What Michelle Malkin’s Disturbing Statements Could Mean for the Conservative Movement

 

At Stanford University last week the Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro laid waste to the alt-right. Shapiro is a popular speaker on college campuses, and almost always follows basically the same script about the Left and the idiocy of progressive ideology. But of late an alt-right brigade has coordinated a campaign to target Daily Wire staff giving speeches on college campuses across the country, and in response, Shapiro decided to spend a significant portion of his speech hitting at them directly. It’s one of the best speeches he’s ever given and is deserving of an hour of your time:

One of the alt-right figures targeting Shapiro is this guy, Nick Fuentes:

Which is what makes these statements by Michelle Malkin so deeply disturbing:

Shapiro’s issues with Fuentes don’t stop at Holocaust denial (though that would certainly be enough). Malkin wonders what Shapiro might have against Fuentes? Well, these videos could explain a few things.

This is Fuentes playing a video game, targeting an Orthodox Jew with his car, running him over after shooting him down, and laughing that he just took down Ben Shapiro:

Or here, where he flashes a switchblade while live streaming a Shapiro event:

Malkin is aware of all of these things; it’s no secret what Fuentes is.

What is disturbing about her comments is the fact that she is running cover for him anyway. There are many who have said she’s “lost it.” But Malkin isn’t stupid, and she isn’t crazy, and therein lies the problem. Malkin is smart and has made a calculated and conscious effort to make herself a thought leader in a faction of the conservative movement that she sees on the ascent. This is disturbing for any conservative who does not want to rub shoulders with racists and Jew-haters. Here’s hoping the conservative political marketplace signals to Malkin loud and clear that partnering with anyone on the alt-right, especially Fuentes, is bad for business.

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  1. Skyler Coolidge
    Skyler
    @Skyler

    She has some ‘splaining to do.

    • #1
  2. Fake John/Jane Galt Coolidge
    Fake John/Jane Galt
    @FakeJohnJaneGalt

    I wish we still lived in at a time that people had thicker skins.  Who care if this guy denies the Holocaust?  Just means he is an idiot.  Or more likely just trolling to draft off of Shapiro’s fame.

    • #2
  3. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    How can the “white race” be so superior if it produces window-lickers like Nick?

    Your existence refutes your thesis, Fuentes.  Now go play in traffic.

    • #3
  4. The Cloaked Gaijin Member
    The Cloaked Gaijin
    @TheCloakedGaijin

    On a side note, today I was looking up something about an MSNBC conservative named Rick Tyler who apparently worked for Ted Cruz once.  I never heard of the guy.

    Apparently Google has decided to link his photo to wikipedia’s “Rick Tyler (white supremacist)” who has the exact same name.

    • #4
  5. EJHill Podcaster
    EJHill
    @EJHill

    Up until this moment I had never heard of the guy. Although “Fuentes” is an odd name for a racist. 

    • #5
  6. Aaron Miller Inactive
    Aaron Miller
    @AaronMiller

    In that speech, Malkin (who isn’t white, you know) doesn’t defend racists or Fuentes. She suggests that it is better to address valid concerns about illegal immigration than to focus on condemnation. 

    Presumably, she was implying that wrong-headed people are led to truth and out of hatred by beginning from common ground, rather than by attacks which immediately raise one’s guard for pride. In other words, address reasonable concerns about demographic changes, as Mark Steyn has, or else some white people will understandably join the Left’s game of identity politics. Racism is encouraged by racist policies. Focus on the policies and people publicly hated for being white might not take refuge in white-only clubs.

    Malkin, an ethno-nationalist? Do you mean “American” is a culture and not just a scrap of land full of money?

    • #6
  7. DrewInWisconsin, Type Monkey Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Type Monkey
    @DrewInWisconsin

    Is this going to be one of those situations where a nobody with five followers becomes a somebody because the media will feature him endlessly? (cf Richard Spencer)

    • #7
  8. Franco Member
    Franco
    @Franco

    Aaron Miller (View Comment):

    In that speech, Malkin (who isn’t white, you know) doesn’t defend racists or Fuentes. She suggests that it is better to address valid concerns about illegal immigration than to focus on condemnation.

