Evan McLaren, who played a key role in the “white right” movement for American white supremacy and participated in a deadly fascist demonstration in Charlottesville, Virginia on Thursday, issued a surprise statement on Thursday in which he dismissed the racist.
“I am not and will never be associated with the far right,” McLaren wrote in a statement. Published Underload. “My hatred of conservatism and political rights is intact. I reject and reject my past actions, opinions and associations”.
HuffPost spoke with McLaren on the phone Thursday morning as he was leaving for work from a new home in Norway. He confirmed that the statement was authentic. As such, he is one of the most high-profile refugees in right-wing extremism recently.
In his statement, McLaren, 37, said he apologized for his white nationalist activism – which he described as a “stupid and desperate mistake that hurts others, himself and society” – but he said he did not expect or seek any release. .
“I apologize to everyone who has had an influence on my past activities,” he wrote in a statement to Substack. “However, the main purpose of this statement is not to apologize. I don’t really expect to restore my reputation to the public, as long as it exists, or to fix the rift with the people I have challenged. I have no hope. and I do not expect to be forgiven ”.
In 2017 it was McLaren Named CEO National Institute of Politics A racist research center – funded by an abandoned millionaire – that sought to put an intellectual face on white supremacism to better eliminate apparent ethnonationalism within the main Republican party . .
At NPI, McLaren is the right -hand man of the group leader. Riccardo SpencerE helped organize a series of events that became the so-called “alt-right”, the culmination of the American fascist movement that spread on the Internet during the presidency of former President Donald Trump.
McLaren and Spencer were among the white men who lit their torches on the night of Aug. 11, 2017, on the campus of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, singing “You won’t replace us!” And the Nazi slogan “Blood and earth!”
The next day, McLaren and Spencer took part in the “United Rights” demonstration in Charlottesville, the largest gathering of American white supremacy in a generation, culminating in a neo-Nazi driving his car into a crowd of anti-fascist protesters and killed. One girl. And 19 people were injured. McLaren was arrested at events that day and later convicted. No cases were dropped from the park following a police order.
“Brethren, really, it’s the sweetness of feeling when the tip of the spear enters our crisis of civilization,” McLaren said. On Twitter A day after the violence in Charlottesville.
While working for NPI, McLaren often spoke to the media, sometimes trying to soften Alt-Right’s image.
“We are not Nazis. We are not allies. “We are not members of the KKK”. PennLive said In 2017, just weeks after marching side by side with Nazis, neo-Confederates and KKK members in Charlottesville. “We are committed to preserving the heritage and identity of whites. Let’s talk about European culture and identity.” McLaren explained in other statements at the time that he did not consider Jews white.
In late 2017 and through 2018, McLaren helped Spencer organize speeches on college campuses, including Michigan State University and the University of Florida, events involving violence. Three Spencer fans were arrested after an incident in Florida after one of the protesters was shot.
During this time, McLaren, who hails from central Pennsylvania, passed the state bar exam and was ready to start taking. “How are you!” He tweeted to celebrate, using the English translation of the Nazi cry “Sieg heil!”
But in the summer of 2018, McLaren said he had failed NPI, an organization he called HuffPost, a “complete crash and mess.” He also described Spencer as a “junkie”.
McLaren resigned from NPI in August 2018 and eventually moved to Norway, where he said he was gradually beginning to “deconstruct and think” about white nationalism, a movement he said he understood “don’t go anywhere. part and nowhere “.
McLaren said his outright rejection of white nationalism does not mean one is moderately conservative or a Republican. Additionally, he told HuffPost that he views white nationalism and conservatism in America as movements that are inevitably interrelated that feed and inspire each other. (This relationship, in his view, has been strengthened since he left alt-right.) Now he recognizes his views as left-wing.
Several other prominent alternative-right figures involved in the Charlottesville demonstration said they had given up on far-right activism. Jeff Schoop, former leader of the neo-Nazi group of the National Socialist Movement, and Matt Heimbach, former leader of the Traditionalist Workers ’Party, both rejected White Nationalism.
However, these denials have caused intense skepticism from observers across the political spectrum and for good reason. The Charlotteville case argues that Chopin was still involved in the movement and that Heimbach eventually renounced any pretense of extremism. Relaunch His hate group, under another name and a media, said: “Do I like Judaism as a religion? No. “.
For the past few years, McLaren has remained low profile offline in Norway, in their new home where they live with their wife and child. He refused to appoint an employer but said he was working in a “production” job. She listens to leftist podcasts like “Majority Report” and “More News” and she spends her time focusing on family, hobbies, and housekeeping.
“McLaren said several recent incidents, which he did not detail, forced him to break the silence on Thursday, although his statement acknowledged.”“Probably the best step for people like me is to go and keep quiet.”
“People may assume that I still have radical views or are actively involved in far right politics, which worries me,” McLaren wrote in a statement. “I want to know, for example, if my local community, which has heard about me, may be worried about what I will do, if I have extremist views or if I will continue with political activities that violates the future. What’s worse, in my day-to-day life I sometimes meet Trump supporters, hidden racists and right-wingers from different walks of life who discover me and think I’m a kind of responsive companion.
McLaren’s statement ends with the hope that in the future people searching for his name on the Internet will, after reading all the news about him, will also know about his rejection of it all.
“My only focus here is,” he wrote, “in cases where someone accidentally searches for my name on the Internet, they can even find this statement to indicate that I am a toxic energy source. . ” And the thoughts of the past are not yet like this “.
Source: Huffpost
