A group of Midwest anti-fascist teens went undercover to expose the extent of white supremacist activity engaged in by a Kansas school board candidate, finding that he was not only a leader of the violent far-right group the Proud Boys but an avid posted of explicitly white nationalist content. The Midwest Youth Liberation Front, which describes itself as an “Anti-Fascist & direct-action collective,” discovered that Josh Wells of Haven, Kansas was posting on a “White Lives Matter” message board and when they contacted him, he openly admitted to everything else.
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As is routine for anti-fascist groups, including various Youth Liberation Front chapters across the U.S. and beyond, they painstakingly documented what they found in a long Twitter thread, including disturbing examples of what Wells and his online associates posted.
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And yes, that is a mug shot.
In addition to the Proud Boys, the Midwest YLF reports that Wells was also involved with the Three Percenters, another violent and very pro-Trump militia group that was responsible for some of the most alarming images to come out of the January 6 assault on the Capitol. His future plans, in addition to getting on the local school board, include creating a “Midwest Nationalist Party.”
Highlights from the Twitter thread include Telegram messages with Wells using homophobic and transphobic slurs to attack anyone who disagrees with him as well as declaring that “I don’t ALLOW blacks into my chapter” of the Proud Boys, which has in the past denied allegations of white supremacy.
Wells’ “Midwest Nationalist Party,” which he is currently working to get recognized as an official political party in the U.S., is even more disturbing and explicitly white nationalist. The YLF was able to obtain a copy of a rough draft of a statement Wells allegedly planned to publish on these efforts, which states as fact that “America was founded by white nationalists exclusively for the benefit of white folk.”
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While he may be right about that, Wells frames this as a good thing that should be brought back as an official national policy via a literal race war.
“We are advocates of white nationalism and or [sic] a pro-Western Christian theocracy with a projected white majority status,” the statement reads, and that’s just the opening line.
Wells also posted an image of a hand giving the Nazi salute over a Black Lives Matter style raised fist with the caption “paper beats rocks,” as well as multiple memes mocking murder victim George Floyd.
When local media got ahold of this shocking amount of evidence that Wells is deeply and viciously white supremacist, they contacted him to ask if he would drop out of the school board race. The answer was “no” along with a claim that he is not a white supremacist and it’s the people who stand against him who are the real racists.
“No one wants to be accountable for their own actions anymore but by God, if a white Christian man decides to stand up for what’s right, well, then you portray him to be a white supremacist,” Wells ranted to The Wichita Eagle in text messages.
Later, in a nine-minute call with an Eagle reporter, he seemed more desperate to cover his own butt.
“I’m not a racist,” said the guy who announced that he didn’t let Black people into his chapter of the Proud Boys. “I’m not a white supremacist.”
“I don’t get into activism or protests,” said the guy trying to launch a white nationalist political party. “I think it’s silly.”
*First Published: July 23, 2021, 11:24 am
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