    Presumably, she was implying that wrong-headed people are led to truth and out of hatred by beginning from common ground, rather than by attacks which immediately raise one’s guard for pride. In other words, address reasonable concerns about demographic changes, as Mark Steyn has, or else some white people will understandably join the Left’s game of identity politics. Racism is encouraged by racist policies. Focus on the policies and people publicly hated for being white might not take refuge in white-only clubs.

    Malkin, an ethno-nationalist? Do you mean “American” is a culture and not just a scrap of land full of money?

    This is spot on. Thank you!

    • #8
  9. Sabrdance Member
    Sabrdance
    @Sabrdance

    So, Michelle Malkin points out the flipping obvious.  Nick Fuentes and the “groypers” are having an effect because they discovered that if you put a pointed question to Charles Kirk or Ben Shapiro, their golden tongues suddenly turn to lead.  A point made also by Ben Sixsmith last week in the Spectator.  And further, that responding with sputtering rage doesn’t make Kirk or Shapiro look that good.

    And then says that if you don’t want to lose the war with these people, you should blooming well come up with a satisfactory answer to these questions.

    Then a Bernie Bro posts this -and the ostensible leaders of the Right just buy it.

    They still don’t have answers to the very pointed questions.

     

    Look, I don’t care that the Groypers are dishonest.  So’s the left.  We’ve all had more than enough experience with dishonest interlocutors.  It doesn’t matter.  Candy Crowley kneecapped Mitt Romney and the election was lost, and it doesn’t matter that she was wrong and dishonest.

    If you can’t figure out why people aren’t listening to you anymore, and are giving Fuentes a hearing -which I concur, is a bad thing -then look in a mirror.

    • #9
  10. Jon1979 Inactive
    Jon1979
    @Jon1979

    DrewInWisconsin, Type Monkey (View Comment):

    Is this going to be one of those situations where a nobody with five followers becomes a somebody because the media will feature him endlessly? (cf Richard Spencer)

    The last name of Fuentes could be a little problematic for the default narrative here — sort of the opposite situation with George Zimmerman, where the name made many in the media think he could be branded as a white supremacist, before they had to change the story line in mid-course and label him as a ‘White Hispanic’ so the rest of the narrative would fit (though to be fair a national media that could make Beto the Latino and Ted Cruz the white guy in last year’s Texas Senate race certainly has it in them to make Nick Fuentes into the whitest alt-righter in the country, if they think that will help their cause in 2020).

    • #10
  11. James Lileks Contributor
    James Lileks
    @jameslileks

    Did Malkin call Fuentes a “new right leader” because she didn’t want to alienate the Jew-haters, or the Fuentes fans who are not Jew-haters yet but Jew-hater adjacent, as they say?

    On which planet does Fuentes deserve that title?

    • #11
  12. Bob Thompson Member
    Bob Thompson
    @BobThompson

    I’d rather put my attention toward outing and ousting the Soviet styled Communists in the House of Representatives.

    • #12
  13. Bethany Mandel Coolidge
    Bethany Mandel
    @bethanymandel

    Fake John/Jane Galt (View Comment):

    I wish we still lived in at a time that people had thicker skins. Who care if this guy denies the Holocaust? Just means he is an idiot. Or more likely just trolling to draft off of Shapiro’s fame.

    If you won’t take a stand against white nationalists, what will you take a stand against? It’s not about thick skins, Ben Shapiro is just fine. The issue is he is being defended as a legitimate thought leader, and he’s a Holocaust denier. That is… a problem.

    • #13
  14. Bob Thompson Member
    Bob Thompson
    @BobThompson

    Bethany Mandel (View Comment):

    Fake John/Jane Galt (View Comment):

    I wish we still lived in at a time that people had thicker skins. Who care if this guy denies the Holocaust? Just means he is an idiot. Or more likely just trolling to draft off of Shapiro’s fame.

    If you won’t take a stand against white nationalists, what will you take a stand against? It’s not about thick skins, Ben Shapiro is just fine. The issue is he is being defended as a legitimate thought leader, and he’s a Holocaust denier. That is… a problem.

    He is not an elected representative in our government where we have numerous who act as if they are actually representing a Communist nation. Let’s go there first and then go after individual citizens who think they are leading some kind of movement.

