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In my time in the Dissident Right sphere, I’ve had my chance to attend certain historic events but chose not to.
I didn’t go to Charlottesville because I couldn’t get the day off work. For many years, this was a regret of mine. I thought it would be cool to have the street cred of having been there, but over time, I’ve built up my own pro-white bona fides and have no such need for the badge. I’m now rather grateful that I wasn’t there. Arguably the only person to come out of Charlottesville better off than they came in was David Duke, who did enjoy a revival of interest following the event.
I could have gone to J6 but didn’t because I honestly didn’t think anyone would show up. There had already been three Stop the Steal marches that were on the weekend, and J6 was a work day. I assumed that anyone who wanted to go to Washington DC to support Trump already had three infinitely more convenient opportunities to do so. Alas, I underestimated the intensity and sincerity of QAnon cult who took the conspiracy theory far beyond escapist infotainment.
Again, I am eternally grateful that I wasn’t at J6. I have always wondered what I would have done if I were there. Would I have been so rash as to have gone inside the Capitol, and if I had, would my association with Counter-Currents have been enough to have given me a journalism pass?
While I missed out on those monumental historic events in right-wing history, I did attend one minor historic event: I was at the first ever Proud Boys meeting in Greenpoint.
I’ve heard some lore that Gavin McInnes was heavily banking on a job at Fox News, didn’t get it, and took it particularly hard. According to legend, the group was conceived in the wake of that.
I had a friend who was in Gavin’s extended entourage, and he invited me. You often hear me boast of having appeared in the SPLC Hate Watch blog. It was actually a passing reference in an article about this guy.
Anyway, I thought, “OK, so my fifth favorite Takimag writer is starting a club. I think I’ll check it out.”
Takimag was a very important early Alt Right pipeline, and they had a sort of dream team at the time: Steve Sailer, David Cole, John Derbyshire, Gavin McInnes, and Jim Goad. I followed Derbyshire to Takimag from NRO and then discovered the broader Alt Right from there. When it had a comments section, it was a fairly important hub.
I knew Gavin McInnes from Takimag and was therefore expecting Proud Boys to be more ideological than it was but it turned out that made me a minority of the people who showed up to the first Proud Boys most of whom knew Gavin from his more satirical work. I went to the thing expecting it to be Takimag: the Club and when I get there, they will be doing the whole breakfast cereal thing.
I didn’t expect much from the Proud Boys but I still managed to feel let down. The group was almost apolitical and unserious, but that was by design. Gavin’s original vision of the group as more of an Elk Lodge than a think tank. “A hipster drinking club.”
The thing is that originally, the Proud Boys really were a hipster drinking club, but only because the first few PB meet-ups were in New York, which is the hipster capital of the world. Proud Boys was never going to maintain its hipsterish character as it expanded nationwide.
I went to another one a couple of months later in Manhattan. When I got there, people were going in and out of the bathroom to do cocaine. I will neither confirm nor deny that I was one of them (c’mon, this was Gavin McInnes we’re talking about. You expect me to endure that sober?).
Gavin came in late and left early.
The most memorable part of the evening was meeting Cale Hartman. Hartman was an up-and-coming comedian in L.A. who recently got metoo’d by his girlfriend for being an abuser. The evidence against the guy appeared pretty damning, then another girl came forward, and then Hartman flubbed his official response addressing the matter by claiming that the claims were exaggerated. In fairness, I doubt anything could have defused the situation.
I talked with Hartman for a bit and brought the scandal up. He said, “You know I didn’t do it.”
I didn’t believe him and tried to give a polite non-committal response. I think I said “Look, let’s not talk about it.”
He then put his hand on my shoulder and looked me right in the eyes and said “No. I didn’t do it.”
For some reason, I believed him.
My friend fell out with Gavin shortly afterwards, and I have had no association with the group since.
I was in the original Proud Boys Facebook group. That’s where I met Eli Mosely. We were part of the more political Takimag faction of the group as opposed to the majority Vice faction who knew Gavin from his satirical work.
Anyway, the FB group was originally a free speech free for all, and yet there was still a culture of not getting too political: no super-serious effortposts. Still, it was a decent place for networking in the early Alt Right days.
But over 2016-2017, Gavin had to instate increasingly draconian censorship in the FB group to keep his fans from redpilling and leaving for the Alt Right.
