My name is David Cole, and the purpose of this fundraiser is to support the republication of my 2014 bestselling-but-banned autobiography and a new book about Holocaust denial.

And before you scroll down and groan “TLDR,” which is code for “I only read memes,” please remember that I’m a writer raising money for a writing project; it behooves me to, you know, WRITE about the details.

Chances are if you’re reading this you already know who I am, but I should probably introduce myself for the sake of newcomers.

In 1992, when I was in my early 20s, I was involved in Holocaust “revisionism,” and being Jewish, and thus a novelty in the field, I was invited to appear on several national TV shows.

About 50% of what I said at the time was right, and about 50% was wrong. I was in a process of learning at a time when there was a boom in Holocaust research, and in 1994, based on new findings from myself and others, I exited “revisionism.” I acknowledged my errors, confirmed my accuracies, and moved on with my life.

Then other stuff happened. A domestic terrorist group (the “Jewish Defense League”) put a $25,000 “bounty” on my head in 1997, something that’s been mythologized on the far-right as “the Jews” (or sometimes “the Mossad”) “ruined David Cole’s life.” But in fact the terrorists were just two local L.A. clods, the “bounty” was online less than two weeks, and the two clods died in prison.

Life NOT ruined. Mine, that is. Theirs? Ruined indeed.

By 2009, I’d become a major player in the Southern California GOP, and my exploits of 1992 seemed a distant memory.

Until April 2013 when my ex-girlfriend, a redhead supermodel with the face of Cinderella and the heart of Borgia, “outed” my past to The Guardian, and I became a “story of the week.”

See that link here.

In 2014 Feral House (the last great indie publishing company) published my autobiography, Republican Party Animal, and it became an Amazon #1 bestseller for six months straight and the #1 “Best Republican Party Book of All Time” on BookAuthority (an Amazon sister-site that ranks books via online searches and mentions) for three years straight. More than just an autobiography, the book included an updated Holocaust thesis that explicitly refuted Holocaust denial.

Then in January 2015 I became a weekly columnist for Taki’s Magazine, a job I held for over ten years.

In 2021 one of my columns angered sitcom bimbo Debra Messing (“Will and Grace”) and she successfully marshaled her 700,000 Twitter followers to lobby Amazon to ban my book. Amazon pulled the book, giving no explanation or chance for appeal. Meanwhile my publisher, Feral House, went woke after the death of its founder/owner Adam Parfrey (my friend of 31 years). Adam’s sister took over, removed my book from print, and shifted the company’s focus to “trans-women of color.”

My autobiography, out of print and banned from Amazon, has become so rare that copies on Ebay start at $500, while autographed copies start at $1,000.

I’ve long sought a deal with a new publisher to put my old book back in print, as the demand is high. The thing is, though, I don’t just want the old book back in print.

I have a larger mission.

My 1992 work inadvertently spawned a cult of Holocaust deniers who use my 1992 TV shows and videos to draw people into Holocaust denial. I’ve done whatever I can, using my Takimag column and social media, to fight this cult. However, when Elon Musk took over Twitter and gave the cult free rein, my efforts came to naught. Elon routinely retweets accounts that curate and excerpt my 1992 work, so my old, flawed, outdated content is now seen by tens of millions of new people, shorn of context. And Elon’s favorite “based” accounts, with millions of followers, tweet the old content daily.

If you’d told me in 1992 that those talk shows I did would, in 2025, be spread to tens of millions of people by the wealthiest man on earth, I’d have written you off as a madman. That a generation of morons would take my 1992 work as inerrant sacred icons as opposed to a kid on a journey making mistakes along the way is laughable. And tragic.

I created the cult, and it’s my responsibility to deal with it. I know the mindset of these people better than anyone, as it was I who birthed ‘em. And I’m keen to kill the cult.

Mind you, there’s no saving hardcore deniers; they’ve given their minds away. But I know how denial recruits, and I know how to intervene.

