Michael Enoch Isaac Peinovich (born 1977) more commonly known as Mike Enoch, is an American

neo-Nazi Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and racial supremacy (often white supremacy), attack ...

Holocaust denier Holocaust denial is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that falsely asserts that the Nazi genocide of Jews, known as the Holocaust, is a myth, fabrication, or exaggeration. Holocaust deniers make one or more of the following false statements: * ...

, blogger, and

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...

host. He founded the alt-right media network '' The Right Stuff'' and podcast ''The Daily Shoah''. Through his work, Enoch ridicules

African Americans African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, Jews, and other minorities, advocates racial discrimination, and promotes conspiracy theories such as

Holocaust denial Holocaust denial is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that falsely asserts that the Nazi genocide of Jews, known as the Holocaust, is a myth, fabrication, or exaggeration. Holocaust deniers make one or more of the following false statements: ...

and

white genocide The white genocide, white extinction, or white replacement conspiracy theory is a white supremacist conspiracy theory which states that there is a deliberate plot, often blamed on Jews, to promote miscegenation, interracial marriage, mass non- ...

. In early 2017, while operating his antisemitic media network under his pseudonym, Enoch was

doxxed Doxing or doxxing is the act of publicly providing personally identifiable information about an individual or organization, usually via the internet. Historically, the term has been used interchangeably to refer to both the aggregation of this in ...

by fellow neo-Nazis. Most notably, the dox revealed that the neo-Nazi Enoch was married to a Jewish woman, and that their wedding had featured traditional Jewish rites and chanting. Prior to the dox, Enoch’s wife had appeared as a guest on ''The Daily Shoah'', in which she had concealed her ethnicity while promoting antisemitic memes. In addition to his founding of a neo-Nazi media network, Enoch has drawn attention for his role in organizing

book burning Book burning is the deliberate destruction by fire of books or other written materials, usually carried out in a public context. The burning of books represents an element of censorship and usually proceeds from a cultural, religious, or politi ...

Early life

Enoch was born as Michael Enoch Isaac Peinovich of

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

and

Serbian Serbian may refer to: * someone or something related to Serbia, a country in Southeastern Europe * someone or something related to the Serbs, a South Slavic people * Serbian language * Serbian names See also * * * Old Serbian (disambiguation ...

descent. His parents divorced when their son was at a young age. Enoch attended

Columbia High School Columbia High School may refer to: *Columbia High School (Huntsville, Alabama) *Columbia High School (Georgia) *Columbia High School (Florida) *Columbia High School (Idaho) *Columbia High School (Illinois) *Columbia High School (Mississippi), a Mis ...

. While in high school, Enoch worked jobs delivering pizzas and chemically testing pools. After graduating high school, he attended and dropped out of several universities before becoming a

computer programmer A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software. A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...

who worked at an e-publishing company.

Early media coverage

Enoch first drew media attention for his use of the "

Sieg Heil The Nazi salute, also known as the Hitler salute (german: link=no, Hitlergruß, , Hitler greeting, ; also called by the Nazi Party , 'German greeting', ), or the ''Sieg Heil'' salute, is a gesture that was used as a greeting in Nazi Germany. Th ...

" salute at a conference organized by Richard B. Spencer to celebrate

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

's election as President. The salutes were performed in front of journalists, and footage of the speech and the Enoch-inspired salutes was circulated by the mainstream media. According to

Andrew Marantz Andrew Marantz (born September 26, 1984) is an American author and journalist who writes for ''The New Yorker''. Marantz was an undergraduate at Brown University from 2002 to 2006 with a bachelor's degree in religion and religious studies. He was ...

, the event marginalized the alt-right by defining it to the public as a neo-Nazi movement, and led to an exodus of Trump supporters.

''The Right Stuff''

''The Right Stuff'' is a white nationalist,

neo-fascist Neo-fascism is a post-World War II far-right ideology that includes significant elements of fascism. Neo-fascism usually includes ultranationalism, racial supremacy, populism, authoritarianism, nativism, xenophobia, and anti-immigration ...

blog founded by Enoch that hosts several podcasts, including ''The Daily Shoah'' and ''Fash the Nation''. The blog is best known for popularizing the use of

triple parentheses Triple parentheses or triple brackets, also known as an (((echo))), are an antisemitic symbol that has been used to highlight the names of individuals assumed to be of a Jewish background, or organizations thought to be owned by Jews. The pract ...

to identify

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

on social media. ''The Daily Shoah'' is a far-right podcast, hosted on ''TDS''. Its name uses the

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

word referring to

the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europ ...

. The podcast also uses the triple parentheses symbol.

