NY Times: White nationalist Richard Spencer, “organization has dissolved, his wife has divorced him, and he is facing trial next month in Charlottesville, Va., over his role in the deadly 2017 neo-Nazi march there, but says he cannot afford a lawyer.”
https://t.co/nduPt0T9tJ pic.twitter.com/DzhDU5G3KZ
— andrew kaczynski (@KFILE) September 5, 2021
Hardly an all-purpose, feel-good solution, but probably as close to a happy ending as can be expected in these times — “How a Small Town Silenced a Neo-Nazi Hate Campaign”:
WHITEFISH, Mont. — Richard B. Spencer, the most infamous summer resident in this town, once boasted that he stood at the vanguard of a white nationalist movement emboldened by President Donald J. Trump. Things have changed.
“I have bumped into him, and he runs — that’s actually a really good feeling,” said Tanya Gersh, a real estate agent targeted in an antisemitic hate campaign that Andrew Anglin, the founder of the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website, unleashed in 2016 after Mr. Spencer’s mother made online accusations against Ms. Gersh.
Leaders in Whitefish say Mr. Spencer, who once ran his National Policy Institute from his mother’s $3 million summer house here, is now an outcast in this resort town in the Rocky Mountains, unable to get a table at many of its restaurants. His organization has dissolved. Meanwhile, his wife has divorced him, and he is facing trial next month in Charlottesville, Va., over his role in the deadly 2017 neo-Nazi march there, but says he cannot afford a lawyer.
The turn of events is no accident. Whitefish, a mostly liberal, affluent community nestled in a county that voted for Mr. Trump in 2016 and 2020, rose up and struck back. Residents who joined with state officials, human rights groups and synagogues say their bipartisan counteroffensive could hold lessons for others in an era of disinformation and intimidation, and in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
“The best way to respond to hate and cyberterrorism in your community is through solidarity,” said Rabbi Francine Green Roston of the Glacier Jewish Community/B’nai Shalom, who now lectures other groups on how to ward off hate campaigns like the one Whitefish endured. “Another big principle is to take threats seriously, and prepare for the worst.”…
The trouble in Whitefish started after Mr. Trump’s victory in the 2016 election that November. Mr. Spencer, who had called his white nationalist movement a “vanguard” for Mr. Trump, delivered a racially charged speech at his institute’s conference in Washington, his words greeted by Nazi salutes. Video of the address went viral. In Whitefish, residents discussed protesting in front of a downtown commercial building owned by Mr. Spencer’s mother.
Ms. Gersh said Ms. Spencer had called her.
“She flat-out asked me, ‘Tanya, I don’t believe in my son’s ideology,’” Ms. Gersh recalled over coffee in her office downtown. “‘I’m heartbroken that this is hurting Whitefish. What should I do?’”
“I said: ‘Sherry, if this were my son, I would go ahead and sell the building. I would donate some money to something like the Human Rights Network to make a statement, and publish that you don’t believe in the ideologies of your son.’ And she said: ‘Thank you, Tanya. That’s exactly what I should do.’”…
Two weeks later, in December 2016, Ms. Spencer posted an article on the open publishing platform Medium accusing Ms. Gersh of using the threat of protests to blackmail her into selling. Mr. Spencer said on Saturday that he and his former wife had written the article published under his mother’s name. He repeated their claims against Ms. Gersh, adding that she had called his mother, not the other way around. The Spencers’ accusations quickly reverberated among the far right. Mr. Anglin of the Daily Stormer exhorted his “fam” online to “TAKE ACTION” to defend Ms. Spencer…
The Anti-Defamation League, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Secure Community Network, the official safety and security organization of the North American Jewish community, advised residents on what to do.
As a result, Ms. Gersh did not speak publicly about her ordeal at the time. Rabbi Roston kept a low profile, discouraging coverage in the Jewish news media to protect the congregation and avoid giving attackers the attention they craved. The congregation did not cancel its Hanukkah party in December 2016 but moved it from the rabbi’s home to the conference room of a motel, with two armed security guards at the door. On each table, the rabbi placed a pile of supportive letters that had arrived from around the nation.
Volunteers distributed thousands of paper menorahs. “There were menorahs in every window in Whitefish,” Ms. Gersh said. An anti-hate rally drew 600 participants in zero-degree weather. On the eve of the neo-Nazi march, Rabbi Roston organized a chicken and matzo ball soup get-together for 350 people at the middle school in Whitefish, in a demonstration of unity and appreciation.
On Martin Luther King’s Birthday — Monday, Jan. 16 — not a single neo-Nazi turned up to march. “We could say they chickened out,” Rabbi Roston joked…
“Richard Spencer wanted this to be his happy vacation place where he could play and have fun, and people would just live and let live,” Rabbi Roston said. “Then he started suffering social consequences for his hatred.”
Ms. Gersh said that she had been afraid to work again after the hate campaign, but that after Charlottesville, “I knew that I had to go back to work because if I didn’t, they win.”
