Back in August of 2017, the country was stunned when it heard reports of a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where hundreds of white nationalists gathered at the University of Virginia to protest against the removal of the statue of General Robert E. Lee. The rally raised numerous concerns, as not only did the participants chant “The Jews will not replace us, the Jews will not replace us”, they did so while showing their faces, illustrating that they were not afraid to display their convictions regardless of the social backlash they would receive. Referred to as the Unite the Right rally, the gathering caught media attention because of the poor communication and planning among law enforcement to contain violence, and the death of Heather Heyer, who was killed when a far-right extremist rammed his vehicle into counter-protestors. What some might forget is that it was also the introduction of Nick Fuentes, a prominent antisemite, who has begun to re-emerge within the far-right eco-system.

The First Wave of Antisemitism from Nick Fuentes

Reports indicate that after the Unite the Right rally, due to media attention, Nick Fuentes dropped out of Boston University during his freshman year as he had begun to receive death threats. He decided to focus on his livestream show, America First, where he promotes holocaust denialism, uses racial slurs to describe people of color, and vilifies the feminist movement as a cancer to Western values. Unlike his nemesis, Charlie Kirk, who was capable of disguising his racism and xenophobia using acceptable language among MAGA, like DEI and “wokism” to vilify Democrats, Fuentes refused to sanitize the language necessary to be accepted in the MAGA community, but this move was strategic. In order for Nick Fuentes to stand out back in 2017, he needed to position himself right from Kirk, because attacking him from the left was inundated with liberal and progressive political commentators, whereas striking from the right had less competition. However, this strategy had its setbacks as the only people willing to provide Nick Fuentes with a platform were conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones, who was beginning to deal with legal issues because of his defamation of the parents at Sandy Hook Elementary School. So, while Charlie Kirk emerged as a promising face of the MAGA movement in 2017, 2018, and 2019, Nick Fuentes’s growth was limited to the fringes, resulting in limited exposure.

The Second Wave of Antisemitism from Nick Fuentes

In 2022, Kanye West, now known as Ye, had an antisemitic outburst that caught media attention. Nick Fuentes, being the opportunist that he is, took this chance to reignite his influence by partnering up with Ye and Milo Yiannopoulos. During his second stunt, Fuentes facilitated a three-way panel discussion........

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