How Nick Fuentes groomed a new generation of racist hate

The MoJo Daily newsletter, Monday through Friday. [View in browser]( [Mother Jones Daily Newsletter](     January 25, 2023 In 2017, my best friend, then a junior at Boston University, started sending me screenshots from a private Facebook page for BU students. The posts were ridiculing a student who had attended the white supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville and had apparently been bullied into dropping out of college. I remember, in particular, a crudely animated video of that student set to Lorde's recently released "[Liability](." The online jeers toward the student weren't very nice, but then again, neither is racism. That student's name was Nick Fuentes, and I didn't think of him again until he made headlines late last year for meeting with former President Trump and the artist formerly known as Kanye West. It turns out that Fuentes had wielded the attention from the Unite the Right rally to elevate his status as an openly racist far-right politician. In a new feature for Mother Jones, my colleague Ali Breland explains how Fuentes went from exiled college student to Mar-a-Lago guest by tapping into Gen Z's economic anxieties. "Fuentes’ power comes from layering on a generational critique that taps into young people’s apprehension that their prospects are dimming," Ali writes. "By combining class and economic precarity with white nationalism, Fuentes makes racism even more persuasive to a certain kind of person." Don't miss [Ali's eye-opening investigation]( into the rise of nativist politics among a cohort of young people who mix anti-capitalism with unabashed bigotry. —Abigail Weinberg Advertisement [Algonquin Books]( [Top Story] [Top Story]( [It Came From the Basement]( How Nick Fuentes groomed a new generation of racist hate. BY ALI BRELAND [Fiercely Independent] Support from readers allows Mother Jones to do journalism that doesn't just follow the pack. [Donate]( [Trending] [Marjorie Taylor Greene wants to be Trump's VP]( BY INAE OH   [Senators can’t stop quoting Taylor Swift lyrics during Ticketmaster hearing]( BY ABBY VESOULIS   [Why those classified documents at Mike Pence's place should be bad for Trump]( BY DAN FRIEDMAN   [To New Yorkers' delight, dolphins return to the Bronx River]( BY OLIVER MILMAN Advertisement [Algonquin Books]( [Special Feature] [Special Feature]( [The case of a 6-year-old school shooter raises gut-wrenching questions]( There is so much we still don’t know about the shocking violence at a Virginia elementary school. BY MARK FOLLMAN Did you enjoy this newsletter? Help us out by [forwarding]( it to a friend or sharing it on [Facebook]( and [Twitter](. [Mother Jones]( [Donate]( [Donate Monthly]( [Subscribe]( This message was sent to {EMAIL}. To change the messages you receive from us, you can [edit your email preferences]( or [unsubscribe from all mailings.]( For advertising opportunities see our online [media kit.]( Were you forwarded this email? [Sign up for Mother Jones' newsletters today.]( [www.MotherJones.com]( PO Box 8539, Big Sandy, TX 75755