, we talk about identity … that means basically to use the saleable words, as I say, freedom, security, identity, democracy. Nobody can criticise them. Nobody can come at you and attack you on those ideas. They are saleable.

— Nick Griffin[156][157][158]

This was widely reported in the media of the United Kingdom, as well as the meeting between Duke and Griffin, following electoral successes made by the party in 2009.[156][157][158]

Alt-right

Duke has written in praise of the alt-right, describing one broadcast as "fun and interesting"[159] and another as "this great show".[160] People for the American Way reported Duke championing the alt-right.[161] Duke described them as "our people" when describing their role in Donald Trump's election as president.[162]

There are also claims that whilst he is not an active member of the alt-right, he is an inspiration for the movement. The International Business Times described Duke as having "'Zieg-heiling acolytes in the so-called 'alt-right'".[163] The Forward has said that Duke "paved the way" for the alt-right movement.[164]

Legal difficulties and felony conviction

Tax fraud conviction and defrauding followers

On December 12, 2002, David Duke pleaded guilty to the felony charge of filing a false tax return under 26 U.S.C. § 7206 and mail fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1341[7] According to The New York Times: "Mr. Duke was accused of telling supporters that he was in financial straits, then misusing the money they sent him from 1993 to 1999. He was also accused of filing a false 1998 tax return... Mr. Duke used the money for personal investments and gambling trips... [T]he [supporter] contributions were as small as $5 and [according to the United States attorney, Jim Letten] there were so many that returning the money would be 'unwieldy.'"[165]

Four months later, Duke was sentenced to 15 months in prison, and he served the time in Big Spring, Texas. He was also fined US$10,000 and ordered to cooperate with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and to pay money still owed for his 1998 taxes. Following his release in May 2004, he stated that his decision to take the plea bargain was motivated by the bias that he perceived in the United States federal court system and not his guilt. He said he felt the charges were contrived to derail his political career and discredit him to his followers, and that he took the safe route by pleading guilty and receiving a mitigated sentence rather than pleading not guilty and potentially receiving the full sentence.

The mail fraud charges stemmed from what prosecutors described as a six-year scheme to dupe thousands of his followers by asking for donations. Using the postal service, Duke appealed to his supporters for funds by fraudulently stating he was about to lose his house and his life savings. Prosecutors alleged that Duke raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in this scheme. Prosecutors also stipulated that in contrast to what he stated in the mailings, he sold his home at a hefty profit, had multiple investment accounts, and spent much of his money gambling at casinos.[8][166][167]

The Smoking Gun posted the entire file of court documents related to this case at its website, including details on Duke's guilty pleas.[168]

2009 arrest in the Czech Republic

Duke in Belgium in 2008

In April 2009, Duke traveled to the Czech Republic on invitation by a Czech neo-Nazi group known as Národní Odpor ("National Resistance") to deliver three lectures in Prague and Brno to promote the Czech translation of his book My Awakening.[169]

He was arrested on April 23 on suspicion of "denying or approving of the Nazi genocide and other Nazi crimes" and "promotion of movements seeking suppression of human rights," which are crimes in the Czech Republic punishable by up to three years' imprisonment. At the time of his arrest, Duke was reportedly guarded by members of the Národní Odpor.[170][171] The police released him early on April 25 on condition that he leave the country by midnight that same day.[172][173][174]

Duke's first lecture had been scheduled at Charles University in Prague, but it was canceled after university officials learned that neo-Nazis were planning to attend.[175] Some Czech politicians, including Interior Minister Ivan Langer and Human Rights and Minorities Minister Michael Kocáb, had previously expressed opposition to Duke's being allowed entrance into the Czech Republic.[170]

In September 2009, the office of the District Prosecutor for Prague dropped all charges, explaining that there was no evidence that Duke had committed any crime.[176]

2013 expulsion from Italy; Schengen Area ban

In 2013, an Italian court ruled in favor of expelling Duke from Italy.[177] Duke, then 63, was living in mountain village Valle di Cadore in northern Italy. Although Duke had been issued a visa to live there by the Italian embassy in Malta, Italian police later found that Switzerland had issued a residence ban against Duke that applied throughout Europe's Schengen Area.[177]

