Mike Cernovich (born November 17, 1977) is an American alt-right social media personality, writer, and conspiracy theorist. His 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 has denied being part of the alt-right movement and has described himself instead as "new right" and an "American nationalist". He periodically promotes conspiracy theories, such as Pizzagate, the debunked theory that high-ranking Democratic Party officials were involved in an alleged child-sex ring. Cernovich currently serves as a regular host of The Alex Jones Show on InfoWars, a right-wing radio show that often promotes conspiracy theories.
Video Mike Cernovich
Early life and career
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.
In 2004, Cernovich started a legal weblog entitled Crime & Federalism, and his blog was selected for syndication by American Lawyer Media.
In his early writings Cernovich focused on anti-feminism, men's empowerment, and how to meet women. The title of Danger and Play 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 wrote a self-published self-help book, Gorilla Mindset, in which he talked about how women should submit to "dominant alpha males". He believes that "date rape is a liberal fiction". He saw Donald Trump as a kindred spirit and began to engage in political commentary.
Maps Mike Cernovich
Media and views
Cernovich became influential on social media, initially as part of the manosphere movement, and more recently has helped to shape far-right narratives in the United States. 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", a variant of the alt-right slang word cuckservative, a pejorative term for conservatives who supposedly betray conservative social values. 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 joined the alt-right after realizing that "tolerance only went one way and diversity is code for white genocide" (see white genocide conspiracy theory).
In November 2017, Cernovich spread a false rumor during the Sutherland Springs church shooting that the shooter was linked to Antifa. In mid-November 2017, Cernovich offered $10,000 for information about congressional sexual harassment settlements. The next week, he sent documents concerning a case settled by John Conyers to BuzzFeed, which vetted them and reported on them. Cernovich encouraged all victims of sexual assault by congressmen to speak up and offered to cover their legal expenses.
Legal issues
Cernovich was charged with rape in 2003; he denied the allegations. The charge was reduced to misdemeanor battery, for which he performed community service. Cernovich has said that the police lie about confessions in order to achieve rape convictions: "If the police call, don't answer. Did you know that the police can lie to you? Did you know that the police will lie about what you tell them? Police will claim that you confessed to rape, even when you denied it to them. NEVER TALK TO THE POLICE."
Personal life
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.
References
External links
- Official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia