Mother Jones March/April 2023

On the Cover For Ali Breland’s two investigations into corners of far-right culture, Mike McQuade's illustration of Pepe tearing through the face of a young white man is the perfect visual metaphor. Contributors What is something surprising you learned working on this story? My reporting reaffirmed that Gen Z and young millennials will not inevitably produce a better world. —Ali Breland, author, “Stream of Noxiousness” Daily Wire’s Jeremy Boreing ran a “safe space” club for Hollywood Republicans, whose membership included Clint Eastwood, Jon Voight, and Kelsey Grammer. —Eamon Whalen, author, “Lights, Camera, Propaganda” I was surprised how easily prejudice can lead to a child being separated from loving family and community. —Natasha Donovan, illustrator, “Forever Home” By the Numbers To see our masthead, visit motherjones.com/about. For questions about your subscription or to make a tax-deductible donation to support…

ADVERTISING USED TO BE what paid for journalism in America. Car dealerships and movie theaters brought us local newspapers and TVs; clubs and restaurants underwrote the alternative weeklies where I got my start; classified ads paid to send a reporter to your local city council meeting or state Capitol. Liquor and fashion brands brought us fat magazines with deeply reported stories wedged in among the lipstick ads. But, as anyone who’s picked up their skinny hometown newspaper lately can tell, that’s over. The vast majority of advertising has moved to tech platforms; what little remains for publishers is getting cheaper and uglier by the day. Sure, mattresses and wool sneakers are still keeping podcasts afloat, and sponsored viral content has been good for digital-native publishers like BuzzFeed and Vice. But everyone…

Tim Murphy IN THE SUMMER of 2011, as Washington deadlocked over the once-routine task of raising the nation’s debt ceiling, Kevin McCarthy, then the House GOP whip, decided to mix things up. At a caucus meeting, the California Republican screened a clip from the heist movie The Town, where Ben Affleck and Jeremy Renner plot a violent act of revenge. “I need your help,” Affleck’s character says. “I can’t tell you what it is. You can never ask me about it later. And we’re gonna hurt some people.” When the lights flicked on, Allen West, a first-term Florida congressman and Iraq veteran who had become a conservative hero for firing a gun while interrogating a detainee, rose to offer a version of Renner’s response. “I’m ready to drive the car,” West said. For McCarthy, his…

IN HIS 6.5-BY-14-FOOT CELL, Leo Hylton keeps an unopened cherry-flavored Hint seltzer. Since March 2022, he’s held on to the bottle as a prized possession, a “touchstone” that he says helps remind him of “the visceral feel” of the first day he spent outside the Maine State Prison in 12 years. Hylton left for work. He’s a co-instructor with Colby College’s anthropology department. Alongside tenured professor Catherine Besteman, this spring for the second year running, he’ll teach via Zoom from inside the walls about abolition—the movement to end incarceration. According to a number of experts in prison education, Hylton is the first professor of his kind in the United States. Last March, the prison approved an unprecedented chance for Hylton to meet his students in person on their campus. He left under…

RACHEL SWEET CAN’T PINPOINT a specific moment or life experience that inspired her to pursue a career fighting for reproductive rights. As a 31-year-old woman, she had always had the right to choose. She grew up in a Kansas City, Missouri, suburb, as part of a politically engaged family that often talked about liberal values. In college, she interned at Planned Parenthood. After graduating, she joined the policy team for Kansas City’s mayor, and part of her work focused on public health issues. “I don’t have a good story,” Sweet says. “I have never been pregnant. I’ve never had an abortion. I just know lots of people who have had abortions, and I love and care about them.” She also knows how to win. In 2022, she defeated two anti-abortion ballot measures…

EIGHT MONTHS BEFORE the white nationalist figure Nicholas J. Fuentes ignited a political firestorm by dining with Kanye West and Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, he strode out onstage to a crowd of what he claimed were 1,000 followers, chanting “America First.” Behind a podium, flanked by two American flags and one with that slogan, he hit his standard beats (the nation is in decline, Christ is king) while sprinkling in some extremely troubling riffs, like comparing Vladimir Putin to Hitler—and suggesting the similarity was a “good thing.” This Marriott conference center worth of Groypers—which Fuentes’ fans call themselves in homage to a right-wing internet frog meme—had gathered in Orlando for the third annual America First Political Action Conference. He was serving as the warmup act for a secret guest of honor:…