"Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth"
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Gage models negation of the Hamas massacres of Jews on Holocaust denial — and he is not alone
Angelo John Gage, who changed his name to Lucas Gage in 2022 to evade social network bans, is an American extremist influencer known for advocating white supremacy and neo-Nazism. He also supports the left-wing BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement calling for the destruction of Israel. Most recently, Gage has engaged in violent threats against Jews and furious denial of the October 7, 2023 attacks on Jews by Hamas. Denying the reality of the largest antisemitic massacre of the 21st century has facilitated a convergence between neo-Nazi movements and pro-Hamas groups, exemplified by Gage's hateful broadcasts across online platforms.
Gage’s latest X account had already racked up more than 220,000 followers when it was suspended again in December 2023 following a series of violent anti-Jewish hate posts. He quickly set up a 'temporary X account'.
According to Gage, the “Zionists and Jewish supremacists” were behind the backlash against him. In a video, Gage could be seen saying: “Guys wanted to just hopefully inspire you how to deal with Zionists and Jewish supremacists. You subhuman pieces of s**t ” . The diatribe raised serious questions about Gage’s psychological state and possible threats to commit hate crimes against Jews on the basis of their religion and ethnicity – a criminal offense in the United States.
“That’s how you talk to these Zionists. You are dealing with monsters. Would you talk to a pedophile like that? We are at war with these f*****g demons. (…) They are satanic, they are demons. They don’t treat demons with respect. And I actually disagree, sir. Excuse me, sir. I disagree. You f*****g slay them”.
Gage continued with the threats in February 2024 when he asked his online audience for help to buy a weapon.
And yet, in November 2023 Gage posted a video on Rumble (a platform favored by conspiracists and the American far right) in which he is seen conversing with police who visited his home following complaints about hateful content. He defends himself by claiming to be merely a political activist against violence. Gage also alleges to have received death threats from Jewish institutions and Jewish extremists.
Although the death threats have not been confirmed, it is pertinent to revisit the past of this veteran, a former Marine who served in Iraq.
Gage was born in Italy, immigrated to the United States aged two and has remained mostly in New Jersey. After joining the U.S. Marines, Gage served two tours in Iraq from 2001 to 2004. Upon return, he exhibited symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), impacting his personal relationships and several other facets of his life. He admitted trying his hand at life coaching, but it was unsuccessful due to his PTSD.
Gage soon became involved in neo-Nazi and white supremacist spheres, posting racist and antisemitic messages online. He “progressed” into the role of political activist for the neo-Nazi American Freedom Party. In 2014 he made an unsuccessful attempt to enter politics, running for the American Freedom Party a congressional seat in New Jersey. From January to October 2015, he was chairman of the National Youth Front, the official youth wing of the American Freedom Party. Gage focused on recruiting young adults, aged 18 to 35, into the white nationalist movement.
After Gage broke away from the National Youth Front in late 2015, announcing in a video that he was going to follow “his own way”, he continued to spread antisemitic hatred on social media. Developing a reputation as a hate influencer, he appeared on the radio program of white supremacist David Duke and hosted a program on the white nationalist website, The White Voice. At the same time, Gage created X and YouTube accounts where he tried to spread panics about a so-called “White Genocide”.
Gage later renounced the white nationalist label in favor of “ethno-nationalism", as Right Wing Watch reported in 2019, to defend “several unique and different ethnic groups like Italian, Irish, German etc. than unite under this construct of whiteness”. Despite the stated ideological shift, Gage continued sharing nationalist and antisemitic content on his YouTube channel. In 2020, he launched American Third position, an online group which is openly neo-Nazi, calling for halting a “non-white immigration” in the US.
During the Covid pandemic, like other extremist influencers, Gage began actively promoting conspiracy theories. Research reports show that throughout this period right-wing and other radical groups and individuals in the US sought to exploit the pandemic to “radicalize, recruit, and inspire plots and attacks”, putting forward a so-called Jewish conspiracy.
In the early 2020s, the leading global online platforms began more forcefully moderating some hateful content on their sites, after stricter laws were passed in various countries. In January 2021, Gage's YouTube channel was shut down for antisemitism. His X account was also taken offline at the same time.
Gage established another X account after legally changing his name. At the same time, he migrated to Rumble in 2023 for videos (with restrictions for some countries like France) and to Gab, a social network favored by the far right and conspiracy theorists, for his posts.
In 2022, after an unsuccessful political career and a coaching course, Gage, who now claiming to be a philosopher, launched his website and declared his aim to “discuss politics from a philosophical standpoint”, publishing a book about his life experience.
