:The Unz Review#Writers
{{short description|Far-right American website}}
{{use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox website
| name = The Unz Review
| logo =
| logo_caption = Site header
| logo_size = 220px
| logo_alt =
| url = {{URL|https://www.unz.com/}}
| type = Alt-right, white nationalism
| language = English
| founder = Ron Unz
| editor = Ron Unz
| launch_date = November 2013
| revenue =
}}
The Unz Review is an American website and blog founded and edited by Ron Unz, an American far-right activist and Holocaust denier. It is known for its publication of far-right, conspiracy theory, white nationalist, and antisemitic writings.{{cite conference |last1=Bevensee |first1=Emmi |last2=Ross |first2=Alexander Reid |date=December 1, 2018 |title=The Alt-Right and Global Information Warfare |url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8622270/ |conference= 2018 IEEE International Conference on Big Data |publisher=Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers |pages=4393–4402 |doi=10.1109/BigData.2018.8622270 |isbn=978-1-5386-5035-6 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240303000703/https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1138&context=geog_fac |archive-date=March 3, 2024 |access-date=December 28, 2023 |quote=[PDF page 7 of 11] The most prominent and clearest connection between the Alt-Right and conspiracy theory sites in our conspiracy theory selection is called The Unz Review, which appeared very frequently amongst the Alt-Right twitter handles. The Unz Review is a 'mix of far-right and far-left anti-Semitic crackpottery, from 9/11 'truther' and conspiracy theorist Paul Craig Roberts to 'Holocaust industry' critic Norman Finkelstein, who believes Jews exploit the Holocaust to justify oppressing Palestinians'. This website represents the heart of Alt-Right disinformation landscape, in that it sees itself as a radical opposition to the mainstream that transcends the traditional left-right political binary in order to propagate white-supremacist narratives amidst a wide range of conspiracy and propaganda. Among the sites that support the Unz Review is the anti-Semitic and pro-Kremlin website russia-insider.com, which also featured in the Alt-Right websites linked. Russia-Insider keeps a running feed of articles posted on The Unz Review. Russia-Insider was founded in tandem with a larger effort to generate a more positive view of the Kremlin in the US by taking a critical approach to US politics from a Russian perspective while advancing pro-Russian conspiracy theories. Russia-Insider's top sources of traffic, according to Amazon's Alexa site overlap tool are searches for ZeroHedge, and the top sites visited before it were Sputnik News and RT. |url-status=live|arxiv=1905.02712 }}
History
Ron Unz, far-right activist and conspiracy theorist and Holocaust denier,{{cite news |last1=Amponsah |first1=Michelle |date=June 23, 2023 |title=Deep Within the Anti-Affirmative Action Lawsuit, a Holocaust Denier |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2023/6/23/affirmative-action-lawsuit-holocaust-denier/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230915085755/https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2023/6/23/affirmative-action-lawsuit-holocaust-denier/ |archive-date=September 15, 2023 |access-date=November 28, 2023 |work=The Harvard Crimson}}{{cite news |last=Sigler |first=Gall |date=June 29, 2023 |title=The Supreme Court just hobbled affirmative action — and an antisemitic conspiracy theorist helped |url=https://forward.com/fast-forward/552519/ron-unz-supreme-court-affirmative-action-harvard/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230930100120/https://forward.com/fast-forward/552519/ron-unz-supreme-court-affirmative-action-harvard/ |archive-date=September 30, 2023 |access-date=November 28, 2023 |work=The Forward}} launched The Unz Review in November 2013. Unz is editor-in-chief and publisher.{{cite web |date=January 20, 2014 |title=Ron Unz: Controversial Writer and Funder of Anti-israel Activists |url=https://www.adl.org/news/article/ron-unz-controversial-writer-and-funder-of-anti-israel-activists |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612162734/https://www.adl.org/news/article/ron-unz-controversial-writer-and-funder-of-anti-israel-activists |archive-date=June 12, 2018 |access-date=June 13, 2018 |publisher=Anti-Defamation League}}{{cite news |date=November 6, 2013 |title=Should Anyone Be Able To Take A Job Anywhere? |url=https://www.npr.org/2013/11/04/243009466/should-anyone-be-able-to-take-a-job-anywhere |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231129021208/https://www.npr.org/2013/11/04/243009466/should-anyone-be-able-to-take-a-job-anywhere |archive-date=November 29, 2023 |access-date=November 28, 2023 |publisher=NPR}} In May 2020, Facebook removed fake accounts tied to The Unz Review.