Before He Was The Web’s Top Neo-Nazi, Andrew Anglin Was An Anti-Racist Vegan

Andrew Anglin
Before he became one of the country’s most prominent Internet neo-Nazis, Andrew Anglin was an anti-racist vegan whose favorite band was the indie group Modest Mouse.
A lengthy profile in the Atlantic chronicles Anglin’s transformation from shy teen to racist troll.
Anglin grew up in Worthington Hills, an upper-middle-class neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio. He collected X-Men comics, played computer games and attended the Linworth Alternative Program, what the Atlantic describes as Columbus’s “hippie” high school. Anglin was then an avowed vegan who styled his hair in dreadlocks and wore a hoodie with a large “f*ck racism” patch on the back. Anglin dated another vegan and was an animal rights advocate. Anglin also experimented with drugs, including LSD, Robitussin, psychedelic mushrooms and cocaine.
Meanwhile, Anglin began his exploration of the Internet’s subcultures. He spent days in his parents’ basement downloading music and setting up his own website. Then, he seemed to have leftist leanings, penning posts telling people to send death threats to the Westboro Baptist Church. He also mocked the Ku Klux Klan and other racist organizations. “He wasn’t so different, back then,” the Atlantic wrote, from the “antifascist activists” he would later despise.
Anglin’s behavior became erratic in his teens and he had a proclivity for self-harm. He would smash his head into walls; he forced marker caps into his earlobes until they bled and burnt his forearms with a lighter. After breaking up with his girlfriend, according to the Atlantic, Anglin didn’t date again, but sometimes tried to kiss other boys in school.
Anglin’s exploration of internet subcultures led him to far right-wing web radio, where he discovered Alex Jones, who would go on to become one of the country’s most influential conspiracists.
Profile from @TheAtlantic on Andrew Anglin delves into the Daily Stormer founder’s transition from “antiracist vegan to the alt-right’s most vicious troll and propagandist.” https://t.co/35h36mATz4
— SPLC (@splcenter) November 14, 2017
Anglin started his own website and began trafficking in conspiracies about “lizard people” and eventually the “Zionist Occupied Government.”
After a transformative trip to Asia — which involved journeys into the jungle, lengthy breaks from the Internet and much soul-searching — he re-emerged espousing full fascism.
In 2012, he announced his transformation. “From the flaming wreckage of the alleged Truth Movement,” Anglin wrote, “a group of people has begun to emerge … We have found the truth. We have found the light. We have found Adolf Hitler.”
Email Sam Kestenbaum at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 2
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 3
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
- 4
Opinion Mike Huckabee said there’s ‘no such thing as a Palestinian.’ It’s worth thinking about what that means
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
-
Fast Forward Yarden Bibas says ‘I am here because of Trump’ and pleads with him to stop the Gaza war
-
Fast Forward Trump’s plan to enlist Elon Musk began at Lubavitcher Rebbe’s grave
-
Film & TV In this Jewish family, everybody needs therapy — especially the therapists themselves
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
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 comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag 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.