Lauren Chen

Lauren Elise Donovan (née Chen) , formerly known as Roaming Millennial, is a Canadian YouTube vlogger and former BlazeTV host who fancies herself as an Asian Lauren Southernhttps://twitter.com/TheLaurenChen/status/1321553444021428224 and promotes white nationalist talking points.
As of February 2021, Chen's YouTube channel had over 445k subscribers and 60 million views.https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLUrVTVTA3PnUFpYvpfMcpg/about She produced a show called Pseudo-Intellectual for BlazeTV from 2019-2020,https://www.theblaze.com/shows/pseudo-intellectual/ but was fired from Blaze in 2024 due to ties to an alleged Russian front group.Ben Smith (September 5, 2024). "Blaze fires contributor linked to alleged Russian operation". Semafor. Her YouTube channels were suspended around the same time.
==Support for the alt-right==
Chen has claimed The Bell Curve is factual,https://archive.is/QxFEi a book that addresses a difference in IQ between ethnic groups and how intelligence affects their ability to rise out of poverty. White nationalists have used this as an argument for white racial supremacy. She claims that Charles Murray, the author of this book, is not racist. She herself believes that IQ is mostly genetic.https://archive.is/ody4Q
===Richard Spencer===
In May 2017, Chen hosted a jovial three-part interview with white supremacist Richard Spencer, never asking anything beyond softball questions.Richard Spencer Interview | What is the Alt-Right? (Pt. 1). Lauren Chen, YouTube, 2 May 2017. Chen received heavy criticism for her approach to this interview, most notably from the YouTuber ContraPoints. In response, Chen defended Spencer by claiming "No one (Richard Spencer included) is advocating people be killed" and asking, "Has it occurred to you that maybe he isn't exactly what the media has been trying to push?"To Interview or Not? | Richard Spencer & the Alt-Right (feat. Contrapoints). Lauren Chen, YouTube, 5 May 2017. In November 2019, audio would leak of Richard Spencer going on a racist, anti-Semitic tirade during the deadly Unite the Right rally.LEAKED AUDIO: Richard Spencer reacts to the death of Heather Heyer (EXPLICIT). MILO, YouTube, 3 November 2019.
===Nick Fuentes===
Chen has defended white supremacist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes on at least three occasions. The first was when he called on his followers (known as groypers) to hijack a Charlie Kirk speaking event at Ohio State University. During the event's Q&A section, the groypers asked such bad faith questions as, "How does anal sex help us win the culture war?" Another groyper told the crowd to Google "dancing Israelis", which is in reference to an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory alleging that Israel was responsible for 9/11.https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/11/1/1896408/-Alt-right-trolls-make-life-miserable-for-Charlie-Kirk-and-his-Turning-Point-USA-Culture-War-tour Following the event, Twitter user Will Chamberlain uploaded a clip of Fuentes going on a vitriolic rant against Turning Point USA's support of Israel. Chen replied in a now deleted tweet by stating, "I don't know about the rest of Fuentes' views, but there's nothing antisemitic in this clip. Is it really that outrageous to ask why TPUSA focuses so much on Israel?" When Fuentes confronted Chen about deleting the tweet, she clarified, "I deleted the tweet because I was told those guys were from Politicon, not TPUSA. That aside though, I do stand by what I said."
The second time was after MTV released a documentary titled "White Supremacy Destroyed My Life",http://www.mtv.com/episodes/cf3hzt/mtv-news-specials-mtv-news-presents-white-supremacy-destroyed-my-life-season-1-ep-1 which focused in part on Fuentes's hateful rhetoric. Chen was quick to release her own video titled "MTV SCAMS Nick Fuentes."https://youtu.be/ft2OLOS196M
The third time was on October 15th 2023, one week after the terrorist group Hamas massacred 1200 Israelis and kidnapped over 200 to be taken as hostages in Gaza. Chen praised actual neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes's "balanced and rational take" on the conflict between Israel and Hamas.https://www.israellycool.com/2023/10/15/glenn-beck-you-have-a-lauren-chen-problem/
===Soph===
On August 5, 2019, Chen released a video in defense of far-right YouTuber Soph, criticizing YouTube's decision to terminate Soph's channel for hate speech.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcP-GVPuUbo In her video, Chen simplistically describes Soph as a "foul-mouthed 14-year-old girl talking about politics", yet omits mentioning her anti-black racism, death threat towards YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, and calling for a genocide of all Muslims.https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/josephbernstein/youtubes-newest-far-right-foul-mouthed-red-pilling-star-is
===Brittany Sellner===
In 2018, Chen invited alt-right commentator Brittany Sellner (then Brittany Pettibone) on her channel for an interview.Brittany Pettibone Interview | What Makes Us Girls. Lauren Chen, YouTube, 23 December 2018. Despite Sellner's record of promoting conspiracy theories, white nationalist rhetoric, and anti-Semitic dog whistling, none of it was addressed during the interview.