Other publications

To raise money in 1976, Duke (using the double pseudonym James Konrad and Dorothy Vanderbilt) wrote a self-help book for women, Finders-Keepers: Finding and Keeping the Man You Want.[178] The book contains sexual, diet, fashion, cosmetic and relationship advice, and was published by Arlington Place Books, an offshoot of the National Socialist White People's Party.[179] Tulane University history professor Lawrence N. Powell, who read a rare copy of the book given to him by journalist Patsy Sims, wrote that it includes advice on vaginal exercises, oral and anal sex and advocated adultery. The puritan-inclined Klan was shocked by Duke's writing.[178][180][181] According to journalist Tyler Bridges, The Times-Picayune obtained a copy and traced its provenance to Duke,[182] who compiled the content from women's self-help magazines.[20] Duke has admitted using the pseudonym Konrad.[183]

He also wrote African Atto under the pseudonym Mohammed X in 1970s, a martial arts guide for black militants; he claimed it was a means of developing a mailing list to keep watch over such activists.[12]

Personal life

While working in the White Youth Alliance, Duke met Chloê Eleanor Hardin, who was also active in the group. They remained companions throughout college and married in 1974. Hardin is the mother of Duke's two daughters, Erika and Kristin. The Dukes divorced in 1984,[184] and Chloe moved to West Palm Beach, Florida, in order to be near her parents. There, she became involved with Duke's Klan friend Don Black, whom she later married.[185] Duke rented out an apartment in Moscow beginning around 1999.[121] He lived in Russia for five years. Duke currently resides in Mandeville, Louisiana.[186]

In the media

Duke is portrayed by actor Topher Grace in the Spike Lee film BlacKkKlansman (2018).[187]

Duke was banned from YouTube in late June 2020 for repeated violation of the platform's policies against hate speech, along with Richard Spencer and Stefan Molyneux.[188] Duke's Twitter account was "permanently suspended" at the end of the following month for violating the company's rules on hateful conduct.[189][190]

Self-published books

- Duke, David Jewish Supremacism (Free Speech Press, 2003; 350 pages) ISBN 1-892796-05-8

- Duke, David My Awakening (Free Speech Books, 1998; 736 pages) ISBN 1-892796-00-7

See also

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Richard B. Spencer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the British painter, see Richard Ball Spencer. For other people with similar names, see Richard Spencer (disambiguation).

Not to be confused with the Jihad Watch blogger Robert B. Spencer.

Richard B. Spencer

A photograph of Richard Spencer holding a microphone and pointing

Spencer in 2016

Born

Richard Bertrand Spencer

1978 (age 41–42)

Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.

Nationality

American

Education

St. Mark's School of Texas

Alma mater

- Colgate University

- University of Virginia (BA)

- University of Chicago (MA)

- Duke University (PhD candidate; withdrew)

Occupation

Author, publisher

Known for

- President and director of the National Policy Institute

- Executive director of Washington Summit Publishers

- Organizing the 2017 Unite the Right neo-Nazi demonstration in Charlottesville that caused one death and multiple injuries.

Political party

Independent

Movement

- Alt-right

- Identitarian movement

- Neo-Nazism

- White supremacy

Spouse(s)

Nina Kouprianova

( 2010;  2018)

Children

2

Richard Bertrand Spencer (born 1978) is an American neo-Nazi,[1][2] antisemitic conspiracy theorist and white supremacist who is known for his activism on behalf of the alt-right movement in 2016 and 2017.[1][3] Spencer calls for the reconstitution of the European Union into a white racial empire, which he believes will replace the diverse European ethnic identities with one homogeneous "white identity".[4][5][6] The majority of European nations have banned Spencer and denounced his call for white racial empire.[7] Poland in particular has repeatedly sought to ban Spencer from Europe, citing Spencer's Nazi rhetoric and the Nazis' genocide of Slavic people during World War II.[8]

