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Mike Cernovich (born November 17, 1977) is an American alt-right social media personality, writer, and conspiracy theorist. He describes himself as "new right" and an "American nationalist." Cernovich's website "Danger & Play" started in 2012 and was originally known mainly for its content on men's empowerment. During the 2016 US presidential election campaign, it evolved into a largely pro-Donald Trump and anti-Hillary Clinton political blog.

Cernovich periodically promotes conspiracy theories, such as Hillary Clinton and other high-ranking Democratic Party officials being involved in a pedophile ring located in the basement of a Washington, DC pizzeria. Cernovich currently serves as a regular host of The Alex Jones Show on InfoWars, a radio show that often promotes right-wing conspiracy theories.

Education and personal life

Cernovich was born on November 17, 1977. He grew up in a devout Christian family in the farming town of Kewanee, Illinois. The family was poor, and his mother suffered from mental illness. He graduated from the University of Illinois and later attended the Pepperdine University School of Law.

Cernovich married his first wife as a law student in 2003. Cernovich has said the marriage was "ruined by feminist indoctrination." His wife became an attorney in Silicon Valley and earned millions of dollars from an initial public offering of stock. She filed for divorce in 2011, and Cernovich received what he has described as a "seven-figure sum" in the settlement. Cernovich met his second wife shortly thereafter. She comes from a Persian, secular Muslim background. Cernovich lives outside of Los Angeles, California.

Cernovich was charged with rape in 2003; he denied the allegations. The charge was reduced to misdemeanor battery, for which he performed community service.

Writing career

In 2012, he launched "Danger & Play," a blog focused on anti-feminism, men's empowerment, and how to meet women. The title came from a quote by Friedrich Nietzsche, "The true man wants two things: danger and play. For that reason he wants woman, as the most dangerous plaything." In 2014, Cernovich promoted Gamergate, the harassment campaign that targeted several women in the video game industry, goading opponents with tweets such as "Who cares about breast cancer and rape? Not me."

In 2015, Cernovich self-published the self-help book Gorilla Mindset: Timeless Strategies to Unleash the Animal Within You. He saw Donald Trump as a kindred spirit and began to engage in political commentary.

Media and views

Cernovich has become influential on social media and has helped to shape the far-right narrative. He falsely claimed during the 2016 United States presidential election that Hillary Clinton had a "seizure disorder" and Parkinson's disease. By September his #HillarysHealth hashtag had gotten 240,000 page views and had become a national trending topic on Twitter. During the month of September, Cernovich's tweets were seen more than 100 million times.

Cernovich frequently calls his adversaries as "cucks," which is alt-right slang for cuckolds. In reference to this he has written, "To beat a person, you lower his or her social status. Logic is pointless." Cernovich admits to sometimes using trolling tactics, which he says he uses to build his brand rather than for his own amusement.

Cernovich advocates IQ-testing for all immigrants and ending federal funding of universities.

Cernovich opposes the two-party system and his support for Trump is not based on public policy. "What are Trump's policies? I don't particularly care". In another post on his website he stated, "If Trump offends you, it's because you live in a cucked world where no one speaks their minds".

Cernovich helped popularize the debunked Pizzagate conspiracy theory through his blog posts and believes that child sex rings run rampant in Washington D.C. He has accused his opponents of being pedophiles on multiple occasions, and in a YouTube video maintained that most people employed by the news media and “every A-list actor” in Hollywood were also pedophiles.

In October 2016 Cernovich said:

"The left likes to talk about power structures, right? Well, the media still thinks of itself as speaking truth to power. What they don't realize is that someone like me is perceived as the new Fourth Estate. Maybe they should check their structural privilege." The "paternalistic" media, he said, was giving way to a more democratic one. "It makes journalists crazy, because they used to be in control. They can't control people anymore. Everyone has a voice now."

Following an August 2016 appearance on Fox News's Red Eye, the show's producers felt compelled afterwards to say that they had made a mistake in booking him when later learning of Cernovich's history of online disputes.

Cernovich has accused the Democratic Party of attempting to assassinate him. In 2016, Cernovich criticized Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for speaking at a gender-segregated mosque. In August 2012 Cernovich wrote that date rape "does not exist." In October 2016 he wrote, “Lying about being in love to sleep with someone isn’t rape. Getting played isn’t rape. Regret isn’t rape. Thinking, ‘I might have been date raped,’ means you weren’t raped.”

Although describing himself as on the political right, he supports single-payer healthcare and "some form of universal basic income."

In April 2017 Cernovich promoted the conspiracy theory that the Khan Shaykhun chemical attack in Syria was a hoax funded by an American financier.

