Neo-Nazis like Richard Spencer dress up their racism, and the media is taking the bait
Have you met the dashing new bachelor joining the Washington elite? The debonair wunderkind taking the capital by storm? Mother Jones introduced him as βdapper,β and the Los Angeles Times framed his latest intellectual venture as the βnew think tank in town.β
Who are these reliable bastions of American journalistic tradition talking about? A neo-Nazi.
The subject of the Times story is the National Policy Institute, a white supremacist βthink thankβ led by Richard Spencer. Spencerβs goal is to bring the racist ideology of white nationalism β the political idea that America should be fortified as a white nation β into the mainstream by dressing up typically abhorrent ideas in a suit and tie and selling it as serious discourse.
Over the weekend, Spencer β who invented the term βalt-rightβ as a euphemism for white supremacy in 2008 β held a landmark post-election meeting of the NPI. The crowd was a mix of conservative writers, white nationalists and right-wing celebrities like Tila Tequila, the MySpace star turned neo-Nazi.
After Spencer spoke β cheering Donald Trumpβs election victory and quoting βNazi propaganda in the original German,β the New York Times reported β his crowd cheered with a Nazi salute and shouted, βHeil the people! Heil victory!β
The goal of a think tank is to research and advance ideas.Β The NPI wants people to take its debunked βrace scienceβ seriously.Β
Update:Β U.S. Holocaust Museum is calling on the public to denounce Richard Spencer and white nationalism
Quoting media reports that Richard Spencer made several disparaging references to the Jewish people, βspoke in German to quote Nazi propagandaβ and said the U.S. belongs to white people, in a powerful statement, the museum asked the nation to repudiate the conference and its rhetoric.
the normalization of Nazism in the Trump era is terrifying. truly honestly terrifying.
