feature image via Tila Tequila’s official Facebook page
If you’ve been paying attention to Tila Tequila lately, and most of us haven’t, you won’t be surprised to learn that she recently attended the National Policy Institute’s conference in Washington DC, home of white nationalism’s most nefarious Hitler youth douchebags. Tequila (née Tila Nguyen, a Singapore-born child of Vietnamese immigrants) has recently become quite active in white nationalist circles, proclaiming herself “Hitila” and offering via Twitter to create “the whitest babies” for self-described “alpha males.” She caused quite a stir this past Saturday when she posted an image of herself with fellow white nationalist activists, throwing an unrepentant Nazi salute at the camera. The photo was captioned, “Seig [sic] heil!”
Tila Tequila holds a specific infamy in the hearts of the queer community — when her dating show, A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila, premiered on MTV, many of us couldn’t look away, despite its active promotion of bisexual stereotypes and overall grossness. The world was surprised when Dani Campbell, who Tila had initially written off as “too masculine” for her, made it to the final round (but lost to the male suitor). Dani was one of the few butch lesbians to ever appear on television at that point, and became a celesbian heart-throb for many ensuing years.
If one were some kind of masochist trying to make sense of this flaming nightmare we’re currently calling reality, one might wonder what exactly draws a self-identified bisexual Asian American immigrant woman to a movement of white supremacists? She told the Daily Beast that Pepe the Frog memes were a pretty major draw.
“Honestly, I think that the meme-warring, I think it’s very refreshing.. I’ve never seen anything like that in any [other] group. They are very creative, that is very important to have for the children. Creativity, and art, and magic… and humor! They add a little humor to it, which is good… And I think that’s why I’m also invited here because I bring a little bit more diversity to the movement.”
As a mother, she explains (yes, Tila Tequila is currently raising a human person), her values have evolved to reflect the world she’d like her daughter to grow up in.
“I’m becoming more conservative ever since I became a mother,” she continued. “I wouldn’t want porn all over the internet [for instance]…Law and order, I think that’s very important to have. Most people are so used to being all about their ‘freedom,’ so they becomes these little crybabies. They can’t live by laws and rules. Civilization needs to be civilized.”
Tila has certainly been on a journey with regards to her political leanings; when we spoke to her in 2010 she explained how coming out as a lesbian (as opposed to bisexual) had affected her life. Very shortly thereafter, her fiance Casey Johnson died very suddenly after neglecting to take her insulin, and Tequila vowed to fight for custody of Johnson’s daughter Ava-Monroe (Johnson’s mother retained custody). It was during this period of time that Tequila’s erratic behavior and struggles with her mental and physical health became overwhelmingly apparent to the public. Tequila claimed to have Disassociative Identity Disorder and announced that one of her personalities had taken over her Twitter account. In 2012, she had a brain aneurysm and also overdosed on prescription pills; her roommate told police she’d been “trying to kill herself all week.” Later, she seemed to develop extreme feelings about Judaism; she told TMZ that she was “fascinated with Kabbalah, the culture, and the way of life of the reform Judaism religion.” She even mentioned taking classes at a local synagogue in order to convert.
In 2013, these feelings seemed to have dissipated as she posted a tirade on her website entitled, “Why I Sympathize with Hitler: Part I,” which read in part:
For those of you who focus on the victims of war well that is just part of war. What do you think war is about? People DIE in wars that is why I am against wars. It brought me to tears because I used to think all of those horrible things about him [Hitler] until I learned the truth about the war and what Hitler truly did and he was not a bad person as they have painted him out to be. Here is a man who was not a coward, stood up for his country in a DESPERATE TIME OF NEED (unlike all of our cowardly leaders), and yet not only did he try his best to help his country and people get out of what was a time of depression, economic collapse, high unemployment, amongst many other things.
It was around this time that Tequila began posting pictures of herself in Nazi regalia, photoshopping herself in front of concentration camps, dubbed herself “Hitila” and began making extremely anti-Semitic remarks. In 2014, she gave birth to a daughter, Isabella, who she later dressed up in a Hitler mustache for Instagram.
As for the NPI conference this past weekend, these creative chuckleheads led the crowd in “Heil Trump!” salutes, and swarm-of-bees-dressed-in-a-human-suit Richard Spencer actually wondered out loud in a speech whether or not Jews were “people at all, or instead soulless golem.” For what it’s worth, Tequila spent a fair amount of the weekend bragging to her Twitter followers about having super powers, slowing down time, causing the Trump presidency with her mind and wondering why the Nazis only killed 6 million Jews instead of 25 million, until Twitter finally shut down her account for violating their new hate speech guidelines. Previously her twitter bio read “Alt-reich queen! Literally Hitler!”
Sorry, I didn’t screen grab the ones about how she wished the Nazis had killed more Jews because I was too busy wanting to vomit and now her account is gone so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
While it does seem obvious that Tila Tequila is struggling with some very real mental health issues and that her cultural relevance has certainly decayed some, she is also working overtime to lend publicity to a horrific movement. As a queer Jewish American, it’s been a frankly terrifying week in the news, made only slightly more disturbing by Tequila’s bizarre antics and blatant hate speech. We have enough to deal with right now without.. whatever this is.
At this point, anything is possible
I don’t know who this person is.. but her loved ones/family should obviously be getting her help.
Well this is terrifying. I watched A Shot At Love regularly when it was on MTV. Oof.
What. The. Fuck. Even.
My eyebrows kept crawling higher and higher up my forehead as I read this. What the ACTUAL FUCK?!
?!?!!???!?
We have officially been tossed into the most terrifying episode of the Twilight Zone ever made.
It is absolutely surreal. Speaking of which, this whole nauseating episode remind’s me of the Twilight Zone episode ‘He’s Alive’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgEEKSTtUq8
I need to understand why it is ‘clear’ that she has mental issues. I mean, she could just be a nazi you know. I flinch everytime mental illness is used as some reasoning why someone is racist, sexist, queer antagonistic etc. She could also be a horrible person, the end?
the constant bragging about super powers acted as a solid hint tbh (among the deleted tweets, she claimed to have caused the trump presidency with her mind, controlled people with “energy balls” and altered the speed of time). but yes all the other things are true, she is all of those things.
this article has been updated to include more information about tila’s history of mental health issues.
I don’t think they meant to imply it was just her racism that led them to that conclusion. The screencapped tweet where she mentions that she has a working invisibility cloak is pretty on par for things she tweets.
Delusions of grandeur, jumbles thoughts, and erratic behavior. I have a friend with schizo-affected disorder that believes she’s God if she isn’t on her meds. On them she is a completely different person. I don’t know what is wrong with this woman but she has clear symptoms of mental illness. Untreated, she is more susceptible to being influenced by others. She may still be a horrible person. Her belief system might still be similar when treated. It’s not a reason to give her a pass. But you can’t even argue with anything she says because it’s incoherent ramblings.
I don’t get how this works, she’s not white, and not straight(yes I know it was mostly men and trans people who the Nazi’s targeted from the LGBTQ community, because they believed women can change), but still don’t you know that you too would have been a target during Nazi era Germany? Also, why would the racist right/white power Nazi be accepting of her? Like this is weird and fucked up on many different levels. I too as a queer Jew want to vomit, but then also crawl to a corner and cry into a bottle of wine(or Kosher brandy just to piss her off). :'[
Pass me some of the brandy, Al. L’chayim!
Obviously I can’t answer for the white power / Neo-Nazi types, but allowing her to join their events may be an effort to present themselves as an “acceptable” political bloc via “promoting diversity” to further their argument that they’re a group with legitimate political concerns rather than actual Neo-Nazis. I put promoting diversity in scare quotes because they let Tequila in and then questioned whether Jews are humans.
They’ll gladly include other minorities to add to their validity and only dispose of them when it becomes convenient.
just ask jared kushner.
With him they also get to claim they converted a Democrat(unless he recently switched political affiliations).
I keep forgetting they are trying the weird diversity route, cause the open racism throws me off every time.
Also, racist white dudes are notorious for fetishizing Asian women for some reason.
