The White Nationalists Are Amateurs, According To An Undercover Journalist

Richard Spencer Image by Getty
Vegas Tenold, a Norwegian journalist, spent over seven years embedded in different white nationalist groups, and his new book tells of living in a hateful mishmash of outcasts that is barely holding itself together.
In an interview with Vice, Tenold explained why he thinks membership in white nationalist organizations is appealing — and why their efforts are somewhat amateurish.
“If you believe that your race and you are persecuted, then all of the sudden you’re not just some hapless guy without a job, you’re a warrior,” Tenold said.
In his book, Tenold argues that “Antifa” activists — quasi-militant leftist groups who frequently challenge white nationalists at their rallies — have brought unity to American white nationalism by providing them with a common enemy.
“It was Richard Spencer getting punched,” Tenold said. “It allowed Richard Spencer to rebrand himself as a kind-of warrior priest of the far right. It really did rally the troops.”
Tenold believes that violent reactions to white nationalists only encourages them.
“We don’t we don’t have to elevate them by presenting them as an existential threat to civilized society, which is kind of what we do when we attack them,” he said. “We need to show them that we are stronger than them that our ideas are better, that we can do that through peaceful protest. We don’t need to stoop to their level of violence.”
Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman
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
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 3
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 4
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward ‘Another Jewish warrior’: Fine wins special election for U.S. House seat
-
Fast Forward A Chicagoan wanted to protest Elon Musk — and put a swastika sticker on a Jewish man’s Tesla
-
Fast Forward NY attorney general orders car wash to stop ripping off Jews with antisemitic ‘Passover special’
-
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
-
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.