When John Turano showed up to a few major pro-Trump rallies last year in body armor and a Spartan helmet—brawling with Antifa protestors and confronting anyone who got in his way—he quickly became an icon of the alt-right “Patriot” movement.
But after Turano, a.k.a. Based Spartan, realized that some of the people he’d aligned himself with were neo-Nazis, homophobes, and racists, he turned against the movement—going from alt-right celebrity to pariah overnight.
VICE met up with Turano at his home in Los Angeles to hear why he joined the alt right in the first place, what it was like to rally with them, and why he decided to go his own way.
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