The crisis of neo-Nazism and other white supremacist delusion coursing through the conservative movement, infecting young and elder conservatives alike, appeared in stark relief this week.
On Tuesday, two teenage gunmen, who were reportedly inspired by neo-Nazi ideology and other white supremacist killings, shot and killed three people at a San Diego mosque. The attack occurred in a national environment in which President Donald Trump and some allies have promoted racist propaganda and embraced brazenly Islamophobic rhetoric. Days later, at a House hearing on the Southern Poverty Law Center allegedly “manufacturing” claims of racist extremism, several witnesses invited by Republicans refused to acknowledge that extremist organizations such as neo-Nazis and the Proud Boys have promoted white supremacist views.
And Thursday came with yet another reminder of the racism that seems to be metastasizing within the MAGA movement, when the Miami Herald reported that Florida International University suspended two Republican student leaders involved in a group chat in which fellow conservatives shared violent, racist messages.
The Herald cited court documents showing the suspensions of two years for the group chat’s creator, law student Abel Carvajal, and former FIU College Republicans’ Recruitment Chairman Dariel Gonzalez. Per the Herald, Carvajal was suspended for “‘affirmative act which aids, attempts, promotes, conceals, or facilitates’ violations of the Student Code of Conduct”; and Gonzalez, in part, “for violating a part of the conduct code that bars ‘verbal or written abuse, threats, intimidation and/or coercion that objectively endangers the health, safety or well-being of others.’”
Carvajal took responsibility for starting the group chat back in March, when its contents were made public, but he said he had not seen all of the bigoted messages being shared. Those messages included members promoting Nazi propaganda and violent fantasies, such as attacking Black people and Jews and, in one macabre message, posting a long list suggesting vicious acts, including beheading and dissection, against Black people, whom the sender described using the N-word. Reports quoted Gonzalez as writing “Ew you had colored professors?!” and telling the group chat to “avoid the coloreds like the plague.”
The College Republicans, a national organization, has become a safe haven for far-right extremists, a point I spotlighted in this blog about the organization tapping as its Political Director Kai Schwemmer, a streamer who for years has promoted white nationalist propaganda.
The FIU scandal is one of several scandals within the past year that has exposed a strain of Nazi idolatry and brazen white supremacy that’s clearly attractive to some conservatives, particularly younger ones.
And it seems noteworthy that the two FIU students haven’t shown much contrition. Gonzalez and Carvajal are fighting their punishments in court on free speech grounds and have vowed to appeal their suspensions, according to the Herald. They’re not disputing their involvement in the group chat but, rather, are arguing about their right to say such things and remain on campus.
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