    • #14
  15. Bob Thompson Member
    Bob Thompson
    @BobThompson

    Bethany Mandel (View Comment):

    Fake John/Jane Galt (View Comment):

    I wish we still lived in at a time that people had thicker skins. Who care if this guy denies the Holocaust? Just means he is an idiot. Or more likely just trolling to draft off of Shapiro’s fame.

    If you won’t take a stand against white nationalists, what will you take a stand against? It’s not about thick skins, Ben Shapiro is just fine. The issue is he is being defended as a legitimate thought leader, and he’s a Holocaust denier. That is… a problem.

    So now you want to influence me to actually join a group when group identity activity is not what I want do.  If you want to be in the ‘group’ that takes a stand against Fuentes, go ahead. Is it ok that I stand for America and individual liberty for all Americans?

    • #15
  16. Fake John/Jane Galt Coolidge
    Fake John/Jane Galt
    @FakeJohnJaneGalt

    Bethany Mandel (View Comment):

    Fake John/Jane Galt (View Comment):

    I wish we still lived in at a time that people had thicker skins. Who care if this guy denies the Holocaust? Just means he is an idiot. Or more likely just trolling to draft off of Shapiro’s fame.

    If you won’t take a stand against white nationalists, what will you take a stand against? It’s not about thick skins, Ben Shapiro is just fine. The issue is he is being defended as a legitimate thought leader, and he’s a Holocaust denier. That is… a problem.

    I take a stand by ignoring the thousand or so there are in this country.  There are no significant white nationalist movement, except a few crack pots.  You are chasing after smoke and mirror the Left is putting in front of you.  In my area the KKK fielded their yearly state wide cook out.  They have done it for the last few years.  They can field about a dozen people at their cookout.  In what Obama considers the most racist areas in America.  The protesters that showed up were in the thousands.   This is not a movement, it is a joke.

    You guys are taking the Lefts point of view that if somebody disagrees with you then they are white supremacist that need to be attacked and made to be noticed.  My option is to dismiss them and watch them go away.

    • #16
  17. Jon1979 Inactive
    Jon1979
    @Jon1979

    Bethany Mandel (View Comment):

    Fake John/Jane Galt (View Comment):

    I wish we still lived in at a time that people had thicker skins. Who care if this guy denies the Holocaust? Just means he is an idiot. Or more likely just trolling to draft off of Shapiro’s fame.

    If you won’t take a stand against white nationalists, what will you take a stand against? It’s not about thick skins, Ben Shapiro is just fine. The issue is he is being defended as a legitimate thought leader, and he’s a Holocaust denier. That is… a problem.

    Googling Nick Fuentes name, he apparently was born the week Bill Clinton finally admitted that, yes, he had engaged in relations with Ms. Lewinsky. Which means he’s been of legal drinking age for just under three months.

    While I don’t like people who spew anti-Semetic crap, and I don’t like Malkin’s strategy if she is being too cute by half in trying to make cause with someone like Fuentes, I really can’t find anything that makes him a public figure other than the fact his videos have come to Ben Shapiro’s attention and he’s now gotten some sort of bolstering, at least indirectly, from Malkin.

    So it’s a bit of a conundrum in that attention is power for online warriors like Nick Fuentes, and you make him more than he is if you start taking him seriously as some sort of Latino white nationalist leader. That’s different than being a Ben Shapiro obsessive, where it’s definitely something Shapiro and the Daily Wire staff needs to take seriously, because Fuentes seems like a 21-year-old who’s mentally unstable. That’s more of something for law enforcement and the state mental health department to deal with, if Fuentes’ Jew-hatred against Shapiro continues. Everyone else treating him as something more than a joke gives him the dignity he doesn’t deserve.

    • #17
  18. DrewInWisconsin, Type Monkey Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Type Monkey
    @DrewInWisconsin

    Bethany Mandel (View Comment):
    The issue is he is being defended as a legitimate thought leader, and he’s a Holocaust denier.

    Who is calling Fuentes a “thought leader”? I mean, he can call himself anything he likes. Ricochet knows I do.

