Let's play "spot the bigot," with Matt Yglesias

INDIGNITY VOL. 3, NO. 132

THE WORST THING WE READ™

Matt Yglesias. Photo: Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty Images

How to Read Richard Hanania's Racism  

ON FRIDAY, THE Huffington Post reported that the conservative commentator Richard Hanania had a history of writing virulently racist, sexist, and eugenicist posts online under the pseudonym "Richard Hoste," including contributing to the website where the white nationalist Richard Spencer launched the "alt right" movement. Under his own name, calling himself a "classical liberal," Hanania has eagerly sought, and gotten, engagement with the mainstream; he's been cited regularly by liberal pundits, published in the New York Times, and prominently featured—billed as a voice of "enlightened centrism"—on the podcast hosted by Hamish McKenzie, the chief operating officer of this very publishing platform, Substack. 

Now he's been caught as the author of posts arguing that "[r]ace mixing is like destroying a unique species or piece of art," or that "[w]omen simply didn’t evolve to be the decision makers in society," or that Sarah Palin being an "attractive, religious and fertile White woman drove the ugly, secular and barren White self-hating and Jewish elite absolutely mad," or that society should "sterilize those who are bound to harm future generations through giving birth." 

"If the races are equal," he wrote, "why do whites always end up near the top and blacks at the bottom, everywhere and always?" 

On Sunday, Hanania posted a response to the report on his own Substack. "Recently, it’s been revealed that over a decade ago I held many beliefs that, as my current writing makes clear, I now find repulsive," he wrote. 

Does his current writing make it clear that he's repelled by his past writings? Under his own name, quite recently, Hanania has offered pretty clear evidence that he's a vicious gutter racist, fixated on spreading the message that Black people are inherently inferior and criminally inclined. "These people are animals," Hanania tweeted in May, when Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is Black, indicted white subway passenger Daniel Penny for manslaughter for having strangled Black subway passenger Jordan Neely to death on the F train, "whether they're harassing people in subways or walking around in suits." 

That same month, Hanania also tweeted "We need more policing, incarceration, and surveillance of black people," and complained: "We still hear about Emmett Till. But you can find a new black-on-white hate crime every day of the week." In July, he tweeted that African American Studies departments were founded with staffs of "street hustlers and illiterates." 

None of this stopped various mainstream liberals and centrists from conversing with him or promoting his work. Professionally clever pundit Matthew Yglesias, who regularly interacted with Hanania on Twitter and promoted one of his posts in his newsletter, struck a pose of jaded knowingness when the news of "Richard Hoste"'s opinions broke. "Not sure 'Hanania is racist' was a particularly well-kept secret but interesting," he tweeted.