Gage received the support on X of Samuel Parker, a racist and antisemitic white supremacist, whose political career also failed in 2018, when he sought election to the U.S. Senate from Utah. With an X account following of more than 105,000, Parker has shares of Gage and the Hashtag #FreeLucasGage to request that Gage's account be reinstated.
Gage has spoken out on several occasions about the Holocaust. In 2012, he wrote in Stormfront (a white supremacist forum) that he had just learned of “the real Jewish question and the whole WW2 and Hitler truth [sic]”. He has also broadcast antisemitic lies and Holocaust denial tropes on his YouTube and X platforms.
In a video, he reiterated the negationist claims and revisited a controversy that arose from a post on X from September 25, 2023, with 99k views, where he questioned why autopsies had not been conducted of Jews murdered in the gas chambers.
Gage has demonstrated he possesses limited knowledge of Holocaust denial arguments. He employed arguments from Eric Hunt's films denying Holocaust survivors’ testimonies, without citing him and without mentioning that Hunt himself renounced Holocaust denial a few years ago, acknowledging the existence of numerous pieces of evidence. One can always hope that Gage might do the same.
In a video referring to anti-denial laws in Europe, Gage frames the debate in terms of belief, saying, “Belief is not a choice, you either believe or you don't believe. Why should I be punished for expressing a belief?”.
However, history is not a matter of belief; there is no need to believe in the existence or non-existence of gas chambers. It is a matter of facts. History is an assembly of evidence, like the pieces of a puzzle that come together to create an accurate picture of a reality, allowing historians to write the story. We have numerous pieces of evidence of the existence of death camps and gas chambers in Europe during the Second World War: witnesses, perpetrators, architectural plans in archives, and even numerous quotes from Hitler that prove his intent to carry out the annihilation of Jews, even if we don't have a direct order from the Führer.
History is a human science, but it has often been aided by science, as evidenced by these reports from chemists about the gas chambers. Many of the bodies were transferred directly from the gas chambers to the crematorium or to the mass grave. Some autopsies on the gassed bodies were also carried out on the 254 corpses of Soviet citizens killed by the Nazis in Krasnodar and at the Nazi camp at Natzweiler-Struthof where there was an experimental gas chamber.
You don't argue with a Holocaust denier, because an astronomer doesn't argue with an astrologer, said my Professor Pierre Vidal-Naquet. But also because the evidence of Nazi genocide is there for anyone who wants to see it.
Through the prism of anti-Zionism, Gage has modeled his denial of the October 7 massacres on Holocaust denial. And he is not alone. The rhetoric used by Holocaust deniers is also found among many who deny the atrocities committed by Hamas. Both groups of deniers claim that the testimonies of the victims are false or exaggerated, insinuating a manipulation of facts by the Jews. The accusation of a supposed international Jewish conspiracy is frequently made, reviving a historically unfounded antisemitic stereotype to discredit Jewish victims.
Denying the October 7 massacres also serves to reinforce Holocaust denial. For instance, figures like Gage suggest that if Jews can lie about recent events, such October 7, it would "prove" their capacity to lie about older historical facts. He said on X in November 2023:
“if Jews are lying about Hamas right in your face, what makes you think didn’t lie about their greatest enemies before them”.
Holocaust deniers and October 7 denialists also question the reliability of the testimonies of the executioners, whom they perceive not as real executioners but rather as victims of exaggerated accusations. They argue that these individuals could not be as guilty as claimed, claiming that their testimonies were coerced under torture and are therefore unreliable.
They concoct conspiracy theories involving Israel and its allies, such as the United States, accused of spreading "propaganda" to strengthen their position. These theories are often accompanied by claims that visual evidence (videos, photos) is doctored for Zionist propaganda purposes.
To support their claims, the October 7 denialists, like Holocaust deniers, use tactics such as selective fact-picking, citing self-proclaimed experts, and dismissing credible sources, while portraying themselves as victims of censorship. By appealing to freedom of speech and creating false equivalences, they seek to legitimize their discourse and erode public trust in established facts and verified historical narratives.
On X, we can see an intensification of this political and ideological union between neo-Nazis and groups supporting Hamas. The convergence is long-standing, and can be found among Holocaust deniers such as Ahmed Rami, an Islamist close to neo-Nazis. The meeting of minds and ideologues was already visible with the BDS movement which Gage backs. Since the beginning of January 2024, the FreeLucasGage hashtag has been taken up on X by influential accounts of white supremacists, with profiles like Morgan Ariel (an anti-Semitic influencer who “works for Jesus”), but also small pro-Palestinian/Hamas accounts, often mixing up #FreeHamas #FreePalestineFromIsraelNow #FreeAmerica #FreeNickFuentes.
This nefarious denialist alliance should be a cause for grave concern.
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