Original subtitles

So you feel like I'm pushing an agenda?

Yeah. What is the agenda?

You hate white people, okay? So why don't you get over yourself? Why don't

apologize for your ancestors from thousands of years ago? Because you're

Louis. Aren't you? Aren't you white?

Yeah. Oh, so why don't you apologize for who you are? Because you're a disgrace.

You're seething now.

No, you're seething. You look like you're about to start crying. You're the

that's crying. Why are you so triggered?

Come on, man.

Okay, let's finish this.

For several months, I'd been spending time with a new incarnation of the far

right. America first, bitch!

You think America should be majority white?

Yes, yes. It's not a bigoted thing, it's not a white nationalist thing or a

hateful thing.

America first!

America first!

A movement spawned online and defined by racism, misogyny and homophobia.

Racism's a new rock and roll, and I'm the biggest rock star of all.

Using social media and streaming to radicalize its young audience.

Let me tell you a joke. Black lives don't matter.

Isn't there some part of you that thinks that's not really where I want to be?

No, I actually enjoy racist humor and misogyny. I think that's awesome. I

we need more racist jokes, to be honest.

You will not replace us!

You will not replace us!

At a time when internet hate is increasingly leading to real world

was attempting to understand the motivation and the technique of a new

generation of homegrown extremists.

You did a Nazi salute.

I did not do a Nazi salute.

You should get the f*** out of my house.

On the front line of a cultural war.

Are you kind of making a documentary about me while I make one about you?

Well, I can't tell you, but you're dealing with one of the world's most

intricate internet trolls.

In Orlando, Florida, outside CPAC, the Conservative Political Action

I was with the followers of a rising star of the far right.

His

name

is Nicholas J. Fuentes.

22 years old and a fan of Donald Trump, he's considered too extreme, even for

the right wing of the Republican Party.

and it's banned from their events.

I'd like to go to CPAC.

No, you cannot. There are no more tickets. There's no more tickets?

CPAC sucked.

It's gay.

They're not conservative.

Yeah, we're leaving.

We're leaving.

America first!

America first!

Reportedly barred from CPAC, for the last two years, Nick has run his own

AFPAC, the America First Political Action Conference, a short distance

We were the first television crew it allowed in to film.

Okay, so here we are. This is going to be our conference tomorrow.

You're in charge of this, right? Yeah. We got our helpers around. They're just

setting up the tables.

So they're putting out these which are stickers, right? Yes. America first

bitch. Yeah.

There should be a comma there because it's not like, you know, I'm an America

first bitch.

They messed it up. Yeah.

That makes it sound like you're the bitch. Right, I know.

that's the worst possible outcome. I know. You could go around just doing a

comma in all of them. Yeah, yeah, we could get a white sharpie.

Otherwise, I know. In terms of what America First represents, am I right in

thinking that for you something that you call demographics is big?

It's radical.

What is that?

Well, demographics is just obviously the people that comprise the nation.

And, you know, people take that to mean race.

And race is a big part of it. But demographics.

Is it for you? Big part of it, period. I think, you know, just racial

demographics are very salient right now, given Black Lives Matter.

But it's about recognizing that race is not everything, but it's not nothing. If

you change the people in America and you change the place that is America, is it

really still America anymore?

Is it really still our home? I think that's the question. And the answer to

is no.

Am I right in thinking you want no immigration?

Yeah, more or less.

Including legal?

Correct, yeah.

How's the setup coming?

In the last several years, Nick has emerged as the new voice of the far

hosting a nightly show which he streamed from Chicago to thousands of homes

around the US and the world.

Why do we need people coming into our countries?

The United States was doing just fine before all these immigrants came here.

take them out of countries like the Middle East. How do they repay that

generosity? They rape our children.

And you see skulls, you see filth.

In his broadcasts, Nick embraces views and language that are racist,

sexist and anti -Semitic, packaging the most extreme statements as jokes and

irony.

What's your problem with Jews? What is your problem with the Jewish people? Why

on earth do you have such a problem with them? I say, you know what? I have a

big problem with Jews.

There's not enough of them. There's not enough of them to go around.

Hello, folks. Nick Fuentes here. We are in sunny Charlottesville, Virginia.

In 2017, aged just 18, he was at the infamous Unite the Right rally in

Charlottesville, Virginia.

Hands up!

Where anti -racism protester Heather Heyer was killed by a Hitler -obsessed

-year -old.

The tragic outcome and the evident extremism of the event led to the

disintegration of the so -called alt -right.

Many younger members regrouped under Nick's leadership.

I'm Louis, how do you do? Nice to meet you. Are you part of the cause?

Yes, sir. Absolutely.

How did you first find out about Nick and America First?

Well, you know, there was a lot of confusion in kind of the right -wing

political space at the time. And there were some very nasty people, you know,

kind of involved in different movements, different groups. And Nick was like one

of the only people who was kind of identifying what these guys were doing

and how we could build something that was like infinitely better, you know.

What did you see, Nick, that was, as you saw it being done incorrectly?

I went to Charlottesville to protest the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue.

I went to Charlottesville to protest mass immigration.

Then you get there and you see people throwing up a Roman salute and, you

you see a Nazi flag and it's like, well, this isn't really what I signed up for.