{{cite news |last=Stubbs |first=Jack |date=May 5, 2020 |title=Facebook says it dismantles disinformation network tied to Iran's state media |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-facebook-idUSKBN22H2DK/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409152232/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-facebook-idUSKBN22H2DK |archive-date=April 9, 2023 |access-date=November 28, 2023 |agency=Reuters}}
Editorial positions
The Unz Review describes itself as a publication presenting an "alternative media selection", and "controversial perspectives largely excluded from the American mainstream media".{{cite web |date=November 25, 2019 |title=Indiana U says it can't fire prof who made 'racist, sexist and homophobic' remarks |url=https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-monday-edition-1.5372303/indiana-u-says-it-can-t-fire-prof-who-made-racist-sexist-and-homophobic-remarks-1.5372311 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211109233209/https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-monday-edition-1.5372303/indiana-u-says-it-can-t-fire-prof-who-made-racist-sexist-and-homophobic-remarks-1.5372311 |archive-date=November 9, 2021 |access-date=November 9, 2021 |publisher=CBC Radio}} It has been described as "alternative conservative",{{cite news |last=Tatum |first=Sophie |date=September 21, 2017 |title=Ex-CIA operative apologizes for tweet of anti-Semitic article |url=https://www.cnn.com/2017/09/21/politics/valerie-plame-wilson-tweet/index.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181130155129/https://www.cnn.com/2017/09/21/politics/valerie-plame-wilson-tweet/index.html |archive-date=November 30, 2018 |access-date=November 28, 2023 |publisher=CNN}} far-right,{{cite journal |last=Panofsky |first=Aaron |date=June 2021 |title=How White nationalists mobilize genetics: From genetic ancestry and human biodiversity to counterscience and metapolitics |journal=American Journal of Biological Anthropology |volume=175 |issue=2 |pages=387–398 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.24150 |pmc=9909835 |pmid=32986847}}{{cite news |last=Harmon |first=Amy |date=October 17, 2018 |title=Why White Supremacists Are Chugging Milk (and Why Geneticists Are Alarmed) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/17/us/white-supremacists-science-dna.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181017091349/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/17/us/white-supremacists-science-dna.html |archive-date=October 17, 2018 |access-date=November 10, 2021 |work=The New York Times}} white nationalist,{{cite journal |last=Jackson |first=John P. |year=2021 |title=The Mythical Taboo on Race and Intelligence |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1089268020953622?journalCode=rgpa#body-ref-bibr234-1089268020953622 |url-status=live |journal=Review of General Psychology |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=3–26 |doi=10.1177/1089268020953622 |s2cid=225143131 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231217201235/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1089268020953622?journalCode=rgpa#body-ref-bibr234-1089268020953622 |archive-date=December 17, 2023 |access-date=November 28, 2023}} and a publisher of antisemitism and Holocaust denial.{{cite magazine |last=Kuras |first=Peter |date= |year=2023 |title=The Strange Logic of Germany's Antisemitism Bureaucrats |url=https://jewishcurrents.org/the-strange-logic-of-germanys-antisemitism-bureaucrats |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231213071055/https://jewishcurrents.org/the-strange-logic-of-germanys-antisemitism-bureaucrats |archive-date=13 December 2023 |access-date=28 November 2023 |magazine=Jewish Currents |issue=Spring}} The Associated Press describes the outlet as "a hodgepodge of views from corners of both the left and right".{{cite news |last=Oxford |first=Andrew |title=Ex-CIA agent sparks Twitter controversy by sharing commentary on Jews |url=https://apnews.com/article/f1ddf8768407408eb40a77785d42e545 |agency=Associated Press |date=September 21, 2017 |access-date=November 11, 2021 |archive-date=March 14, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220314195504/https://apnews.com/article/f1ddf8768407408eb40a77785d42e545 |url-status=live }} According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the website is an "outlet for certain writers to attack Israel and Jews". Debunk.org has written that Unz articles promote a pro-Russian and anti-Ukraine narrative based on conspiracy theories about COVID-19.{{cite web|url=https://www.debunk.org/covid-19-sceptics-turn-to-pro-kremlin-propaganda-about-the-russia-ukraine-war|title=COVID-19 Sceptics Turn to Pro-Kremlin Propaganda About the Russia-Ukraine War|publisher=Debunk.org|date=July 1, 2022|accessdate=February 16, 2025}}