She keeps a photo of Ms. Heyer on her desk and bear spray in its drawer.
satby
Good reading, AL! Thanks for always bringing it.
Baud
We should have had a rational conversation with Spencer instead.
Suzanne
Cue Dreher freaking out about “cancel culture” and “free speech” in 3, 2, 1…..
Suzanne
@Baud: I think it’s time for an interview in a diner! Somewhere!
Ajabu
Nice. But I still believe that if the Republicans get any kind of a foothold in the federal government again the country is finished. The true terrorist threat in this country is not Al-Qaeda, Isis, etc. It’s the Republican Party and their cult members.
NotMax
Rise and fall of The Turd Reich.
craigie
I have been to Whitefish! And yes, an oasis in a land of crazy.
Ruckus
@Suzanne:
They falsely yell fire in the theater that is the United States and wonder why they get the response they do.
tokyokie
I had a dotty aunt, who stayed married to a convicted child rapist for his entire 30-some-year prison term and gave birth to three children, two of whom have spent time in state prisons, who lived in Whitefish. So some of the crazy is right there in town. Although maybe it’s been priced out of the area by now.
Ken
My understanding is this is like the game with the candle and the mirror, except instead of Bloody Mary, Popehat will now appear.
Ruckus
@Ajabu:
They have become the American Al-Qaeda, Isis, etc. At one time they were a political party that fought change, growth and personal freedom for anyone but them. Now they fight change, growth and freedom for everyone.
IOW I am agreeing with you….
Ruckus
@Ken:
That would be nice as I’m blocked at twitter and therefore have a harder time reading his stuff.
trollhattan
How about punch-and-shun? Does that work, too?
NotMax
@Ruckus
“Unreason and anti-intellectualism abominate thought. Thinking implies disagreement; and disagreement implies nonconformity; and nonconformity implies heresy; and heresy implies disloyalty — so, obviously, thinking must be stopped. But shouting is not a substitute for thinking and reason is not the subversion but the salvation of freedom.”
– Adlai Stevenson
.
Cameron
Dear Dick: Sux 2 B U, bro! 88 and all that shit.
Ken
@Ruckus: People with a Twitter account who get blocked can’t read anything? That’s interesting, because I don’t have an account and can read anything. Could you use an anonymous browser window so Twitter thinks you’re like me, one of the riff-raff without an account?
Another Scott
Thanks for this.
I especially like this part:
They didn’t fight them by yelling at them and getting in their faces online. They knew that such confrontation is what Spencer and his group wanted. They understood the way to win.
As we’ve been reminded here more than once – we don’t have to attend every argument we’re invited to. We don’t have to play on their terms. We can be smart about it while not letting them win.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@Ken: [ snort! ]
Cheers,
Scott.
debbie
He’s so obviously brilliant, I would think he could represent himself. //
Cameron
@Another Scott: Agree. This looks like a model response.
Geminid
Richard Spencer and his Identity Evropa outfit were behind the Friday night tiki torch march the night before the Unite the Right rally of August 11, 2017. He then spoke at McIntyre Park the next day. Spencer, a U. Va. grad, had staged a smaller tiki torch march in downtown Charlottesville a few months before.
Spencer’s upcoming trial is for a civil lawsuit, Sines v. Kessler, filed by survivors of the automobile attack that killed Heather Heyer. A group called Integrity First for America has supported the lawsuit, and Robbie Kaplan, who represented Edith Winsor in Winsor v. U.S.,* is lead attorney. The plaintiffs have tried to make the organizers of the rally responsible for the mayhem it caused, just as Capitol police are now suing the organizers of the January 6 insurrection.
* In Winsor v. U.S. the Supreme Court invalidated portions of the Defense of Marriage Act that prevented Edith Winsor from claiming the spousal exemption on her wife’s estate. It was a precursor to the Obergefell case which vindicated the right to same sex marriage.
Mai Naem mobile
@Ken: you just set up a second account on a different email. Between the trolls and people with multiple accounts I wonder what the true number of Twitter users is. And let’s not even talk about active Twitter users. I’ve been on a bunch of business websites which Twitter accounta but aren’t active. BTW Jack Dorsey supposedly personally intervened to keep Spencer on Twitter after his staff wanted to ban him. A lot of times I think Twitter is an internet version of Rwandan talk radio before the genocide.
Ruckus
@Ken:
I can use a private window but can not have an account there so don’t have a list of people that I follow.
Without an account you can read twitter but not follow specific people or comment. At least that’s how it has and does work for me
Also twitter has changed how it works in some ways not long ago so that may be part of the problem.
West of the Rockies
I hope that the Kushners and Stephen Miller (and many more) are also feeling shunned and socially diminished because of their actions.
germy
Is it really ok to punch nazis?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKICKcMU3MU
Mary G
@Ken: If you’re blocked on Twitter you can’t see the blockers tweets or tweet to them. You can see all tweets if you don’t have an account, because you can’t reply to tweets without an account. I am also blocked by Hat-of-the-Day and sometimes look at his tweets in an incognito window.