Spencer is known for his public advocacy of violence against nonwhites. He has advocated for the enslavement of Haitians by whites,[9] the ethnic cleansing of racial minorities from the United States, and the ethnic cleansing of Turks from Anatolia.[9] On the subject of neo-Nazism, Spencer has expressed admiration for the political tactics of American Nazi Party founder George Lincoln Rockwell.[10][11] He was a featured speaker at the August 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, among other neo-Nazi rallies that Spencer has headlined.[12]

Spencer's public persona was defined by his repeated, public use of Nazi rhetoric. In early 2016, Spencer was filmed giving the Nazi salute in a karaoke bar, and leaked footage also depicts Spencer giving the Sieg Heil salute to his supporters during the August 2017 Charlottesville rally.[13] After Donald Trump was elected President, Spencer urged his supporters to "party like it's 1933," the year Hitler came to power in Germany.[14] In the weeks following, Spencer quoted Nazi propaganda and denounced Jews.[15] At a conference Spencer held celebrating the election, Spencer cried: "Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory!"; subsequently Mike Enoch led a number of Spencer's supporters in performing a Nazi salute and a chant similar to the Sieg Heil chant.[16][17] In early-to-mid 2017, when Spencer's following was at its height, his supporters would reportedly give him the Sieg Heil salute when he entered a room.[18]

Spencer has been involved in several legal issues. After the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, during which an alt-right supporter drove his car into a group of counter-protesters, killing one and injuring at least 19 others,[19][20][21] Spencer was sued for allegedly acting as a "gang boss" and inciting the killing.[22][23] Three supporters of Spencer were charged with attempted homicide following his October 2017 speech at the University of Florida.[24] In court, Spencer was accused of repeatedly physically abusing his ex-wife Nina Kouprianova, who has provided hours of recordings and text messages to the press in order to substantiate her allegations.[25][26] Court documents detailed emotional abuse and violent physical abuse, including when Kouprianova was 9 months pregnant, and frequently in front of their children.[27] Spencer denies all allegations against him.[28]

On June 22, 2020, the federal magistrate judge presiding over a civil rights lawsuit which stemmed from the violence at the Unite the Right rally in 2017, allowed Spencer's lawyer, John DiNucci to withdraw from the case, on the grounds that Spencer owed DiNucci a significant amount in legal fees, and also was not cooperating with him in preparing the case. Spencer will represent himself. At the time of DiNucci's withdrawal, Spencer also faced a $500 fine and two weeks in a county jail in Montana if he does not pay over $60,000 he owes to the guardian ad litem representing his children's interests in Spencer's ongoing divorce proceedings there.[29]

Contents

- 1Early life

- 2Activities

- 2.1Early activities

- 2.2Alt Right leader

- 2.3Public speaking

- 3Public response

- 3.1Speech at the University of Florida

- 3.2Opposition in Montana

- 3.3European Union bans

- 4Views

- 4.1White identity

- 4.2Ethno-nationalism

- 4.3Nazi rhetoric

- 4.4Donald Trump

- 4.5Gender roles

- 4.6Health care

- 4.7Christianity

- 4.8Geopolitics

- 4.9Libertarianism

- 5Influences

- 6Personal life

- 7References

- 7.1Bibliography

- 8External links

Early life

Richard Bertrand Spencer was born in 1978 in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of ophthalmologist Rand Spencer and Sherry Spencer (née Dickenhorst), the heiress to cotton farms in Louisiana.[30][31] He grew up in Preston Hollow, Dallas, Texas.[32] Spencer attended St. Mark's School of Texas, then Colgate University for one year before transferring to the University of Virginia.[30][32] In 2001, he received a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Music from the University of Virginia and, in 2003, a Master of Arts in the Humanities from the University of Chicago.[30][32] From the summer of 2005 into 2006, Spencer attended Vienna International Summer University.[32] From 2005 to 2007, he was a PhD student in Modern European intellectual history at Duke University. He joined the Duke Conservative Union, where he met future President Trump's senior policy advisor Stephen Miller.[30][32] His former website says he did not complete his PhD at Duke in order "to pursue a life of thought-crime".[32]