And all these people are like total freaks. They don't like America. They're

Christian. So what the hell are we really doing here? So America first kind

emerged from that moment of confusion of where does the Internet right wing go

after Trump?

And after Charlottesville.

We're almost ready for a test.

Okay, great.

Getting our projectors set up.

Wow, look at that.

Hey, Steven. This is Louis Theroux.

Are you familiar?

Yeah, nice to meet you. How are you doing? Oh, yeah, nice to meet you. Yeah,

likewise. CBC, right? Yeah, that's it. This guy's a documentarian, too.

You are, too? Are you here filming as well? Yeah, we're going to be doing a

documentary. About Nick? Yeah. Who is yours for?

It's for America First. For me. So you're funding it? Mm -hmm.

Very cool.

That'll be nice because then you can decide what goes in and what doesn't go

That's right, yeah.

What's going on, Junior?

Are you going to AFPAC too?

Yes.

How are you doing? Can we say hi? I'm Louis from the BBC.

Nice to meet you.

Hi. Are you part of America First as well?

I don't think you're a reporter. Oh, okay.

No problem. Cute baby.

I was curious to speak to a female member of the tribe because so far I've

mainly been seeing guys. Yeah, it's all guys.

I mean, we try to, as best as we can, keep women out of the inner circle.

when they get involved in these dissident political movements, they tend

total disaster because this is a high pressure, extremely high pressure

environment. Women tend to crack under the pressure and they tend to cause

friction within the group. Is it your view that women...

Really, their role is in the home rather than in the workplace?

Yeah, 100%. Women have been convinced that it's dignified to abandon your

children, I mean, from their womb, literally, to go work in an office, you

to go work for a corporation.

How sick is that? Women should still have the right to vote, right?

I mean, I don't think so, but that's probably not going away anytime soon.

That's pretty fringe, isn't it, thinking women?

Maybe you shouldn't have the right to vote.

Yeah, but, I mean, look, the society's broken.

So people that are in the mainstream are, you know, they're participating in

totally broken system, you know.

So it's like, if the society's totally destroyed, wouldn't it be the people on

the fringes that are, would have the antidote?

Whatever side of the fringe, but wouldn't it be the people on the

Because the people on the inside are fucking everything up, you know, for

of a better word.

That's how I see it.

To his young fans, Nick is an icon.

Many of them have come up socialising via online video games, immersed in the

culture of the internet.

How would you characterize what Nick is doing? Is he on the rise, do you think?

He has become, in only four years, the most successful dissident political

movement in modern history.

And he has the capability to get thousands of young people to show up in

state in a moment's notice.

How is he doing that?

In that gaming and meme culture, right? And he uses the same type of ironic

jokes that they do. So that's how he's able to attract a younger crowd.

You seem young. Are you at university at the moment? I am, yes. You're a

student? That's correct.

It's important to get young people politically engaged to control not only

direction that the country is headed as a whole, but especially the direction

that the conservative movement is headed in. Are you a gamer? Is that part of

what's going on as well?

I think that's generally something that would fit into the personality of a lot

of the attendees of this conference. I think, you know, we generally like to

game a little bit of, you know, Fortnite, Call of Duty here and there.

How did you connect with Nick?

We used to play Fortnite together.

You and Nick? Yeah. For real?

It's the new golf course.

Through Trump and through politics and stuff, we kind of had similar ideas and

stuff, and we just kind of became friends over the Internet, over Twitter.

Alongside his gamer following, Nick has also made inroads in the political

establishment. Among the attendees was former congressman Steve King.

One of the things that Nick and America first have been criticized for is being

racist, right? I mean, that's basically... He's accused of being a

supremacist.

An anti -Semitic? What we believe is that we are created by God and all of us

created in his image. And once you accept that, then there's no room for

racism whatsoever.

And the interaction I've had with the young people that are here, this is the

energy core that will put America back on the rails again because so much of

has run off the rails in the last year.

The event was sold out with around 300 attendees.

and thousands more watching live online.

A young underground bringing the taboo culture of the darker parts of the

Internet into the real world.

When I see what's going on in the country, I don't want to listen to some

these five -hour podcasts about policymaking.

I want to get in front of somebody and say, it's America first, bitch.

America is a Christian nation.

America ceases to retain

that English cultural framework.

and the influence of European civilization, if it loses its white

core, and if it loses its faith in Jesus Christ, then this is not

America anymore.

And I know some people aren't going to like me saying this. I'm sure you all

going to love what I'm about to say, but...

People watching at home are not, some of them are not going, it's controversial.

Well, it's really, it's true, but it's something that you can't say anymore.

White people founded this country.

This country wouldn't exist without white people.

And white people are done.

It was shocking to hear Nick's vision using lies and distortion to promote an

ethos of white identity and racial division.

The following day, Nick released a tweet to show that one of his speakers had

been a sitting congressman, Arizona's Paul Gosar.

Outside of its annual AFPAC get -together, Nick's movement exists

online community.

sharing ideas via message boards, in -jokes, and live streams.

They're storming the Capitol right now? Really? Dude, I'm at the Capitol.

One of Nick's closest associates is a self -described internet troll named

Gionet, better known as Baked Alaska.

