Patreon Still Being Used to Fund White Nationalists

Since the tragic events of Charlottesville, most online platforms have removed white nationalists and their allies, a trend which has led to some extreme right individuals having difficulty gaining and keeping an audience. Patreon, an online website that allows users to support content creators, is no exception. In 2017, they banned Lauren Southern for what was deemed “dangerous activity.” More recently, Milo Yiannopoulos’s page was removed after one day because his support of hate groups violated Patreon’s community guidelines:

However, Patreon is still used to provide funding for white nationalists and Holocaust deniers through such accounts as The Unz Review.

The Unz Review describes itself as”a collection of interesting, important, and controversial perspectives largely excluded from the American mainstream media.” It was founded by Holocaust-denier and California businessman Ron Unz, and while it does feature some quasi-mainstream columnists like Pat Buchanan, it also provides a home for more controversial figures like VDARE writer Steve Sailer, as well as avowed white nationalists Gregory Conte and Andrew Joyce.

Not to be outdone, Unz has written controversial articles of his own. In an October, 2018 post, the ADL alleged that Unz “has denied the Holocaust, endorsed the claim that Jews consume the blood of non-Jews, and has claimed that Jews control the media, hate non-Jews, and worship Satan.” My previous article on Ron Unz’s influence over an ongoing racial discrimination lawsuit against Harvard goes into more detail about his views on the Holocaust and of Jews in general.

But Unz also publishes — and presumably funds — disturbing articles by lesser known and sometimes anonymous writers. One of the most disgusting is “The Fat Heather Heyer Hoax” by someone calling himself Marcus Cicero. Heather Heyer was, of course, the counter-protester who was murdered by Neo-Nazi James Fields. Cicero’s piece is disrespectfully fronted by a photograph of Heyer’s body as she is being taken away from the fatal attack by first responders. Cicero continues his cowardly attack on the deceased woman by referring to her as a “disgusting slob” and a “heifer.” He claims falsely that Heyer died because of “morbid obesity” and goes on to allege that Heyer’s death was planned by Jews in order to deprive the alt-right of their freedoms. As if this weren’t enough, the article is adorned with an anti-Semitic image.

Far from attempting to hide articles that celebrate the murder of those who protest against white nationalism, “The Fat Heather Heyer Hoax” appears on the front page of The Unz Review. And the orange “Become a Patron” button leading to Unz’s Patreon account appears helpfully at the bottom of each article.

While Cicero’s screed is uncontrolled and childish, other white nationalists published by The Unz Review are a bit more careful in their choice of words. The Review has published four articles by Gregory Conte, a white nationalist who was fired from his teaching job in January, 2018 for his extremist associations.

Conte also writes about Charlottesville, claiming that the far right is being targeted by authorities. Meanwhile, white supremacist Andrew Joyce has 22 articles available on The Unz Review. Joyce coats his antisemitism and racism in a thin veneer of academic jargon, but his focus is still clear in titles like “Black Crime and Its Jewish Apologists” (another front page selection) and “How the Jews Won the Battle of Charlottesville” (Yes, it’s an obsession with them).

With subjects from Pizzagate to Sandy Hook denial, The Unz Review also dabbles in hateful conspiracy theories. But the real fireworks usually happen in the comments, where the motif of antisemitism is reworked into a braying symphony of ignorance. Slurs and violent threats abound.

The odd thing about The Unz Review’s Patreon page is that it isn’t needed. Ron Unz is — ostensibly — a millionaire, having made a bundle when he sold the company that became Moody’s Analytics. Surely the $750 that his website gains per month from patrons is not what is keeping it online. Unless Unz’s campaign of hate and idiocy have finally begun to eat away at his fortune. Doubtful, to be sure, but one can hope.