Activities

Early activities

From March to December 2007, Spencer was the assistant editor at The American Conservative magazine.[32] According to founding editor Scott McConnell, he was fired from The American Conservative because his views were considered too extreme.[33][32] From January 2008 to December 2009, he served as the executive editor of Taki's Magazine, a libertarian online magazine published by Taki Theodoracopulos.[34][32] He has claimed credit for coining the term alt-right in 2008 in order to differentiate himself from "mainstream American conservatism", although Paul Gottfried argues that both he and Spencer created the term.[35]

In March 2010, Spencer founded AlternativeRight.com, a website he edited until 2012.[36] In January 2011, he became the owner and executive director of Washington Summit Publishers.[32] In January 2011, Spencer became president and director of the National Policy Institute (NPI), a white supremacist think tank based in Virginia.[36] George Hawley, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Alabama, has described NPI as "rather obscure and marginalized" until Spencer became its president.[37]

Spencer was invited to speak at Vanderbilt University in 2010 and Providence College in 2011 by Youth for Western Civilization.[38][39] In 2012, he founded Radix Journal as a biannual publication of Washington Summit Publishers.[34][36] Contributions have included articles by Kevin B. MacDonald, Alex Kurtagić, and Samuel T. Francis.[36] He also hosts a weekly podcast, "Vanguard Radio."[36]

In 2014, Spencer was deported from Budapest, Hungary. Under terms of the Schengen Agreement, he was banned for three years from 26 countries in Europe after trying to organize the National Policy Institute Conference, a conference for white nationalists.[36][40][41]

Alt Right leader

On January 15, 2017, the day of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, Spencer launched the AltRight Corporation and its website altright.com, another commentary website for alt-right members.[36] According to Spencer, the site is a populist and big tent site for members of the alt-right.[42] Swedish publisher Daniel Friberg of Arktos Media is co-founder and European editor of the site.[43] The Southern Poverty Law Center of the United States describes the common thread among contributors as antisemitism, rather than white nationalism or white supremacy in general.[44][45] Contributors to AltRight.com have included Henrik Palmgren and Jared Taylor.[46][47] On February 23, 2017, Spencer was removed from the Conservative Political Action Conference, where he was giving statements to the press. A CPAC spokesman said he was removed from the event because other members found him "repugnant".[48]

White nationalist protesters clash with police during the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia

On May 13, 2017, he led a torch-lit protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, against the vote of the city council to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee, the commanding general of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia during the American Civil War.[49] Spencer led the crowd in chants of "You will not replace us" and "Blood and soil".[50][51] Michael Signer, the mayor of Charlottesville, called the protest "horrific", and stated that it was either "profoundly ignorant" or intended to instill fear among minorities "in a way that hearkens back to the days of the KKK".[50][49][52]

In August 2017, Spencer was listed as an organizer on posters promoting the Charlottesville, Virginia, Unite the Right rally. It attracted counter-protesters, and violence broke out. One rightist drove his car into a group of counter-protesters, killing one woman and wounding 30 so severely they needed treatment at hospital.[12] In November 2017, Twitter removed from Spencer's account the blue checkmark that, reported The Washington Post, "the company gives to prominent accounts to help readers ensure they are authentic". Spencer told The Post he was worried this would lead to Twitter banning people like him.[53] He later joined the social network Gab.[54]

In November 2019, Milo Yiannopolous released an audio recording allegedly of Spencer using racist slurs immediately after the 2017 Unite the Right rally. Spencer said he did not recall making the remarks, but did not deny the voice on the recording was his.[55] On the tape, Spencer is heard saying "Little fucking kikes. They get ruled by people like me. Little fucking octaroons. My ancestors fucking enslaved those little pieces of fucking shit."[55][56]

