Chamblee54

A Voice of Hate in America’s Heartland is a controversial bit of product placement for Panera Bread. New York Times reporter Richard Fausset goes to smalltown Ohio to meet Tony Hovater. “In 2015, he helped start the Traditionalist Worker Party, one of the extreme right-wing groups that marched in Charlottesville, Va., in August, and again at a “White Lives Matter” rally last month in Tennessee. The mission is to “fight for the interests of White Americans.’’ This is a double repost.
Virtual America is not pleased. Twitter screeds by @magi_jay and @bessbell have been widely shared. This facebook comment speaks for many: “The article serves to humanize and normalize him/far-right extremism/Nazism — which was one of Tony Havater’s stated desires/goals re: his present involvement in the white nationalist/Nazi movement. By normalizing them, they are given a seat at the table of political discourse which is absolutely a back-asswards step.”
When PG sees a tweetstorm like this, his first instinct is to find the original material. Read the article, not what @ShaunKing says about it. When you read the original, you wonder if it is the same article. The original is full of snide references, and logical fallacies. Maybe what the masses want is a ritual denunciation of the anointed poopyhead. As one online publication put it, “ensure that white supremacists and Nazis are thought of and treated the same way you might treat a roach scurrying across a kitchen counter.” Lets look at some quotes from the NYT article.
“Mr. Hovater’s face is narrow and punctuated with sharply peaked eyebrows, like a pair of air quotes, and he tends to deliver his favorite adjective, “edgy,” with a flat affect and maximum sarcastic intent. It is a sort of implicit running assertion that the edges of acceptable American political discourse — edges set by previous generations, like the one that fought the Nazis — are laughable.”
The previous generations of America are a mixed bag. Yes, they fought the Germans in WW2. They also fought Native Americans, and said “the only good Indian is a dead Indian.” “The edges of acceptable American political discourse” once included Jim Crow laws. American political discourse is an ever-changing work in progress.
“After he attended the Charlottesville rally, in which a white nationalist plowed his car into a group of left-wing protesters, killing one of them, Mr. Hovater wrote that he was proud of the comrades who joined him there: “We made history. Hail victory.” In German, “Hail victory” is “Sieg heil.””
James Alex Fields is accused of killing Heather Meyer with a Dodge Challenger. We don’t know if he was acting on orders, where those orders came from, or if he is a loose cannon, acting on his own. While the march organizers certainly bear some responsibility for that tragedy, we do not know the entire story. In any event, that has nothing to do with the German translation of “Hail Victory.” That interjection is a red herring.
I Interviewed a White Nationalist and Fascist. What Was I Left With? was published after the backlash hit. It is a commentary by the author, in which he laments not finding the “rosebud” to this story. There is a revealing quote near the end. “…I saw, on his bookshelf, two volumes of Helena Blavatsky’s “The Secret Doctrine,” 19th-century work of esoteric spiritualism whose anti-Semitism influenced Nazi thinking. But even if I had called Mr. Hovater yet again — even if we had discussed Blavatsky at length, the way we did his ideas about the Federal Reserve Bank — I’m not sure it would have answered the question. What makes a man start fires?”
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (Еле́на Петро́вна Блава́тская) is a 19th century Russian that few people know about. This obscurity allows Mr. Fausset to fill in the blanks with a gratuitous comment about anti-Semitism. This inclusion also assumes that Mr. Hovater has read the books.
The reference to the Federal Reserve Bank is more telling. If you listen to this podcast, you learn that Mr. Hovater is more concerned with economics than white nationalism. You will also learn that many of his ideas are not well thought out. Mr. Hovater, a former drummer in a heavy metal band, is similar to that libertarian in the break room … the one who will not shut up, and go back to work.
Tony Hovater is a walking, talking illustration of the Dunning-Kruger effect. (The spell check suggestion for Hovater is Overate.) He simply does not know what he is talking about. People who call him a Nazi are missing the point. The Nazis were smart, and tough. Mr. Hovater has his good points, much to the disappointment of sjw-twitter. Unfortunately, he simply is not that smart. The NYT obscures this proud ignorance with snarky comments about Charlottesville, and swastikas.
Saying Tony Hovater is stupid will not satisfy the keyboard warrior. Talking about economics is not as much fun as denouncing the third reich … as if the LARP-tikitorch crowd is the same as the Schutzstaffel. SJW twitter does not like subtlety. This is what they want to hear: “Of course, profiles on the people directly harmed by this hate speech and violence would be much more compelling. But that would require whiteness—white maleness, specifically—to be uncentered. And uncentering whiteness is harder than eating just one Lay’s potato chip, apparently.”
Pictures are from The Library of Congress.

The NYT article about Tony Hovater got a lot of attention. As other stories become the fascination of the day, Mr. Hovater is fading into unemployed obscurity. This followup feature (here is part one) will look at some of the stupid things that have said about the NYT article. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. If you want to skip over the text, and look at the pictures, you will be forgiven.
Here Are Some Facts and Questions About That Nazi the New York Times Failed to Note takes the prize. “He’s not really named “Tony Hovater.” Like many neo-Nazis and white supremacists, Hovater uses a modified version of his legal name in his racist activities. His real name is William Anthony Hovater, which is the name he’s registered to vote under and which appears on other public records associated with him. It’s unusual for any newspaper, let alone the Times, not to say when their subject isn’t using their real name. A paper that insists on noting Snoop Dogg’s legal name can probably do the same for a Nazi, no?”
What the New York Times’ Nazi Story Left Out Apparently Mr. Hovater is motivated by economics, as much as race. However, Slate never misses a chance to stir the racial stew. Author Jamelle Bouie is especially fond of the word *virulent*, using it six times, always in front of racism/racist. Another Slate feature, The Urgent Reality of Online Extremism, says the NYT article was “deeply fact checked.” The link is to the splinter article referenced above … the one that said Tony Hovater was not the real name of William Anthony Hovater.
@panerabread featured prominently in the NYT. While researching his commentary, PG wondered if Panera had distanced itself from the controversy. The turkey sandwich was no longer available for comment. A google search turned up this exchange. @nytimes The Chemicals in Your Mac and Cheese @panerabread “With us, you can have your mac and feel good about it too.”
@magi_jay twittered a timely tweetstorm about the NYT article. Their comments focused on other things the NYT could have said. “@magi_jay 16/ What are some other things the Times could done? Well they could have interviewed a behavioral scientist on the psychological traits of white supremacists. How they justify their hatred, etc. . . . As well as the tendencies of their white neighbors to look the other way.” @magi_jay does not consider that the NYT article contained 2373 words. This is roughly ten times the length of the typical reader’s patience. If the NYT has done all the things @magi_jay suggested, the article would have become a doorstop novel.
@bessbell “I don’t mean to sound intolerant or coarse, but 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.” This is the beginning of another popular twitfest. It was mentioned in the sorry we offended you article, in which the *liberal media* NYT apologizes for allowing Mr. Hovater to live. @bessbell seems to confuse white boy cosplay for the Schutzstaffel. *Nazi* is being trivialized by promiscuous overuse, and will soon mean as much as *racist*, *christian*, or *poopyhead*.
The NYT article about Tony Hovater is past its fifteen minutes. SJW twitter can get their woke jollies listening to I’m Not Racist. #MeToo warriors can sharpen their pitchforks, and wait for the next celebrity to fall from grace. As Roseanne Roseannadanna used to say, It’s Always Something.