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Prominent fascist leaders in America are targeting their outreach at young people.
You hear the word "fascist" a lot these days and often as a slur, but that's not how I'm using it here. I'm referring to people who literally identify as fascist. They embrace the label and the ideology.
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A recent investigation from NewsChannel 5, a Nashville local news station, put a spotlight on podcaster Corey Mahler, who quotes the Bible and claims to be a Christian while also praising Hitler.
"If you want to influence society, you want to influence young men," Mahler told journalist Phil Williams.
According to Mahler, his podcast has 50,000 - 100,000 listeners per episode.
Watch the whole clip:
Mahler is not alone.
The Jubilee YouTube channel hosted a debate between Mehdi Hasan and 20 young right-wingers. Roughly half, or more, of them identified with or signaled approval of fascist, white supremacist, or xenophobic beliefs.
When debating the claim "Donald Trump is defying the Constitution," a right wing influencer named Connor conceded the claim but argued he was fine with Trump defying the Constitution because he doesn't support the Constitution and would prefer an autocracy.
"I think we need to rename the show because I think you're a little bit more than a far-right Republican," Hasan said toward the end of his conversation with Connor, who also identified as Catholic.
"What do you want me to say?" Connor asked.
"I think you can say, 'I'm a fascist,'" Hasan answered.
"Yeah, I am," Connor replied with a laugh as about half the room clapped. "Absolutely."
Connor says he was fired from his job as a result and is raising money on Give Send Go, a Christian crowdfunding site. Currently, the site shows that Connor surpassed his goal of raising $15,000 and has so far raised nearly $40,000.
Fascism, white supremacy, theocracy, autocracy, and nativism have shown increasing popularity with Gen Z. For instance, poll conducted last year, for instance, found that 40% of Gen Z favor "rule by a strong leader , where a strong leader can make decisions without interference from the legislature or from the courts," the most of any other age group. And a slight majority, 51%, said they would be "willing to give up some democratic powers if it made government function more effectively."
The Jubilee debate demonstrated, however, that they have difficulty defending their own beliefs when challenged. This is likely due to their information bubbles. Social media tools and algorithms allow you to communicate in a space where your views are only confirmed and never challenged. This leads to a distorted view of the popularity and soundness of one's beliefs.
Our challenge, therefore, is clear — break through those information bubbles with in-person conversations. The goal of these conversations should not be to "win the debate," but to help your fascist friend or family member. You want them to come to the conclusion that fascism is bad on their own. You're just there to help them reach that conclusion by activating parts of their brain that haven't been activated before. Get them to think through the consequences of their own ideas by asking probing questions.
If you give this a try, tell us your story and let us know how it goes.
What Else We’re Reading
The Guardian: “Migrants at Ice jail in Miami made to kneel to eat ‘like dogs’, report alleges”
Migrants at a Miami immigration jail were shackled with their hands tied behind their backs and made to kneel to eat food from styrofoam plates “like dogs”, according to a report published on Monday into conditions at three overcrowded south Florida facilities.
The incident at the downtown federal detention center is one of a succession of alleged abuses at jails operated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (Ice) in the state since January, chronicled by the advocacy groups Human Rights Watch, Americans for Immigrant Justice, and Sanctuary of the South from interviews with detainees.
NBC News: “A MAGA bot network on X is divided over the Trump-Epstein backlash”
A previously unreported network of hundreds of accounts on X is using artificial intelligence to automatically reply to conservatives with positive messages about people in the Trump administration, researchers say.
But with the MAGA movement split over the administration’s handling of files involving deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the accounts’ messaging has broken, offering contradictory statements on the issue and revealing the AI-fueled nature of the accounts.
The network, tracked for NBC News by both the social media analytics company Alethea and researchers at Clemson University, consists of more than 400 identified bot accounts, though the number could be far larger, the researchers say. Its accounts offer consistent praise for key Trump figures, particularly support for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
NYT: “Trump Posts Fake Video Showing Obama Arrest”
President Trump reposted a fake video showing former President Barack Obama being arrested in the Oval Office, as Trump administration officials continue to accuse Mr. Obama of trying to harm Mr. Trump’s campaign during the 2016 election, and the president seeks to redirect conversation from the Epstein files.
Ars Technica: “Conspiracy theorists don’t realize they’re on the fringe”
There's a popular sense that people believe conspiracies because they're dumb and don't understand anything, they don't care about the truth, and they're motivated by believing things that make them feel good. Then there's the academic side, where that idea molds into a set of theories about how needs and motivations drive belief in conspiracies. It's not someone falling down the rabbit hole and getting exposed to misinformation or conspiratorial narratives. They're strolling down: "I like it over here. This appeals to me and makes me feel good."
Believing things that no one else agrees with makes you feel unique. Then there's various things I think that are a little more legitimate: People join communities and there's this sense of belongingness. How that drives core beliefs is different. Someone may stop believing but hang around in the community because they don't want to lose their friends. Even with religion, people will go to church when they don't really believe. So we distinguish beliefs from practice.
What we observed is that they do tend to strongly believe these conspiracies despite the fact that there's counter evidence or a lot of people disagree. What would lead that to happen? It could be their needs and motivations, but it could also be that there's something about the way that they think where it just doesn't occur to them that they could be wrong about it. And that's where overconfidence comes in.
AP News: “Army veteran and US citizen arrested in California immigration raid warns it could happen to anyone”
A U.S. Army veteran who was arrested during an immigration raid at a Southern California marijuana farm last week said Wednesday he was sprayed with tear gas and pepper spray before being dragged from his vehicle and pinned down by federal agents who arrested him.
George Retes, 25, who works as a security guard at Glass House Farms in Camarillo, said he was arriving at work on July 10 when several federal agents surrounded his car and — despite him identifying himself as a U.S. citizen — broke his window, peppered sprayed him and dragged him out.
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