Filed under: Action, Anti-fascist, US
Report from Colorado Springs Antifascists regarding recent leak of chats from the far-Right ‘Libertarian’ outlet, Liberty Hangout, which appears to showcase anti-Semitism.
Kaitlin Bennett, also known as the “Kent State Gun Girl,” is a co-founder of the far-Right “Libertarian” propaganda outlet Liberty Hangout. According to a post on her personal Facebook page, Bennett was recently invited to the White House for an invitation-only West Wing tour. She claims that the White House media team voiced their support for her work, which is published through Liberty Hangout and Infowars.
Kaitlin Bennett first entered the national spotlight in 2017 after Kent State’s Turning Point USA chapter held a demonstration that featured one student activist wearing a diaper and acting like a baby in an apparent satire of “PC culture” and “safe spaces.” This stunt was widely mocked across the political spectrum and condemned by TPUSA National, who distanced themselves from the Kent State chapter altogether. Bennett, the chapter’s president, resigned in a huff and Kent State TPUSA dissolved.
In May 2018, Bennett gained further notoriety when photos surfaced showing her carrying an AR-10 rifle at her graduation ceremony from Kent State University. Since leaving TPUSA, the focus of her activism has been creating clickbait videos for Liberty Hangout.
Promoting White Nationalist and Anti-Semitic Ideas Disguised as “Libertarianism”
While Liberty Hangout describes itself as a “Libertarian media outlet” that promotes “Austrian economics and property rights,” their social media content is decidedly far-Right and promotes many white nationalist talking points and ideological concepts. Posts opposing “liberal democracy” in favor of monarchy, attacking LGBTQIA+ people, and fretting about white genocide are all frequently featured on their Twitter feed.
The first Tweet shown above is a screenshot taken from the now-defunct White Genocide Project, a propaganda website aimed at maintaining white majority countries by pushing the conspiracy theory that mass immigration and inter-racial relationships are killing the white race. This theory of ‘White Genocide’ was popularized by the neo-Nazi David Lane of the paramilitary group The Order, who carried out a series of murders and bombings, including the assassination of Jewish talk radio host Alan Berg. Lane also coined the “14 Words,” the popular white supremacist slogan that Liberty Hangout referenced in the following 2017 tweet.
This reference to the 14 Words, in combination with their frequent anti-diversity posts, demonstrates a preoccupation with a mythological white oppression identical to that of white nationalists.
Liberty Hangout also engages in holocaust denial on Twitter, stating that “It doesn’t seem possible that 6 million were killed [in the holocaust]”
Present in Liberty Hangout’s Twitter feed are clear statements attacking democracy as a “soft form of communism,” along with the promotion of misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia, and transphobia that mirror statements made by the Alt-Right.
Relationships With White Nationalists who Attended Unite the Right
Bennett and her fiancé, Liberty Hangout co-founder Justin Moldow endorsed neo-Nazi Augustus Sol Invictus for his 2016 senate campaign. Invictus, who promotes violent civil war in order to save “Western Civilization,” was a speaker at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville and second in command of the Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights, the “military” wing of the Proud Boys. He is known for ritualistically sacrificing a goat and drinking its blood in an occult ceremony and was recently charged with kidnapping and domestic violence in South Carolina. Invictus has also been a guest on Liberty Hangout several times.
Here is @LibertyHangout that @KaitMarieox is founder of, endorsing #WhiteNationalist Augustus Invictus that was recently arrested for kidnapping, domestic violence and weapons charges. Invictus doesn't deny being a #WhiteSupremacist on their podcast. pic.twitter.com/Dg5O18msTR
— John #WET'SUWET'ENStrong (@Johnnthelefty) February 18, 2020
Liberty Hangout has also featured on its program another far-Right Libertarian turned neo-Nazi, Chris “Crying Nazi” Cantwell, another speaker at the Unite the Right rally. Currently, Cantwell is in federal custody after making numerous violent threats across state lines.
Behind Closed Doors
Screenshots obtained by Colorado Springs Anti-Fascists from a private Facebook chat in 2017 appear to show repeated themes of anti-Semitism in conversations between Kaitlin Bennett and her associates. Members of the anarchist media collective It’s Going Down reached out to The Jewish Worker, who originally tweeted out the screen shots after also being sent them, to see if members of Liberty Hangout responded with comment – which they did not. IGD also reached out to TJ Roberts (who is listed as taking part in the chat) over Twitter to verify and comment on the messages, but received no response.
