If you’ve ever thought about leaving the GDL, this message is for you.
It will get worse. If you haven’t experienced consequences yet, they’re coming, and the people who call themselves your brothers won’t have your back. When Ryan McCann was arrested in Nashville, Jon Minadeo just left town. He hasn’t even made a direct call for the GDL to support McCann, who is stuck in legal trouble a thousand miles from home. He’s forwarded a couple messages on Telegram, nothing more.
Meanwhile Minadeo continues to fundraise for his own new house, on top of revenue made from merch and donations.
White nationalism writ large is a losing game. Its organizations are unstable, often leaving members in the wreckage, and people in the movement will turn on you on a dime. In the long run, people who leave have better lives than people who stay.
The GDL specifically also has some hallmarks of a high-control group:
* Your leader is charismatic and domineering.
* Your leader is the center of the movement. What would the GDL be without Jon Minadeo?
* Your leader expects you to sacrifice important parts of your life– your job, your credit score, your relationships– to more closely adhere to the movement.
* Your leader is obsessed with his own fame, his own views, and his own money– which used to be yours.
* Your leader uses mockery and humiliation to punish deviations from how he believes you should think and be.
* Your group is defined by its rigid us-vs.-them mentality. This puts you at odds with the rest of the world, isolating you from any other support structure.
If you want to leave the movement, you can. There are people who will help, they have left the movement themselves and will meet you where you’re at. Let us know if you want help leaving the movement. We aren’t interested in getting in your way if you want to get out– if you’re sincere about leaving white nationalism behind, we will leave you alone.
You don’t need to lose your job, your family, or your friends.