First, you couldn’t talk about Jews. Then you couldn’t talk about race realism. Then no white nationalism in the FB group. Then you couldn’t even have white nationalism on your on FB page. It got to a point where you would be kicked out of the FB group merely for associating with a known White Nationalist.
In my opinion, Proud Boys turned into it what it did mostly because of competition with the Alt Right.
The is an edginess arms race inherent to right-wing politics. Everyone wants to be the edgiest. Politically, the Alt Right was clearly edgier than what Gavin was putting out, so he tried to rebrand PB as the more macho and tough guy option. “Sure, Andrew Anglin might name the Jew, but do you see him out fighting Antifa in the street?”
Once a lot of videos of Proud Boys fighting Antifa in the street went viral, it attracted a new kind of person. Additionally, some conservative speakers would employ Proud Boys as security as David Cole did when he hosted an Anne Coulter event.
Already Proud Boys had drifted from the hipster drinking club Gavin envisioned and started to become more of a street gang. By J6, they were quasi-paramilitary and up to the gills in feds.
Now, maybe not everyone in the PB is a violent thug, but if your group gets a reputation for getting into violent altercations, you will get some people wanting to join specifically for the violence.
8 comments
“Again, I am eternally grateful that I wasn’t not at J6”
Freudian or double negative typo? lol
Typo.
First, you couldn’t talk about Jews. Then you couldn’t talk about race realism. Then no white (sic) nationalism in the FB group. Then you couldn’t even have white (sic) nationalism on your on FB page. It got to a point where you would be kicked out of the FB group merely for associating with a known White Nationalist.
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Thanks for that, Travis. It tells me everything I need to know about silly Proud Boys “drinking club.” It’s leader eventually was an FBI informant, the cuban nigger, Enrique Tarrio: Who is Enrique Tarrio? A look at Miami Proud Boys leader – NBC 6 South Florida
Trunp recently pardoned Enrique.
The Proud Boys with their Jewish Faceberg group went the way of the half-baked alt-right movement. Who could have ever predicted that would happen?
I had told our National Alliance members to stay away from both the Charlottesville and the J6 gatherings, that they had every appearance of being traps, which is pretty much what they turned out to be.
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Arguably the only person to come out of Charlottesville better off than they (sic) came in was David Duke, who did enjoy a revival of interest following the event…
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Did he? David stopped by and we enjoyed a meal together on his way back to Lousiana from Charlottesville, so I got an earful from him about the catastrophe he’d just experienced.
David Duke was all over YouTube for the next year. He was an extremely popular guest during the 2018-2019 Internet Bloodsports era. Ethan Ralph had him on Golden Age Killstream every other week it seemed.
Yes, Charlottesville was a disaster but David Duke did seem to get something of a boost from it. Some people saw Duke as a relic of a previous era of white nationalism but after Charlottesville, he was suddenly cool with the kids.
I stand by my statement.
As it happens, I was having dinner with Gavin and others one night in July 2016, when he announced he was doing his first Proud Boys meeting in Brooklyn the following evening. Some mild interest at the table, but it did sound pretty much like a drinking group. “What are the requirements for membership?” I asked. “The only requirements,” he answered, “are that you must have, or once have had, a foreskin!” There were Jews present, and I sensed this tactful answer met with their purring approval.
Margot Metroland: April 16, 2025 …[Proud Boys] did sound pretty much like a drinking group. “What are the requirements for membership?” I asked. “The only requirements,” [Gavin] answered, “are that you must have, or once have had, a foreskin!”
Travis: I’ve heard some lore that Gavin McInnes was heavily banking on a job at Fox News, didn’t get it, and took it particularly hard. According to legend, the group was conceived in the wake of that…
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Margot, I searched Gavin/Fox and found this: How Fox News helped turn Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes into a right-wing media star | Media Matters for America
I don’t know about Media Matters as a source. Some of Gavin’s quotes there are anti-women, including the one I highlighted of yours, above, since females have never had foreskins.
There’s a photo there of a Negro Proud Boy, posing with Tucker Carlson and Roger Stone (and he’s not eventual PB leader Enrique Tarrio). It’s reported that Jason Kessler was a Proud Boy. That tells me that Gavin and much of the crowd around him were alt-right.
It’s no wonder Fox News did not hire Gavin as a regular host. I don’t follow podcasts which, I suppose, is what right-wing media personality Gavin does now.
