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Local Fascist Historian, Vance Pollock

Thomas Vance Pollock AKA Vance Pollock

Wife: Hulda P. Pollock
Addresses: 17 East Ridge Court, Fairview, NC
PO BOX 1357 E. Charlotte Hwy, Fairview, NC
Email: vancepollock@hotmail.com
Vehicle: 2012 Purple Ford Fusion, NC plate- DAJ1825

Known Accounts:

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One Fool’s Silver

    Thomas Vance Pollock, also known as Vance Pollock, is an antisemitic, white supremacist, and local fascist historian living just outside of Asheville in Fairview, North Carolina.

     Vance Pollock grew up in Lakeland, Florida, and attended Florida Southern College, majoring in Communications. To date, Pollock’s professional career features occupations in line with his self proclaimed identity as a historian and researcher. This orientation has landed him work as a researcher for local ghost tours, a curator and host of broadcasted radio, and up until recently, Pollock worked as a librarian for Buncombe County Public Library System. Pollock has a history of being asked to leave his job for a variety of reasons. At times he is barred from professional spaces due to persistent harassment of co-workers. At other times, it’s thanks to the public’s knowledge of his fascist beliefs. Pollock has long been gum on the shoe of any and all those he comes across due to his hateful ideology and predatory personality. 

  As a longtime Asheville resident motivated by his identity as a fascist and a fascist historian, Vance Pollock has focused his attention on William Dudley Pelley for at least 3 decades. Pelley, whose life and organizing efforts were based in Asheville, NC, was a science fiction author and the founder of the Christian fascist Silver Legion of America aka the Silver Shirts. Pelley is noted by one of his biographers as “one of the first Americans to create an organization celebrating the work of Adolf Hitler.” The earliest documentation citing Vance’s interest and affinity with fascist organizing was in 1993. While writing an academic paper, Vance tracked down and began to network with former supporters of the Silver Legion. Throughout the bevy of evidence on Vance Pollock’s proliferation and praise of fascist ideology, his gross admiration of William Dudley Pelley comes up time and time again.

    At age 30, Vance Pollock visited Iceland and met his current wife Hulda Pollock. Although we were unable to locate evidence linking Hulda Pollock to personally held fascist beliefs, it is unlikely she has no knowledge of her husband’s passion for fascism. Hulda Pollock is also an employee of Buncombe County Public Library System at the Swannanoa branch in the Children’s Department. She professionally holds the title of Pre-School Teacher. This implies close proximity to the children and families who visit the Swannanoa Public Library. Last year, Vance Pollock tried to join his wife in her proximity to impressionable young minds when he applied for a position as a youth librarian. Luckily, the Buncombe County Public Library System decided against putting him in charge of curating educational materials for impressionable youth on the public dime.    

Until very recently, Pollock worked as a local librarian for the Buncombe County Public Library System at the downtown Asheville branch. On February 23, 2023, an internal investigation into Pollock concluded in the termination of his position. This investigation was conducted by the Buncombe County Library System in response to several employee complaints and recent stalking charges filed against Pollock (explained in further detail later in the article). Notably, Pollock’s promotion of fascist ideology was not explicitly cited as reasoning for his termination.

    Previously, Vance Pollock was the former host of a local radio show called Riffin’, a weekly broadcast that hosted a variety of musical guests, playlists, and interviews. Riffin’ filled Vance’s niche interest in 1950’s-1970s rock and roll. Although an inaccurate representation of the musical region and genre, the show featured musicians and guests who were almost exclusively white. To our knowledge, Pollock was never transparent about his fascist ideology with fans and affiliates of Riffin’. Under the guise of affinity, Vance grew an extensive network of musical peers who were unaware of his narrow, violent, and hateful values.   Pollock is also an administrator of the Facebook group “Carolina Rock’n’Roll Remembered”.

    In March of 2022, Vance appeared on Joshua P. Warren’s paranormal podcast Strange Things. Warren is known in association with Asheville Ghost Tours and as an author and podcaster on local, ghostly history. The two have a documented friendly relationship and we can only infer that Warren is aware of Pollock’s fascist identity, although we are not certain. Pollock’s appearance on Strange Things compliments his fixation on nazi symbolism and connects to his obsession with William Dudley Pelley. In addition to the proliferation of his fascist ideology, Pelley developed an elaborate religious philosophy called “Soulcraft”. Soulcraft was inspired by Pelley’s belief in UFOs and extraterrestrials. Pollock is particularly interested in this esoteric aspect of Pelley’s thought and has written on it extensively. In the episode, Warren explains to his audience that he met Pollock during research investigations into Pelley. Very sus. Pollock focuses on promoting Pelley’s writings as a paranormal researcher, instead of disclosing how Pelley’s Soulcraft relates to fascism. Similarly, Pollock downplays his own identity as a fascist when discussing paranormal phenomenon.

