Talk:Tom Kawcyznski
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Sourcemining
[edit]1. https://www.thedailybeast.com/a-white-nationalist-has-rebranded-himself-as-coronavirus-expert-and-people-are-flocking-to-him
[edit]- K's podcast is called "Coronavirus Central" ✔
- the podcast peaked at the fifth spot of Apple's 'Health & Fitness' chart as of February 2020, and it has remained among the top 20 ✔
- K rebranded himself as a coronavirus expert✔ after a stint as a white nationalist
- K advocated a majority-white monarchy in New England
- K wanted himself to be king
- the Southern Poverty Law Center describes New Albion as a white nationalist hate group
- he self-published a book on Amazon for coronavirus prepping
- the book was initially published pseudonymously
- the book does not talk about K's white nationalist background
- K uses Mike Adams, an InfoWars-adjacent conspiracy theorist, as a reliable source regarding disease and world collapse
- K claims that his podcast gets around 20k listeners per episode✔
- the episodes range between an hour to two-and-a-half hours
- There is no way to verify this claim✔
Jlevi (talk) 22:44, 19 March 2020 (UTC)
2. https://bangordailynews.com/2018/01/23/news/state/jackman-town-manager-fired/
3(ish). https://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/tom-kawczynski/
- K was fired on January 23
- J wants to turn Maine, New Hampshire, and nearby areas into a white ethno-nation
- K intentionally uses mild language to normalize and obfuscate his worldview✔
- However, K often makes racist comments on less visible platforms such as Gab
- an example Gab post (of which there are quite a few): "I’m putting a happy face on #AltRight thinking that brings normies in."✔
- K's New Albion idea comes with promotional brochures, an official flag, and a compact agreement✔
- K has posted maps of the US splitting up states by race
Jlevi (talk) 22:33, 19 March 2020 (UTC)
-K has a highly-ranked Coronavirus-related podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify
- the podcast is described by Vulture as "long and poorly edited, packed with rambles and recitations of scientific papers of dubious fidelity." Vulture describes it as the epitome of crackpot attention-seeking, intended to take advantage of a time of high anxiety and uncertainty. ✔
Jlevi (talk) 22:27, 19 March 2020 (UTC)
- a short film exists describing New Albion
- it features Chris Cantwell and T.K.
- T.K. lives in Greeneville, Maine (?unclear)
- T.K. had a presidential campaign, but canceled it
- his ethno-state would ban abortion, gay marriage, speaking Spanish, and property taxes
- the video was filmed three days before Cantwell was arrested
- T.K. was criticized on Telegram other social media platforms for his friendship with Cantwell
- T.K. would not disavow Cantwell
- many suspect Cantwell of becoming an FBI informatant following his arrest at Unite the Right
Jlevi (talk) 23:13, 27 March 2020 (UTC)
7. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jackman-maine-white-separatist-town-manager-tom-kawczynski-expects-fired/
[edit]- K expressed white separatist views
- K bashed Islam and expressed a desire to protect white European heritage in northern New England
- Local officials intended to meet with K to discuss these matters in the week after media coverage
- K launched New Albion, a group for the promotion of "European heritage"
- K said he would not quit himself
- K's website has essays about his support for Donald Trump, racial segregation, and New Albion
- K say's he is not racists
- The Jackman-Moose River Chamber of Commerce, local businesses, and the ACLU of Maine cast down K's views
- Jackman has 850 people
- Jackman is near Saint-Théophile, Quebec, on the western Maine border
- Jackman is 170 miles north of Portland
Jlevi (talk) 22:23, 19 March 2020 (UTC) 8. https://bangordailynews.com/?s=Kawczynski#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=Kawczynski&gsc.page=1
9. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/tom-kawczynski-resignation-refusal-maine-town-manager-pro-white-racism-islamophobia-segregation-a8171556.html
[edit]- Jackman is a town in Maine ✔
- Jackman's population is less than 1000✔
- Jackman is near the US-Canada border✔
- Tom Kawczynski was the Jackman town manager as of 2018 (article publishing date)
- He was 37 (as of the January 2018 article publishing date)
- many media outlets published articles about him in January 2018
- Kawczynski said that told the local paper The Bangor Daily News that he believes that in the US different races should "voluntarily separate"
- he came from Arizona before arriving in Maine✔
- he moved to Maine in 2017✔
- He says that he is not racist
- He says that "pro-white" preference does not imply hatred towards other races
- His has a group called New Albion
- On the New Albion website, it says that the group promotes "traditional western values emphasising the positive aspects of our European heritage and uniquely American identity."
