From a reader in response to this link I put in the Corner:
Jonah,
After that you posted that link to the swastika tatoo-ed MMA fighter, I clicked on through to an interview with the guy, Melvin Costa, and to my surprise saw this (note the stuff about the economy):
“Q: Can you talk more about the difference between a white nationalist and neo-nazi?
Melvin Costa: A neo-nazi holds Hitler’s beliefs to be true down to a T. I don’t. I believe in Hitler’s point of view as far as racial consonance but I don’t believe a lot of things as far as controlling an economy. He wanted to control every single aspect of people’s lives. He wanted to control the press. He wanted to control what people wore. I don’t believe in none of that. I think that we should be allowed to live freely. ”
I’m not sure it’s a good thing, but I guess I was struck by the matter-of-fact nature of his response.
Loved the book by the way, and you need to start some kind of referral/salesmanship club for your readers. I’ve already convinced three of my friends to buy it. I don’t know if you could authorize something like that, but I’d totally hit the streets door-to-door if I could get something like “Jonah does My Voicemail Message” or a glamor shot of Cosmo on The Couch if I convinced 50 people to buy the book.
Me: First I love that even White Nationalist trash recognize that Hitler was a socialist.
Second, I would love to come up with something like a bonus system for word of mouth boosting of the book. Suggestions welcome for how that system might work.