Richard Hanania is an American academic and opinion columnist, who formerly wrote for white supremacist and alt-right^[1] websites under the name Richard Hoste.^[2]

Early life and education

Hanania grew up in Oak Lawn, Illinois.^[3] As a teenager, he worked at several fast food establishments, where he struggled to keep up with his co-workers; he explained this by stating, "There are a lot of high IQ people who simply CAN’T do manual labor".^[3]

Based on self-disclosures associated with the online persona, Hoste, it may be that Hanania dropped out of high school, but passed the General Educational Development (GED) exam and went on to attend Moraine Valley Community College and the University of Colorado.^[3] The HuffPost, accessing Hanania's resume, reports that he represents having received a Juris Doctorate from the University of Chicago and a Doctorate of Philosophy in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles, en route to becoming a research fellow at Columbia University's Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies in 2018.^[3][4]

Career

Under Richard Hoste pseudonym

As described based on an analysis of digital records believed to link Hanania to an online persona, “Richard Hoste”, Hanania wrote articles for multiple far-right publications, including AltRight.com, The Occidental Observer, Taki's Magazine, and VDare. He also wrote his own blog called HBD Books, a reference to the term human biodiversity.^[3] “Hoste” also operated a Disqus account under that name. After Disqus suffered a data leak, the passwords and email addresses associated with many accounts became public. Several Disqus accounts, including the “Richard Hoste” account as well as multiple apparent sock puppet accounts that also commented on the same websites, were linked to Hanania's personal and student email addresses.^[3]

“Hoste” identified as a libertarian, but also argued for coercive eugenics and anti-immigration policies. He wrote one article arguing for the forcible sterilization of everyone with an IQ under 90. He also expressed misogynistic views, reserving particular scorn for overweight women. He did, however, express support for Sarah Palin for president, referring to Palin as a “White Goddess”.^[3]

While “Hoste” attacked Muslim and Hispanic immigrants, he regarded Black people as most inferior, and opposed relations between whites and blacks. He wrote, “For the white gene pool to be created millions had to die...Race mixing is like destroying a unique species or piece of art. It’s shameful.” He also cited a speech by neo-Nazi William Luther Pierce, who used Haiti as an example to argue that Black people are incapable of governing themselves.^[3]

Richard Hanania did not deny that he was “Richard Hoste”; instead, he wrote “Recently, it’s been revealed that over a decade ago I held many beliefs that, as my current writing makes clear, I now find repulsive.”^[3][5]

Under own name

Hanania began writing articles for mainstream publications including the Washington Post, Newsweek and the New York Times, and started a blog on Substack, which was received positively by figures such as J.D. Vance, Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie, and Tucker Carlson, who invited Hanania on his show multiple times. Hanania also lectured at the University of Austin.^[3]

Although Hanania's writing under his own name takes a more moderate tone, he does retain some of his earlier views; Hanania wrote positively on Twitter about white nationalist Steve Sailer, who he had also praised under his “Hoste” persona. Hanania wrote in one essay that the only way to reduce crime would be to have "a revolution in our culture or form of government. We need more policing, incarceration, and surveillance of black people. Blacks won’t appreciate it, whites don’t have the stomach for it." The essay caught the attention of Elon Musk on Twitter, who called it "interesting".^[3]

Hanania is a fellow at the University of Texas at Austin's Salem Center for Public Policy.^[2][4] On August 9, 2023 the San Antonio Express-News called for the university to cut ties with Hanania.^[6] By August 10, the Salem Center had removed the "visiting scholar" link to Hanania's bio.^[7]

Hanania founded a think tank called the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology (CSPI), which has received large sums of money from Andrew Conru, the Mercatus Center, and at least one dark money donor.^[3][8] As of the summer of 2023, he served as the organization's president.^[4]

Hanania also operates his own podcast where he has interviewed various people including Amy Wax, Steven Pinker, Christopher Rufo, and billionaire Marc Andreesen.^[3]

Authorship under that name

Hanania has been published by the Cato Institute and Routledge, among others (see Books subsection below).^{[verification needed]} In 2021, Hanania published Public Choice Theory and the Illusion of Grand Strategy.^{[citation needed]}

The Origins of Woke, which is scheduled for publication in September 2023, features promotional blurbs written by Vivek Ramaswamy, David Sacks, and Peter Thiel, who expressed support for the idea that "government violence" is the only way to defeat the threat of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.^[3] Unlike many other conservatives, Hanania argues that "wokeness" is not something new; he believes that to some extent it has been codified into U.S. law since the Civil Rights Act of 1964.^{[9][10][full citation needed]}

Books

• Hanania, Richard (2020), Ineffective, Immoral, Politically Convenient: America’s Overreliance on Economic Sanctions and What to Do about It., Cato Institute
• Hanania, Richard (2021). Public Choice Theory and the Illusion of Grand Strategy: How Generals, Weapons Manufacturers, and Foreign Governments Shape American Foreign Policy. Routledge. ISBN 9781000514001.
• Hanania, Richard (2023). The Origins of Woke: Civil Rights Law, Corporate America, and the Triumph of Identity Politics. Broadside Books. ISBN 9780063237216.