Other side of the building!

They breached the building! Other side! Everyone!

Patriots, let's go!

Other side of the building!

Baked Alaska was at the U .S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, where he live

-streamed himself from a congressional office.

He

specializes

in confrontational live -streams.

and was facing a case of assault using pepper spray.

I'd arranged to meet at his house on the outskirts of Phoenix, Arizona.

Knowing of his fondness for provoking those he views as political enemies, I

would be attempting to maintain my composure.

May I come in? Yes.

Hey, Steve. How are you doing? Good. How are you, Luke? Nice to see you.

How are you doing? Should I call you Baked or Tim or... You can call me

Baked is all right. How are you doing? Now, I've already caught that we're

filmed. Yes. I thought that might happen, and it's kind of part of what

this interesting, right? Is it going out live?

Uh, no.

So is it just for your film?

Yeah, well, we just don't trust journalists, dude.

Like...

Journalists have been my worst enemy.

They suck.

How am I supposed to trust the media when you have mainstream media literally

pushing out narratives that I'm a neo -Nazi? I'm not a Nazi, guys, of course.

Calling me a racist, neo -Nazi, et cetera. So how am I supposed to trust

media? Like, you seem like a cool guy.

You're still part of the mainstream media, though.

You were at the Capitol insurrection, right?

I wouldn't call it an insurrection. What would you call it?

Capital riots.

The riots?

An insurrection would be something that people planned.

Hey, look, there were people there that did some dumb shit. I wasn't violent.

I didn't vandalize anything.

I am very right -wing, obviously, and I believe in America first, but I

want nothing to do with any sort of violence.

You do consider yourself very right -wing.

Yes.

That is fair.

Far right?

I mean, I would say probably, yeah.

Like, people will say far right as, like, a smear, and I used to be like,

no, no, I'm not far right.

But, I mean, I just don't really care that much anymore.

Bates had grown up a child of Christian missionaries in Alaska and pursued a

career doing viral journalism in Los Angeles.

Later, he'd created memes... and performed social media stunts in support

Trump and the far right.

Even your haters would describe you as a social media genius or a social media

innovator. Yeah, I agree. I think that's true.

Oh, yeah. I mean, I worked for BuzzFeed as their social media strategist.

Which is a pretty liberal kind of more celebrity -focused outfit, right? Yeah,

very liberal. You were at Chantville. You were chanting, you will not replace

us. I believe white people should stand up for themselves, but I'm not like a

white supremacist or nationalist or anything like that.

I don't only want to be around white people. I think I would like to be

majority of white people, similar to how our nation was founded. It was about

like 75%, 80%. I think that's fine because I want our country to stay

homogenous. But the ones who weren't white were in chains.

Well, I don't support slavery, so.

This is a little living room where I watch America First. Why have we got

Fuentes up there?

That's my favorite show. I was watching it before you guys came in. For real?

Yeah. Nick is the most genius political mind I've ever come across.

In what way?

He just speaks exactly how it is from the heart, and he doesn't care if

something's going to be seen as politically incorrect or anything like

just... uh truly speak the truth he's only 22 and he's like i'm ready for him

be president like i know i know 100 nick's gonna be president you can clip

you know stephen how are we doing for your documentary are you getting what

need mainstream media is viewed as the enemy of course yeah you know,

type in Louis Theroux, and the first thing that comes up is, like, Louis

is a neo -Nazi or, you know, whatever.

It's not nice for that to come up as the first result.

Did it say that on Wikipedia?

Yeah, look, here. Tim G. and A., more commonly known as Baked Alaska, is an

American neo -Nazi, anti -Semitic conspiracy theorist. You've tweeted that

control the media.

Yeah, I did that.

You can see how that would be, um, anti -Semitic.

I think anti -Semitic is sort of like... a made -up term, like I think Jewish

people think they can't be criticized.

If you said white people suck, that's literally an acceptable phrase in

society, in America, okay?

If I said Jews suck, oh my gosh, oh, you're anti -Semitic. I don't think any

group of people should get a free pass.

I disagree with that.

What do you disagree with? Well, the idea that the same rules should apply to

all races, like where historically white people have been in power.

You know, a lot of it is to do with how power fits.

If you're doing comedy or people are getting roasted, I think you should be

to use any means necessary.

I mean, this is a great song.

Have you seen this one?

One more time, oh, one more time.

I just wanna make fun of a liberal and I'll feel fine One more time,

one more time I didn't do nothing but I'll pay the crime Twitter

is fucking gay Twitter is fucking gay

Twitter is fucking gay Twitter is

fucking gay Twitter is really gay Oh, yeah, it's fucking gay. Yeah.

I made this when I got banned from Twitter.

One more time.

I didn't do nothing, but I'll pay the crime.

I didn't do nothing, but I'll pay the crime.

I don't think I had heard that one before.

Nice. I'm glad I got a...

Show that to you. Do you remember what it was that got you kicked off Twitter?

I mean, dude, these days you don't really have to say much. And I think I

something like, ban all Muslims from the US.

And then... You wrote that on Twitter? Yeah. Why?

Because it was funny.

I don't support any immigration.