===Stefan Molyneux===
In 2019, Chen interviewed Stefan MolyneuxStefan Molyneux on Immigration & Libertarianism PLUS Borderless & Single, Childless Women. Lauren Chen, YouTube, 29 May 2019. where she laughs off the idea of him being a white nationalist, even when in 2018 he has admitted to liking the idea of an "all-white country."RWW News: Stefan Molyneux Says His Trip to Poland Sold Him on White Nationalism. RightWingWatchdotorg, YouTube, 21 December 2018.
===Lauren Southern===
Chen has promoted Borderless,https://archive.is/qIku7 a documentary on the "European Border Crisis" created by Canadian white nationalist Lauren Southern.
Despite Southern's track record of controversial behavior, including throwing flares at a migrant boat in efforts to stop the boat from arriving at their destination safely,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAV0eI6MnrA she has introduced Southern's views to her audience in, once again, a jovial manner.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONeGyQ0PZjshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaQEjpY-YTo
Chen has defended Southern, Brittany Sellner, and Martin Sellner on their ban from the UK,https://archive.vn/q9xm6 blaming it on there being no freedom of speech in Europe. In reality, their motives for coming to the UK were to distribute flyers in a mostly Muslim populace which read: "Allah is gay." They are known to be apart of an extremist group known as Generation Identity.
===Antelope Hill===
In 2024, Lauren Chen reposted a tweet by Antelope Hill reading "I don't think this book should be on the shelf when my friends come over."https://archive.org/details/chen-antelopehilltweet Antelope Hill is a white supremacist publishing house which publishes books written by Nazis, and shares its' initials with Adolf Hitler (A.H), Antelope Hill's idol. The tweet is an apparent reference to owners of books published by Antelope Hill needing to hide their Nazi sympathies from their less extreme friends.
==Views==
===Immigration===
Chen is against open border policies and globalism,https://youtu.be/_SCYaWyuOgk?t=356 a term that is considered an anti-semitic slur.https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/03/the-origins-of-the-globalist-slur/555479/ She believes that limiting the amount of immigration will lower the chances of ""cultural ghettos"" from forming, and increase the chances of them assimilating into American culture.https://youtu.be/_SCYaWyuOgk?t=219
On several occasions, Chen has made comments hinting at belief in the Great Replacement conspiracy theory.
===Abortion===
Chen is against abortion. She claimed on Twitter that “science is on the pro-life side”.https://twitter.com/TheLaurenChen/status/1166375853149884417 In her video called “The TRUTH About Abortion & Sex”,https://youtu.be/zkNkfpuXOVU she is much more critical of the pro-choice side than the pro-life side. She also pushes pro-life talking points about distinct DNA and the fetus’s heartbeat being detected at 6 weeks, while ignoring the fact that around 90% of abortions happen before 13 weekshttps://www.newsweek.com/vast-majority-abortions-high-income-countries-happen-13th-week-pregnancy-1390295 (with most of those happening before 8 weeks), which is way before a fetus is viable. She also expressed support for crisis pregnancy centres,https://youtu.be/zkNkfpuXOVU?t=449 which are known for misleading vulnerable women, manipulating them into keeping the baby, and strategically setting themselves up next to abortion clinics to confuse women.
===Race===
In a video entitled “People of Color: You Are Not Oppressed” made in response to the protests at Evergreen State College, Chen claims that people of color are not oppressed because on paper they have equal rights and because those students in particular study liberal arts in university, ignoring history and how it has lasting effects. Her video contained numerous logical fallacies which were noticed by many of her critics: strawmanning and fallacy of relative privation, to name a couple. In that video she ignores the effects of The War on Drugs, a policy that started in the Nixon administration and was used to target minorities and leftists.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbtYCq9kymA
She has falsely claimed that “black people are more likely to commit crimes than other races”, citing Fox News and far right website Downtrend,https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/downtrend/ while claiming she is not trying “to go all race realist on you guys”. 
===LGBTQ+===
Chen expressed concern that more people identify as LGBT now than ever before.We're Getting GAYER? Environmental & Genetic Effects on Sexuality Lauren Chen (2019) YouTube.com Chen fails to see that people just now feel comfortable being honest about their orientation. There is a huge distinction between how someone identifies, and who someone is actually attracted to. For example, closeted gay men are counted as heterosexuals in surveys. A more accepting environment simply means more honesty (and fewer women being cheated on by their gay husband). Data scientist reported that the actual prevalence of gay men doesn't appear to vary between states in the U.S. because the percentage of Internet porn searches that are for gay male porn are nearly the same in all states, about 5%. He reports that in states where there is a social stigma against homosexuality that "many more gay men are in the closet than are out". More recent studies also count “mostly heterosexual” people as a distinct category, so some surveys show increases in people reporting LGBT identity simply due to new survey methodologies.