Public speaking

Short clip of Spencer speaking in November 2016

During a speech which Spencer gave in mid-November 2016 at an alt-right conference that was attended by approximately 200 people in Washington, D.C., Spencer quoted Nazi propaganda in the original German and denounced Jews.[15] Audience members cheered and gave the Nazi salute when he said, "Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory!"[15][57] and extended his right arm with a glass to toast that victory.[58] Spencer later defended their conduct, stating that the Nazi salute was given in a spirit of "irony and exuberance".[59] It was later revealed that Spencer had given the Nazi salute at a karaoke bar in April 2016.[13] Additionally, in 2017 Spencer reportedly pressured followers to give him the Sieg Heil salute when he entered a room. Leaked texts between Spencer and Eli Mosley indicate that those who refused to give the Nazi salute to Spencer, such as Jason Kessler, were stigmatized within the movement.[18]

Groups and events which Spencer has spoken to include the Property and Freedom Society,[60] the American Renaissance conference,[61] and the HL Mencken Club.[62] In November 2016, an online petition to prevent Spencer from speaking at Texas A&M University on December 6, 2016, was signed by thousands of students, employees, and alumni.[63] A protest and a university-organized counter-event were held to coincide with Spencer's event.[64]

Richard Spencer speaking about The “Alternative Right” in America in 2010 - video by Property and Freedom Society

On January 20, 2017, Spencer attended the inauguration of Donald Trump. As he was giving an impromptu interview on a nearby street afterwards, a masked man punched Spencer in the face, then fled.[65][66] A video of the incident was posted online, leading to divergent views on whether the attack was appropriate.[67]

Shortly after the violent Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017, the University of Florida denied Spencer's request for a September 2017 speaking opportunity, citing public safety grounds after opposition from students and locals of Gainesville, Florida.[68] Due to safety reasons, he was also denied speaking requests at Louisiana State University and Michigan State University in August 2017.[69][70] In September 2017, Cameron Padgett, who tried to book Spencer, sued MSU; he was represented by Kyle Bristow, an MSU alumnus.[71][72]

On August 16, during a television interview with Israeli Channel 2 anchor Danny Kushmaro, Spencer claimed that "Jews are vastly over-represented in... 'the establishment', that is, Ivy League educated people who really determine policy".[73] Viewing Israel as an exclusionary ethnic state,[74] he described his political position as "a white Zionist", who wants white people "to have a secure homeland for us and ourselves".[73] Spencer has repeatedly used this argument over the years in speeches and interviews.[75][76][77][78]

Spencer's National Policy Institute, David Duke, Stefan Molyneux, and American Renaissance magazine were among the white nationalist outlets banned by YouTube from their platform in late June 2020 for not following the platform's policies on hate speech.[79]

Public response

Speech at the University of Florida

After the University of Florida's August 2017 denial of Spencer's request to speak the following month, Floridian lawyer Gary Edinger threatened to sue the university for violating the First Amendment by prohibiting Spencer from speaking despite being a publicly funded institution. The university subsequently reached an agreement with Edinger allowing Spencer to speak on October 19, 2017.[80] Florida Governor Rick Scott declared a state of emergency for Alachua County on October 16, saying: "I find that the threat of a potential emergency is imminent" as a result of Spencer's appearance.[54][81]

On October 19, 2017, Spencer spoke at the Curtis M. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts on university grounds. In addition to Spencer, the speakers included Eli Mosley of Identity Evropa, a white supremacist group from California, and Mike Enoch, a white nationalist blogger.[82][83] The event's security costs reportedly amounted to an estimated $600,000.[84] It drew about 2,500 protestors, vastly outnumbering Spencer's supporters.[85][86]

The speech, which was Spencer's first public appearance after the Charlottesville rally, was disrupted by loud protests.[87][88][89] When drowned out by chants from the audience, he grew visibly frustrated, stating that the protestors were interfering with his freedom of speech. He added: "You are all engaged in what's known as the heckler's veto." According to Clay Calvert, director of the Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications, non-violent protesting, booing and suggesting that the speaker leave was not a heckler's veto in law. The speech and the concurrent protests were largely peaceful.[86][90]