Leaked screenshots provided to The Jewish Worker show Kent State Gun Girl @KaitMarieox and her fiancee @JustinMoldow, along with @LibertyHangout's @mheil_media, being openly antisemitic. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/vFAscRoS4t
— דער יידישער ארבעטער (@JewishWorker) January 20, 2020
Kaitlin and her friends are shown ridiculing Jews and Jewish culture and even making jokes about Hitler while mocking a kosher meal request form for a TPUSA event. The chats feature heavy use of triple parentheses, a dog whistle used by anti-Semites to signal that someone or something is Jewish or of Jewish origin.
A Deeper Look Into Members of the Chat:
Alex Dwyer
Alex Dwyer is the former University of Kansas TPUSA Chapter President. He now works at RTS Financial, according to his LinkedIn and Facebook. On Twitter, Alex posts cryptic support for white nationalism and anti-Semitism.
In one tweet, Alex praises a Youtube video by Nick Fuentes, a Unite the Right attendee, a holocaust denier, and host of the white nationalist podcast America First. The clip, titled “Charlie Kirk gets confronted by Real Conservatives !!” features white nationalists filling up the Q&A section at a TPUSA event, dropping anti-Semitic dog whistles and criticizing Charlie Kirk for having a gay black man on stage with him.
Alex also tweeted his support of Jakub Baryła, the 15-year-old Catholic who blocked an LGBT pride rally in Płock, Poland, in August 2019.
Alex Dwyer Tweets a photo of his American First mug. Archive
The America First podcast is closely associated with the white nationalist group Identity Evropa, which has now rebranded as the American Identity Movement (AmIM). America First has now launched America First Students, which brands itself as a more openly fascist Turning Point USA, and is led by the former head of Kansas State University TPUSA, Jaden McNeil. Alex follows a number of alt-right and white supremacist accounts on Twitter, such as fascist cartoonist Stone Toss, white supremacist YouTuber Way Of The World, and the alt-right Daily Groyper.
Michael Moates
Michael Moates is a journalist who has written for the Washington Examiner and The Blaze. In addition to being a supporter of the QAnon conspiracy theory, he is known for making inappropriate, flirtatious comments toward multiple woman, including teenage girls. In 2018 he was criticized for taking a photograph of a female reporter’s backside without consent and tweeting it at Nick Fuentes, the aforementioned Holocaust denier. In December he embarked on a short-lived bid for the House of Representatives in Texas, but quit the race when his penchant for flirting with children was brought to light.
In the words of Jim Gaffigan: “He looks like one of those guys…”
TJ Roberts
TJ Roberts is the former managing editor of Liberty Hangout and Vice President of Liberty Institute of Freedom and Economics. T.J.’s articles for Liberty Hangout include “Virginia Governor Refuses to Condemn Antifa,” a piece that constitutes one of the three Liberty Hangout articles following the white nationalist Unite The Right rally that all complain about politicians refusing to condemn “Antifa,” denying that it was a white nationalist rally, and making no mention of Heather Heyer, who was tragically murdered by the neo-Nazi, James Alex Fields, Jr. In “It’s Time to Admit that Martin Luther King, Jr. Really Sucked,” Roberts even goes so far as to attack the civil rights leader.
T.J. is also the author of “Physical Removal is Essential To Liberty,” a defense of Austrian anarcho-capitalist theorist Hans-Hermann Hoppe’s controversial position that libertarian societies need to physically expel all advocates of democracy, communism, and homosexuality in order to be healthy. Hoppe is the founder of the Property and Freedom Society, whose conferences frequently feature talks by white supremacists such as Jared Taylor, Richard Spencer, and VDARE president Peter Brimelow.
In his own work, Hoppe has cited white supremacist Jean-Philippe Rushton to argue that comparisons between western Monarchies and African democracies cannot be compared due to differences between “Negroids” and Caucasians. Hoppe has similarly asserted to his students at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, that gay people have worse foresight and financial planning that straight people.
TJ Roberts vision of a Libertarian society begins with mass murder organized by an authoritarian State
Liberty Hangout published Robert’s piece (above) with a photo of CIA backed Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet who is infamous for his extrajudicial killings of communists, trade unionists, and perceived enemies of the State by dropping them out of helicopters. According to the BBC, the Pinochet regime murdered more than 3,000 people and tortured and imprisoned tens of thousands.
Conclusion
Liberty Hangout may bill itself as a “Libertarian” media outlet, but a closer examination of their content reveals that they are only interested in liberty for reactionary and far-Right white, straight, and Christian men. Publicly, they oppose democracy, engage in Holocaust revisionism, and reference fascist ideas, thinkers, and slogans. Behind closed doors, they are blatantly anti-Semitic. Liberty Hangout is a crypto-fascist grift attempting to funnel viewers through a rapidly growing Libertarian-to-fascist pipeline.