# Greg Johnson Gregory Johnson (born 1971) is an American white nationalist, advocate for a white ethnostate, and the editor-in-chief of the white nationalist imprint [[Counter-Currents]], which he co-founded in 2010 with Michael Polignano. A philosophy PhD turned movement intellectual, Johnson is one of the more cerebral and prolific figures of the [[Alt-Right]], having published over 40 books through Counter-Currents — several written himself, under his own name or the pseudonym "Trevor Lynch." ## From Philosophy to White Nationalism Johnson earned a PhD in philosophy from the Catholic University of America (2001) and taught at Morehouse College and the Pacific School of Religion. By his own account he moved from libertarianism through Objectivism and paleoconservatism to white nationalism, citing graduate-school arguments and a 2000 lecture by Holocaust denier David Irving as turning points. He edited *The Occidental Quarterly* before founding Counter-Currents to import European New Right ("Nouvelle Droite") ideas, including Alain de Benoist and Guillaume Faye, into American white nationalism. He has cited the esoteric Hitlerist Savitri Devi and William Luther Pierce as influences. ## Ideology and Activities Johnson openly advocates ethnicity-specific white ethnostates and has endorsed the white-genocide conspiracy theory, calling "the organized Jewish community" the "principal enemy" of white survival. He feuded publicly with [[Richard Spencer]] in 2014 after backing out of a [[National Policy Institute]] conference in Budapest. After the 2017 Charlottesville "Unite the Right" rally, Counter-Currents was deplatformed from PayPal; in 2019 Johnson was arrested in Norway and deported over his writings about mass murderer Anders Breivik. He has spent time in Hungary and remains a fixture of the transatlantic far right. ## The DeAnna and Thiel Connection Johnson's Counter-Currents published [[Kevin DeAnna]]'s book *Waking Up from the American Dream* (under DeAnna's "Gregory Hood" pen name). Johnson is also the source of one of the most revealing lines about the [[Peter Thiel]] courtship: in leaked emails he speculated that Thiel's money and influence could make him the movement's "George Soros," and later — after Spencer's "Heil Trump" debacle — lamented that "I don't think Peter Thiel is going to become our George Soros after all this... There is simply no calculating the setbacks caused by these kooky and treasonous people." That framing captures both the alt-right's hope of billionaire patronage and the self-inflicted toxicity that ended it. ## See Also - [[Counter-Currents]] — the imprint he runs - [[Kevin DeAnna]] — Counter-Currents published his "Gregory Hood" book - [[Peter Thiel]] — subject of his "George Soros" speculation - [[Richard Spencer]] — rival within the movement