Later that day, three of Spencer's supporters were arrested on felony charges following an alleged discharge of a firearm, directed at protestors leaving the event. The three suspects were residents of Texas who had travelled to Florida to hear Spencer speak. According to the Gainesville Police Department, they had shouted "Hail Hitler" and gave Nazi salutes immediately before the alleged attack. Authorities said that two of the suspects had known links to extremist groups.[91] The men had participated in the August 2017 Unite the Right rally, where Spencer had been scheduled to speak.[92][93] All three were charged with attempted homicide.[94]

In the aftermath of the October 19 events, Ohio State University declined Spencer's request to allow him to speak on campus, citing "substantial risk to public safety". In response, a lawyer representing Spencer's associate and organizer of his speaking tour filed a lawsuit against the university.[95]

Opposition in Montana

The National Policy Institute think tank, AlternativeRight.com, and Radix Journal all use the same mailing address in Whitefish, Montana.[96]

In 2013, a dispute with neoconservative lobbyist Randy Scheunemann at Whitefish Mountain Resort in Montana drew public attention to Spencer and his political views.[97]

In 2014, a pro-tolerance group affiliated with the Montana Human Rights Network rallied against Spencer's residency in Whitefish. In response, the city council approved a non-discrimination resolution.[98]

In December 2016, Republican Representative Ryan Zinke, Republican Senator Steve Daines, Democratic Senator Jon Tester, Democratic Governor Steve Bullock and Republican Attorney General Tim Fox condemned a neo-Nazi march that had been planned for January 2017.[99] The community of Whitefish organized in opposition to the event, and the march never occurred.[100] Also in December 2016, Spencer announced he was considering an independent run for Montana's at-large congressional district in the 2017 special election, although he ultimately did not enter the race.[101][102][103]

European Union bans

European governments and media have responded to his visits. During his speaking tour in Hungary in 2014, Spencer was mocked by the Hungarian newspaper Népszabadság for his call for "a white Imperium" through a revival of the Roman Empire, and for his claim to be a "racial European", ideas that the newspaper called contrived and without any basis in European history.[104] In the aftermath of his visit, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán pressed through legislative measures which banned his entry and condemned Spencer.[105] The government of Poland has also banned him from entering the country and condemned Spencer,[106] citing his Nazi rhetoric, the anti-Polish and anti-Slavic racism of the Nazis, and the Nazis' genocide of Slavic Untermenschen during World War II.[8] In July 2018, Spencer was detained at Keflavík Airport in Reykjavík, Iceland en route to Sweden and was ordered by Polish officials to return to the United States; the successful effort of the Poles to ban Spencer from other parts of Europe arises from the Schengen Agreement.[107]

Views

White identity

Spencer believes in white pride and the unification of a pan-European "white race" in a "potential racial empire" resembling the Roman Empire.[4][5][6] In an interview with CNN, he was criticized for an apparent inconsistency or lack of clarity in his definition of white, with his interviewer saying that Spencer defined Syrians as white in the context of Steve Jobs's role in developing the iPhone, but described them as a non-white presence in Europe in the context of the Syrian refugee crisis.[108]

In 2013, the Anti-Defamation League called Spencer a "leader" in white supremacist circles, and said that after leaving The American Conservative, he rejected conservatism, because he believed its adherents "can't or won't represent explicitly white interests".[109]

While being interviewed by David Pakman, he was asked if he would condemn the Ku Klux Klan and Adolf Hitler, he refused by saying: "I'm not going to play this game", while stating that Hitler had "done things that I think are despicable", without elaborating on which things he was referring to.[110] Spencer also admires George Lincoln Rockwell, the founder of the American Nazi Party, for using "shock as a positive means to an end".[10]

In a 2016 interview for Time magazine, Spencer said he rejected white supremacy and the slavery of nonwhites, preferring to establish America as a white ethnostate.[111] He also advocates the creation of a white ethnostate in Europe that would be open to all "racial Europeans".[112][113][4][5][6] Jason Wilson in The Guardian has argued that Spencer and other white nationalists are appropriating some elements of socialist rhetoric to critique a "notion of capitalism centered on stereotypes of Jews".[114]

