{"id":13132,"date":"2020-03-10T19:22:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-10T19:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/usa\/?p=13132"},"modified":"2025-07-02T07:43:25","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T07:43:25","slug":"anti-greta-climate-denier-naomi-seibt-marched-with-neo-nazis-and-promotes-white-nationalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/usa\/anti-greta-climate-denier-naomi-seibt-marched-with-neo-nazis-and-promotes-white-nationalism\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cAnti-Greta\u201d climate denier Naomi Seibt marched with Neo-Nazis and promotes white nationalism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What journalists and the climate movement need to know about the Heartland Institute’s new contractor and contrarian Youtuber, Naomi Seibt.<\/p>\n\n

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Photo credit: @antifalinkems, via wiedertaeufer.ms<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Over the last week, The Heartland Institute \u2013 an infamous climate denial think tank \u2013 has been rolled with not one, but two scandals.<\/p>\n\n

HuffPost\u2019s Alexander Kaufman revealed<\/a> that the Heartland Institute laid off more than half of its staff, who accuse Heartland leadership of financial mismanagement.<\/p>\n\n

But HuffPost called out something else that went unmentioned<\/a> by far<\/a> too many<\/a> media outlets<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n

Heartland\u2019s\u00a0contractor<\/a>\u00a0and YouTube personality\u00a0Naomi Seibt<\/a>\u00a0marched with Neo-Nazis and promotes white nationalists unapologetically.<\/h3>\n\n

According to Heartland\u2019s recently-departed staff, Naomi Seibt was seen as a ticket out of Heartland\u2019s financial troubles. It is unclear if Heartland is okay with Seibt\u2019s history of marching with violent racists and promoting white ethnocentrism could end out being more trouble for Heartland than she is worth as a fresh new voice for climate deniers to rally around.<\/p>\n\n

The 19-year old Seibt was coined the \u201cAnti-Greta<\/a>\u201d by Heartland, which wants a puffed-up foil to Greta Thunberg. Thunberg, the 17-year old global sensation, has dedicated her life to broadcasting the increasing urgency of the climate crisis. Thunburg\u2019s statements are consistent with what scientists have attempted to warn us for decades, as she meticulously read reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Seibt simply rejects the warnings of scientists, choosing instead to broadcast her contrarian opinions on YouTube.<\/p>\n\n

And that\u2019s not where the differences between these two ends. We\u2019ve pulled together a research brief on Seibt to help journalists and allies.<\/p>\n\n

Naomi Seibt marched with Neo-Nazis in 2018:<\/h3>\n\n

The photo above was taken<\/a> by Anti-Fascist activists in M\u00fcnster, Germany, at a 2018 anti-abortion march that involved a contingency of Neo-Nazis, including Robert Malcoci<\/a> of the Neo-Nazi Malcoci family<\/a>. The \u201c1,000 White Crosses\u201d rally, or 1000 Kreuze Marsch, in German, was not organized by Neo-Nazis, but it included at least one bloc of people from such groups, as the photo above shows.<\/p>\n\n

This March 4, 2020 post<\/a> from the German website M\u00fcnsterland rechtsau\u00dfen includes more information and references on the 1000 Kreuze Marsch:<\/p>\n\n

\u201cAlongside Seibt marched members of the \u2018Identitarian Movement\u2019 and the \u2018Fraternity Franconia,\u2019 a local far-right fraternity. Amongst them Robert Malcoci, a well-known neo-Nazi and activist of the \u2018Identitarian Movement.\u2019 [3,4] Following her participation in this fundamentalist rally, she posted a video about the \u2018Pride Weeks\u2019 where she addressed her concerns about homosexuality and the LGBTQI * community.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

On February 28, 2020, Seibt denied attending any Neo-Nazi rallies, when questioned on camera<\/a> by Jamie Corey at Documented\u2013a watchdog group that I frequently collaborate with.<\/p>\n\n

At\u00a0#CPAC2020<\/a>, I asked \u201cAnti-Greta\u201d\u00a0@SeibtNaomi<\/a>\u2014who works for the climate denial, Mercer-funded\u00a0@HeartlandInst<\/a>\u2014about anti-semitic comments that came to light in the\u00a0@Guardian<\/a>. Here\u2019s what she said.\u00a0pic.twitter.com\/dNmUBDTpnJ<\/a> \u2014 Jamie Corey (@JamieMCorey)\u00a0February 28, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n\n

What struck me most about Seibt\u2019s reaction to the question was this indication that Seibt doesn\u2019t believe you can be \u201c100% German\u201d if you are Jewish or Muslim:<\/p>\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t care if you\u2019re a Jew, or a Muslim, or 100% German.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Naomi Seibt’s anti-semitic comment after Yom Kippur synagogue shooting<\/h3>\n\n

Thanks in particular to a report<\/a> for The Guardian by Stephanie Kirchgaessner and Emily Holden, U.S. press began catching on to Sebit\u2019s ties to white nationalists.<\/p>\n\n

The article included a comment made by Seibt in an online video following a shooting at a Synagogue in Germany during Yom Kippur<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n