    While it is well documented that Pollock has long been involved in fascist theorizing, he has also openly  expressed support and desire to bring expansive white supremacism to fruition.

    Vance Pollock was on the radar of antifascists since 2016. In an interview with Triad City Beat at a Trump Rally, Vance was featured wearing a “Kill a Commie” Ramones T-shirt while gripping a confederate battle flag. When asked about the flag, Pollock passionately went on about his “forebearers” and his “homeland”- practically slipping in his own goo. Later, in the Summer of 2020, we noted Vance Pollock’s Facebook profile as a coordinator for the right-wing motorcades which were plaguing the city. The local motorcades launched from a Tunnel Road parking lot in East Asheville throughout town. Their stated goal was to harass, endanger, and discourage community marches responding to pervasive police violence and racial injustice. More recently, in 2022, public posts to Pollock’s Gab and other social media accounts unmasked him as the fascist responsible for stickering on behalf of the Aryan Freedom Network (an openly fascist group that promotes Christian Identity and other antisemitic material), and Patriot Front (another more well-known fascist group that many on the far right think are riddled with federal informers). The latter group was spawned from Vanguard America, the group responsible for the murder of Heather Heyer at the 2017 Unite The Right Rally in Charlottesville, VA).

The Librarian Who Loved Hitler

    A particularly un-neighborly compulsion of Vance’s is his desire to spoil books in what are known locally as “Little Free Libraries”. These boxes, humbly plotted throughout neighborhoods and parks in and around Asheville, are built and decorated by neighbors with a wholesome “leave a book, take a book” mentality. Unfortunately, they have become targets for Vance’s arts and crafts. And what we facetiously mean by arts and crafts, is that Pollock ruins books by pasting permanent, full-sized, full-color sticker copies of Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler onto random books inside. Pollock brags about this on his social media. Not a very clever boy.

    According to some of his former coworkers in the Buncombe County Public Library System, Pollock ordered copies of Mein Kampf from interlibrary loan services (like NC Cardinal Loans) and put them on hold at library branches throughout the Buncombe County Public Library System that have Jewish, LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, and other historically marginalized groups employed there. This can be understood as one of the many tactics Pollock has deployed to isolate, intimidate, and disrupt the environments he is in proximity to. Until recently, Pollock took advantage of the library resources that allowed him private access to library patrons’ and employees’ personal information. Several library employees have changed their addresses to PO Boxes to avoid harassment from Vance Pollock and his online cohorts.

    Let’s return to Pollock’s sticker compunction. We learned through Pollock’s public “American_Archvillain” Gab account that he was arrested for and is currently facing harassment and misdemeanor stalking charges in Madison County, NC. These charges are a result of threatening material Pollock admitted to leaving at the home he believed to belong to the mother of a member of Task Force Butler Institute (a research group made up of veterans who keep tabs on fascists and pass that information along to law enforcement). Pollock left a book about a mother who suddenly goes missing with a sticker of Mein Kampf on the cover on this woman’s mailbox. As a librarian, Vance had access through the NC Cardinal of Consortium system, and it is extremely likely Pollock was able to discover her private address and leave disturbing artifacts at her home due to his access to the names and addresses of Buncombe County Public Library patrons. His next court date for stalking is April 21st, 2023

    Vance Pollock recently complained on social media that his vehicle was vandalized with the words “Nazi Scum”  spray painted on it. This story, carefully crafted to position himself as a victim of antifascist retaliation, was featured on his very own gofundme page.

Juxtaposed by his pathetic attempt at victimization, Pollock took this as an opportunity to further amplify his affinity with fascist organizing by posting on his Gab account. He added a clip of the word “Rise”, a logo taken from the the defunct, street fighting fascist group “Rise Above Movement” (whose leader Rob Rundo is in Europe avoiding US federal charges).

Although we are not privy to the circumstances of the vandalism (besides what Vance has expressed on his twitter and Gab), the timing of this event appears to coincide with a gathering of Aryan Freedom Network occurring in Greensboro, NC. Since Pollock uses his Gab account to post and boost the Aryan Freedom Network (AFN) page, we were able to view his claim that this event prevented his attendance that weekend.

Aryan Freedom Network sued the anti-fascist veteran group Task Force Butler in response to being investigated and outed by them. It is likely that the group was on Task Force Butler’s radar due to Pollock’s fixation and harassment of family members of the Task Force Butler crew.

Spine(less) Connections

Pollock’s social media accounts and relationships endorse white nationalism and white supremacy. Pollock has over a dozen social media accounts. Most of them explicitly praise fascist figures and organizations including but not limited to –  Patriot Front, Silver Legion, William Dudley Pelley, Aryan Freedom Network, Adolph Hitler, Counter Currents Publishing, and Arktos Publishing. His affinity can be seen in his simpering online communications with support accounts affiliated with these accounts, and in his friendship on Facebook with the infamously vile Kirk Lyons. 

