Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

It’s InfoWars Vs. Richard Spencer — With David Duke As Referee

What exactly does the “alt-right” stand for? Is it a white nationalist identity movement? Or is it simply about “hating Hillary” and supporting President Donald Trump?

Two far-right figures fought over the question on Tuesday — the latest in off-and-on battle waged for the direction of the amorphous movement. A Daily Beast article gave a blow by blow of the dispute.

White nationalist Richard Spencer, popularizer of the term “alt-right,” which can serve as a contemporary label for white nationalists, tweeted at InfoWars editor Paul Joseph Watson Monday night, saying that, “the alt-right is an identity movement. Period. It’s not about classical liberalism or hating Hillary.”

Spencer took a jab a Watson’s style of YouTube videos. “I hope you’ll one day learn that more is expected of you than yelling into a camera in front of a map,” he wrote.

Watson fired back, “Do tell me ‘what is expected of me,’ mein Fuhrer.”

Former Ku Klux Klan head David Duke weighed in, at first trying to referee — but ultimately siding with Spencer and his white nationalism. He slammed InfoWars’ Watson, “You cannot fight invasion with libertarian individualism.”

All three are avid supporters of Trump. Duke, a rabid Jew hater, is something of an elder statesman in the white nationalism movement and has a cozy relationship with Spencer. Watson is based in the England and, as an editor at Infowars, helped push conspiracist stories against Hillary Clinton.

After the dust settled Watson read the Daily Beast article and tweeted, “Daily Beast trying to stir the pot by writing an article about me & @RichardBSpencer’s Twitter argument. Why does [mainstream media] love him so much?”

Spencer couldn’t resist responding: “The media can’t resist. How did calling us all racists work out?”

Email Sam Kestenbaum at [email protected]

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.