You know, we can't have an unlimited amount of people here. But if you want

ban all immigration, why did you mention Muslims specifically?

It was responding to Trump's immigration ban because...

A lot of the Muslims are higher risk for, you know, terrorist attacks.

Some shit like that.

But that, you could see that was a kind of divisive and provocative statement.

Yeah, of course.

That's why I tweeted it.

It was a puzzling formula.

Playing at being racist while also being racist.

and accusing critics of lacking a sense of humour.

The master of this approach was, of course, Nick.

Since I'd last seen him, I'd dug further into his broadcasts.

His agenda was white nationalist in all but name.

to replace us in our own country. You think they really like white people?

really care about white people? They want to kill you. They want to see you

dead. Putting white racial interest above all else.

Stop acting like black women. Black women are fucking obnoxious. And

particular animosity towards Jewish people.

They will protect against hatred for everything except for Christianity,

whiteness, and right -wing political views.

Everything else is protected.

If you're short, dumb, ugly, retarded, if you're in a wheelchair, if you're

black, if you're Muslim, Jewish, if you're Jewish, if you're a Zionist, if

you're Jewish, if you're in a wheelchair, if you're Jewish, it's all

Following on from our encounter in Florida, he'd arranged to meet in his

hometown of Chicago.

I was curious to find out how a disturbing figure like Nick with cutting

to a large and growing audience of impressionable young men.

In the past, a voice like yours would have had to come up through a TV network

or some kind of news outlet, right? Right. But you built your voice and your

platform using social media, would that be correct?

So, I mean, I basically have a very intuitive sense, as all Generation Z do,

social media, smartphones and the...

information ecosystem you know the mechanics of it are are pretty

straightforward you know i mean you create content you share it you hope

people notice it and that they'll uh you know that that's what social media is

at that time then you were a youtuber in a sense i was i was a youtuber like

pewdiepie yeah i am like you dropped out of college were your parents pushing

back at all thinking like what's nick doing he's just in the basement

Recording, like, homemade videos.

Yeah, and they pushed me. They said, you know, what are you going to do? You've

got to get a job or go to school. You've got to have a plan. And I told them,

why don't you just give me one year to explore this? And if it works out, then

I'll keep doing it. And if it doesn't work out, then I'll abandon it and I'll

get a job or I'll go back to school.

And it worked out.

Nice day, boy.

Usually I would have the top down, get a little ice cream.

See, I'm a simple guy. Am I a sick guy?

Did someone say you were a sick guy? Yeah, people, well, I mean, they imply

Hate monger.

Yeah, I'm not a hate, I'm a love monger. I'm out here mongering love.

In one of the pieces of footage I'd come across, Nick had talked about our

meeting in Florida and his impression of me.

Alexander says, what's Louis Theroux like? Is he doing a documentary with

He is.

You know, he has the same problem that all journalists do. He's pretentious,

know. Here's a little piece of advice.

To be a good investigator, you got to be humble, okay?

We may talk about Jewish power and we may talk about black crime, but that

doesn't mean that, you know.

I wake up every day animated by racial hatred. You know, I mean, that's just

retarded, frankly.

And pretentious liberal journalists either are, you know, too arrogant to

understand that.

They think they know it all or whatever, or they don't even care. And they just

have their own agenda. They've got their worldview.

It was almost a little bit disappointing.

It was almost a little bit disappointing.

It's your parents' place, am I right? Yes.

Are your parents around?

No, no, they're not around.

Back at his parents' house where he lived, recording his dreams from the

basement, I decided to challenge him on his comments.

I saw the monologue you did about me.

Yeah, I did do a monologue about you. I just want you to know that I

fundamentally disagree with what you promote and with what you stand for. But

I'm here because I'm curious about you. Right. Does that make sense?

Totally. You disagree with what I stand for. I disagree with what you stand for.

But I tend to operate with people in good faith. I wonder if it's helpful

to...

Almost like put the cards on the table in a way, right? Because you've been

characterized as white nationalist, right? Repeatedly. Sometimes you come

to embracing the term and all through so much of your commentary is an idea of

like... white racial identity is being poured to your belief system.

I've not advocated on my show for a whites -only nation or for ethnic

or for this idea that non -whites cannot participate in American identity or

America. What you do think is that America should be majority white.

Yes, yes.

I saw a video of you. It looked like an undercover recording.

It was. I know what you're talking about. Where you said, someone said, you

think...

mixed race relationships are like bestiality. And your reply was, well,

both degenerate. Yeah.

This was like four years ago.

It was a private conversation.

But, you know, I was playing devil's advocate about this idea that

relationships are totally like the best idea. I happen to be very old school.

I'm very traditional.

It's not a value that I have that that's a good thing or even necessarily

something that's appropriate. It's not a bigoted thing. It's not a white

nationalist thing or a hateful thing, which is... You give people a lot of

though. You were talking about gay people getting married.

Uh -huh.

And your line was like, I don't want them getting married.

And other people say, I don't care what you do as long as you do it in your

bedroom. Right. And you said, I don't even want you doing it in your bedroom.

Yeah. I think it's gross what goes on there.

And, no,

I don't think they should be doing it. Some people, because conservatives.

you were less careful on that one. That was interesting.

