Inside Alt-Right Poster Boy & Homophobe Nick Fuentes — Weird Bitcoin Transactions, Shaming Lady Maga & Dating a Catboy
Following the money is the best way to follow the curious case of the $500,000 in bitcoins that found its way into far right wing radicals' pockets in December, and, even more curiously, into the pocket of ultra-right wing homophobe Nick Fuentes.
The boyish, good-looking Fuentes, who could easily have a career as a Falcon model if so inclined, received the largest portion — some $250,000 — of the half-million that a 35-year old French computer programmer left to ultra-conservative groups prior to his suicide in early December, the Daily Mail reports.
"Chainalysis, a firm that investigates Bitcoin transactions, found that the majority of the 22 transactions to 18 wallets on December 8 went to Nick Fuentes, a far-right internet influencer," writes the DM.
The 22-year old Fuentes has made his mark in the far-right universe. He hosted a podcast that was banned by YouTube last February due to his inflammatory rhetoric. A college dropout, he is described by the website ProPublica as "an internet personality who streams a daily talk show on DLive, an alternative social media platform. Fuentes, who marched in Charlottesville during the 2017 white power rally there, speaks frequently in anti-Semitic terms and pontificates on the need to protect America's white heritage from the ongoing shift in the nation's demographics. He has publicly denied believing in white nationalism but has said that he considers himself a 'white majoritarian'."
And with his extreme views and willingness to shock and disrupt, he is picking up where Milo Yiannopoulos left off. "Fuentes represents the frightening realization that a growing number of voices on the Right see the hypernationalism of Donald Trump, the theocracy of Mike Pence, and the extreme libertarianism of the Koch Brothers as not conservative enough for their tastes,"
Late last year he drew attention on the LGBTQ web when he spoke at a Washington rally on December 12 in support of Trump's election complaint. Not so much for what he said, which was typically far-right "election was stolen" rhetoric: "Our Founding Fathers would get in the streets, and they would take this country back by force if necessary. And that is what we must be prepared to do." But then there was this incident, reported in the New Yorker: "As Fuentes wrapped up his diatribe, he noticed a drag queen standing on the periphery of the crowd. She wore a blond wig and an evening gown with a beauty-queen sash identifying her as Lady Maga. At the November D.C. rally, I had been surprised to see Trump supporters lining up to have their pictures taken with her. Now Fuentes yelled, "That is disgusting! I don't want to see that!," and the groypers wheeled on her, bellowing in unison, "Shame!"
"These people (especially "Tiny Tim [Nick Fuentes]) are just sad," Lady Maga later tweeted. She also spoke with Fuentes in a 10-minute YouTube video in which Fuentes expressed his displeasure with Lady Maga's shtick. "I also can't be with somebody who is for the normalization of homosexuality, of gender bending... the problem is the propagation of degeneracy, deviancy homosexuality... you can parade yourself around, I'm like a mega drag queen. That's completely tone-deaf. If this is what MAGA is, count me out."
He also gave Lady Maga this advice: "What you should do is drop the whole LGBT part, drop the drag stuff, drop the homosexuality, you should find a woman and as a man should marry her and live in a normative, virtuous society."
Fuentes also attended the rally prior to the Capitol insurrection on January 6 and was seen later on the Capitol steps, but claims he did not enter the building, though ProPublica reports that: "One group of Fuentes' supporters, who call themselves the Groyper Army, was filmed running through the Capitol carrying a large blue flag with the America First logo." The Groyper Army is described as alt-right followers of Fuentes, named after Pepe the Frog's more sinister, overweight toad cousin, and are known for their disruptive tactics, most notably against the YA conservative group Turning Point USA.
Fuentes rhetorical style is extreme, an angry edge oddly cushioned with moderation. Take, for example, this clip found by Megan Squire, a computer science professor at Elon University who follows online extremist communities: "What can you and I do to a state legislator — besides kill him?" he said with a smirk. "We should not do that. I'm not advising that, but I mean, what else can you do, right?"
"Squire fears that Fuentes' incendiary rhetoric will inspire his followers to engage in more drastic — even lethal — acts of political violence," writes ProPublica. "' Instead of trying to appear democratic he's making an argument for fascism, for monarchism,' she said. 'He's criticizing democracy at every turn. He doesn't believe in democracy and it's scary because his fans find him fascinating.'" DLive recently announced that it has booted Fuentes from its platform, adds ProPublica.
His attitude towards homosexuality is right out of some Opus Dei manifesto. According to his profile on RationalWiki, he believes half of all homosexuals are pedophiles. In line with white supremacist views, Fuentes tweeted in 2018 that "White people officially the least gay race." "Fuentes on his Internet show denounces same-sex marriage and 'transgenderism' as 'deviancy.' "
But many have wondered if Fuentes is secretly gay, so much so that when blogger Andy Ngo interviewed him, he asked him if he was, citing Fuentes' seeming disinterest in women and his flamboyant style. Fuentes replied: "The hand gestures? I'm Italian, so I think people understand that's where that comes from. I have heard this before. This is the common argument — oh, you're against gays, therefore you are one. The answer is no. Just straight up. But this is always the argument. You're militantly opposed to homosexuality, therefore you must be repressed. To me this is just absurdity. This is almost like a you-know-what kind of tactic. It is a very subversive kind of a tactic, but you know what I am getting at."
But by far the oddest bit of Fuente gay lore came when a 10-hour video surfaced of him "going on a date with a male influencer in a cat get-up. They go to the arcade together and talk and laugh and flirt and apparently, they end up sharing a room for the night," Medium reported.
The identity of his date is known on social media as CatboyKami, who is also known as LoliSocks, who gained notoriety last year "after painting his face black, using the N-word and dressing up as a police officer to mock the death of George Floyd on webcam chat site Omegle," reported the Daily Mail. "The YouTube star, who goes by the name of CatboyKami, uttered racial slurs to black people on the randomised chat website."
An anonymous post on DataLounge summed up the Fuentes-CatBoyKami bromance this way: "Um...does anyone doubt that Fuentes likes men? He's always saying "no e-girls ever!" and I guess he really means it. No girls ever. Flirting, eye contact, I bet they were busy after the camera was turned off."