Last Saturday, we reported that a New York Times profile on a polite and well-mannered guy in Ohio who happens to be a “Nazi sympathizer”—a.k.a. a Nazi—was met with an enormous backlash. Apparently, people in general just aren’t crazy about normalizing Nazis in high-profile New York Times stories that are ostensibly about the dangers of normalizing Nazis. Unfortunately, in what must be a pretty shocking development to come just days after being the subject of a New York Times profile, the Nazi in question has now lost his job.
The guy, Tony Hovater, had told the Times he was a welder, but he worked part-time with his wife and brother at a place called 571 Grill And Draft House. The original story hadn’t named the restaurant, but people online figured out that Hovater worked there and the manager said that he received “dozens of angry, crude, and threatening messages” that scared the other employees. The restaurant says that Hovater voluntarily quit, but he told The New York Times “they decided to can me.”
Hovater also told the paper that his family is moving “because of safety reasons,” which may seem kind of tragic, but let’s not forget that he is a “Nazi sympathizer.” When someone like that feels victimized for who they are or what they believe, it’s more irony than tragedy.