What do you mean less careful? Well, there was no irony.

There was less of a twinkle in your eye when you said that. Well, I mean, look.

I make a lot of jokes online. I am ironic a lot of the time, but people can

discern my real views. I'm Catholic. The Catholic view is we want to live in a

decent, virtuous society where people are not doing immoral, gravely sinful

things. You have expressed a degree of sympathy or even common cause with

white nationalists. I don't understand the hang -up on, so why are you not a

white nationalist? So aren't you a white nationalist? I mean, why are you so

interested in that in particular?

Categorizing me as that thing.

Because that's the most prohibited part of your beliefs. What makes you Nicholas

J. Fuentes, right, is the fact that there's a racial component.

Right, right. Even the right wing of the Trumpers, what makes you different from

them is that you talk about Jewish power, alleged Jewish power, and black

crime, and that you're talking about white, specifically white identity.

I want America to work. I believe in America. We've just got to stop

immigration. That's all.

Can we watch you doing your show?

Yes.

Nick told me his streams, hosted on his own website, reach as many as 10 ,000

live viewers a night.

Good evening, everybody. You are watching America First. My name is

Fuentes. We have a great show for you tonight. Very excited to be back with

here tonight on Monday.

Seems like...

Though he is technically banned from most social media companies, clips from

show often go viral and are seen by millions across different platforms.

When you go out there and you say, I don't care about the browning of

and you say that there's going to be no consequences from that, that people are

interchangeable, well, you're lying.

He said he makes up to $4 ,000 per show from people who pay him to respond to

their messages and that the donations have made him a millionaire.

Morton Trump says, can women even be funny, though?

No, they can't be.

And often when they're funny, they're unintentionally funny. The real question

is, can women be intentionally funny? The answer is no. After nearly three

of nonstop streaming, close to midnight, Nick wrapped things up.

As always, I'm Nicholas J. Fuentes. Thank you for watching, and I'll see you

tomorrow. Until then, have a great rest of your evening.

Okay. Whoa.

Did you enjoy that?

Well, it's more enjoyable in the first hour.

Victor Lasker thinks you're going to be president one day. Oh, yeah?

I don't know about that, but maybe.

You'd like to be. I would, I would. I'm not going to lie.

Who wouldn't be? Who wouldn't want to? I wouldn't want to. No?

Nick's political aims are supported by many in far -right circles.

The neo -Nazi Daily Stormer website has repeatedly endorsed his strategy of

pushing a more PR -friendly brand of white nationalism.

But his main constituency has been online gamers, incels, and so -called

pros.

This guy's the fucking winner, dude. Like, this guy's the fucking winner.

going to do what it takes to win, you know.

One of those who lent early enthusiastic support in his homemade streaming show

was a gamer named Matt Evans, better known as Beards and Beardly.

A friend and political ally of Nick, they discussed the need for a less off

-putting, more optical version of white nationalism in freewheeling online

conversations.

We're having a lot of success politically.

The message is getting out. We're waking people up. People are talking about

ending democracy.

Now is not the time to be fucking around and to be caught off guard because we

want to be nice. Well, you know what?

Sabotaging the white race and sabotaging our movement isn't nice.

I'd met him briefly at AFPAC.

Since then, candid footage from an anonymous source had been posted online

showing him leaving the event in Nick's car.

and delivering what looked very much like a Nazi salute.

Another grainy image suggested it might not be by mistake.

Beardson lives in a small town in western Kentucky.

You got that off the internet?

Yeah. How much did they charge you for that? It was only like 12 bucks.

i wasn't that committed 12 bucks i thought it'd be more than that no a

-shirt costs more than that oh you must take value off it having my face on it

how you doing doing all right thank you for having us yeah no problem so like

why do you like why the hell do you want to talk to me well because you were a

pack and um you you they call you the general in the movement yeah they call

nick general one of his trusted lieutenants i don't know about that but

so weird talking to you with three faces of me staring back we're trying to get

a sense of the movement so -called dissident right whatever you want to

that thing that you're a part of that used to be called white nationalism but

guess that's not a term that's in favor anymore.

No, I mean, I'm not a white nationalist or anything.

You kind of have to say that, right?

To be optical?

No, I'm not even a political guy.

Really? No, I'm a gamer, dude.

I play video games.

Is that the line you're taking?

Because it is a political movement. Like, the Knicks outfit is explicitly

political. Oh, yeah, yeah, for sure. I'm just friends with the guy.

Are we all right to go in? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, thank you.

This is your new place? You just moved in? Literally just like three hours ago,

picked up the keys to the place.

Oh, okay.

How would you characterize what you do?

Comedian. Kind of a troll, could we say?

Yeah.

I mean, as far as like, I don't know, my vague political beliefs or whatever, I

mean, I'm a punk rock kid, you know? I look at whatever is anti -authoritarian.

I've always been a guy that goes against the grain, you know, making...

edgy jokes on the internet is punk rock you know what i mean but we're not gonna

be silly about it and pretend that there's no racial dimension to what

involved in well yeah i mean of course like you have to i mean you have to be

honest about it and have a conversation about it but it's not some like racial

hatred you know but that's the way it always comes across right anytime you

bring up the idea of race or you talk about racial division in this country

obviously it must mean that you hate all the other races that's the way that

it's perceived every single time and it's not true

So how was AFPAC? It was fun.