Having spend time among neo-nazi types and read various white nationalist rah rah blah ridick fucknut racist ideology/bragging stuff I can list reasons of why they’d be accepting:
1) “The races should just stay separate, we’re not here to eliminate anyone. Purity is good for all” Some of them believe that really and truly, but those people are often Holocaust deniers, so idk.
2) Straight up future slave class potential, and you do not want details on that. Blackmar touches on it. I’m not going to wade into it.
Why a person would be a target would be a joiner:
The nile is a river in the not-africa part of africa “If we support the new regime, we’ll not be crushed by it”
Which actually happened, as in there were people under the 3rd Reich because they supported it got to be killed or restricted much even tho they were Jewish (often someone with a bit of tainting their Aryan-ness and long time secular) or queer.
I don’t have a list of names, but also look at top influential party members that were weak looking four eyes with not blonde hair.
Another reason is harder to explain:
It’s being swept up in the movement, seeing all of that and wanting to be apart of it. Not wanting to think about being crushed by it.
I’ve seen it happen, but it didn’t happen to me.
Why I can’t be sure because pale skinned outcasted teenagers with a love of military stuff and industrial music like I was are ripe for being swept into white power shit.
Maybe it was the pride in being of Mediterranean heritage, NOLA, La Virgen, love of world history, or the if a group wants me/seems accepting I feel wrong and reject it thing that was much stronger when I was a teen
I dunno, but I never forget that coulda been me when I see neo-nazi white power types.
Rum, por favor?
Actually they did also target queer afab people, they just classed them as anti-social (black triangle) instead.
Immigrants/children of immigrants aligning themselves with racist white people isn’t that uncommon. My mom’s neighbours are Serbian immigrants who are supportive of Trump’s eagerness to crack down on immigration, yet are unable to see that if we had someone like him calling the shots here in Canada, they’d have a very hard time immigrating, themselves. I think a lot of it has to do with having “paid their dues”, so to speak, and needing someone else to oppress to make themselves feel better. Although they’re white, the fact that they’re Eastern European immigrants means that they’re not as socially privileged as other groups who’ve been here for generations. Then along comes this guy who’s made it socially acceptable to discriminate against people of colour predominantly, and they see it as an opportunity to finally fit in and be one of the “cool kids”, even though they’re being total hypocrites.
Damn, it seems like every time I forget about her she comes out and acts like a lunatic again over something totally out of nowhere.
She does indeed have mental health problems and has for quite a while. I don’t approve of her actions but I do think it highlights the troubling pattern of how we give attention to mentally ill celebrities for acting out rather than encouraging them to get help. I don’t support horrible bills like the Murphy bill either but it should be possible for concerned family or friends to point to her online activity as proof she’s in a crisis and unable to safely care for herself.
Again, not saying all mentally ill people support Nazis or that it excuses her, just that giving her free attention may not be helping…
This, exactly.
Thirded.
Yeah, when I hear that a bisexual woman of colour with a history of mental health problems has fallen in with white supremacists, I am more concerned for her vulnerability than anything.
Oh wow, I hope someone close to her is paying attention and is making sure her kid is ok and that she, too, is getting help.
CNN even had at the bottom of their screen (Are Jews people?) when interviewing this guy (or someone else like him, don’t know). My wife watched it. I couldn’t look.
Everyone says it can’t happen here, but everyone doesn’t apologize for Native American genocide, Japanese-American internment (or Japanese nuclear genocide), Filipino genocide, or African-American genocide. Everyone says it can’t happen here, but it does.
I so wanted to say something relevant but the only thing that came is a big void and then…WHAT THE F*CK and a big void again. Does she know that not-so-bad-Hitler (God it’s even harder to write than to read) would have sent her to gaz chambers too..?
I read an article about Tila Tequila being at that conference, then saw some of her tweets (literally) demonizing transgender people, and then read her Twitter bio where she identified herself as “Queen of the Alt-Reich.” All in one sitting, as I said “What the hell?” louder and louder at each article and tweet. I’d thought that she’d dropped off the cultural relevancy radar to go live her life and then, this happened.
I don’t what to say/do beyond exerting extra effort to reach out to my Jewish friends after Tequila and other Trump supporters clarified for everyone that they are in fact Neo-Nazis.