- He started the group after moving to Maine
- The Jackman-Moose River Region Chamber of Commerce disavowed K's views after the media coverage, describing them as "shocking and offensive"
- the Chamber noted that employees do not receive interview questions about religion, views on race, or views on politics
- K posts on his website and on the social media site Gab
- right-wing figures use Gab
- on the Gab platform after the media coverage, K accused the media of publishing misleading statements about K's views
- K posted on Gab that he expected to lose his job
- K put up a GoFundMe page
- K stated his intent to remain in his position as town manager to The Portland Press Herald
- K does not describe himself as either Republican or Democrat
- K voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 election
Jlevi (talk) 22:16, 19 March 2020 (UTC)
- T.K led a New Albion meeting in a Thai restaurant in Lewiston
- the meeting was 2.5 weeks following T.K.'s firing
- T.K.'s wife is Dana Steele
- Steele is (deemed by Barry as) more aggressive/blatant in her neo-Nazi views than T.K.
- Steele's nickname is 'Snow White'
- Steele uses Gab as well
- On Gab, T.K. said that his wife "is considerably more radical"
- following the media presence, T.K. deleted his facebook and made his Gab private (briefly)
- T.K. went on Cantwell's Radical Agenda shortly after his firing
- T.K. went on a variety of podcasts
- T.K. said that New Albion had 100 members
- GoFundMe shut down his page
- he started Hatereon, but the side folded because no payment processor would support it
- he made a Freestarter account, but the campaign was unsuccessful
- he was born in Arizona in 1980
- graduated Swathmore in 2003
- he ran for Congress as a Libertarian and for state Representative as a Republican
- he quit both races before Election Day
- he went to New Hampshire to join the Free State Project
- in NH, he volunteered as campaign organizer for Donald Trump
- he worked in procurement for a construction company for a while
- T.K. and Steele own six turtles
- five people showed up for the New Albion meeting
- T.K. has a podcast called Exit Strategy
- Barry says it's pretty low-quality (for what it's worth)
Jlevi (talk) 23:27, 27 March 2020 (UTC)
- Racists make life miserable for Maine bartender who exposed them as white supremacists (RawStory, Aug 2019)
- Extremists trying to take advantage of coronavirus crisis to recruit (Capital News Service, April 2020)
Sources with useful information that may not be reliable enough to use in a BLP
[edit]- Tom Kawczynski Kicked Out of Own Facebook Group (It's Going Down, short blurb)
- White Nationalist Tom Kawczynski Booted From Kickstarter (It's Going Down)
- White Nationalist Tom Kawczynski Booted from Podcast Service (It's Going Down)
Jlevi (talk) 15:25, 27 May 2020 (UTC)
fired/former town manager
[edit]in response to this edit
- For starters - at some point, we all are going to be former everything. It doesn't go in an infobox. Fired (which had been there earlier in the day) is absolutely inappropriate. It doesn't belong in the infobox. And the reason I changed town manager to politician is: Not only did he run for office, but politician would be the larger category of town manager. Unless he was the kind of town manager that can be hired and fired at will, like a dishwasher at a restaurant, in which case it can probably be deleted completely since it was "just a job" and lasted under a year.
- Basically, we are trying to keep the infobox clean. The text of the article can explain specifics. 2601:983:827F:6B20:A8D7:4F1E:9B2:9023 (talk) 23:47, 9 June 2020 (UTC)
- I have somewhat different feelings about this matter, but it seems like we might be able to settle on removal of the role from the infobox. I'd be fine with restricting it to current roles, and the position was fairly minor in terms of occupation (though major in terms of coverage). Jlevi (talk) 01:06, 10 June 2020 (UTC)
- Just for the benefit of future readers, I am pretty sure that the town manager position was an appointment, not an elected position (though I can't find a source that verifies this at the moment). To the IP commenter, please do provide a source that says otherwise if you've got one. That would be useful information. Jlevi (talk) 11:56, 10 June 2020 (UTC)
- I have somewhat different feelings about this matter, but it seems like we might be able to settle on removal of the role from the infobox. I'd be fine with restricting it to current roles, and the position was fairly minor in terms of occupation (though major in terms of coverage). Jlevi (talk) 01:06, 10 June 2020 (UTC)