= Writers =
The Unz Review hosts blogs of far-right writers Steve Sailer and Anatoly Karlin. The Review of General Psychology describes Sailer as "a political writer who uses the language of IQ and genetics to further a White nationalist political agenda" and Karlin as a promoter of "antisemitic conspiracy theories and associates with alt-right political activist Richard Spencer". In October, 2021, Karlin posted on his personal blog that he would no longer be a regular contributor to The Unz Review, while noting his "respect and appreciation" for Ron Unz.{{cite web|first=Anatoly|last=Karlin|url=https://akarlin.com/last-reaction/|title=The Last Reaction|date=October 8, 2021|accessdate=February 9, 2025}} In 2023, he posted that he had come to disagree with some of the views expressed at Unz,{{cite web|first=Anatoly|last=Karlin|url=https://akarlin.com/jail-for-rightoids/|title=Why Jail is Programmed for All Rightoids|date=December 31, 2023|accessdate=February 10, 2025}} and in 2024, he endorsed Kamala Harris over Donald Trump.{{cite web|first=Anatoly|last=Karlin|url=https://substack.com/home/post/p-151085834|title=Trumpism: Can't Get Fooled Again|date=November 2, 2024|accessdate=February 10, 2025}}
In June 2023, an article in The Guardian observed that "[a]mong those whose writings Unz republishes are Andrew Anglin, founder of the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer website ... and Eric Striker (real name Joseph Jordan), a founder of the neo-Nazi National Justice Party".{{cite news|last= Pilkington|first=Ed|url=https://www.theguardian.com/law/2023/jun/06/harvard-affirmative-action-supreme-court-ron-unz|title= Harvard affirmative action challenge partly based on Holocaust denier's work|work=The Guardian|date= June 6, 2023|access-date=January 2, 2025}} Writer Stephen Sniegoski said in The Unz Review in June 2016 that the New Deal of United States president Franklin D. Roosevelt had a greater "connection to fascism than anything Donald Trump has said".{{cite journal |last=Rosenfeld |first=Gavriel |date=December 2019 |title=An American Führer? Nazi Analogies and the Struggle to Explain Donald Trump |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26870257 |url-status=live |journal=Central European History |volume=52 |issue=4 |page=570 |doi=10.1017/S0008938919000840 |jstor=26870257 |s2cid=212950934 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231112193719/https://www.jstor.org/stable/26870257 |archive-date=November 12, 2023 |access-date=November 28, 2023 |doi-access=free}}
Controversy
In September 2017, former CIA operative Valerie Plame apologized after receiving attention for sharing an antisemitic article by Philip Giraldi titled "America's Jews Are Driving America's Wars" on her Twitter account.{{cite magazine|last=Kirchick|first=James|url=https://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/245720/valerie-plames-real-blunder|title=Valerie Plame's Real Blunder|magazine=Tablet|date=September 25, 2017|access-date=May 20, 2019|archive-date=May 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190531131912/https://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/245720/valerie-plames-real-blunder|url-status=live}} The article's depictions of Jews controlling the media and politics echoed long-running tropes blaming them for a variety of social and economic ills. In May 2021, Luisa Neubauer accused Hans-Georg Maaßen, the former president of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Germany's intelligence agency), of antisemitism for sharing links to The Unz Review and using terms like "globalists" on his Twitter account.{{cite news |date=May 12, 2021 |title=Neubauer erneuert und konkretisiert Vorwürfe gegen Maaßen |url=https://www.zeit.de/news/2021-05/12/neubauer-erneuert-und-konkretisiert-vorwuerfe-gegen-maassen |access-date=November 28, 2023 |work=Die Zeit |language=de}}
References
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Category:American political blogs