I don’t mind this batsh*t loon speaking her mind…I believe this behavior only harms the alt right cause and prevents them from being able to stand on any platform of decency. The hole they are digging for themselves is only creating higher ground for the rest of us. What I find scary is when seemingly normal, rational people share these views.
That’s how the Holocaust happened and every American genocide ever.
I don’t know about that. I mean, Trump is in the White House despite all the disgusting things he’s said about various minorities. And on top of that he wants to appoint people worse than him to his cabinet. Including white nationalists. Sooo…I am extremely skeptical that the number of seemingly normal, rational people is far greater than the opposite. The fact that CNN is even giving a national platform to a fucking Neo-Nazi to spew his hateful views in the first place should scare everyone. This story has already given Richard Spencer more attention than he deserves.
I totally agree. This is a dangerous path we are heading down…absolutely no doubt about that. I guess I am not quite sure how I feel about the media attention towards these new neo nazi groups. If the media doesn’t give them attention, we run the risk of not truly seeing what is happening to our society. If we do give them more attention, we certainly open the door for more of these people to leave their asshole closets and support these views, knowing they have a team in power that will support them. I feel that it is better to have this shit out in the open so we can have informed conversations about what is happening. We need information. I think articles like this are important to bring this kind of rhetoric into the spotlight so the truly rational, decent humans in this country will become empowered to speak up for what is right. I still have a sliver of hope that we aren’t lost…yet.
i laughed but only because i have really awful reactions to feeling horrified at all the current happenings of the world.
i feel you. scrolled up to see if this was tagged ‘vapid fluff’ for the lolz because this queer jewish woman uses humor as a defense mechanism. laughed harder when it was categorized as ‘news + politics’ because tila tequila is a nazi and I don’t know what else to do.
honestly what the fuck is anything anymore?
I heard recently that these days we’re living in a “post truth” world. Today I read an article describing Disgovernment. The libertarian take on those in government deliberately not governing in order to further Libertarian ideals. The current Australian government is doing this very successfully, so I can actually see that this might be real.
As for the rest, I feel as though I’ve been living in a parallel universe since the beginning of the nineties. Maybe that’s just age though. Then I read about this deluded woman? Perhaps I should let my body join my mind in that parallel universe, the world might make more sense there.
Wow, do you have the link to the article on Disgovernment? There are certainly current issues in the United States (the Supreme Court vacancy mess) that might relate well to the idea depending on the details.
whoa fuck
What the actual fuck.. don’t know where to start on this.. the truly bizarre rants etc on social media does indicate some mental health issues but for a daughter of immigrant queer Asian American to align herself with white supremacist movement?! Makes it even more sad..she’s truly a mess and I hope she gets help, doesn’t excuse her gross racist behavior though. I had a fun fact I liked to tell people..the first girl I’ve ever kissed was someone who was briefly on one of her Tila Tequila reality shows.. that’s back when I thought Tila Tequila was not much more than a hot mess celebrity.. but now I’m truly disgusted.. I haven’t seen anything about TT in years so I had no idea about any of this.. guess I won’t be telling that “fun fact” any longer!! :/
Suicide by alt right is the new suicide by cop.
When oppression divides the world into perpetrators and victims, there’s a natural human tendency to identify with the perpetrator to avoid the pain of being a victim.
Trump’s election feels like a good example of that (in the US half of white women, and a third of Latinos, voted him into power). But I also see it in my progressive circles; since the election I have seen a lot of liberal white women talk about Trump exclusively in terms of the threat he poses to people of color, and actively avoid talking about what the elevation of his misogyny means in real terms for their own lives. It feels safer to think and speak solely in terms of race, because that lets them pretend they’ll be protected.
Yes, it’s vital for white people actively work to dismantle racism. But we do that because every person’s liberation depends on every other person’s. All of us have different types of privilege, but none of us are already free, and we can’t forget that.
Sometimes the mentally ill express aspects of our larger culture. I think that’s what Tequila is doing here.