A bit on this snake – Kirk Lyons, also known as “the Klan lawyer”, is a decades-long-in-the-tooth white supremacist who lives in Black Mountain, NC. Lyons’ racist bona fides include his Southern Legal Resource Centers attempt to gain recognition of “Confederate Southern Americans” as a legally protected (white) minority under the 1964 Civil Rights Act, it’s provision of legal defense for Tom Metzger ( a member of National Alliance and Aryan Nations) and the organizations attempted coup within Sons of Confederate Veterans to move them from a “Lost Cause”-remembrance society into a more active white supremacist formation. At one point Lyons was married the sister of jailed Order defendant, David Tate. When contextualized by Pollock’s own affinity and activism, this Facebook friendship is not neutral by any stretch of the imagination.

    In addition to networking online with local white supremacists, Vance Pollock shares comments with fascist publishers like Counter-Currents and Arktos. Arktos fits Pollock’s esoteric and artsy self-image. They publish books on “hollow earth” conspiracy theories, translations of Alexander Dugin’s “Fourth Political Theory”, and endorse the works of French New Right author Alain de Benoist. One former American editor at Arktos, John B. Morgan, also shares administrative roles in a Pelley fan club with  Pollock (see picture above).

Vance Pollock and the FBI

    As previously mentioned, Vance Pollock is not the only sheep in his flock with a skewed lens through which he sees the world. Vance Pollock’s cousin, Jonathan Pollock, enthusiastically attended the infamous J6 attacks on the U.S. capitol in 2021 under the impression that the 2020 US presidential election was stolen. A copious amount of video and bodycam footage captured Jonathan Pollock’s attendance and actions on that day – including but not limited to attacks on law enforcement. In the face of such damning evidence, Jonathan Pollock remains on the run from the FBI. Vance Pollock is fully aware of his cousin’s involvement in J6 and used his substack to voice his support of Jonathan’s decision to flee.

    Vance Pollock claims to have been visited by the FBI about Jonathan Pollock’s whereabouts. At the same time that he  decries FBI harassment, Pollock has also said that he’s collaborated with the FBI about revealing the identities of some local antifascist activists. In another connection to the FBI, Vance has posted on his substack defending Patriot Front from accusations of being FBI OPS. It’s difficult to know what the truth is or who Vance Pollock thinks he’s playing against whom.

Some of the Aftermath

   Thankfully, Vance Pollock is no longer employed in the Buncombe County Public Library System. Pollock’s current state of unemployment is not due to anonymous action on behalf of an antifascist organization. Pollock is unemployed due to the Buncombe County Public Library System administration finally addressing his hostile actions and behaviors. Over the years, Pollock has accrued dozens of concerns and complaints from coworkers, embarrassed himself socially and legally via stalking and harassment charges, and in doing so, has motivated an entire sector of the Asheville community to stand against his presence and employment anywhere. But this is not the end of the story.

    Since his recent termination, Pollock struggles to make ends meet. He has sold parts of his William Dudley Pelley memorabilia collection and continues to run bad-faith online fundraisers to garner support. Pollock thematically portrays himself as a misunderstood historian of fascism, instead of a fascist whose expertise includes fascist history. Because Pollock has carefully crafted a forward-facing reputation as a historian of local rock and roll music, we see the potential for Pollock to lean into those networks as a social safety net.

    In March of 2022, Vance appeared on Joshua P. Warren’s paranormal podcast Strange Things. Warren is known in association with Asheville Ghost Tours, as an author and podcaster on local, ghostly history. Pollock’s appearance on Strange Things compliments his fixation on esoteric nazi symbolism like the Black Sun and Sonnenrad. The two have a documented friendly relationship and we can only infer that Warren is aware of Pollock’s fascist identity, although we are not certain.

Vance continues to push to appear as a “Pelley historian”, rather than an acolyte. This stark misrepresentation of his politics and position related to fascist history has landed him interviews in print, audio, and video.

    Platforming Pollock as a neutral chronicler of local extremist history erases the reality that Vance Pollock endorses fascism and actively supports the subjugation and destruction of people he considers inferior.  Platforming Pollock in any way, shape, or form allows unsuspecting individuals and groups vulnerable to his violence and predatory behaviors. He attempted this when applying for the position as a youth librarian. And as we’ve seen with his vandalism of Little Free Libraries, Vance is willing to go to great lengths to promote fascism.

This article is intended to inform all community members of Vance Pollock’s identity as a malicious fascist. We are especially interested in reaching musicians, musical historians, NC historians, and members of the haunted Asheville world, so that collectively, we are able to give this fascist creep the boot!

Don’t Give Him An Inch!

As always, please feel free to send us any further information at ashevilleantiracism@protonmail.com