    Fake John/Jane Galt (View Comment):

    I take a stand by ignoring the thousand or so there are in this country. There are no significant white nationalist movement, except a few crack pots.  . . .  My option is to dismiss them and watch them go away.

    This is the proper response. Ignore him. Do not treat him like he has any sort of legitimacy.

    Of course, the media won’t (left-wing or otherwise). They’ll prop him up as a “thought leader.” Our response when his name is brought up needs to be “who dis?”

     

     

    • #18
  19. Concretevol Thatcher
    Concretevol
    @Concretevol

    Fake John/Jane Galt (View Comment):

    Bethany Mandel (View Comment):

    Fake John/Jane Galt (View Comment):

    I wish we still lived in at a time that people had thicker skins. Who care if this guy denies the Holocaust? Just means he is an idiot. Or more likely just trolling to draft off of Shapiro’s fame.

    If you won’t take a stand against white nationalists, what will you take a stand against? It’s not about thick skins, Ben Shapiro is just fine. The issue is he is being defended as a legitimate thought leader, and he’s a Holocaust denier. That is… a problem.

    I take a stand by ignoring the thousand or so there are in this country. There are no significant white nationalist movement, except a few crack pots. You are chasing after smoke and mirror the Left is putting in front of you. In my area the KKK fielded their yearly state wide cook out. They have done it for the last few years. They can field about a dozen people at their cookout. In what Obama considers the most racist areas in America. The protesters that showed up were in the thousands. This is not a movement, it is a joke.

    You guys are taking the Lefts point of view that if somebody disagrees with you then they are white supremacist that need to be attacked and made to be noticed. My option is to dismiss them and watch them go away.

    I also choose the path of ignoring them and think their numbers are wildly exaggerated.  Why the h** is Malkin referring to this guy as a “new right leader”??   I have never heard of this schmuck until today.  While it is true to say denouncing him gives him publicity and elevates his status, so does labeling him as a freaking “leader” of the right.  Next thing you know CNN will have this guy on a round table as the token “conservative”.  

    • #19
  20. The Cloaked Gaijin Member
    The Cloaked Gaijin
    @TheCloakedGaijin

    Bethany Mandel:

    Malkin is aware of all of these things; it’s no secret what Fuentes is.

    Everyone is supposed to know every dark secret about everyone?

    I never heard of the guy until just now.

    I think immigration is sort of Michelle Malkin’s number one issue right now.  I think she is willing to ally with anyone to combat that situation right now.  Currently she appears to be at war against Senator Mike Lee and Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk because of this issue.  After this month’s election, apparently there are some interesting mainstream media stories about how Virginia has been turned into another California due to immigration.

    The closest thing I can find on her twitter page:

    “Young nationalists are smeared as ‘racists’ by both establishment Left & Swamp Right for challenging GOP #openbordersinc schemes like #S386. Silicon Valley/Chamber of Commerce are driving this bus over American grads’ hopes & dreams. College students need to know the truth.”

    (In response to “NC GOP @SenThomTillis wants to reward India’s workers who take US jobs from American graduates. He’s backing @SenMikeLee’s @S386 bill which gives citizenship to Indians for taking Americans’ jobs. Big subsidy for US investors, big loss for NC graduates.”)

    There are interesting videos on her twitter page and elsewhere of college STEM students calling out Charlie Kirk for supporting mass immigration.  One extremely mild-manner student starts out stating, “I’m actually pretty anti-immigration.  I’m from California, and my home state since the Immigration Act of 1965 has gone to ****.”

    Other recent Michelle Malkin twitter quotes:

    “…wealthy GOP adults mocking young male Trump voters for being single or living at home or dropping out of college is NOT A WINNING LOOK.”

    “Koch-allied lobbyists & Chamber of Commerce Republicans care more about illegal alien #DACA college students than they do about American college dropouts.”

    “There’s nothing scary, dark, or evil about millions like me who believe our American homeland is precious.”

    “It’s not about ‘illegal’ immigration. It’s about mass uncontrolled immigration & demographic conquest…”

    “…1 million new green cards annually plus 500,000 F-1s plus 800,000 DACA plus 3 million refugees plus 400k TPS recipients who will overwhelmingly vote Democrat times chain migration is greater than all minority Exiteers combined.” (Michelle Malkin stating to Candace Owens that it won’t matter if large numbers of Black Americans start voting conservative, if immigration is not controlled.)