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In a YouTube discussion last year that was highlighted in a report by the German broadcaster ZDF, Seibt discussed an\u00a0attack on a synagogue in Halle<\/a>\u00a0that killed two people who were outside the temple, and said Jews were considered to be \u201cat the top\u201d of groups who were seen as being oppressed. \u201cOrdinary Germans\u201d, she said, were \u201cat the bottom\u201d. Muslims, she added, were somewhere in between.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The remarks were part of a video discussion that appears to have been deleted. They were seen by some experts as saying that Germans had less pity for \u201cordinary German\u201d victims of crime than for Jews and Muslims. A\u00a0portion of the discussion was included in a report by ZDF<\/a>\u00a0and is still available online.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

A longer translation of this quote was reported by Jennifer Dhlouy for Bloomberg<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThe normal German consumer is at the bottom, so to speak. Then the Muslims come somewhere in between. And the Jew is at the top. That is the suppression characteristic,\u201d she said in comments first reported by The Guardian.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Naomi Seibt praise for Canadian white nationalist<\/h3>\n\n

The Guardian article<\/a> by Kirchgaessner and Holden included another concerning statement made by Seibt regarding a well known White Nationalist in Canada. The article was published the same day that Seibt spoke on a panel at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, hosted by the American Conservative Union.<\/p>\n\n

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In another YouTube interview describing her embrace of \u201cviews that were outside the mainstream\u201d, Seibt referred to the Canadian alt-right internet activist Stefan Molyneux as an \u201cinspiration\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Molyneux has been described as an \u201calleged cult leader who amplifies scientific racism, eugenics and white supremacism<\/a>\u201d by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors extremism and white supremacy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

Business Insider reporter Anthony L. Fisher was at CPAC and asked Seibt about her praise for Molyneux<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n

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During a Q&A session, Insider read Molyneux\u2019s following quote to Seibt: \u201cI\u2019ve always been skeptical of the ideas of white nationalism, of identitarianism and white identity. However, I am an empiricist, and I could not help but notice that I could have peaceful, free, easy, civilized, and safe discussions in what is essentially an all-white country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insider asked Seibt if she was aware of Molyneux\u2019s statement and, if so, still considered herself a fan of his.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am still a fan of Molyneux\u2019s, absolutely,\u201d Seibt replied.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

Following this reporting, acknowledgement of Seibt\u2019s support for White Nationalism was picked up by the\u00a0Washington Post<\/a>, the\u00a0New York Times<\/a>,\u00a0HuffPost<\/a>, and global outlets like the\u00a0UK Daily Mail<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Yahoo! News Australia<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Naomi Seibt and the ethnopluralist \u201cidentitarian movement”<\/h3>\n\n

According to the March, 2020 post<\/a> from M\u00fcnsterland rechtsau\u00dfen:<\/p>\n\n

All rhetorical whitewashing put aside, Seibt\u2019s concept of nationalism resembles the concept of \u201cethnopluralism\u201d which is the main concept of the \u201cIdentitarian Movement\u201d, a far-right group from Europe. It is based on the racist conspiracy theory of the \u201cgreat replacement\u201d by the French far-right academic Renaud Camus. The far-right terrorists who carried out the attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand, and in Halle, Germany, partially based their manifestos on this racist, anti-Semitic and anti-feminist theory which is also popular amongst the politicians, members and supporters of the \u201cAlternative for Germany\u201d and other far-right movements in Germany. (Google translation<\/a>)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Naomi Seibt, Karoline Seibt, and the German AFD Party<\/h3>\n\n

The German Alternative for Germany<\/a> political party, aka \u201cAlternative f\u00fcr Deutschland\u201d or AfD, is known<\/a> for its scapegoating of Jews, Muslims, and refugees<\/a>. The AfD\u2019s affiliates promote perspectives that many Germans say contributed to nationalist terrorist acts<\/a> like the Halle Synagogue shooting in October, 2019.<\/p>\n\n

Naomi Seibt and her mother, Karoline Seibt, both have deep ties to the AfD party. And as mentioned in the new HuffPost<\/a> report,<\/p>\n\n

Her [Naomi Seibt] mother, Karoline Seibt, is\u00a0an attorney<\/a>\u00a0who works with Alternative f\u00fcr Deutschland, Germany\u2019s far-right nationalist party\u00a0with ties<\/a>\u00a0to neo-Nazis. In 2018, the mother\u00a0was pictured<\/a>\u00a0partying with Milo Yiannopoulos, the far-right former star columnist at Breitbart who, according to\u00a0BuzzFeed News<\/a>, pushed white nationalist ideology into mainstream U.S. politics.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

We believe she is also the woman on the far right in this picture of Milo Yiannopoulos from May 2019.<\/p>\n\n

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Der neue Pressesprecher der CDU\/CSU-Splittergruppe @WerteUnion<\/a>, @Ralf_Hoecker<\/a>, in guter Gesellschaft: Milo Yiannopoulos, David Berger, Oliver Flesch. Quelle: https:\/\/t.co\/FBrUfUkbQF<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/hR1erPsqgE<\/a><\/p>— Stefan Niggemeier (@niggi) June 15, 2019<\/a><\/blockquote>