Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), a conservative congressman and President Trump loyalist known for playing up conspiracy theories, “liked” a tweet on Twitter Thursday by a YouTube philosopher who has defended white nationalism.
The tweet from Stefan Molyneux claimed that the broad category of “White Christians” was “the first group in the history of the world to figure out that slavery was immoral” and lamented that the group is now blamed for slavery.
Journalist Ashley Feinberg flagged the ‘like” Thursday night. On Friday morning, it was still on the congressman’s page. Gosar’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
very cool shit to see from a member of congress pic.twitter.com/ZwZv4Ja9Vw
— Ashley Feinberg (@ashleyfeinberg) May 24, 2019
Molyneux made an argument for all-white societies in a December documentary he posted to YouTube, “The 100 Year March: A Philosopher in Poland.”
“First, I’ve always been skeptical of the ideas of white nationalism, of identitarianism, and white identity,” he said in the film. “However, I am an empiricist, and I could not help but notice that I could have peaceful, free, easy, civilized and safe discussions in what is, essentially, an all-white country. The monoculture that has survived from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance through he Enlightenment through the Industrial Revolution into the 21st century in Poland is something to be treasured, respected, admired and protected.”
Poles, he said, “have suffered enormously to retain [the country’s] integrity, and they should be celebrated and honored, not slandered for some obscure, nefarious political purpose.”
“White guilt,” Molyneux added, “is just a horribly profitable vending machine that people pound in order to get resources from largely white male taxpayers, and it’s a horrible shakedown, and it is something that should be enormously resisted. And if you doubt as to why it should be resisted, look at Poland! Look at the glory, the celebration, the peace, the cleanliness! Everywhere I went, the streets are clean, the people are civilized, I did not see one drunk person, I did not see one first fight, I did not see one crazy protester out there threatening violence because there are ideas that they don’t agree with. What’s not to love about something like that?”
The YouTuber is one of the 775 accounts Gosar follows from his personal Twitter account. In fact, Gosar has “liked” several of Molyneux’s tweets, including one saying Mexico was “facilitating an invasion” of the United States and another comparing conservatives to black people in the 1960s American South.
Gosar — whose siblings pleaded, repeatedly and unsuccessfully, with the voters of Arizona’s Fourth District not to send him back to Congress in 2018 — has deep roots in the virtual world of right-wing conspiracies: After the deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017, Gosar suggested to Vice News that the rally was the result of liberal Jewish scapegoat George Soros’ machinations. He repeated another debunked conspiracy, about Soros “turn[ing] in his own people” during the Holocaust, in the process.
“It’s come to our attention that this was a person from Occupy Wall Street that was an Obama sympathizer. So wait a minute, be careful on where you start taking these people to. And look at the background, George Soros is one of those people that actually helps back these individuals,” Gosar said at the time. “Who is he? I think he’s from Hungary. I think he was Jewish, and I think he turned in his own people to the Nazis.”
Asked outright if he thought Soros had funded the rally, Gosar said “Wouldn’t it be interesting to find out.”
Molyneux paints himself as a garden-variety warrior for free speech and open inquiry, touting “Western” culture and values while seeding distrust of foreigners and non-white people.
If no culture is better than any other, why does everyone want to come to majority-white countries?
— Stefan Molyneux (@StefanMolyneux) May 19, 2019
Misogyny is also common in Molyneux’s content. In 2015, he commented during a podcast, “Women who choose the assholes will fucking end this race.” Calling women “gatekeepers,” he added: “I don’t know how to make the world a better place without holding women accountable for choosing assholes.”
