In 2018, Jackson Hinkle was a political activist, campaigning for climate justice – and Bernie Sanders. Writing for his High School newspaper, he aimed “to provide factual information and new thoughts to the currently stigmatized scenes of local, national, and international politics”.
In the six years since, he has been banned from WhatsApp, YouTube, Paypal, and Twitch for spreading misinformation and become one of the most viral users on X/Twitter. Or, as he sees it, he has been silenced by a “corrupt cabal of elite leadership who will do anything to silence independent voices”.
Hinkle recently pivoted to Twitter, banking on Elon Musk’s plan to make the site a bastion of “free speech”. Last week, he became the most viral man on the site, offering a premium subscription to those wanting to help him “DEFEAT THE ZIONIST LIES”.
Hinkle – who describes himself as an "American Conservative Marxist-Leninist", amongst other things – has taken a strong stance against Israel since the October 7 attacks. His almost 2 million followers are overwhelmed by posts rife with misinformation about the war. Hinkle claimed US Marines have landed in Israel, and misrepresented US airstrikes in Syria earlier this year as “breaking” news of an Israeli attack.
In a post which received over five million views, Hinkle announced that Israel had lied about the events of October 7th. Only 900 died, he said, half of whom were Israeli soldiers. Babies were never beheaded, and Israeli soldiers were taken, respectfully, to morgues by Hamas. He cited Haaretz, who later denied that any of Hinkle’s allegations were supported by the paper. Their post received five times fewer views.
Misinformation on Hinkle's Twitter
This isn’t Hinkle’s first controversy. His bans from popular platforms came in response to spreading misinformation around the war in Ukraine. Putin, according to Hinkle, has “God on his side”. He has made appearances on Russia Today, a state-controlled channel, and – finding a way to balance his American Patriotism with his pro-Russian politics – has said the Russian people are similar to those in America’s heartland.
Hinkle’s contradictory politics are confusing. He’s not just a pro-Russian American patriot, but a “God fearing” Marxist-Leninist. He doesn’t see any issue with his conservative Marxism, explaining that “Communism and Marxism historically have been Conservative. It’s a new era in the West that made it adhere to liberal-leftist values. This is not true Marxism. It’s Marxism funded by George Soros”. It’s not just Marxism which has been corrupted, according to Hinkle. “Joe Biden is controlled by a satanic cabal of DC deep state leadership,” he said on Russian television. “People who most of the American public will never know the names of”.
He isn’t the only “MAGA-Communist” tying contradictory beliefs together with a common thread of antisemitism. Haz al Din, a Marxist-Leninist youtuber, called for “workers striking” to come together with the “MAGA industrial working class”. “We kick out the globalists,” he said. “We kick out George Soros”.
Hinkle may be the source of a new wellspring of misinformation, but he isn’t the cause. Since Elon Musk took over the site last October, hate speech on the platform has more than doubled. The billionaire reinstated previously banned users, including Andrew Anglin, who founded the Neo-Nazi site The Daily Stormer. Between June 2022 and February 2023, antisemitic tweets doubled.
Jackson Hinkle also isn’t the only one profiting off this permissiveness, and the crisis in Israel and Gaza, to “promote [his] own hatred for the Jewish community,” as Katie McCarthy from the Centre on Extremism puts it.
Angelo John Gage, who had been banned from Twitter for hate speech, has found himself a new account, and over 100,000 followers, since October 7th. He posted a summary of the Protocols of Zion, and told his followers to “stop being so soft on Jews”. Anastastia Maria Loupis, a Danish anti-vax doctor, gained over 200,000 followers since the Hamas attacks. She mixes antisemitism with her anti-vaccination rhetoric.
But where Hinkle does stand out is the rate of his political about-face. Beyond geopolitics, or his particular brand of communism, Hinkle is “Pro Fossil Fuel” now, despite cutting his civic teeth as a climate activist in High School. He was even featured in Teen Vogue as one of eight young environmentalists “working to save the earth”.
After meeting with congress in 2018 to lobby for the decommission of power plants, Hinkle was featured in the LA Times, as a member of San Clemente Green. The founder of the activist group, Gary Headrick, spoke to the paper. “He’s the kind of guy who gives you hope about the future,” Headrick said of the then-environmentalist. “It’s hard to find young people who take these things seriously, but Jackson is fearless and well-informed”.
Hinkle may still be fearless, but he is certainly no longer well-informed. He also doesn’t seem to take politics seriously anymore, admitting he does “everything for the clout”.
And perhaps even more concerning than his conspiricism – and even his popularity – is the speed at which watching Hinkle has gone from generating a feeling of “hope” to one of despair.
