The New York Times: Nazi Sympathisers?
The New York Times is accused of sympathising with White Nationalism after publishing an impartial profile of Tony Hovater, a white nationalist and self-described fascist.(i)
The author writes a balanced, unbiased article about Mr. Hovater's lifestyle and beliefs, attempting to set the scene of the ‘Nazi next door’:
”Most Americans would be disgusted and baffled by his casually approving remarks about Hitler…and belief that the races are better off separate. But his tattoos are innocuous pop-culture references: a slice of cherry pie adorns one arm, a [sic] homage to the TV show “Twin Peaks.”…He is a big “Seinfeld” fan.”
In response to this impartial approach, many on social media have shown outrage, Bess Kalb, a writer for Jimmy Kimmel, expressed her feelings on the article at length:
”…fuck this Nazi and fuck the gentle, inquisitive tone of this Nazi normalizing barf journalism, and fuck the photographer for not just throwing the camera at this Nazi's head and laughing.” (ii)
This accusation of attempting to ‘normalise’ Tony Hovater's beliefs was echoed by others.
When the NYT tweeted out the article with the caption:
“For all of the alt-right's disdain for "normies," many in the movement want their extremist views to be normalized”
one user responded: “And the New York Times is here to help!” (iii) This is illogical for several reasons.
It is nonsensical to claim that writing impartially about an individuals beliefs is directly responsible for making those beliefs more widely accepted. Of course, one can claim that by proxy journalists may be contributing to a movements’ numbers and exposure by reporting on the movement at all, but this is out of the control of an impartial journalist. Secondly, acknowledging that an individual with certain political beliefs has likeable qualities does not equate to sympathising with or promoting their political beliefs. Historians widely acknowledge that Adolf Hitler had a love for animals, even poisoning his dog for fear of the Russians capturing and torturing her. (iv)
This of course does not mean that historians sympathise with Hitlers politics. Bess Kalb is guilty of this fallacious thinking again however, also tweeting: ”Get ready to read a fucking sentence. It's a sentence about a Nazi. Are you ready? Lay the fuck down.
Here goes. Quick reminder: It's about a fucking Nazi. A Nazi. Nazi. It's a sentence about a Nazi."
"In person, his Midwestern manners would please anyone’s mother."(v)
There is the assumption that because the NYT acknowledged Mr. Hovater's good manners, they are making his National Socialist beliefs sound more appealing, not to mention the tone and repetitive nature of the tweet is reminiscent to accusations of Witchery. Other responses to the Article are rife with identity politics:
”Nazis: "We want to kill all minorities!" White journalists at the New York Times: "Ok, but please tell us more about your favorite food and show.""(vi) ”They should change the New York Times’s nickname from “The Grey Lady” to “The White Dude”(vii) ”After today, I’m convinced more than ever that the New York Times needs more women and more minorities on their editorial board and senior management…”(viii):
I’ve written in the past (ix) that the Alt-Right are a reactionary movement to this breed of identity politics, birthed on the hypocrisy of progressives who encourage it for every social group except white people. When I visited the website of Tony Hovater's Traditional Workers Party, the first article to greet me was a response to a viciously racist tweet by a nurse who stated white children “should be sacrificed to the wolves” based on their “propensity to be a terrorist, rapist, racist, killer and domestic violence all star.”(x) The nurse was likely referring to a narrative pushed by multiple Left-Wing news outlets this year, declaring white American men a ‘bigger domestic terrorist threat’ than Muslims.(xi)
This is a claim based on research by ‘Reveal News’, who documented ‘incidents’ of domestic terror from 2008-2016. (xii) Despite the fact that Reveal documented more than double the number of Right-Wing ‘incidents’ than Islamic (115/63), the total death and injury toll from Islamic attacks far exceeds deaths and injuries from Right-Wing attacks:
The Reveal report, Vox (xiii), and the Huffington post do not explicitly mention this large difference in fatalities and injuries from attacks committed by Islamists, instead relying on more ‘incidents’ as proof of white, Right-Wing men, being a greater terror threat.
These sites also fail to mention the fact that Muslims make up an estimated 1% of the U.S. population, compared to whites who make up 77%. To summarise: propaganda has been pushed by progressive journalists dubbing white men as a terrorist threat, causing some to espouse racist vitriol, therefore fueling white identity movements.
Progressives seem unaware of the dangerous consequences of their actions however, as their response to these white identity movements is to further categorise white people as a problem group. It’s also worth noting that the radical right are unfazed by the term ‘Nazi’ and accusations of genocidal hatred.
Tony Hovater's organisation says nothing about systematically murdering different ethnicities, and actually lists ‘Pro-Life’ as one of their ‘25 points’(xiv), claiming society has a duty to protect disabled people and the chronically ill.
This is not to say their ideology isn’t severely flawed however. One policy states their commitment to Freedom of Speech, with the exception of ‘treasonous or seditious acts’, and they later state the death penalty will be enforced for ‘traitors’ and ‘subversives.’
This is an obvious philosophical contradiction, for Free Speech is an arbitrary concept if one cannot criticise the state without facing the death penalty. If progressives have a genuine interest in deterring the spread of white nationalism and the authoritarian right in general, they must abandon identity politics for all.
Secondly, they should recognise the ‘Nazi’ label has lost power, and figure out what exactly they’re criticising White Nationalists for. Sources:
(i): https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/25/us/ohio-hovater-white-nationalist.html?smid=tw-nytnational&smtyp=cur
(ii): https://twitter.com/bessbell/status/934520192738226176
(iii): https://twitter.com/pattymo/status/934535457987289090
(iv):https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blondi
(v): https://twitter.com/bessbell/status/934524251415171073
(vi): https://twitter.com/MrFilmkritik/status/934545857164333056
(vii):https://twitter.com/fawfulfan/status/934580755509981184
(ix): https://www.minds.com/blog/view/770062130505326592
(x): https://www.tradworker.org/2017/11/in-defense-of-the-night-nurse/
(xi):http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/domestic-terrorism-white-supremacists-islamist-extremists_us_594c46e4e4b0da2c731a84df
(xii): https://apps.revealnews.org/homegrown-terror/
(xiii): https://www.vox.com/world/2017/10/2/16396612/las-vegas-mass-shooting-terrorism-islam
(xiv): https://www.tradworker.org/points/