Speeches were cool, I guess. Can I get something out of the way? Yeah, go

Okay.

So on the day, on the last day I was there, you were leaving with Nick in a

Yeah. And you did a Nazi salute.

Oh, I didn't mean to.

I was just trying to wave.

But it was quite clearly a Nazi salute. It wasn't a Nazi salute.

Can we look at it?

Look, it was an accident if it was. I was just trying to do one of those. Have

you seen it? Yeah, it looks kind of bad. I'll be honest with you, it did look

bad. Dude, I'm not a Nazi, man.

If this is what it's going to be, I'm not going to... No, but we've got to...

mean, I would look like a chump if I didn't bring it up, right?

Wouldn't I? I think you look like a chump bringing it up.

Do you really think I'm a Nazi?

See, look, right there. See how I'm going like that? Like a military salute.

That one, but you did it twice.

You're at an event whose entire kind of raison d 'etre really is to say, hey,

you know what?

We're not the alt -right.

We don't want anything to do with those guys. Yeah.

We don't want swastikas. We don't want any of that Hitler esoteric. Right.

You know, in a sense, you had one job.

Right. And you failed.

Because you did a two nazi salute.

I did not do a nazi salute.

Well, it looked like you know that word optic Yeah, that term of like, oh, yeah,

i'm very familiar with the term. Yeah, you know what else i'm familiar with is

the term bad journalism You should get the fuck out of my house. I'm not in

house Yeah, well you can leave because I don't want this interview done.

Can we de -escalate please?

No Are you going to sit there and say I'm doing a Nazi salute?

I asked you if you were. It was quite evident you looked like one.

Get the fuck out of my house.

Are you kidding me?

When did you lose your sense of humor?

When did you lose your sense of integrity?

That's it?

Yeah, that's it.

Yeah, you too. Bye -bye.

How about you go back to the UK and sit on a fucking dick and spin? How about

that?

Ejected by a surprisingly thin -skinned troll, what was most striking was that

someone who gave Nazi salutes was also offended by being asked about them.

But we weren't finished yet.

What's going on, my dudes?

Beardson was about to hit back on his one -man streaming channel.

I wanted to go live to talk about my latest experience that I just had.

Literally just had it just a second ago.

And if you're watching this, Louis, which I'm sure you probably are, yeah,

fuck yourself.

You're a disingenuous hag.

Oh, hey, I'm getting a phone call right now. I'm getting a phone call.

Hello? Hey, I'm watching you.

Yeah, are you? We were about to have a conversation.

I asked you a straightforward question.

Like, how did you expect that that would not come up?

Because it wasn't, because you're the only person that has ever once said that

to me about that.

I'm not dealing with this. I'm not dealing with your pretentiousness, and

not dealing with your slander, okay? You can either listen to what I have to

say, or you can go fuck yourself.

Well, I understand you're annoyed now.

Why don't you explain to me what your views are?

Why don't you explain to me how you're a total fucking scumbag? How about that?

I'm not dumb. I'm not an idiot, Louis. You're not goading a fucking interview

out of me. You are a piece of shit, and I don't like you.

Listen, you're involved in a movement that's been characterized by its enemies

as white nationalists. Here, Louis, go fuck yourself. I have nothing left to

to you. Eat shit. Bye -bye.

Beardson's machismo seemed symptomatic of America First.

and the far -right male persona generally.

Given the pervasive misogyny of the movement, I was curious to meet a woman

any way connected with America First.

Hello, Nick Fuentes. This is Dr.

Milfy. How are you doing today?

I'm doing all right. How are you doing?

Brittany Venti is a sometime friend of Nick Fuentes and Beards and Beardly.

She too was raised on the internet, gravitating to the darker areas of the

She'd also been at Charlottesville with Baked Alaska.

In her online videos, she plays the role of a gamer

girl who trolls her mainly male audience for donations.

It's not my fault that I deserve money more than you. It's not my fault that

someone likes me more than you. Lately, Brittany had fallen out with Nick

Puentes and his team. She said due to some jokes she'd made about them online.

That's fine. I'm okay with being hated. I'm always hated. It makes no difference

to me. What do I have to lose by telling the truth?

I'd arranged to see her at her home in New York.

Hello, I'm Louie. How do you do? I'm good.

May I come in?

So this is where you do your work?

Yes. And you've got a pink purple MAGA hat up there. Are you a Trump fan?

I like the fact that he trolls.

That's my favorite part about him. He lower taxes and he's kind of like

provocative.

Kind of like how my style is. It reminds me of that.

You don't mind getting a pink mug, do you?

I like a pink mug.

That's very progressive.

I was curious how Brittany had got involved in the far right in the first

and where she stood with it now.

You were at Charlottesville, right, when they were chanting, you will not

replace us and Jews will not replace us.

I didn't even know fully the details about Charlottesville. I was told a few

days ahead of time by a friend, like... You need to go to this event. You need

to go to this event. But what about the message and the whole Jews will not

replace the chant?

I assume that they were just joking, like saying it like tongue in cheek.

Because one person said it and then some people started saying it.