The National Alliance does not even consider itself in the so-called “right-wing.” Others mistakingly do. NA is strictly racial separatist/preservationist with its own non-Semitic belief system. What is the National Alliance? | National Alliance
Travis LeBlanc: March 5, 202 David Duke was all over YouTube for the next year. He was an extremely popular guest during the 2018-2019 Internet Bloodsports era. Ethan Ralph had him on Golden Age Killstream every other week it seemed.
Yes, Charlottesville was a disaster but David Duke did seem to get something of a boost from it. Some people saw Duke as a relic of a previous era of white nationalism but after Charlottesville, he was suddenly cool with the kids.
I stand by my statement.
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As well you should, Travis “To thine own self be true.” But you should keep an open mind and compare strategies for the one most likely to prevail long-term. Being “cool to kids” on social nedia doesn’t get it.
I don’t participate in social media so have not been corrupted by Jew-owned YouTube or, Jew-owned, anti-White Faceberg rules as you were during what you call the Internet Bloodsport era. Never heard of Ethan Ralph or most alt-righters or Proud Boys you hung around with.
I’ve interacted in one way or another with my old friend David Duke for nearly 40 years, and understand well why he does what he does. He asked me to come on his radio show a few years ago for an interview, so I hompred him. Why not? I’d never listened to his show. A commenter under part one of the interview on NV said it sounded more like David Duke interviewing David Duke because he hardly allowed me to speak. Oh, well, it was his show after all. Fighting for What Is Right: A Conversation With Will Williams and David Duke, part 1 | National Vanguard
I just checked back on this interview for the first time in years and found this remarkably accurate assessment of DD in a comment by Wolf Stoner under part two: Fighting for What Is Right: A Conversation With Will Williams and David Duke, part 2 | National Vanguard
…Yes, Dr Duke has this trait of disregarding his interlocutors and turn dialog into lengthy monologue. He is very charismatic and has become a symbol of the global white movement. For example, here in Russia all nationalists know about him. He deserves this because of his exceptional force of personality and charm. In this sense he is a man of the same quality as Ronald Reagan or Donald Trump. In good old time he would have had all chances to become president (maybe back in 19th century), because it is impossible not to like this man when hearing his speeches. But now is not the time for public politics and stump speeches. The system will not give us any opportunity to participate in the open political activity, let alone standing in elections. This type of political struggle is the past; now we have different reality. We should shift the center of gravity into spiritual-religious level and abandon mostly useless public politics. But the first step in the field of religious war is to discard Christianity completely and without reservations. We cannot delay this question any longer. Yes, Hitler preferred to postpone decision of this question, which was somewhat justified in those particular circumstances. But now the moment is ripe and overripe for decisive move in this field. Christianity is in its death throes, which is clearly seen by catastrophic fall in popularity and moral collapse among clergy. They have less than a tenth part of the support they had 80 years ago. No one would stand in earnest in defense of this trash. The end of Christianity is imminent. And in its place the White Race should adopt the real racial religion. In this regard Dr Pierce’s farsight is amazing. He struck the right path ahead of all others. He had shown the only viable direction for the global White movement. Every white nationalist should acknowledge the undeniable fact that Dr Pierce essentially is a founding father of our movement. All other branches of the movement are dead ends, tied by Christian trash and local trifling issues (like Ukrainian-Russian hostilities). Dr Duke pretends to be this leader but he is not; he lacks the depth of personality and profound far-sightedness that Dr Pierce had. Any doubts about this. I am not of the kind who easily acknowledge supreme authority of others, but after reading Dr Pierce’s books, listening to tens of his speeches, I have come to this conclusion. His message is the most powerful one, because is based on pure logic and an honest drive for truth. Dr Pierce didn’t need sophistry like so many politicians use; he didn’t intend to compete for public office, so, he was free to say what he really thought and not what potential voters wanted. Dr Pierce is a moral beacon and template for all future generations of our fighters. David Duke is a good man, but he is of different category. He does his job well, but his Christianity and susceptibility to influence of public opinion disqualify him from being a supreme spiritual leader of White Race. He has chosen to seek public approval instead of going along the hard path of pure truth…
I don’t expect you to agree with Wolf’s objective evaluation, Travis, but perhaps his words will resonate with someone else at Counter-Currents.
The Takimag comment section really was something. I guess that it’s no surprise that Taki’s daughter shut it down.
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