Doxing incident

In January 2017, users of the

imageboard An imageboard is a type of Internet forum that focuses on the posting of images, often alongside text and discussion. The first imageboards were created in Japan as an extension of the textboard concept. These sites later inspired the creation of ...

website

8chan 8kun, previously called 8chan, Infinitechan or Infinitychan (stylized as ∞chan), is an imageboard website composed of user-created message boards. An owner moderates each board, with minimal interaction from site administration. The site h ...

leaked the identities of several of its key contributors, including Enoch, and revealed that his wife was Jewish and that their wedding had featured traditional Jewish rites and chanting. Prior to the dox, Enoch’s wife had appeared as a guest on ''The Daily Shoah'', in which she had concealed her ethnicity while promoting antisemitic memes. Through his work, Enoch ridicules

, Jews, and other minorities, advocates racial discrimination, and promotes conspiracy theories such as

and

. Other information released included the names of his family members, his job as a software developer, his home address on

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 96th Street to the north, the East River to the east, 59th Street to the south, and Central Park/Fifth Avenue to the we ...

neighborhood, and his hometown of

Maplewood, New Jersey Maplewood is a township in Essex County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The township is an inner-ring suburban bedroom community of New York City in the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's populat ...

. After initially attempting to deny the reports, Enoch later admitted that the allegations were true. Though Enoch initially planned to leave the network, he quickly changed his mind and vowed to continue his activities. However, the fact that the released biographical information about Enoch contradicted his professed ideology led many listeners of TDS questioned the authenticity of Enoch’s commitment to the views he espoused on the show. In an audio statement released on their podcast, ''Daily Shoah'' co-host Seventh Son announced that Enoch and his wife were separating. The revelation was met with mixed but mostly supportive reactions from individuals including

David Duke David Ernest Duke (born July 1, 1950) is an American white supremacist, antisemitic conspiracy theorist, far-right politician, convicted felon, and former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. From 1989 to 1992, he was a membe ...

, and Richard B. Spencer. Enoch’s father asked his son to change his surname because of his neo-Nazi political activities.

Political activities

After U.S. Congressman Steve King tweeted praise for Netherlands

political candidate A candidate, or nominee, is the prospective recipient of an award or honor, or a person seeking or being considered for some kind of position; for example: * to be elected to an office — in this case a candidate selection procedure occurs. * t ...

Geert Wilders Geert Wilders (; born 6 September 1963) is a Dutch politician who has led the Party for Freedom (''Partij voor de Vrijheid'' – PVV) since he founded it in 2006. He is also the party's leader in the House of Representatives (''Tweede Kamer'' ...

's stance against further immigration to Europe, Enoch joined other alt-right voices in approval of King's position, stating "King doubles down. Great job. Take note cucks, this is how you *actually* fight the left." On 18 April 2017, Enoch joined Richard B. Spencer in giving a talk at

Auburn University Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a public land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama. With more than 24,600 undergraduate students and a total enrollment of more than 30,000 with 1,330 faculty members, Auburn is the second largest ...

where he expressed that he and the movement were breaking away from the new direction that the

Trump administration Donald Trump's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 45th president of the United States began with Inauguration of Donald Trump, his inauguration on January 20, 2017, and ended on January 20, 2021. Trump, a Republican Party ...

was taking. While Auburn administration had initially cancelled the planned event, citing safety concerns, Enoch assisted Spencer in filing a lawsuit on

First Amendment First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...

grounds.

United States federal judge In the United States, federal judges are judges who serve on courts established under Article Three of the U.S. Constitution. They include the chief justice and the associate justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, the circuit judges of the U.S ...

William Keith Watkins issued a ruling requiring Auburn to allow Spencer and Enoch to speak. In April 2018, he was retweeted by

Ann Coulter Ann Hart Coulter (; born December 8, 1961) is an American conservative media pundit, author, syndicated columnist, and lawyer. She became known as a media pundit in the late 1990s, appearing in print and on cable news as an outspoken critic of ...

following his dissemination of conspiracy theories relating to the Douma chemical attack in Syria claiming it was faked. After ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...

'' asked

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

for a comment, his account was suspended. In addition to his founding of a neo-Nazi media network, Enoch has drawn attention for his role in organizing

Legal issues

In October 2017, Enoch was listed as a defendant in '' Sines v. Kessler'', the federal civil lawsuit against various organizers, promoters, and participants of the 2017

Unite the Right rally The Unite the Right rally was a white supremacist rally that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia, from August 11 to 12, 2017. Marchers included members of the alt-right, neo-Confederates, neo-fascists, white nationalists, neo-Nazis, Kl ...

. The trial began on October 25, 2021, and the jury reached a verdict on November 23. All defendants other than Enoch, who had previously been dismissed from the case, were found liable for

civil conspiracy A civil conspiracy is a form of conspiracy involving an agreement between two or more parties to deprive a third party of legal rights or deceive a third party to obtain an illegal objective.

under Virginia state law, and ordered to pay $500,000 in punitive damages. The jury were deadlocked on the two other claims pertaining to Enoch, which argued he and other defendants had engaged in a federal conspiracy to commit racially-motivated violence.

Footnotes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Enoch, Mike 1977 births Living people Alt-right writers American conspiracy theorists American people of Norwegian descent American people of Serbian descent American neo-Nazis Columbia High School (New Jersey) alumni People from Maplewood, New Jersey People from Pennsylvania People from New York (state) Date of birth missing (living people) American podcasters American bloggers American male bloggers American political activists