    Anyone can call a conservative a racist.  I remember the first time I was called a racist about five years ago was when I mentioned online that I think that I would be much more worried about the sudden thousands of degrees of temperature increase due to a nuclear weapon than a largely imaginary gradual increase of temperature over decades from global warming.  A person, I think from Belgium, told me that this was the most racist thing he had ever heard.

    • #20
  21. Aaron Miller Inactive
    Aaron Miller
    @AaronMiller

    Bethany Mandel (View Comment):
    The issue is he is being defended as a legitimate thought leader, and he’s a Holocaust denier. That is… a problem.

    Like EJ, I had never heard of Fuentes until now. Yes, a Holocaust denier should be called out as a fruitcake or a villain. 

    But, assuming his YouTube or Twitter channel has a significant fan base, comparable to Shapiro’s, to call him a thought leader is simply a statement of fact and not necessarily praise. It is to say many people listen to and agree with him, not that he is morally equivalent to Dennis Prager or the late Charles Krauthammer or Mark Steyn or any of the dozens of “thought leaders” with fans on the Right. It does not put him up on a pedestal above others. 

    Nor does occasionally agreeing with a wicked or delusional person imply agreement in all things. 

    If Malkin goes on to praise Fuentes generally and send him an audience, sure, put up a fuss. I just don’t see a lot to get upset about in this passing reference to him. She merely suggests that his audience should be addressed, which does not mean totally agreeing with them. 

    Like Fake John/Jane Galt, I don’t see white supremacists as a common threat in this country. They are just a few fruitcakes with no popular appeal. Social media can make people seem popular here who aren’t because it enables a niche audience drawn from the entire world. In the entire English-speaking world, of course there are a few thousand idiots of any persuasion. 

    • #21
  22. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Bethany Mandel: Here’s hoping the conservative political marketplace signals to Malkin loud and clear that partnering with anyone on the alt-right, especially Fuentes, is bad for business.

    We need to stop using the term “alt-right”, because it implies certain people – such as white supremacist groups – are part of the right, an alternative to traditional right-wing thinking (alternative right).  If anything, their views are anathema to the right . . .

    • #22
  23. Sabrdance Member
    Sabrdance
    @Sabrdance

    Links for future reference:

    David Hines taking a stab at explaining the strategy of the Groypers

    Ben Sixsmith on why it works

     

    • #23
  24. Bob Thompson Member
    Bob Thompson
    @BobThompson

    Concretevol (View Comment):

    Fake John/Jane Galt (View Comment):

    Bethany Mandel (View Comment):

    Fake John/Jane Galt (View Comment):

    I wish we still lived in at a time that people had thicker skins. Who care if this guy denies the Holocaust? Just means he is an idiot. Or more likely just trolling to draft off of Shapiro’s fame.

    If you won’t take a stand against white nationalists, what will you take a stand against? It’s not about thick skins, Ben Shapiro is just fine. The issue is he is being defended as a legitimate thought leader, and he’s a Holocaust denier. That is… a problem.

    I take a stand by ignoring the thousand or so there are in this country. There are no significant white nationalist movement, except a few crack pots. You are chasing after smoke and mirror the Left is putting in front of you. In my area the KKK fielded their yearly state wide cook out. They have done it for the last few years. They can field about a dozen people at their cookout. In what Obama considers the most racist areas in America. The protesters that showed up were in the thousands. This is not a movement, it is a joke.

    You guys are taking the Lefts point of view that if somebody disagrees with you then they are white supremacist that need to be attacked and made to be noticed. My option is to dismiss them and watch them go away.

    I also choose the path of ignoring them and think their numbers are wildly exaggerated. Why the h** is Malkin referring to this guy as a “new right leader”?? I have never heard of this schmuck until today. While it is true to say denouncing him gives him publicity and elevates his status, so does labeling him as a freaking “leader” of the right. Next thing you know CNN will have this guy on a round table as the token “conservative”.

    I have always pretty much been supportive of Malkin and her views. I have also always thought she had a little edge to her that could lead to things like this.

