We here at Radix are happy to present an interview with notorious alt-right Twitter personality Ricky Vaughn. His exploits with the medium have been featured everywhere from the New York Times to the Daily Beast and even the print cover of the Scottish Sun. Here, the man behind the handle speaks with Radix’s Hannibal Bateman about how he got into the alt-right, Donald Trump, that Rick Wilson interview, the nature of Twitter and more.
Hannibal Bateman: How did you come to what has come to be known as the “alt-right” intellectually?
Ricky Vaughn: Great question. First of all, thanks for having me. I’ve enjoyed reading what Radix has to offer over the last year or so.
HB: Thanks. We’re glad you’ve enjoyed it.
RV: I began as sort of a deracinated libertarian before the start of the first Ron Paul for president campaign. From there, I started consuming the anti-feminist blogs of the manosphere. I never really bought into feminism. From there, around the time of the Trayvon incident, I was linked to My Posting Career from Chateau Heartiste. At that time I realized what a con job the media was playing on all of us, and how the mainstream race propaganda was all bullshit. So from there I began to explore the different facets of cultural Marxism. The Jewish role in subversion, homosexuality, et cetera.
HB: Were you engaging on these forums and comment sections then? And was the use of Twitter a sort of natural outgrowth of that?
RV: In the beginning I was engaging in Disqus comment sections, and then I joined Twitter to follow some of the interesting people on it. I didn’t post much. I also lurked My Posting Career for a long time and didn’t post. But I was also consuming a lot of blogs. Steve Sailer’s blog, for one, was very influential.
HB: Do you find the anonymity it offers freeing for discussions it wouldn’t be possible to have otherwise?
RV: Oh, absolutely. The anonymity is very freeing because now everyone wants to get everyone else fired for espousing their views. But I feel that Donald Trump has sort of broken a spell, the spell of political correctness that was hanging over everyone’s heads, and I’ve been much more frank with my views in meatspace in the last three months, and it’s very liberating. And people agree more often than not, except for the extremely cucked liberals who are really operating with their amygdala on a hair trigger.
HB: Oh yes. How would you say alt-right Twitter, in particular, has helped bring attention to news that the more “mainstream” outlets have not covered, or have taken a certain spin on? (I’m thinking of the rape of Cologne in particular.)
RV: Well, first of all, we are setting the tone ideologically and forcing mainstream conservatism to respond. So many in mainstream conservatism see the alt-right as a serious force and they are consuming the material and it is affecting their coverage. Now, of course, there is also the “neocohenservative” faction who are having a bit of a meltdown.
They are the ones screaming about Nazis, about mapping the topology of the alt-right, about how horrible this nativism is, and how they are going to take their ball and go home. But there are stirrings in conservatism, where they are waking up to the fact that they are going to have to fight political correctness or be left behind ideologically. And still others are seeing this growing divide between globalism and nationalism, and the good people are siding with nationalism and the Shabbos goyim shills and the neocohens are siding with the globalists.
HB: What do you think of the sort of GOP party apparatchiks and consultant class that have recently gotten in an uproar over twitter “trolls” and the alt-right? (I’m thinking of people like Rick Wilson.)
RV: One of the problems of mainline conservatism is undoubtedly their consultants. These include mostly lesbians or closeted homosexuals who signed up for Vine and thus are able to fool aging hedge fund billionaires into thinking they are social media magicians. For example, Liz Mair and Rick Wilson, who are working with the Rubio campaign, have never helped a candidate win an election in their respective political lives if I’m not mistaken. Imagine a fat, low testosterone boomer grinning and rubbing his hands together at the thought of making a video “do the viral.” These idiots are the sea lampreys of the political biosphere, attaching themselves parasitically to large SuperPACs. Even if their candidate fails, they will likely escape blame and live another day to leech off the next candidate’s SuperPAC.
HB: I’m sure that the alt-right functions as a sort of intellectual pornography for some of the Beltway right as well. But it seems some just can’t get over the idea of “Democrats being the real racists” or the alt-right being Democrat plants. Do you think this type of conservatism will have to be overstepped completely?
