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.[1]
Ron Unz, far-right activist and conspiracy theorist and Holocaust denier,[2][3] launched The Unz Review in November 2013. Unz is editor-in-chief and publisher.[4][5] In May 2020, Facebook removed fake accounts tied to The Unz Review.[6]
The Unz Review describes itself as a publication presenting an "alternative media selection",[2] and "controversial perspectives largely excluded from the American mainstream media".[7] It has been described as "alternative conservative",[8] far-right,[9][10] white nationalist,[6][9][11] and a publisher of antisemitism and Holocaust denial.[8][12] The Associated Press describes the outlet as "a hodgepodge of views from corners of both the left and right".[13] According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the website is an "outlet for certain writers to attack Israel and Jews".[4] Debunk.org has written that Unz articles promote a pro-Russian and anti-Ukraine narrative based on conspiracy theories about COVID-19.[14]
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".[11] 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.[15] In 2023, he posted that he had come to disagree with some of the views expressed at Unz,[16] and in 2024, he endorsed Kamala Harris over Donald Trump.[17]
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".[18] 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".[19]
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.[8][20] 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.[13] 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.[21]
[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.