Ruckus
@Mai Naem mobile:
Not an unusual take on the concept of twitter. One of the reasons I haven’t gone through the reinstatement process, or even opened another account. It’s fun, it’s also hardly worth it.
germy
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@Baud: he went to duke
good luck with that
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@craigie: but also home to el jefe’s interior sectetary ryan zinke
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@Geminid: my mom died a month after the unite the whites rally
i think it was a contributing factor, her knowing that all her siblings & several of her nephews & nieces had voted to install the maralago dictatorship that sanctioned the assault on chancellorsville
she was only 64, & though chronically ill, nothing pointed to imminent death
H.E.Wolf
One could do this instead:
https://twitter.com/KateRoseBee/status/803712825977815040/photo/1
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@Mai Naem mobile: after zucks helped boost the myanmar genocide, jack knew he needed to up his game
mrmoshpotato
OT – the cicadas are playing their sexy song again. Did I say sexy? I meant STFU cicadas song.
Another Scott
@mrmoshpotato: “… Brenda Lee, coming on strong …”
Hehe.
Hang in there.
Cheers,
Scott.
germy
@H.E.Wolf:
Another hero.
Suzanne
@mrmoshpotato: DOOD the cicadas have been fucken deafening this week.
Ken
@mrmoshpotato: It may be some consolation if you think of the alternate universe where instead of making that noise to attract mates, cicadas emitted putrescine and cadaverine as a pheromone.
mrmoshpotato
@germy: That clip is still hilarious.
Geminid
@MontyTheClipArtMongoose: A friend’s stepfather died of a heart attack two nights after the January the January 6 insurrection. He was in his eighties, and had heart problems, but Diana thinks the insurrection pushed him over the edge. A career federal employee, George was just appalled at trump’s doings before January 6.
Suzanne
@Geminid: My birthday is January 7, and because of the delay due to the insurrection, the election was actually certified on my birthday and I got EXACTLY what I wanted: a new President!
Geminid
@Suzanne: And Georgia voters gave you Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff January 5th as early birthday presents.
Jay C
Awwww! Nazi Boy Richard Spencer is finding he is being treated like a pariah?
such a shame! I would play him a sympathetic tune, but my tiny violin slipped off my pinky-nail and fell on the floor.
Sister Golden Bear
Cry harder, Nazi.
Matt McIrvin
@Ajabu:
Then the country is finished, because there’s no way to keep them out permanently. Whether it’s 2022, 2024 or later, most Americans still regard the Republicans as a normal political party, and power still tends to alternate–though Republicans have a geographical structural advantage when it comes to actual control.
You can see that in the media stories about Biden lately–the subtext of them is “this is when the pendulum swings back and the Republicans regain control.” They all regard it as an inevitability and the question is just whether it happens sooner or later, and they’ve decided Biden is a failed President so the narrative is that it will happen sooner.
Tony Gerace
@Jay C: I would donate 2 cents to his GoFundMe campaign.
Geminid
@Matt McIrvin: “The Media” may regard a Republican return to power as “inevitable.” That does not mean it is.
Yutsano
Semi OT: IT’S NOT THE GUNS AMIRITE???
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
It’s interesting though. They’re trying to make it into 2010 but it’s not 2010. High profile Republican governors who should be strong (Texas and Florida) are seeing the same falling poll numbers as Biden. Their senate candidates in Ohio are terrible candidates- unappealing people – one is a genuine mean spirited Trumpist and the other is a phony that even Trumpists don’t buy.
If Republicans were smart they’d shut up and stay low so people would forget how horrible they are, but they get louder and more extreme every day. Screaming and disrupting schools may fire up their base but people just want their kids in school. My own Trumpist county just put a mask mandate in and our new(ish) superintendent is an absolute coward careerist – if he thought it would be unpopular he would never have done it.
So we’ll see, but they shouldn’t get too confident yet. Biden may be below 50 but the alternative sucks.
Kay
I don’t want people to forget how insanely they behaved when Biden “defied” them. It’s appalling. Something like 70% of the public wanted to end that war and we’ve now watched a small group of vindictive, powerful people punish Biden for ending it. If anyone had any doubt that they had too much power and were completely unaccountable they no longer should. They should have been checked long ago.
Elizabelle
@Kay: Agreed re “The Blob”, and the wretchedness of Republicans.
They are all dangerous, and we cannot afford an actual “failed” Biden presidency. As opposed to the successful one now underway, which they describe as “failed.”
Again, projection.
Kay
Rape and incest exceptions don’t fit in the anti-abortion litigation strategy.
I must say their deep and sincere concern for the mother is really coming thru with this big win. Refreshing to see them erase the women completely so we can dop that bullshit. It’s always better when we can have an honest debate.
Kay
@Elizabelle:
I’m just not sure it’s predictable. A lot of the 2010 wave was driven by branding Republicans as “new” at the state level, and racist backlash to Obama. No one thinks they are “new” at the state level. The two highest profile Right wing nut governors in two huge states have their own popularity problems.
waspuppet
But John Edwards got a haircut once.