So whereas making a deal to reprint my first book proved an easy task, a no-brainer for any publisher (the rights to an in-demand out-of-print bestseller), I refused to make that deal without a concurrent deal for a second book – a primer against Holocaust denial written by the guy who can do it best. Because the ADL and Wiesenthal Center’s way of fighting denial – screaming “ANTEE-SEMITE!” – doesn't work. The explosion and growth of Holocaust denial online proves that. The ADL method is self-defeating; it doesn’t just not help, it actively harms.

To be sure, there are websites that attempt a more history-based approach to fighting denial tropes, but those sites are run by fanatics, self-styled crusaders who refuse to cede any flaws in the mainstream history no matter how minute. This, too, advances denial. A refusal to cede flaws is what deniers feed on, and the refusal to differentiate between the aspects of Holocaust history for which there are smoking guns that dispel any doubt and those aspects about which there’s still some room for debate only serves to minimize the strongest part of the historiography by tethering it to the weakest.

And that’s where my plan to use the reprinting of my first book as a bargaining chip for a second one hit a snag. Far-right publishers balked, because the core of my second book would be 100% anti-denial (so no Elon support, no far-right support). But mainstream publishers balked too, because it’s impossible to effectively fight denial without ceding uncertainties in the mainstream narrative, and ain’t nobody gonna touch that landmine.

Or so I thought. Last month I finally got a publishing deal on the table that works for me. The first book back in print, and a second one about the denial cult.

The sun rose the birds chirped unicorns shat rainbows and all was right with the world.

And then Shiloh Hendrix happened.

A white trash mamma in Minneapolis gave the middle finger to a camera, flicked her tongue like a lizard, went “blubbalubbalubba effing n-word! N-word n-word n-word!” and you gifted her $800,000 for her “bravery.” Or to battle “cancel culture,” even though she was never canceled; she was not arrested, fired, assaulted, or anything. She just got hurty words directed against her online, and apparently words actually do equal violence now, and the right’s embrace of that notion marks the moment when “Horseshoe Theory” (far-left and far-right come close to meeting) became “O-Ring Theory” (forget “close;” they join seamlessly).

BTW, of course Hendrix didn't say "effing" and "n-word," but GiveSendGo will not approve a campaign that quotes the actual words she spoke. See, you can raise $800,000 on here to celebrate her saying those words, but you can't quote the words.

Anyway, I’m looking at you people giving almost a million bucks to a woman for going “blubbalubbalubba effing n-word! N-word n-word n-word!” and I look at that paltry little publishing deal I spent a year trying to effect and I start thinking, is this book even worth it? Do any of you actually care about history? About the value of a historiography that avoids the ideological traps of both extremes and holds steadfastly loyal to the evidence wherever it leads?

I can’t write a book if I don’t think anybody wants to read it. I know myself; I won’t have the energy or will. I need to know that some of you care about history. If you don’t, screw it.

So here’s what I decided: can I raise $10,000, a mere fraction (1.20%) of what you think it’s worth to go “blubbalubbalubba effing n-word! N-word, n-word, n-word,” to fight the good fight against the dangerously ahistorical Holocaust denial cult and the ADL’s destructive “slurs over facts” response?

Is it worth $10,000 to you?

I think I chose an eminently reasonable figure. If I reach that goal, I’ll take the deal I have on the table and write the book. If I don’t, I won’t. This is not about the money; it’s about me as an author not desiring to devote the summer to a book nobody wants.

So if I don’t reach the goal, no harm no foul. I won’t even say “blubbalubbalubba” at you.

Anyone who puts in $1,000 or more will get a pre-release copy of both books, signed and personalized by me.

Let’s see if we can do this. But if we can't, I get why. The right's obsessed with "weaponizing words," and Holocaust denial is seen as a weapon to "own the libs" or "own the Jews" or "free the West" and I'm skeptical that anybody cares about accurate history if it conflicts with "owning" whoever, whatever.

I remember the days when rightists were the ones talking about "academic standards" and the value of teaching history for the sake of it. But that went out the window in the MAGA era. Now it's all about OWNING!

I’d love to spend summer 2025 writing a new book, while my old one goes back on the market with a new forward. If it happens it happens.

It’s in your hands now. I'll abide by your decision.