‘Nobody is coming to help us’: citizen journalist talks dangers of neo-Nazism without intervention

Editor’s note: Maria Byrnes, an organizer of this event, is the city and state editor of the Collegian. 

Don’t try to be perfectly objective or neutral when covering far-right extremism and don’t expect that the cops will respect your rights, said a citizen journalist and neo-Nazi expert Molly Conger at a talk at the University of Richmond on April 2. 

Conger, the host of the podcast “Weird Little Guys,” brought out a 30-person audience in a history and journalism department hosted Q&A session titled: “Public History, Journalism, & Activism: A Conversation with Molly Conger.”

During the talk, Conger was joined by history professor Michelle Kahn and sophomore Maria Byrnes.

Conger said she became a journalist “all on accident.” Her curiosity was sparked by the 2017 Unite the Right rally in her hometown of Charlottesville, Va. 

“I wanted to know what happened to us. It was selfish. It was for me, for my neighbors,” she said. “I was in a place that had been wounded.”

The far-right protesters, a group of roughly 400 carrying lit torches, encircled a group of counterprotesters on the University of Virginia’s campus, Conger explained. These protesters were exercising their first amendment rights until they trapped that group of students, staff and antifa, she continued. 

“It’s not neutral when someone says, ‘fucking die,’” Conger said, recounting what the protesters had yelled at the students. “Neutrality, I actively reject.”  

That’s the entire reason Conger said she started doing this work. Her home was wounded and she needed to know why. She needed to call it out for what it was. 

“Some things are just evil and you can say that,” she said.

Conger took scrupulous notes during the court proceedings of the neo-Nazis that followed. Kahn was an expert witness on neo-Nazis and testified in the trials of those who were charged for their actions in Charlottesville. 

“It’s not that I have to do this,” Kahn said. it’s that it’s a good thing to do.” 

Kahn testified against these neo-Nazis with Conger in the gallery.

Covering the far-right eventually brought Conger to the steps of the Capitol, where she was on the ground documenting Jan. 6. She said her worst experience came from the cops, who will “actually harm you.” She then told of how she was wrongfully arrested. 

This was not her first rodeo. During pandemic-era protests in Richmond, Va., Conger was arrested and held overnight on “unprosecutable” charges.

“They [the police] don’t usually strip search you for a trespassing charge that was fake,” she said. “Know your rights but know that the cop doesn’t fucking care.”

While she said the police act against her, she has received many death threats — one included a photo of a man, loaded rifle in hand, with her address attached. They never do anything, though, she said.

“Most of them are cowards,” she said. “They enjoy the thrill of the threat.”

For a period of at least six to eight weeks, Conger said she wrote a weekly column in the C-Ville Weekly. 

The paper broke off contact with her after a police union threatened to sue because an officer’s feelings were hurt over one of her columns, Conger said. 

Conger then discussed today’s political climate and how it emboldens neo-Nazis to speak out threateningly or act in ways that would not have been acceptable a few years ago.

“It’s the same guys and for the same reasons,” she said. “They don’t stop unless you make them stop.”

At the end of the Q&A, Kahn asked the rhetorical question “Do you stop because of fear of retribution?” to the audience.

“The answer is no. You don’t stop doing that,” she said.

“I’m going down with the ship,” Conger replied.

Contact multimedia editor Christina Taylor at christina.taylor@richmond.edu and opinions editor Jonathan Sackett at jonathan.sackett@richmond.edu