So that's why I say maybe some people are joking about it. I don't know.

They weren't joking.

I mean, people say stuff that's like anti -Semitic, but it's like tongue in

cheek sometimes.

So like I said, the line of irony.

sometimes gets a little bit blurry.

I think you should be able to joke about most things so long as it's not like

threatening to harm someone.

You were online very early, right?

Yeah. I didn't have any friends, and that's why I turned to the Internet for

friendship. Was there some sense in which you were, like, finding your

online? Oh, definitely, for sure.

I thought it was so funny. It was just so wild back then, like the Wild West.

From being inside the movement somewhat, right? Which we could say you were,

right? Yeah, I've been able to observe a lot of it. What's your take on what

America First is about and what Nick Fuentes is about?

Back in the day, I definitely thought more of it was joking than not. But then

it became not a joke.

Like, for example, when they say, like, don't race, Nick, and you have to be

like...

none at all like that type of thing or when it's like about how all

women are whores it's like no that's actually not tongue -in -cheek like

initially thought because I thought like oh well like I'm not the modern woman I

definitely want a husband and I'm conservative like there should be no

they have a problem with me but no it didn't matter not good enough so I

realized that when I saw like how

How horrible they were to me.

And by horrible you mean?

Insulting, harassing, try to report you, get your stuff taken down.

I think the worst thing I've seen is the bits and things. Have you seen that?

Yeah, I did see it once.

So would you be comfortable showing it to me?

Don't feel any pressure to do it?

Yeah, I mean... You sure? Yeah.

In person. And I'm married. I'm going to fucking put my dick in your fucking

asshole. I'm going to remove your pants. I'm going to remove my pants. I'm going

to stick my dick in your ass. I'm going to rape you. Because you're such a dumb

fucking bitch.

That you do not understand.

You have involved yourself into a community that you do not understand.

And for that, you're going to get anally raped.

Okay.

I mean, I guess that there's a sense of humor with the obscenity of it, like,

but it doesn't make it okay to say that because it's still, like, extremely

inappropriate and disrespectful. I feel like disrespectful is too nice of a

word.

I just think it's because his buddies didn't like me, so it's like, oh, you

can't like Brittany Venti, so gotta turn.

I think that's what it is.

because, like I said, they have a problem with women no matter what flavor

woman you are.

The attacks on Brittany by her former friends seem to have opened her eyes to

the misogyny of the movement she'd been part of.

But it was striking that she still made light of the hatefulness of the anti

-Semitic chanting at Charlottesville.

Experts increasingly view the greatest terrorist threat in the US as coming

the far right and highlight the global reach of the message.

It was after a 2019 attack in Christchurch, New Zealand in which 51

killed by a terrorist steeped in the culture of the internet that Faked

had released a surprising video.

was radicalized by the alt -right and became a right -wing extremist.

he does is the 101 playbook for right -wing extremists, and I know because

hung around these guys in the past.

We need to start educating people the difference between Internet culture and

reality before things go way out of hand like they did in New Zealand.

But within months... he'd reverted back to his far -right positions, embracing a

full -time career as a live -streaming internet troll.

Increasingly, I'd wondered about the danger of internet hate translating into

real -world harm.

With that in mind, I'd arranged to meet him in Tampa, Florida, where he was

streaming. I was hoping to understand the dark seduction of the online

community, knowing it would involve another dose of highly upsetting

Guys, we're going to have some fun later tonight.

Don't miss it.

Louie, are you in the chat?

Louie!

Louie!

Nice to see you. How's it going?

Good.

We're live here, guys. Say hello.

Louie Thoreau.

I told him we had a special guest today. And that was me?

That was you, yeah.

With Baked were two other lower -profile far -right streamers, one going by

Lolv, another Woozer. How's it going?

Nick and Baked's documentary maker friend Stephen Martinez was also along

the ride.

OK. You've been streaming for three hours? Yeah. And you've got 331 people

watching live?

Yeah. And it's on YouTube.

Yes, on YouTube. I thought you'd been deplatformed from YouTube.

Yeah, I have. So how are you doing it? I just make new channels all the time.

Wow!

Doomer Squidward sent $100 yoga.

Let's go!

Thank you so much!

07's in chat.

Doomer Squidward, thank you, homie.

Fake streams are how he makes his income.

They involve him provoking passers -by.

Step back. Get the fuck out of here. This is my production, not yours.

spurred on by viewers who donate money to play racist or otherwise provocative

music and messages on a speaker around his neck.

Is this one of those German military marching songs with Nazi

connotations?

I don't know if it has Nazi connotations.

It's just a nice German song, you know. I had the uncomfortable feeling my

presence was making him more money.

So I decided to keep in the background as much as possible.

Hey, we got some Cubans out here.

Mexico, USA, baby.

Yeah. Trump, Trump 2024.

Yeah. Let's vote for Trump.

What was racist?

Calling us Cubans. I asked, I asked. I asked, I said, are you Cuban? Hey, I

swear, they're donating a bad song right now. Saying the N -word.

Much of the content played on Baked Speaker was the most offensive racial

language. Please chill out with that. Please chill out with that.

They seem to enjoy playing best risk gay and then sometimes outright racist

material. Is that fair?