RV: Yes, I think it will have to be. At first, we will just see the politicians and pundits drop the “demonrats are the real racists!” rhetoric completely, and they aren’t going to be totally explicit about race, they’re going to treat it like Donald Trump has. As for electoral politics, the alt-right is going to have an influence starting at the local levels, they’re going to run for office and win, sort of like we saw the Tea Party do post-2008, where they had some success in electoral politics.
So there is going to be this groundswell, and White people and White politicians are going to be more assertive and refuse to bow down to the other racial lobbies, and we are going to see White people act more coherently politically. Now, the question is, how is the establishment, which is committed to an anti-White ideology, going to handle this? They will likely continue trying to split Whites into two factions by portraying the White working classes and its intellectual allies as terrible, gun-loving Nazi KKK members.
HB: So do you see Donald Trump as a beginning of a White identity politics rather than the end of the sort of patriotic American conservatism of the past?
RV: Sure, so what I think is going to happen is a weird merger of White identity politics and patriotic American conservatism. So it is going to be a White-dominated coalition but there are going to be blue-collar minorities, and other minorities who identify with historic America and its ideals and its symbols who want in on that coalition, and we’ll see how that plays out.
I would like to introduce ideas of racial consciousness into the mix so that patriotic American conservatives don’t feel bad about creating all-White communities and shunning mixed-marriages and that sort of thing, because we need racial separatism in order to maintain our unique culture and racial heritage, which I believe contains within it the light of civilization, art, beauty, truth, justice, et cetera.
HB: To move back to electoral politics, do you favor anyone as Trump’s vice presidential pick?
RV: Truthfully, I have no idea, because I haven’t looked into it at all. I don’t know who would help him the most politically. Some people are excited about General Mattis but I don’t know anything about General Mattis. I would completely rule out Ted Cruz, because a vice president has to be likable, and nobody likes Ted Cruz.
HB: Switching gears, you’ve been quoted in both the New York Times and the Daily Beast. How do you treat the monolithic media mavens of our time?
RV: Well, good question. I like to tease them. I like to call them out when they are dishonest like Donald Trump does. I like to screenshot their particularly bad writing or asinine “hot takes” and mock them with it on Twitter. But to be honest, these people are mostly just scum who are willing to prostitute themselves for one agenda or another. But the journalists or reporters who I think have integrity, I treat with the utmost respect. There are a few who are very good, so you have to give credit where it is due.
HB: Speaking of Twitter again, do you have a particular tweeting schedule you stick to? Knowing we have a lot of aspiring Twitter shitlords out there.
RV: No, not particularly, but I think I can sometimes get trapped within Twitter when at times the most effective thing to do is to go outside of Twitter and bring content to your followers, whether it is articles, memes, or whatever. So I’m always reading blogs and books in order to gain perspective and that is really crucial. Don’t just get sucked into constant shitposting.
HB: In that respect, what are some of the downsides you see in anonymity through our usual mediums?
RV: The downsides of anonymity were discussed in length by Michael Anissimov, and I thought his critique was very interesting. One downside is that staying anonymous means that we are more likely to not take risks in real life, we are likely to remain atomized, we are likely to not take action in the real world. I think that these problems will correct themselves as time goes on.
HB: So outside of Radix, what are some of your other favorite alt-right sites?
RV: I enjoy The Right Stuff, Anonymous Conservative’s blog, the Occidental Observer, Steve Sailer’s blog, Dusk in Autumn, the Anti-Gnostic blog, Kakistocracy, 28 Sherman, and Vdare, among others.
HB: I suppose finally. Why Major League?
RV: Well, when I joined up on Twitter, I needed a brand or a persona. I thought that this avatar and this persona was fun. I didn’t put a lot of thought into it. However, I never planned on tweeting a lot or having a following, but it worked out pretty well.
HB: Thanks. It’s been really enjoyable. I really appreciate your time.