From Vice to the Proud Boys: How Canadian Gavin McInnes birthed two polarizing legacies
CBC Docs | Posted: October 25, 2024 2:46 PM | Last Updated: October 25
A new documentary tracks his transformation from left-leaning media figure to far-right leader
How did the "coolest dude in New York media" — according to Thomas Morton, a former contributing editor for Vice magazine — go from leftist counterculture icon to far-right provocateur?
Gavin McInnes co-founded the progressive, left-leaning Vice in 1994. Based out of Montreal, it started out as an alternative print publication focusing on arts, culture, lifestyle, news and politics. Along with co-founders Shane Smith and Suroosh Alvi, McInnes elevated the magazine to Vice Media — which branched out into digital media, film and broadcasting — and moved the operation to New York in 1999.
Then, 22 years after the launch of the magazine, McInnes founded the Proud Boys, a neo-fascist organization known for its involvement in the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
It's a trajectory that has proved jarring and confusing for many of his former friends and colleagues at Vice.
In the documentary It's Not Funny Anymore: Vice to Proud Boys, Morton traces how this drastic shift in ideologies may have occurred. Through conversations with McInnes's family, friends, former coworkers and McInnes himself, Morton aims to understand how his one-time mentor became what he calls "a sort of right-wing guru."
The provocative, envelope-pushing early days of Vice magazine
Vice was born out of another publication, Voice of Montreal, where Smith, Alvi and McInnes worked in the early '90s.
"'Vice' is everything naughty and irresponsible one can do in life. That [name is] going to get people's attention," says Rupert Bottenberg, a comic artist and former Vice contributor, in the documentary.
In an archival interview, McInnes is shown declaring himself the "resident goof" and "madman in a cage" at the magazine.
Morton and fellow Vice alumni also remember McInnes as a funny person who enjoyed pushing the envelope with shock humour and nudity in the office.
In the early days, McInnes directed much of his rebellious energy toward challenging political correctness, which informed the overall voice of the publication.
Former editor-in-chief Jesse Pearson describes McInnes in the documentary as, "the heart and soul of Vice magazine."
McInnes was also the creative force behind each issue, according to Morton. One of the most popular series in the magazine was McInnes's Dos and Don'ts, which made light of people photographed on the street.
Former head of publishing at Vice Media Thobey Campion says that McInnes wanted people to laugh "in the most painful way they possibly could."
"At that point in time, Gavin was just a comedian who wanted to push it too far," he remarks in the film. "Every time he caught a hold of something that caused a reaction, he felt unable to restrain himself from continuing to get that reaction … [he was] almost pathologically drawn."
'It got old and it got more extreme'
When Morton first met McInnes, he recalls, McInnes "sieg heiled" a mailman.
"I laughed because it was f--king funny," Morton says while reminiscing with writer and editor Dave Carnie in the documentary. "But it was funny because he wasn't a Nazi."
Former Vice editor Amy Kellner tells Morton that she also found McInnes humorous and smart in the beginning. But she says he had several "rules" for how women should look, such as avoiding certain hairstyles and clothing, that made her feel insecure.
When McInnes eventually told her about the importance of "perfectly symmetrical" genitalia, she had had it.
"It got old and it got more extreme," she says. "And it didn't seem like a joke anymore."
Morton says he began to see a different side of his mentor after McInnes was introduced to the work of Jim Goad, co-creator of the zine Answer Me! and author of The Redneck Manifesto — a book that argues that lower-class white people are the last undefended minority.
McInnes brought Goad on as a Vice contributor in 2005, where he wrote a lengthy article — edited by McInnes — that claimed slavery in America wasn't as bad as history classes would have you believe.
After its publication, Vice staff who were familiar with McInnes's envelope-pushing tendencies were left wondering: was this just a radical statement about the importance of free speech? Or was he actually racist?
The rise and fall out of the Proud Boys
McInnes went on to leave Vice around 2007 and soon became known for his far-right political views, which he shared on programs like Fox News's Red Eye and The Sean Hannity Show.
But it was on his own talk radio show, The Gavin McInnes Show, that he first described his growing group of like-minded drinking buddies.
"When you're doing the same thing every week, or in this case it was every night … you start developing a sort of a culture. And a culture needs a name," McInnes says in archival footage shown in the documentary. "I think it was May of 2015, I said, 'OK, we got a name.'" And thus, the Proud Boys were born.
Over the following years, Proud Boys chapters began forming in various cities, including Toronto, where McInnes's words — like the credo, "I am a proud western chauvinist who refuses to apologize for creating the modern world" — were resonating with men.
And as the organization grew, its members became increasingly involved in violent confrontations.
One clash with anti-fascists in 2018 resulted in the arrest of 10 Proud Boys members, and McInnes releasing a statement saying that he was "disassociating" himself from the group in order to help "alleviate their sentencing." Still, McInnes continued to share his political views and support for the Proud Boys on his platform.
Proud Boys membership then increased "exponentially," according to one former member featured in the documentary, after then-U.S. president Donald Trump acknowledged the group during a debate in 2020.
"Proud Boys, stand back and stand by," he said, giving the organization a new motto that was eventually adapted into its logo.
Things would only escalate from there, with Proud Boys members taking part in the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — an attack that resulted in the deaths of at least seven people, according to a bipartisan report from the U.S. Senate.
The next month, Canada officially labelled the Proud Boys a terrorist entity, and the Canadian arm of the group officially disbanded later that year. The film notes, however, that there is no list of domestic terrorist groups in the United States, and reports suggest the Proud Boys remain active there.
In It's Not Funny Anymore, Morton works up to sitting down with McInnes himself to discuss the many theories he's come across that might explain how a once left-leaning, progressive media figure became a symbol of far-right militancy — including the theory that McInnes is a racist.
McInnes explains what he believes Proud Boys really mean when they say "Make America great again," and asserts that straight, white, male conservatives are the "least racist people in this country, in the world."
After the interview, Morton reflects on the criticism he believes he'll receive for not pushing harder against his former mentor, who continues to platform Proud Boys convicted on conspiracy to commit treason online.
Still, he concludes, "[Gavin's] whole deal is going too far, and now he's facing the consequences for that."
How to watch It's Not Funny Anymore: Vice to Proud Boys
Watch now on CBC Gem and the CBC Docs YouTube channel.