God, I wish I had a fraction of her money to pay for my own mental health breakdowns though, this shit gets expensive when it’s out of pocket
from what i first read about the bee-man’s heinous quote, he didn’t question whether jews were people, but whether the mainstream media journalists were acting of their own accord or if they were “soulless golems,” referencing folklore about jewish people conjuring golems out of clay to protect them from their enemies. so, he wasn’t questioning the personhood of jewish people, but instead fuelling the flames of anti-semitic conspiracy theories about how “the jews control everything.”
it’s not better, but that’s what he was actually talking about. i don’t know if we’re abandoning accuracy so we can rage and scream about outrageous non-truths as loudly as the other side, or if we’re going to be sticking with the moral high ground, but i thought you should know.
Thanks for clarifying. It’s still awful.
If you simply Google Richard Spencer you can find plenty of information on what he actually believes. He is a full-on self-proclaimed white nationalist and their is a reason he is now banned from Twitter. In fact, there is video from the conference in question where he says all kinds of shit not limited to his statement on CNN about Jews. Including that racial minorities are less than whites and that it is them(meaning minorities) who need white people. That America used to be a “white country”, their creation designed for their posterity. He also favors “peaceful ethnic cleansing”. And bunch of other shit that generally amounts to how pure the white race is. He ended his speech with Heil Trump. The crowd uproariously applauded and you can see many in the crowd doing the Nazi Salute. Nobody is lying on this man or misconstruing his words. Especially when they are on tape for the world to see. I’m not hear for that “Maybe that’s not what he really meant” defense of a proud white supremacist. Since when are we giving them the benefit of the doubt anyway? Do some more research on the guy.
Clarifying someone’s words isn’t necessarily defending them or giving them the benefit of the doubt. “Jews are animating golums to manipulate us” is definitely not better than “Jews aren’t people,” but precision is important. I know facts don’t matter anymore so it’s not like being very careful about reporting things accurately is going to change anything, but I can’t help but feel that we still should do it.
Still, it’s a very small clarification, and doesn’t change the fact that these people are gleefully rebuilding a political movement whose ultimate aim includes me being dead (I’m not sure how else to read, “Hitler should have killed more Jews.”)
People are misconstruing his words though, just not in a way that makes him out to be worse than he actually is. The person above DID their research. They’re not defending Spencer at all, but even says “it’s not better” about what he said.
Of course it’s more interesting to talk about all that Spencer and others like him say and do than one instance of misquoting, but starting with an incorrect statement probably won’t make for a very good conversation. And attacking others for pointing out a misunderstanding certainly doesn’t.
my intention is always to use actual facts and real quotes so that the other side cannot find fault with ours, but i’m losing faith in the power of truth. they don’t use it, we are starting not to. perhaps it is better to rail against each other regardless of what anyone has actually said.
i do understand that sometimes people make corrections in order to derail the conversation. i believe people like spencer are dangerous in that way–technically not saying something directly (in this case), but making so many implications. It’s really hard to read something someone has said regarding these trolls and figure out what their intentions are, so i understand why turkish responded defensively. i do not give this man the benefit of the doubt. in fact, i believe that what he really said is just as dangerous as what he is quoted as having said.
Full disclosure, I didn’t read this article but I think you wasted your time writing this piece on an insignificant nobody. Your headline says it all, “Former MTV Star” like as if she was or is even relevant anymore plus I see no point in giving those vile people any kind of attention.
oh.
Why would you comment on an article that you haven’t read?
I hope she has someone in her life that can get her help and protect her daughter. I took a look at some of her recent videos and tweets and she really does sounds psychotic (I mean that in a clinical, not a pejorative sense). If she’s having paranoid delusions it kind of makes that she’d be drawn to the alt-right. While her words are certiantly disturbing, I’m more concerned than offended :(
The only reason I even know who this person is was because I watched a YouTube video on top 10 racist celebrities. It just makes my brain hurt thinking about it.
Has anyone explained to white supremacists that the word Aryan isn’t even English, but comes from Sanskrit and Indo-Aryan languages. In fact the word Iranian derives from the Persian and Sanskrit origin word Arya.
Yes, but they want their fantasy superior warrior race and the Aryans were warriors. Whose word for war translated to something like “a desire for more cows” if I remember correctly :P
Also they like to think the world belongs to them like, using the Tokhariann mummies, stories of redhaired Khans and Uighurs sometimes. It furthers their (some of them anyway) agenda to expand where they belong and have somehow been usurped.
