There is such a thing as views against humanity, and Tony Hovater has them.
Hovater was profiled a week ago in The New York Times in a story titled, “A Voice of Hate in America’s Heartland.” Times reporter Richard Fausset set out to learn more about the neighborhood Nazi sympathizer in New Carlisle, Ohio, and what he came up with was far from newsworthy. Fausset’s incomplete portrayal of Hovater, a self-proclaimed white nationalist and an online white supremacist, went to great lengths to explain why Hovater would fit into any small-town community. Widespread backlash pointed out what was notably missing from the piece: a simple clarification that his views are bad.
For the same reason President Trump was encouraged, even begged, by politicians and the public to condemn the hate groups in Charlottesville, any story on a modern Nazi would at least need to denounce the problematic words and actions at its center. And for the same reason we wondered whether that rally needed to be held, we should ask whether this story needed to be written. A crude expression of society’s worst opinions was not worth the life of Heather Heyer, the 32-year-old woman killed by alt-right protester James Alex Fields Jr. Similarly unsettling is the certainty that someone just like Fields could have read about Hovater this weekend and come away from the article with a sense of validation.
Most of the criticism converged on the story’s apparent spin to normalize Nazism, and rightfully so. Fausset explains Hovater’s journey to the far right with the following:
“His political evolution...was largely fueled by the kinds of frustrations that would not seem exotic to most American conservatives. He believes the federal government is too big, the news media is biased and that affirmative action programs for minorities are fundamentally unfair.”
What the author is trying to imply here is unclear, but if it’s the idea that those perceptions are the minimum needed to steer an individual towards Nazism, then we’re probably all screwed.
Fausset notes that Hovater “helped start the Traditionalist Worker Party” but fails to even go so far as detail the party’s goals, despite the fact that the Times provided a link (!) to its website in the original story. The homepage lists three components of the party: “Faith, Family and Folk.” The German word "volk" was a cornerstone of Adolf Hitler’s propaganda campaign during the reign of the Third Reich, but Hovater maintains he is a white nationalist, not a white supremacist. After all, as the reporter volunteers, he didn’t even mind that mixed-race couples attended his wedding!
The party’s "25 Points" offer even more explicit examples of Hovater’s skewed sense of the world. Point 24, Antisocial Behaviors, states the following: “Those suffering from drug addiction or other antisocial behaviors such as homosexuality will be offered extensive opportunities and support to overcome their addictions.”
Another point declares a war on “international Jewry” and is later clarified to target “the globalist and Jewish elites” controlling America. Why the reporter felt Hovater’s love for Applebee’s was more noteworthy than his hatred for Jews is unclear, but it reflects the piece’s general tendency to err on the side of favor when examining his life and work.