According to political scientist Tamir Bar-On, Spencer defends "racialist and anti-Semitic agendas" of the Old Right under a new metapolitical guise, acting as a cultural influencer rather than a direct political actor, and using various media outlets to "disseminate his views to ordinary people in an accessible manner".[115]

Ethno-nationalism

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Spencer has advocated for a white homeland for a "dispossessed white race", and called for "peaceful ethnic cleansing" to halt the "deconstruction" of what he describes as "white culture".[34][116][117] To this end he has supported what he has called "the creation of a White Ethno-State on the North American continent", an "ideal" that he has regarded as a "reconstitution of the Roman Empire".[112][113] Prior to the UK vote to leave the EU, Spencer expressed support for the multi-national bloc "as a potential racial empire" and an alternative to "American hegemony", stating that he has "always been highly skeptical of so-called 'Euro-Skeptics'".[118]

Nazi rhetoric

Spencer has been made frequent use of Nazi rhetoric in his public speeches.[8] He called Donald Trump's 2016 presidential election "the victory of will", a phrase evoking the title of Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will (1935), a Nazi-era propaganda film.[15] Spencer urged his supporters to "party like it's 1933," the year Hitler came to power in Germany.[14] In the weeks following, Spencer quoted Nazi propaganda and denounced Jews.[15]

At a conference Spencer held celebrating Trump's election, he mentioned the "mainstream media" in those terms: "or perhaps we should refer to them in the original German: Lügenpresse", meaning 'lying press' or 'press of lies', a term frequently used by Joseph Goebbels in Nazi propaganda.[119][120] Spencer ended his speech with: "Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory!", and a number of his supporters gave the Nazi salute and chanted in a similar fashion to the Sieg Heil chant.[16][17]

Donald Trump

Spencer supported Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.[15] Following Trump's appointment of Steve Bannon as chief White House strategist and senior counselor, Spencer said Bannon would be in "the best possible position" to influence policy.[121]

In November 2018, however, Spencer told his followers "The Trump moment is over, and it's time for us to move on." The Southern Poverty Law Center reported that, around the same time, the white nationalist movement as a whole was dissatisfied with Trump's presidency.[122]

On CNN he called Trump's tweet about four congresswomen (telling them to "go back" to where they came from) "racist". He believed Trump was practicing a “con game” in not clearly developing a white nationalist agenda as Trump "gives us nothing outside of racist tweets, and by racist tweets, I mean tweets that are meaningless and cheap".[123]

In 2020, following the assassination of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, Spencer said that he regretted voting for Trump. "I deeply regret voting for and promoting Donald Trump in 2016," he tweeted. "To the people of Iran, there are millions of Americans who do not want war, who do not hate you, and who respect your nation and its history."[124] In August of that year, Spencer said that he planned to vote for Joe Biden and the straight Democratic ticket in the November election. "The MAGA/Alt-Right moment is over. I made mistakes; Trump is an obvious disaster; but mainly the paradigm contained flaws that we now are able to perceive. And it needs to end," Spencer wrote. "So be patient. We'll have another day in the sun. We need to recover and return in a new form." The Biden campaign renounced his support.[125][126]

Gender roles

During the 2016 United States presidential election, Spencer tweeted that women should not be allowed to make foreign policy.[127][128] He also stated in an interview with The Washington Post that his vision of America as a white ethnostate includes women returning to traditional roles as childbearers and homemakers.[129][130] In October 2017, when asked his opinion on American women having the right to vote, he said: "I don't necessarily think that that's a great thing" after stating that he was "not terribly excited" about voting in general.[128]

Spencer opposes same-sex marriage,[131] which he has described as "unnatural" and a "non-issue", commenting that "very few gay men will find the idea of monogamy to their liking".[132] Despite his opposition to same-sex marriage, Spencer barred people with anti-gay views from the National Policy Institute's annual conference in 2015.[133]