Chen has claimed that homosexuality is mostly the result of the 'environment' based upon the summary of a single identical twin study. Chen is clearly out of her depth when it comes to interpreting science, since the "environment" in sexual-orientation research largely refers to the pre-natal environment (womb), where the developing foetus is subject to hormone timing, androgen and testosterone exposure, as well as epigenetic shifts. The prenatal environment is significant since it can result in one identical twin with right handedness while the other is left handed. Identical twins also have different heights and other physiological differences which are affected by the prenatal environment. Chen apparently believes identical twins should be perfect clones, and like many other social conservatives, almost immediately assumes 'environment' must mean the psychosocial environment, which is a very weak predictor of sexual orientation, especially in men.Sexual Orientation, Controversy, and Science Bailey et al. (2016) Journal of Psychological Science in the Public Interest She also appears to be ignorant of biological differences between heterosexuals and non-heterosexuals, i.e. gay men react positively to male pheromones while lesbians react positively to female pheromones, lesbians often have masculine inner ear structures, gay men have fingerprint density which resembles straight women, while lesbians have fingerprint density which resembles straight men (on average), gay men are shorter than straight men while lesbians are taller than straight women (on average).The Science of Gaydar (2007) NYmag.com These are just a few indicators of the biological underpinnings of non-heterosexuality. The social environment certainly contributes to people being honest about their non-heterosexuality; in accepting environments they come out, while in highly conservative environments they stay closeted to avoid sanctions.
Chen has criticized pride parades, once tweeting that they are "no longer about LGBT rights, they're about exhibitionism" alongside a video of a man twerking. After some criticism for conflating all gay people with exhibitionism, she replied "I’m not conflating them with Pride. I’m saying our culture is obsessed with exhibitionism and often conflates it with social activism", and referred to the dancing in the video as "degenerate".Pride tweets (archived) Lauren Chen (2019) twitter.com Objectively speaking, the video wasn't even that "degenerate" since the man was fully dressed.
Chen approaches trans issues from the viewpoint of transmedicalism, believes human brains are inherently gendered, and conflates sex with gender.https://archive.is/jGE1whttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69QBODgzJI8 She cited the work of highly controversial psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa, whose work has been heavily criticized and accused of being pseudoscientific. She does not believe in non-binary gender identities and has mocked non-binary singer Sam Smith’s gender identity.https://twitter.com/TheLaurenChen/status/1252321433629462530 She has even called non-binary people the derisive term transtrenders.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf1NT_brKd0
===Religion===
Chen now identifies as a "Christian nationalist,"https://archive.is/iBcz9 and claims that "Christianity is the only path away from degeneracy." She has also collaborated with the fundamentalist Christian duo Girl Defined, who have written homophobic blog posts.https://www.girldefined.com/same-sex-attraction-and-the-christian-girlhttps://web.archive.org/web/20171122161901/https://www.girldefined.com/keeping-marriage-straight-bible-never-recognizes-gay-marriage Chen claims the duo "do an amazing job" and are "a great resource."https://youtu.be/Iu0VUhWMV78?t=56
She claims that separation of church and state, equality of races and sexes (politically for the sexes), are biblically supported. She also believes there is a breakdown of the family and that there is a rise of narcissistic hedonism and that it is degenerate.https://archive.is/9ehru 
Lastly, she claims that Christians are happier than atheists, but provides no evidence for this claim.https://twitter.com/TheLaurenChen/status/1074329812846694400
===Feminism===
Chen is against feminism, including the 19th Amendment of the United States Constitution that provided women with the right to vote in elections.(April 15, 2024). "Lauren Chen Doesn't Believe In Democracy Or Letting Women Vote". Right Wing Watch (YouTube). She purports herself to be a traditional woman, writing articles for Evie Magazinehttps://www.eviemagazine.com/author/lauren-chen/ against hookup culture and modern dating culture and making a video for PragerU about how women should date with a purpose: to get married.https://twitter.com/prageru/status/1227979743363915776 She is against casual sex. She’s claimed that masculinity is under attack by feminists, that “men are more effeminate now than they used to be”, and that masculinity isn’t appreciated as much anymore.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A1HlBhoVUY&feature=emb_title
==Useful idiot==
A 2024 US Justice Department indictment alleged that Tenet Media was a front company for the Russian government.DOJ alleges Russia funded US media company linked to right-wing social media stars by Zachary Cohen et al. (September 5, 2024) CNN. Tenet Media is purportedly a project of Chen and her husband Liam Donovan. Chen was fired by her Blaze TV shortly after it was revealed of her connection to Tenet. In addition, YouTube terminated both her own channel and that of Tenet.
==External links==
*Her YouTube
*Her Twitter
*Her Facebook page
*Her BlazeTV Facebook page
*Her Instagram
*Her TikTok
*Her articles for Evie Magazine
==References==
Category:Alt-lite
Category:Anti-Catholicism
Category:Antifeminism
Category:Antisemitism
Category:Bloggers
Category:Canadians
Category:Christians
Category:Conservative deceit
Category:Conspiracy theorists
Category:Fascists
Category:Great Replacement conspiracy theorists
Category:Homophobes
Category:Internalized discrimination
Category:Internet kooks
Category:Islamophobes
Category:Living people
Category:Political pundits
Category:Purity culture
Category:Racists
Category:Right-wing activists
Category:Sexists
Category:Transphobes
category:Trumpism
Category:Vatniks
Category:YouTube