Woke Reich Neo-Fascists Rising: The 10 Most Dangerous Far-Right Figures in America Today
Announcing the start of new daily coverage on the most evil people "poisoning the blood of our country" today. Let the war on populist-nationalist bullshit begin. Your support is appreciated.
I got laid off last month.
I had contributed as a writer and editor at The Algemeiner since February 2020, gradually becoming the Jewish newspaper’s Shabbos Goy, maintaining the site on weekends and Jewish holidays.
And this year my editor and I had developed a great collaboration as my weekly article count reporting on antisemitism globally had grown, so much so he approved a promotion for me. I was to become his associate editor and I was really looking forward to helping him grow the publication.
We just had to see what the budget was looking like for the year.
When the fundraising gala took place months ago just as the war with Iran was beginning, I knew right then and there that there probably wasn’t going to be the money to promote me or perhaps even keep me on for another year. The writing on the wall was right there. And so it goes.
But I’m surprisingly OK with it for three reasons.
First, as one might expect when surfing the promotion-to-lay-off pipeline, my bosses gave me some lovely letters of reference which I’m happy to wave around like a rescue flag on a desert island:
Second, and more importantly, for the last two weeks I’ve barely had the time to send out the updated resume with the letters because the AI training project that I started last month has kicked into high gear, often requesting long days to try and meet the group’s sometimes challenging deadlines.
So instead of losing my income, now I’m earming more than ever, because billion-dollar AI labs can pay journalists a lot more than 501(c3) nonprofits can.
However, these AI training projects are incredibly volatile. It’s an open question how long this one will go. It could go on for weeks, months, or maybe the project will get paused tomorrow. They could just decide to cut contributors from the project. The freelance life is a wild way to live, I know. But I feel optimistic here. The manager seems like a good guy. Still, it’s time to really grow more revenue streams now.
Third, and finally, I feel a strange sense of confidence now preparing to step out here on the limb. Over the last three and a half years I’ve had a lot of time to develop my skills as a journalist and now I’m ready to go out fully on my own independently writing about antisemitism and the Far Right, without editor or publisher restraining me. I will write about what I want as I want to write about it, but it is my intent to do so still in the journalistic neutral register which I have now learned. But I can’t promise that 100%. We’ll see how it goes.
So I am now doing what all laid-off journalists are supposed to do: launch a Substack and warmly beg people for financial support…
The difference here is that we’ve had our Substack going since June 24, 2022 and have thus grown to a subscriber count that is not big enough to brag about but not so small as to feel shame. I see our loyal readership and appreciate you all so deeply.
We have very intentionally not made heavy efforts to monetize this Substack.
We offer premium content through the year and now most of the content automatically gets paywalled after six months. However, those who do bless us with a premium subscription generally do so more out of a sign of friendly support for us than because they just have to see or hear what we put behind a paywall.
We’ve tried to focus our efforts primarily on book production first. Books were always the top priority as we were God of the Desert Books until last fall when I announced our transition to God of the Desert Digital Media Studios.
While we’re going to continue to release our books — we have a bunch still in production — the time has come to begin launching our premium substack content now, which will begin with daily reports from me here on the Far Right, first as articles but soon as audio podcasts, video podcasts, and livestreams.
Once we get into a good rhythm with our premium content here, then the relaunches for our imprint substacks Heroes of the Desert Books, Ghosts of the Desert Books, Oasis of the Desert Books, and Sally’s Goddess of the Desert Books can each proceed with their new premium elements, as well as the launching of other new niche publications.
I’ve wanted to move faster on this. It’s all just been so hard as we’ve been so depressed following the last miscarriage, the death of Sally’s step-father Jerry, and now further family health problems on both sides. Writing has been my joy and my escape since childhood and somehow I managed to turn it into a profession that pays the rent. Yet so often to just focus and write an email is an endurance trial.
But it’s time to get back in the fight.
Just as I used to wake up each morning scanning my phone for antisemitism stories to pitch my editor at The Algemeiner, starting tomorrow I’m going to begin just doing it for you all here. And while I’m going to aim to keep most content free still, we will gradually figure out a paywall approach that works. Suggestions are appreciated.
So who am I going to focus on writing about first? And what are we going to call these people?
Back in February, when I announced my decision to shift my activist focus from the Islamist threat to the domestic Far Right threat, I felt like I was being a bit transgressive when I dared to challenge Jeremy Boreing on his more polite terminology. I wrote, “Jeremy describes the movement that Tucker and Bannon are building as ‘blending left-wing economic populism and right-wing social populism.’ In political science we have a term for this: FASCISM. Yes, the F-word.”
I knew how Jeremy and other conservatives don’t like to label others on the Right as fascists since they are so accustomed to leftists hurling the label at them. I didn’t blame him for hesitating to take that step.
But it turns out my transgression was a kitten compared to what legendary talk radio host Mark Levin has been roaring about this crew of bigots:
So here’s the thing: calling someone a “Woke Reich Neo-Fascist” is just a very snarky way of calling them a Nazi.
Mark Levin is calling Tucker Carlson a Nazi. But not only is he doing that, he’s also comparing him to their shared “woke” enemies on the Left who share his hatred of Israel and obsessions with race. It’s a devastating insult because it’s true.
As I’ve written about previously, I have sat out the whole Woke vs Anti-Woke culture war discourse and written against using that as a framing:
There are extremists on both sides of it that are so annoying and I’m content to remain in the moderate middle with most Americans on the inflammatory issues that make up the so-called “woke” discourse around race and gender today.
So I don’t like to use “woke” as an epithet or get into those cliched debates. However, in this case I am totally going to write '“WOKE REICH NEO-FASCIST” regularly.
In fact, that’s what this new series is going to be called:
Woke Reich Neo-Fascists Rising
Yes, Mark Levin now gives us all license to call these evil people Nazis so let’s drive hard-charging with it. Right now is an opportunity for the Left, the independent middle, and much of the still sane Right to be able to say:
These people talk like Nazis!
They promote fearmongering and conspiracy theories against Jews and other groups!
So let’s call them Nazis just in a more clever way that provokes a sour smirk!
Who are the most influential figures in this group today who I’m going to start writing about tomorrow for you? Many of them you’ve already seen me write about a whole lot.
Here’s my list, counting down in rough order of influence, concern, and priority as I see it:
Elon Musk
Tucker Carlson
Nick Fuentes
Candace Owens
Kanye West
Stephen Miller
JD Vance
Marjorie Taylor Greene
Thomas Massie
Steve Bannon
What do you think? Anyone who I’m forgetting? The list doesn’t have to end at 10, that’s just a nice round number for a good clickbait headline.
Or are any of these people not significant enough and not worth my time to monitor?
For this initial list I’m going to focus more on front-facing figures in media and politics, rather than the behind-the-scenes billionaire funders. We’ll get to them soon enough…
For now, though, if you value what we do at God of the Desert Digital Media Studios and want to support this work to expose the Woke Reich Neo-Fascists, it would really mean a lot to us if you would consider a premium subscription.
The war on Far-Right bullshit has begun.
As a sometime Tesla investor/fanboy, I've been minutely following Elon Musk's public statements for years, as a lot of money is lost whenever he says something reckless. While Elon is clearly a nativist, I don't place him in the Tucker/Fuentes camp. He doesn't do subtle; remember, he told his Twitter advertisers to "Go f*** yourselves" during a live interview. If he were an actual anti-semite, it would be obvious. (His feud with the ADL is a totally different thing.)
Otherwise, generally agree with your list. Vance in particular worries me.