Cernovich has said he believes in the white genocide conspiracy theory and that he joined the alt-right after realizing that "tolerance only went one way and diversity is code for white genocide."

References

1. Pfeiffer, Alex (April 3, 2017). "Trump Supporter Labeled 'Fake News' By '60 Minutes' Beats Everyone To Susan Rice Scoop". The Daily Caller. Retrieved April 8, 2017.
2. Cernovich, Mike. "Book Recommendations, Copywriting, and Nationalism".
3. Cernovich, Mike. Danger & Play: Essays on Masculinity.
4. Cernovich, Mike (2015). Gorilla Mindset: How to Control Your Thoughts and Emotions and Live Life on Your Terms.
5. Mike Cernovich on Twitter
6. Kaczynski, Andrew; McDermott, Nathan (November 18, 2016). "Michael Flynn's son and chief of staff pushed conspiracy theories, obscene memes online". CNN. Retrieved November 19, 2016.
   Park, Andrea (November 8, 2016). "Lady Gaga's jacket draws Nazi comparisons from alt-right". CBS News. Retrieved December 6, 2016.
   Allan, Smith (December 27, 2016). "Alt-right movement descends into civil war after leading figure is booted from Trump inauguration event". Business Insider. Retrieved December 28, 2016.
   "SPLC Analysis: Small Community of Extremists on Twitter Responsible for Majority of Message". Southern Poverty Law Center.
   Jensen, K. Thor. "Inside Donald Trump's Twitter-Bot Fan Club". New York. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
7. ^ Schreckinger, Ben (January/February 2017). The Alt-Right Comes to Washington. Politico Magazine. Retrieved: February 21, 2017.
8. ^ Stack, Liam (April 5, 2017). "Who Is Mike Cernovich? A Guide". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 5, 2017.
9. ^ Marantz, Andrew (October 31, 2016). "Trolls for Trump". The New Yorker. Retrieved November 4, 2016.
10. Neyfakh, Leon (March 15, 2016). "They Totally Knew: The People Who Foresaw the Rise of Donald Trump". Slate.
11. Seipel, Brooke (April 4, 2017). "Trump Jr. praises writer who pushed 'Pizzagate' conspiracy theory". TheHill. Archived from the original on April 5, 2017. Retrieved April 6, 2017. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
12. Ohlheiser, Abby; Ohlheiser, Abby (April 4, 2017). "It's Mike Cernovich's world, and you may not be living in it, but his followers sure are". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved April 6, 2017.
13. Darcy, Oliver (May 3, 2017). "Right-wing troll Mike Cernovich goes professional with new hosting gig at InfoWars". CNNMoney.
14. Cernovich, Mike. "Mike Cernovich on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
15. ^ Greenfield, Scott (February 24, 2016). "Cross: Mike Cernovich, The 800 lb. Gorilla Lawyer". Mimeis Law.
16. ^ Grove, Lloyd (August 9, 2016). "Why Did Fox News Welcome Date Rape Apologist Mike Cernovich?". The Daily Beast.
17. Huang, Gregor Aisch, Jon; Kang, Cecilia (December 10, 2016). "Dissecting the #PizzaGate Conspiracy Theories". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 6, 2017.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
18. Singal, Jesse. "How Mike Cernovich Is Pizzagating His Latest Victim".
19. Rutenberg, Jim (November 6, 2016). "Media's Next Challenge: Overcoming the Threat of Fake News". The New York Times.
20. Legum, Gary (August 10, 2016). "From fringe to mainstream: Conspiracies, baseless accusations and lunacy is the new normal for Republicans". Salon (website).
21. della Cava, Marco; Molina, Brett (September 27, 2016). "Facebook millionaire Luckey aligns himself with alt-right, but only if you squint". USA Today.
22. "Mike Cernovich". Twitter. September 13, 2016. Retrieved November 4, 2016.
23. Cernovich, Mike (April 1, 2017). "Here is the full 60 Minutes Interview Transcript with Mike Cernovich". Medium.com.
24. "How a pair of self-publicists wound up as apologists for Assad". The Economist. April 14, 2017. Retrieved April 14, 2017.
25. Haaretz (April 5, 2017). "Trump Jr. Wants 'Alt-right' Personality Mike Cernovich to Win Pulitzer". Haaretz. Retrieved May 15, 2017.

External links

• Official website

• 1977 births
• Living people
• American conspiracy theorists
• American lawyers
• American political writers
• American bloggers
• 21st-century American writers
• English-language writers
• American male writers
• American self-help writers
• Alt-right writers