Health care

Spencer supports legal access to abortion, in part because he believes it would reduce the number of black and Hispanic people, which he says would be a "great boon" to white people.[30] Spencer also supports a national single-payer health care system because he believes it would benefit white people.[134][135]

Christianity

Spencer is an atheist,[136] although he also believes that the Christian church previously held some pragmatic value, because Spencer believes that it helped unify the white population of Europe. He opposes traditional Christian values as a moral code, due to the fact that Christianity is a universalizing religion, rather than an ethnic religion. Spencer references his views on Christianity as being influenced by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.[137][138][30] Citing Nietzsche's criticism of anti-Semitism and nationalism, Scott Galupo writing for The Week, Sean Illing for Vox, and Jordan Harris for The Courier-Journal have described Spencer's interpretation of Nietzsche's philosophy as incorrect.[139][140][137] Spencer's Radix Journal has promoted paganism, running titles such as "Why I am a pagan".[141] Spencer has also described himself as a "cultural Christian".[142]

Geopolitics

Spencer states he voted for Democrat John Kerry over incumbent Republican George W. Bush during the 2004 United States presidential election, because Bush stood for "the war".[143]

Spencer has advocated for the US pulling out of NATO, and called Russia the "sole white power in the world". His former partner, Nina Kouprianova, under her pen name Nina Byzantina referred to herself as a "Kremlin troll leader" and regularly aligned to Kremlin talking points, with ties to Aleksandr Dugin, a far-right ultranationalist Russian leader in the Eurasianism movement and writer of Foundations of Geopolitics. The webzine founded by Spencer in 2010, called Alternative Right, accepted direct contributor pieces from Dugin.[144] Kouprianova has translated several books written by Dugin.[145][146][147] The books were later published by Spencer's publishing house, Washington Summit Publishers.[148]

Libertarianism

In the late 2000s, Spencer was involved in the libertarian movement, supporting libertarian Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul[149] and hosting him at his discussion club, the Robert Taft Club.[30] Spencer later disavowed libertarianism as incompatible with white nationalism, and in 2017 he came into conflict with libertarians after reportedly attempting to "crash" an International Students for Liberty conference.[150]

Influences

According to political scientist Tamir Bar-On, "Spencer's key intellectual influences are largely those thinkers concerned with winning the 'cultural war' against egalitarianism, liberal democracy, capitalism, socialism, and multiculturalism," citing Nietzsche, the German Conservative Revolution (including Carl Schmitt, Ernst Jünger, and Martin Heidegger), French New Right theorists like Alain de Benoist and Guillaume Faye, along with other far-right figures such as Julius Evola, Francis Parker Yockey, Aleksandr Dugin, and "US right-wingers with a penchant for race-driven politics or anti-Semitism" like Sam Francis, Jared Taylor, and Kevin B. MacDonald.[151]

Personal life

In 2010, Spencer moved to Whitefish, Montana. He says he splits his time between Whitefish and Arlington, Virginia,[112][152] although he has said he has lived in Whitefish for over 10 years and considers it home.[153] As of 2017, Spencer was renting an apartment in Alexandria, Virginia.[154] He moved out in August 2018.[155] Prior to his marriage, Spencer's dating history included Asian women, which he has said predates his white nationalism, though this evaluation is disputed.[156]

Spencer married Nina Kouprianova in 2010, with whom he has two children.[157] He separated from Kouprianova, a Russian-Canadian with Georgian roots,[158] in October 2016;[33] in April 2017, Spencer said he and his wife were not separated and were still together.[159]

In October 2018, Kouprianova accused him in divorce documents of various forms of abuse.[160] Court documents detailed emotional abuse, financial abuse, and violent physical abuse, including when Kouprianova was 9 months pregnant, and frequently in front of their children.[27] According to media reports, the recordings and text messages show Spencer telling his wife that he will "fucking break [her] nose," encouraging her to commit suicide, and apologizing for previous incidents of physical abuse.[28] A caregiver to the children testified in court about Spencer's abuses towards both her and Kouprianova.[161] Spencer denies all allegations against him.[28]

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