Yeah. What's that about?

It's comedy. It's edgy humor.

They play whatever they can to make us uncomfortable.

It's not a cross -section of the broader society, is it? It's almost like a self

-selected community of...

hard right trolls not everyone is right wing though it's not really but more

than half of it has been extreme racial abuse or extreme racial content

anonymous than three dollars louis basically we just hate to get the new

it's not so much a right wing left wing thing it's like a human versus subhuman

thing you know oh man um okay

The fact that it's so horrible, like what's coming in, does that ever make

think maybe you're doing something wrong?

No, not really, because we live in a world where you can't hear any of this

language. It's all extremely censored.

It's all, you know, so taboo and so forbidden that to me, you know, some of

stuff I don't like to hear. But for the most part, a lot of it's refreshing.

As the evening wore on, Bates did more stunts with strangers.

His dream, a queasy mix of playfulness, accompanied

by racist messages paid for by donors on his speaker.

It seemed, in a way, a distillation

of the far -right internet impulse.

Shock and offence, driven by the whims of anonymous trolls and an influencer

looking for clicks.

You don't know me.

You guys are fucking retards. He knows.

You're not the arbiter of truth here, bitch, okay?

As we headed to a final location, Baked talked unguardedly about me.

You know, they manipulate and act like they're interested in me as a streamer,

but whenever I show them good streams, they're like, they just want to talk

about, like...

They want to talk about all their buzz topics to, like, make us look bad.

In the early hours of the morning, I'd seen more than enough.

I decided to challenge Baked about the potentially lethal consequences of his

far -right beliefs by using his own words against him.

OK, let's finish this. OK. Yes.

In 2019, you said you'd recently left the alt -right and regretted ever

contributing anything to that culture.

Mm -hmm. You said I was just... So what does this have to do with live

streaming? You said I was just... I thought you were interested in live

streaming. I am.

No, you're just interested in your bullshit little agenda. No, this is a

from you. I was just a normal guy who liked memes and I got radicalized.

No, that's bullshit. And then you said about your alt -right career... No, no,

no, no. ...it had been a pretty big disaster, to be honest.

No, no, no, no, no.

Your point was that in the aftermath of 51 people being killed, Muslim people at

prayer in their...

I don't think it's good. I don't support violence. Yeah, Louis.

Can I make the bigger point, though, which is that many people would see the

language of racial division as contributing to a climate where

violent acts flourish, right?

No, here you go with the manipulating again. Here you go with the manipulating

again. No, no, you say, oh, it's not a hit piece, I want to know about

streaming. You don't give a fuck about streaming.

No, it's not.

No, you said it's not.

You went straight to trying to call, label me in America first as white

nationalist, light, and all this dumb shit.

And it's just like, everyone can see through your fucking gay agenda.

No, you're a piece of shit, dude. I gave you a chance.

You're anti -Christian.

You're anti -white. You're a fucking punk. You're a lying piece of shit.

And that's all you do.

I tried to give you a chance to be real and genuine, but you're not a real human

being. No, you're not capable of that, Louie. Why don't you apologize for your

fucking ancestors from thousands of years ago? Because you're white, Louie.

Aren't you? Aren't you white?

Yeah. Oh, so why don't you apologize for who you are? Because you're a disgrace.

Why am I a disgrace?

Because you're white.

Apparently, we should be guilty. We should feel terrible for being white,

We can't have a majority of white people because we'd have a great country with

low crime.

God forbid that.

Why don't you just, um, isn't it all, like, isn't it basically white

nationalism? Oh, wow, there we go. There it comes out.

That's not offensive to you, is it?

You're a liar, I mean... You are a white nationalist. No, I'm not. I think

everyone should be able to stand up for their culture, absolutely. That's my

point. So you think it's got a negative connotation, but in a descriptive sense,

it's accurate.

You promote white racial loyalty and a white racial consciousness. White racial

consciousness, yeah.

Absolutely. It's semantics in the end.

So what do you think of Baked Alaska now that you've hung out with me for a

couple of days?

I think you're obviously a talented broadcaster and streamer. And I also

that parts of what you do, I find deeply poisonous. Right.

And I think that it's anti -Semitic and it's racist. And that's what I think.

All right. I think we're good.

Yeah. I'm not a white nationalist. I got it.

You got to get that out of your head.

Stop believing the lies.

Bates' political self -labelling was, in the end, immaterial.

His record of racist, homophobic and misogynistic views spoke for itself in

vast digital catalogue of the Internet, elevating the interests of white racial

identity above all else in America and viewing it exclusively as under threat.

consider what's happening right now in America as anything other than a

being perpetrated against the white man. And if you're one of those people that

says that being pro -white is racist, is white supremacist, white nationalist,

guess what? You're on the side of white genocide.

In a world where everyone can have their own platform, it may have been

inevitable that the voices of the political fringe would be more amplified

would influence more people.

Twenty years ago, Nick Fuentes would have been an almost invisible figure.

Now, thanks to the

internet, his message reaches young people in homes around the world.

His avowed aim to undermine democracy and advance the power of white men,

irony to mask an ambition that is deadly serious.

There is nothing that can stop an idea whose time has come. And America first,

the time has come now.