Book Club In Review
In the fifth session on Christopher Mathias’ To Catch a Fascist, Nick Paro, Tara Devlin, and Kristofer Goldsmith open with a direct charge for the No Kings rally weekend: stop treating protest as the endpoint. Kristofer framed the Anti-Fascist Book Club as a “social lubricant that becomes social glue” — the goal isn’t just showing up, it’s using those spaces to connect with three people you don’t already know, make concrete plans to meet within a week, and hand them a printed copy of the Veterans Fighting Fascism AFBC leadership guide. The distinction matters: solidarity without community-building is just a feeling. Community-building at scale is democracy itself.
Nick anchored the book discussion in a passage from pages 116–117 on the alt-right’s deliberate targeting of neurodivergent and socially isolated young people. The book documents how the movement weaponized terms like “weaponized autism,” used Discord channels and gaming platforms to build pipelines, and deployed memes, cartoon characters, and pop culture parodies to recruit children in spaces that pro-democracy voices had largely abandoned. Kristofer added a specific mechanism: these communities use self-diagnosed neurodivergence as a rhetorical shield, framing racist behavior as a social processing disorder rather than a moral failure. Nick, speaking from his own experience with ADHD, pushed back directly — a diagnosis explains some things, but it doesn’t transfer your accountability to someone else. That distinction is one of the core tools parents, siblings, and trusted adults need to put in front of young men before the pipeline does.
The conversation moved through the mechanics of radicalization into the harder question Kris raised: what happens when the legal system fails to deliver consequences? He walked through the real cost of pursuing his own case against a neo-Nazi who hand-delivered a death threat to his mother’s home — 18 months, $40,000, and repeated continuances just to get one charge to stick. The process punished him as much as the perpetrator. He put it plainly: he had the man’s address within hours and could have handled it differently if he subscribed to militant antifascism. He’s not endorsing that path, but he’s asking the question honestly, especially as masked federal agents operate with documented impunity and the DOJ blocks FBI investigation into killings. Tara drew the parallel to Hans Litten, the German lawyer who took Nazi street violence to court in the early 1930s and ended up dying in a concentration camp after the regime took power. The lesson isn’t despair — it’s that legal accountability must be pursued aggressively and that the community around those efforts has to be larger than one person.
The episode closed on community as the structural counter to fascism. Tara cited research showing that strong, multiracial local networks are among the most effective documented defenses against authoritarian politics — connected people are harder to isolate and harder to scare. Nick extended that to the practical: take your MAGA-adjacent family members to a city they’ve never been to. Show them culture. Blow their minds in the best way. That work belongs to those of us with the social capital to do it safely — not to the trans people, LGBTQ+ community members, or marginalized groups who are already targeted. With the No Kings rallies the next day, the crew’s unified message was: go, but go with a plan, go to build something, and go to till the garden.
People, Orgs, and Terms Mentioned
People
Kristofer Goldsmith — veteran, founder of Veterans Fighting Fascism and Task Force Butler, host of On Offense (Valor Media Network); infiltrated Patriot Front
Christopher Mathias — author of To Catch a Fascist; HuffPost journalist; previously appeared on On Offense
Nick Fuentes — named as an example of the alt-right pipeline operating in the open
Hans Litten — German lawyer who cross-examined Hitler and prosecuted Nazi street violence in Weimar Germany; died in a concentration camp after the regime took power
Dylann Roof — white supremacist mass murderer; referenced in context of the “Last Rhodesian” dog whistle and its use in extremist online spaces
Paul Town — subject in the book; a case study in the targeted recruitment of neurodivergent people into white supremacist networks
Renee Nicole Good — the first named victim of masked ICE violence in Minneapolis, MN
Alex Pretti — the second named victim of masked ICE violence in Minneapolis, MN
Organizations / Programs
Veterans Fighting Fascism (VFF) — Kristofer Goldsmith’s non-profit organization; hosts the AFBC reading list and leadership guide at veteransfightingfascism.org
Task Force Butler — affiliated organization; resources and gear available at taskforcebutler.org
Patriot Front — neo-Nazi organization Kristofer infiltrated; discussed throughout
Anonymous Comrades Collective — anti-fascist research group cited in the book; documented the targeting of neurodivergent people
Anne Frank Army — Midwest anti-fascist group quoted in the book on the tension between prison abolition and accountability for fascist violence
No Kings Rally — nationwide protests scheduled for March 28, 2026; referenced throughout as the immediate action opportunity
On Offense / Valor Media Network — Kristofer’s podcast and network
Terms / Concepts
Militant antifascism — active, confrontational opposition to fascist organizing; Mathias subscribes to this in the book; the hosts engaged with it honestly without endorsing or dismissing it
Prison abolition — the position that prisons should be eliminated; creates tension for anti-fascists who also want accountability for fascist violence; the book quotes Anne Frank Army on this directly
Neurodivergence — umbrella term for cognitive differences including ADHD, autism spectrum, etc.; discussed in context of recruitment targeting and bad-faith weaponization by extremist communities
Edgelording — transgressive humor used as a gateway to radicalization; described as an appeal to young men’s desire for autonomy and rebellion
The Great Deplatforming — mass removal of alt-right figures from social platforms after January 6th; cited as a brief disruption largely reversed by Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter/X
“Last Rhodesian” — Dylann Roof’s online handle; a dog whistle referencing the white colonial government of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe); used to signal ideology in plain sight
Where to find resources
How to Access the material
We encourage you to read along with us, with get a copy of your own — we recommend these resources:
Go to your local library and checkout a copy, if available
Start & Support Your Own Book Club
Actions You Can Take
Sign the Petitions:
Call your public servants on important issues:
Join the efforts to unmask law enforcement and de-flock the States:
Service members can get un-biased information on legal vs illegal orders:
Reach out on Signal: @TheOrdersProject.76
Thank you Amy Gabrielle, Cris Northern, PamC, Beth the Baker, Ms.Yuse, and many others for tuning into my live video with Tara Devlin, Kristofer Goldsmith, and Nick Paro! Join me for my next live video in the app.
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