How 'race realist' conservative who used pen name for years rose to 'alt-right' stardom: report

Maya Boddie, Alternet
August 4, 2023, 

An alt-right protester holds a sign in favor of unity between Trump supporters and alt-right members (image via Wikimedia Commons).

In an exclusive report published by HuffPost Friday, the news outlet details the rise of right-wing writer, Richard Hanania, who wrote under the pen name "Richard Hoste" for years before gaining support from prominent Republicans and billionaires to become the widely sought after conservative "national mainstream media" personality he is today.

HuffPost found the "alt-right" writer, more than a decade ago, had work published in "antisemitic outlets like The Occidental Observer, a site that once argued Jews are trying to exterminate white Americans," and "was among the first writers to be recruited for AlternativeRight.com, a new webzine spearheaded and edited by Richard Spencer, the white supremacist leader who later organized the deadly 2017 neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia."

Both The Washington Post and The New York Times published "Richard Hoste's" work, according to the news outlet.

As a blogger in 2009, Hanania made assertions like "Fat people not only are disgusting to look at; their obesity reflects some ugly personality traits," and "Women simply didn't evolve to be the decision makers in society. Women's liberation = the end of human civilization."

Furthermore, the far-right writer, describing himself as a "race realist," focused much of his work on Black people, as "he lamented what he saw as the growing preponderance of 'miscegenation,' or white and Black people dating each other," writing, "For the white gene pool to be created millions had to die. Race mixing is like destroying a unique species or piece of art. It's shameful."

HuffPost reports, "For Hoste, white people were 'naturally smarter and less criminal' than Black people; white women's 'fear of black men' was 'very far from irrational'; whites had better 'modes of moral reasoning'; and Black people had 'low intelligence and impulse control.'"

HuffPost reports:

HuffPost connected Hanania to his 'Richard Hoste' persona by analyzing leaked data from an online comment-hosting service that showed him using three of his email addresses to create usernames on white supremacist sites. A racist blog maintained by Hoste was also registered to an address in Hanania's hometown. And HuffPost found biographical information shared by Hoste that aligned with Hanania's own life.

The right-winger, who U.S. Senator J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) has considered a "friend" and "really interesting thinker," has since become a prominent podcaster and leader of the think tank, Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology, which according to journalist Jonathan Katz, "describes itself as 'interested in funding scholars studying woke attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.'"

HuffPost notes:


Richard Hanania's story may hint at a concerning shift in mainstream American conservatism. A little over a decade ago, he felt compelled to hide his racist views behind a pseudonym. In 2023, Hanania is a right-wing star, championed by some of the country's wealthiest men, even as he's sounding more and more like his former white supremacist nom de plume: Richard Hoste.

The news outlet reports "Marc Andreessen — the powerful Silicon Valley venture capitalist and billionaire, and a buddy of Elon Musk — has appeared on CSPI's podcast, hosted by Hanania, three times," as well as "Amy Wax, the University of Pennsylvania professor facing disciplinary proceedings for, among other alleged offenses, inviting a white supremacist to speak to her class and making racist remarks such as that 'our country will be better off with more whites and fewer minorities.'"

HuffPost emphasizes:


Hanania's rise into mainstream conservative and even more centrist circles did not necessarily occur because he abandoned some of the noxious arguments he made under the pseudonym 'Richard Hoste.' Although he's moderated his words to some extent, Hanania still makes explicitly racist statements under his real name. He maintains a creepy obsession with so-called race science, arguing that Black people are inherently more prone to violent crime than white people. He often writes in support of a well-known racist and a Holocaust denier. And he once said that if he owned Twitter — the platform that catapulted him to some celebrity — he wouldn't let 'feminists, trans activists or socialists' post there. 'Why would I?' he asked. 'They're wrong about everything and bad for society.'

The news outlet notes one of Hanania's "first viral pieces on Substack — a 2021 article titled 'Why Is Everything Liberal?' — was cited by columnists at The Washington Post and The New York Times," leading "to his first invitation to appear on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight,' America's most-watched cable news show at the time."

Furthermore, though The Washington Post did not comment on the conservative's previously published work, HuffPost reports "a New York Times spokesperson said that 'Hanania didn’t inform our editors or anyone at The Times, nor were we aware' of any writing he'd done under a pseudonym before the paper published one of his essays."