Richard Spencer, the Baldur von Schirach of getting clocked in the face, was on the receiving end of yet more humiliation earlier today when he was peacefully cleansed from the Conservative Political Action Conference for being, in the words of its spokesman, “repugnant.” Being deemed too odious for a gathering where Steve Bannon counts as a headliner is embarrassing enough, but—as comeuppance for Spencer and his “alt-right” ilk tends to come swiftly and in several rounds these days—the shitting on Spencer didn’t end there.
Before he was hustled off the premises, Spencer spent some time being pelted with questions by reporters, who were surely hoping the light from their cameras would once again attract someone’s flying fists. Among those queries used to stall him in place was a softball on whether he likes “rock music.” Spencer answered in the affirmative, according to New York Magazine’s Olivia Nuzzi, taking the opportunity to express his love of Depeche Mode with his usual scorched-earth talent for ruining everything around him.
Though Spencer has drawn parallels before between danceable British synth-pop bands and the “alt-right”—once declaring Depeche Mode and New Order to be the “fashiest ’80s electro-pop bands”—he later clarified on Twitter that he was “obviously” joking. Nevertheless, he maintained that he has been “a lifelong Depeche Mode fan.” It’s a statement borne out by Spencer having done stuff like rank all of the group’s albums on Facebook, his placing of Black Celebration over both Music For The Masses and Violator just one of the many ways in which he is always wrong.