Hate spawn
Parents can’t explain bigot-king son
HE COULD BE one of the biggest bigots in the Big Apple.
His white nationalist podcast attracts 100,000 regular listeners who tune in to his anti-Semitic and racist rants.
And he was a headliner at the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., last month, standing side-by-side with former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.
Yet Michael Enoch Peinovich’s liberal family can’t figure out how he transformed into a hatemonger and rising star of the alt-right.
“He has outright turned his back on and rejected the values of our family and his wife’s family,” his mother, Billie Gleissner, told the Daily News.
“We are all ill at the thought of what Mike has been doing and our hearts are broken.”
Peinovich, a 40-year-old software engineer who lives on the Upper East Side, started gaining far right fans about three years ago when he launched his blog the Right Stuff and The Daily Shoah, a podcast he co-hosts.
He now speaks publicly at alt-right rallies around the United States, where he warns about the threats to whites in America. He also spouts conspiracies that Jews control the Federal Reserve, the media and U.S. foreign policy.
Peinovich’s family has no clue where he developed his ideology, considering he grew up in a multiracial, progressive family.
“If we could tell you, we would tell you,” Gleissner said during a brief phone conversation.
She later emailed a lengthy statement to The News about Peinovich’s upbringing and how it’s the exact opposite of who he has become.
Peinovich was raised in the left-leaning suburb of Maplewood, N.J., listening to Phish and rap music.
His wife is Jewish. His adopted brother is black — and was the best man at his wedding.
Meanwhile, Peinovich’s ancestors fought against the Nazis and racism. His namesake grandfather served as a U.S. Army pilot in World War II, according to Gleissner.
His great-grandfather, Peter Garberg, was a state’s attorney in North Dakota and was active in driving the KKK out of the state in the 1930s, Gleissner added.
But his family background didn’t stop Peinovich from pushing hate at public events this past year.
“Let’s be honest, what’s really facing our country today is systematic elimination of white people. It’s displacement and genocide of the white race,” he said at a rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., telling the woman, suggesting in June. that Muslim men are sexual predators. He gets even darker online. His blog, the Right Stuff, popularized The Charlottesville rally ended an anti-Semitic meme in bloody clashes between known as “echoes,” in which white nationalists and counterprotesters. written Jewish names are enclosed Heather Heyer, 32, in three closed parentheses. was killed and dozens were injured White supremacists in the when James Fields last two years have used the parentheses slammed his car into a group of to identify Jewish Twitter peaceful protesters crossing a users so the crazies know street. whom to attack on social media. Fields, 20, who had been photographed
And in a Daily Shoah podcast marching with a neoNazi after the Aug. 12 Charlottesville group earlier that day, is rally, Peinovich bragged about charged with second-degree trolling a female counterprotester murder. who held a picture of a Muslim Peinovich agreed to provide woman with an American flag hijab The News a statement when as she walked in front of asked about his upbringing. He Unite the Right marchers. defended his beliefs about white
“If we were all Muslims, do nationalism and Jews. you think that you would be not “I would say that these are raped at this point,” he recalled simply facts, and anyone from any background can grasp them as long as they are open to actually examining the truth,” he said. “The truth is the truth no matter how I was raised.”
He said that white populations in the United States and Europe are in decline — and the media promotes this as a good trend.
Heidi Beirich, the director of the intelligence project at Southern Poverty Law Center, said Peinovich is a relative newcomer to the hate scene but he has quickly attracted a following.
“He came out of nowhere 18 months ago,” Beirich said.
She attributed his fast rise to his computer know-how — and people searching online to find information to further their beliefs.
“With web technology, when you have that savvy skill set, you can build an audience very quickly,” Beirich said.
New York is home to 47 active hate groups, including the Right Stuff, according to the law center. The groups range from black separatists to the Ku Klux Klan to an outpost of Greece’s far-right political party, Golden Dawn.
Beirich said that the high number of groups is due to New York’s large population. She also said that New York City’s diversity can trigger a backlash.
“Sometimes because you have incredibly diverse populations, that can drive people to join hate groups,” she said.
Peinovich gained notoriety in January, when anti-fascist activists “doxed” — or outed — him online.
Until then, Peinovich had kept his true identity a secret, only going by the pseudonym Mike Enoch in his blog posts and podcasts.
Peinovich’s dad and mom only learned of his evil ideology when his and his wife’s names and personal information were posted online.
“We were blindsided when he was doxed,” Gleissner said.
Pienovich’s wife, who is now separated from him, could not be reached for comment.
Gleissner said that while Peinovich has turned his back on his family’s beliefs, they still hope that he might find his way back to them some day.
“We love Mike and we want him to come home to us and home to the values of our family, our religion and our country,” she said.