    • #24
  25. The Cloaked Gaijin Member
    The Cloaked Gaijin
    @TheCloakedGaijin

    Aaron Miller (View Comment):

    Bethany Mandel (View Comment):
    The issue is he is being defended as a legitimate thought leader, and he’s a Holocaust denier. That is… a problem.

    Like EJ, I had never heard of Fuentes until now. Yes, a Holocaust denier should be called out as a fruitcake or a villain.

    Of course.

    If he’s a Holocaust denier, then he will be shunned and marginalized like that guy who ran against Paul Ryan in the primary.  People thought that guy might be okay.  Then apparently he turned out to be completely crazy.  I don’t remember or really wish to study all the icky details.

    • #25
  26. Cal Lawton Inactive
    Cal Lawton
    @CalLawton

     But Malkin isn’t stupid, and she isn’t crazy, and therein lies the problem. Malkin is smart and has made a calculated and conscious effort to make herself a thought leader in a faction of the conservative movement that she sees on the ascent. This is disturbing for any conservative who does not want to rub shoulders with racists and Jew-haters. 

    I was waiting for the Benny Hill laughtrack at the end of your piece but it didn’t play. I think I had the sound turned down on my computer.

    Like you, Michelle is a mother. Her children, though, are teenaged boys who, she says, are fueled by pizza, hormones, and Slurpies. When talking they already know everything, then minutes later know absolutely nothing. Michelle has learned to communicate with them.

    Nick Fuentes is a twenty-something acting and talking like a know-everything teenager with a web page and a tiny, jumbled view of history and, therefore, reality.  In our world he is a crank, probably on the Democrat payroll.

    Michelle is explaining that a lost generation of secluded, usually fatherless, video game-playing young men need to be engaged directly and talked back from the cliff of xenophobia and idiotic real world violence.

    You can over read her use of nationalism if you like, but if you read her work you’ll discover an advocate for secure and controlled borders to protect and defend the nation. Which means everybody.

     

     

    • #26
  27. Bob Thompson Member
    Bob Thompson
    @BobThompson

    We have some really sharp people at Ricochet!

    • #27
  28. DrewInWisconsin, Type Monkey Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Type Monkey
    @DrewInWisconsin

    Aaron Miller (View Comment):
    Presumably, she was implying that wrong-headed people are led to truth and out of hatred by beginning from common ground, rather than by attacks which immediately raise one’s guard for pride. In other words, address reasonable concerns about demographic changes, as Mark Steyn has, or else some white people will understandably join the Left’s game of identity politics. Racism is encouraged by racist policies. Focus on the policies and people publicly hated for being white might not take refuge in white-only clubs.

    Truckload of likes for this comment. This is becoming a serious problem. If the culture pushes the identity-politics pedal to the floor, such that every group starts fighting for a piece of Political Pie, is it any surprise that white people eventually get the message and start acting like an identity-group as well?

    Then someone like Rich Lowry comes along and says that one of the ways to fight against this identitarianism is through a positive sort of nationalism, and too many on the right are ready to declare him a racist for even suggesting it. (I declare those people very shallow thinkers.)

    The last thing we want to do when a Fuentes figure pops up is turn into reactionaries.

    So does anyone have a full text or a full video of that speech by Malkin? I want to hear the entire context of what she’s saying, not just a one-minute clip. I haven’t paid much attention to Malkin since the early days of her blogging, but I highly doubt she’s turning into a white supremacist. Assuming Fuentes has legitimate gripes and isn’t just trolling the culture (which I think is a huge assumption to make) then the answer is to treat those concerns as legitimate and address them honestly. Otherwise you risk building a larger movement out of a few cranks.

    • #28
  29. DrewInWisconsin, Type Monkey Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Type Monkey
    @DrewInWisconsin

    Concretevol (View Comment):
    Next thing you know CNN will have this guy on a round table as the token “conservative”.

    Count on that happening.

    • #29
  30. DrewInWisconsin, Type Monkey Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Type Monkey
    @DrewInWisconsin

    Cal Lawton (View Comment):
    Michelle is explaining that a lost generation of secluded, usually fatherless, video game-playing young men need to be engaged directly and talked back from the cliff of xenophobia and idiotic real world violence.

    This. So much this.

    • #30
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