Meet New 1995 Society Inductee, Nathan Fatal!
Meet New 1995 Society Inductee Nathan Fatal!
Nathan Fatal is the Director of Community Organizing at the Leadership Institute. He has overseen hundreds of volunteers and political campaign staff across the United States and has trained over 10,000 activists globally. He led the charge on lawsuits and legislation that protected the freedom of speech and expression at 76 American universities. In 2021 and 2022, he organized restaurant owners and activists in Los Angeles to engage in civil disobedience against lockdowns that were destroying family-run businesses and the freedom of commerce essential to a free society. Before his time as an organizer, he oversaw campus groups, training, and events on the West Coast for the Leadership Institute and Young Americans for Liberty.
He will be inducted into the 1995 Society at our California Awards Showcase at FreedomFest. Grab your tickets here and get to know Nathan below!
What moment or opportunity in your life played the most significant part in getting you to where you are today?
There have been so many good influences and blessings in my life, including family, teachers, friends, experiences, and authors. It’s hard to pin it down to one. But here’s one that had huge impact and that is most accessible to whoever may read or hear this – I attended something called the Landmark Forum. The Forum can be somewhat partially explained as a personal and professional development course, but that doesn’t do it justice. You don’t go there to learn information about how to improve or fix something. You go there to learn what’s getting in your way, what your limiting beliefs are, what’s stopping you, etc. I learned the types of questions, even a language, that I should be asking and talking to myself in. Everything I’ve ever accomplished in my career, and all the positive impact I’ve had on others, can somehow be traced back to what became possible when I got out of my own way. I really hope this will catch on in the Liberty Movement and that people will stop being suspicious of ways to improve ourselves. Just because we’re supposedly saving the world, doesn’t mean we can’t and shouldn’t be better.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve overcome in your career so far?
The biggest challenge has been limiting beliefs. Including those formerly held by me, and those still held by many in the liberty movement, including people in leadership and management positions. Some of those beliefs include the idea that if we just educate enough people, or distribute enough information, or get enough followers on social media, we will suddenly have the world our way. But it has nothing to do with quantity, or with information, or with knowledge. It has to do with people’s mindsets and how we connect with people.
Another limiting belief has been that people don’t get involved because they’re uneducated, misinformed, ignorant, apathetic, or un-American. The truth is, people don’t get involved because they don’t understand the impact of politics and policy on their lives, they don’t understand the impact they as a person can have on the political process, and they have no idea where to start. And all of this happens because of a deeper problem, which is that we, the people who can reach them, aren’t reaching them in the way that means the most to them.
We need to meet people where they’re at, understand their unique challenges and experiences, tailor our approach and our focus on topics to them, and enroll them in an action or series of actions they can take that actually seem like an opportunity to them, rather than as a duty.
What piece of work or accomplishment are you most proud of?
I spearheaded and developed the Leadership Institute’s first training on volunteer recruitment, community organizing, and the Second Amendment. I organized restaurant and gym owners, parents’ rights activists, and Second Amendment instructors. I built a strategy to change campus policies en masse – rather than targeting one bad policy at one campus at a time, I figured out a way to change policies at multiple schools that are within a community college district.
In your words, what motivates your belief in freedom?
My grandparents, parents, aunts, and uncles were all born in Portugal at a time when it was under a fascist dictatorship, with very low literacy rates, no upward mobility or career opportunity, no free speech, and dangerous levels of polarization and distrust.
What do you believe is the greatest challenge facing America today?
America is spreading its resources and focus too thin, both domestically and internationally. We have conflicting policies and values that make it hard for Americans to know the direction the country is going. America needs to recognize policies that have gone wrong or are not working, and redirect resources to problems that can be solved or improved at home.
The current type and levels of polarization, hyper-partisanship, tribalism, and the disintegration of community and civic life are unhelpful and dangerous. Just like the country and government as a whole, individuals, families, and communities need to focus on what they actually have power and control over, and emphasize looking and building inward.
What is the next big goal or project you’re working on? How can the AF community help?
I want to develop extensive activism and leadership development in the policy areas of energy freedom and self-defense. In other words, protecting our right to use a wide range of energy rather than banning everything powered by gas, and protecting the Second Amendment by putting on professionally run lessons that teach people how to use and defend their rights. That’s going to take some serious fundraising, content development, network and relationship building, and new ways of thinking to do all this stuff in a way that it will have a large-scale, measurable, tangible impact in our lifetimes. The AF community can help by joining me in building a mastermind group of people dedicated to planning and executing high-quality training programs and activism.
What advice do you have for those who want to advance liberty and make a difference in our society?
Focus on the actions and impact that are within your power to take, that don’t require more knowledge, experience, or money to get started on. Rather than being mad or sad about the state of politics, the country, or the world, and trying to have a say on and surface-level involvement with everything, focus on things you can do something about right here and right now.
What are some hobbies/side gigs/secret skills no one knows about?
One of my main hobbies is language. I speak European Portuguese and Spanish at a level of about C1 (which means the lower side of the advanced bracket of language classification), and I’m learning French and Latin. I picked up a small amount of Polish a while back, and learned a small but useful amount of French when I went to France for my first solo trip in a country where I don’t speak the language. Another main hobby is travel. I’ve been to all 50 states in the USA, 40 out of the 50 biggest cities in USA, all 58 counties in California, 32 national parks in the USA and 5 globally, and I’ve been to 4 continents and about 25 countries. I read voraciously and cook daily (and I think, pretty well).
What are you watching/reading right now?
I’m watching The 100, a great dystopian thriller. I’m reading a lot of different books, ranging from psychology and sociology to history, communication, and the Bible. I recently really enjoyed Backpacking with the Saints, Buy Back Your Time, and The Second Mountain. That being said, everyone should read How to Win Friends and Influence People, Tribal Leadership.
What does winning this award mean to you?
It means a lot to be acknowledged for something that so many people have been doing for so long with little acknowledgement or even knowledge of what we are doing. I’m glad America’s Future has taken the leadership in this space to acknowledge and connect great people, rather than demanding more of them like most organizations do.