I’ve been writing articles for far-right websites in the US for a year now. I didn’t set out to do this; it started in October 2016, when I was finishing my PhD in London. My funding ran out, and I started writing content to pay the rent. I found clients through websites that allow potential writers to bid for work, and then build a portfolio of reviews from clients. There is an enormous amount of work available – everything from writing product copy to ghost-writing novels.

The first jobs I got were pretty shady. I was writing fake Amazon reviews and descriptions of perfume that had yet to be produced. A reliable client put me in touch with a colleague who runs a number of websites, one of which focuses on news about, and reviews of, guns.

I have never seen a gun, let alone used one, but I took the job. The site carries reviews of handgun accessories, and for each product there is a link to Amazon. My client gets paid for every click-through he generates through Amazon’s affiliate scheme. There are vast numbers of such sites: I’ve written fake reviews of amplifiers, baby products, printers and sex toys.

At first, I was paid $20 for 1,000 words. As the site began to make more money, I got paid more; I now get triple my original rate. I have never met my client, but we talk once a month to set priorities. He is young, American and not into guns. We write under a number of pseudonyms that are designed to look trustworthy to right-leaning American gun enthusiasts: generally, retired men with links to the military. I write for about 15 hours a week, and make £2,400 a month. I don’t have a contract, or any guarantee of ongoing work, but it suits me. I am still finishing that PhD.

Recently, we’ve tried to boost the site up the Google rankings. This involves writing for other sites that are visited by gun enthusiasts, a lot of them pretty extreme, and sneaking in a link to our own site. This is against their rules, so you have to hide the link deep in the middle of a dense paragraph, so no one notices.

I write articles arguing that banning bump stocks, which enable semi-automatic guns to fire more rapidly, won’t prevent mass shootings and that the left skews statistics. I believe the opposite to be true. I vehemently disagree with what I write, and with the sites I write for. I often despair at the ignorance on display. Only once have I written for a site that was racist. There was an article about “them”, referring to black people. That was the only time I’ve questioned what I do for a living.

But I don’t have a moral problem with it. I wish I had some snappy argument about why what I’m doing is not wrong. I’m furthering ignorance, certainly, and perhaps contributing to an atmosphere of hatred. But I don’t think people have died as a result of my work. Perhaps I am more nihilistic than most, but in the end, it’s a job and it pays well.

I have never made up a statistic, invented a story, or been racist. I think I would refuse to do so. I see my role as providing an extreme right-wing interpretation of breaking news. Though I do not believe the stories I write, I don’t count this as lying.

I suppose the articles I write would be regarded as fake news. Though that has got a lot of attention recently, I think it is merely a new term for an old phenomenon. This type of ideologically driven journalism pre-dates the internet and perhaps even the printing press: what were Der Stürmer, Pravda and Trajan’s Column, if not fake news?

Ultimately, I feel that it is the responsibility of individuals to assess critically everything they read: my articles are designed to sell gun accessories; newspaper articles are designed to sell newspapers. I don’t see that much difference between the two.

My friends know what I do for a living, and find it amusing. There is an absurd humour in a young(ish), left(ish), British arts student pretending to be a far-right, middle-aged, American gun enthusiast. They recognise that my earnings give me the freedom to live and work where I want.

I’ll continue to work for this client for at least another six months, by which time I will have finished my PhD and saved enough to go travelling. Then I’ll get my first proper job in five years. If my rate continues to increase, though, I’ll continue to write for this client. It’s easy money

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