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I must speak up about this BuzzFeed profile of Katie McHugh, a former white nationalist who spent some time in conservative DC media circles. I have also spent time in these circles, and Katie and I overlapped at one news org, though I didn't know her well buzzfeednews.com/article/rosieg…
First, I am glad Katie has snapped out of it, we should all be happy when a member of the alt-right loses faith and deserts. Second, I try not to wish ill on anyone, so I genuinely hope she gets whatever assistance—financial, emotional, etc—she needs.
Katie pins much of the blame for her racist views on the organizations that promoted her. I think this is unfair—particularly to the Institute for Humane Studies, which she claims is part of the "libertarian to alt-right pipeline." (Katie makes this claim, not the author.)
It's certainly true that some libertarians have gone on to join the alt-right. But so have conservatives, and even lefties—there are former Occupy Wall Street activists now flirting with Nazi ideas for the same anti-Semitic conspiratorial reasons.
In my experience, there are two types of alt-right folks: those who always harbored these views, basically since their early teens, often due to parental influences; and those who come to those views because they are sad and disturbed, looking for the next crazy cult type thing.
But neither of these types come up through an institutional pipeline, let alone a libertarian one. Did institutions fail Katie? Sure. But this piece is looking for big villains, when the bad guys are mostly a circle of racist friends who were largely hiding from the institutions.
The first time I met Katie, actually, was at an IHS journalism seminar at Byrn Mawr. 50-100 participants. Most were just libertarian-ish liberals, a smaller number were real libertarians or conservatives, and I guess one person was secretly a nazi.
In any case, if you're interested in learning more about the alt-right, you should pre-order my book on youth activism! The last chapter delves into the alt-right's rise and fall, and features interviews with Richard Spencer and Christopher Cantwell. read.macmillan.com/lp/panic-attac…
