Red state extremist group flames out after hometown unravels

The Guardian reports a small West Virginia town is still trying to recover from becoming the face of white nationalism after a nonprofit selling “white replacement theory” and other conspiracies moved in and began flooding the internet with conspiracies.

Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, residents learned Peter and Lydia Brimelow — owners of the controversial online publication VDare — bought property in the area in 2020.

“Critics have accused the anti-immigration publicationof being the genteel face of a constellation of white nationalist groups,” reports the Guardian. “… VDare’s arrival was flame to tinder in a town already navigating disagreements about the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter and Pride movements. Residents were divided over how, if at all, to react to the prospect of their town becoming an organizational nexus of the far right. Neighbors stopped speaking to neighbors, business partnerships fell apart, and people attacked each other on Facebook.”

Journalist Michael Edison Hayden said Peter Brimelow has been influential at spreading the idea of “white genocide,” the argument that white people are being deliberately replaced by non-white immigration.

“And he succeeded,” said Hayden. “At the Republican National Convention in 2024, people were holding signs calling for mass deportation. That is in part Brimelow’s legacy.”

Last year, the attorney general of New York, where VDare is registered as a non-profit, sued the nonprofit, accusing the Brimelows of using the non-profit for personal gain, under the argument that the Brimelow family might be living in the West Virginia castle they purchased, which would be a violation of non-profit laws. The other side of the legal fight is the company wants to keep their writers and donors anonymous.

“They appear to have purchased the castle with the help of around $4.5m in donations channeled through DonorsTrust, a group that bundles money from wealthy rightwing people and helps obscure the source,” said Hayden. “ … We’ll see how it plays out. But financially, I think it really is the end of the road for VDare. They were hiring lawyers, one after the other, and that just became extraordinarily expensive.”

But Hayden wonders if parties willing to use racism as a political weapon even have use for the organization, or is it already mission accomplished?

“Does the Republican party, or Trump, or any of these people, need VDare? They have all these online influencers, and at this point practically every MAGA politician has paid lip service to the great replacement theory. … VDare’s mission of making immigration a hot-button issue has succeeded in a way that may make VDare obsolete,” said Hayden. “Are younger people going to read VDare now? No. They’re watching Nick Fuentes. I’m sure before long even Fuentes will look like an older person in the eyes of some young radicals. … They are always thinking about the next thing – the thinkers, or talkers, who can help accrue power tomorrow.”