Oh and for the ones who use the vikings and their fantasy superior warrior race and try to replace the Semitic influence of Christianity with Norse Paganism and use Odin a substitute for the Abramic god the world has me. Pointing out Odin was seidrmann (a magical queer deviant rule breaker) not a patriarchal giver/enforcer of laws and social order archtype, that’s Tyr.
It gives me live to point this out :D
“swarm-of-bees-dressed-in-a-human-suit Richard Spencer”
Do we have to insult the bees like this? What did they ever do to you?
That one confused me as well. I mean, a bee-swarm in a suit of human skin would be terrifying, but it doesn’t strike me as an effective insult.
I actually like the nazi uniform without the Hakenkreuz arm band. The design is very appealing to the eye and some of the women got to wear pants. But I hate anyone wearing it and glorifying it because they don’t see anything wrong with hate. I don’t like what nazi symbolism stands for either. That woman is stupid and needs to take her medicine if she is mental. She can try to pretend that she is white bigoted idiot all she wants, but she will never be white. A bigoted idiot maybe, but never white.
I hesitate to jump in here, but Nazi military uniforms ARE a symbol of the Third Reich and the various kind of hatred and destruction it advanced through the world regardless of whether they include the armband and who is or not wearing pants. Can you expand on how you separate the uniform from the armband and the actions of the military forces that wore it in order to appreciate and like its design?
I thing Google just likes the look but not the meaning behind it. When you thonk about it, WW2 has been accidentally romanticized to an extent because of films. I can see how this can make someone like a uniform that stands for hate. It’s like how rap portrays gang culture in a glorious manner and now the gang look is appeling to some even when they do not like gang culture. Idk. I like the uniform as a historical reminder of what hppened but I also just like military relics and historical artifacts. I was going to buy an old KKK uniform to show how people once believed racism was accepted and normalized…. then Trump was elected and I don’t need to buy shit to prove my point. However that horrible KKK uniform is still historically powerful as a visual aid. Just my thoughts on it. But i would like to know the answer to your last question too. I was going to ask thesame thing.
Damn phone. Please look past the typos. Ugh
I think they’re referring to the way the nazi military uniforms were cut, that it was very appealing to the eye when you just look at it as clothes and not as clothes nazis wear.
Their uniforms were supplied by Hugo Boss, they were meant to be sharp and stylish.
Hitler was really into style so much so the Nazi winter uniform was not up the job of keeping officers or enlisted warm.
Worse was the officers’ coats rather than be thick and “unwieldy” looking they were like tailored glorified trench coats with a fur lining. Which was gorgeous and mad luxurious but was terrible in the field. You can’t wash fur the way you can wool and it gets so much stinkier faster. Plus FLEAS.
Aside from that fun tibit it’s no coincidence anyone would be attracted to or find the uniform appealing.
It was intentional and came from the man in charge.
Fascists in the field wearing fur get fleas tho y’all.
“what the fuck” is really the only way to describe this. as a German, where if a celebrity (or “celebrity” ) did the Nazi salute that would (rightfully and hopefully) a massive shitstorm would be unleashed on this person, this is even more what-the-fuck. all this Hitler cult in other countries is very (negatively) fascinating to me, this does not mean that we do not have Nazis here, we do have way too many, but this careless way in which it is joked about being a fan of Hitler and photoshopping yourself in front of concentration camps is just…?????
I obviously neant that the shitstorm would be the only okay reaction to a photo of a celebrity posing with the Nazi salute.
She’s just looking for another 15 minutes of fame, and is acting out for attention.
Just like Trump, just like Kanye. It’s that simple. Say something ridiculous and offensive and you’re GUARANTEED way more than 15 minutes of fame for it.
As someone who was, at an earlier point in my life,an angsty, lonely, and depressed teenage “boy”, this sort of a thing is very easy to get swept up in. By hating others, one can (temporarily at least) feel better about themselves and blame their problems on “them” rather than the issues in their lives. I truly hope that the growing alt-right is made up mostly of people like the one I once was, and that they will grow out of it as I did.