Society/Culture Alt-Right: How the Breitbart Machine Laundered Racist Hate

[Chief]

'I'm not devastated by the accidental secondary consequence of absolutely enraging the progressive left. 'Who is this white supremacist white nationalist racist sexist homophobic neo-nazi ...what is he doing marrying a black man? All our narratives are exploding!'

- Milo The Great.

It's the reassuring sales pitch he gives to his fans. Any internet marketer will tell you to sprinkle POWER WORDS through your copy:

You want to enrage those lefties? I am enraging them! Just the act of you watching me enrages them! Watch me destroy their favourite mouthpiece in MY NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO! BUY MY TICKETS! BUT MY T-SHIRTS!

 

[Moshie The Mook]

Watch me destroy their favourite mouthpiece in MY NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO! BUY MY TICKETS! BUT MY T-SHIRTS!

Annihilate.

 

[rockyport]

It's the reassuring sales pitch he gives to his fans. Any internet marketer will tell you to sprinkle POWER WORDS through your copy:

You want to enrage those lefties? I am enraging them! Just the act of you watching me enrages them! Watch me destroy their favourite mouthpiece in MY NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO! BUY MY TICKETS! BUT MY T-SHIRTS!

Ah yes because the mouthpieces from the left hiding in cancerous cesspools such as Hollywood, the media and the music industry are not guilty of this at all?
Trump is bad, blah blah blah, come see my new film, buy my new album coming out soon.

 

[Chief]

Ah yes because the mouthpieces from the left hiding in cancerous cesspools such as Hollywood, the media and the music industry are not guilty of this at all?
Trump is bad, blah blah blah, come see my new film, buy my new album coming out soon.

And... ?

 

[Great 2008]

Controlled opposition

Uneducated? That a pretty big statement on someone you don't know.

Uneducated is another word people use nowadays to belittle people who do not hold their world view. Pretty dumb really.

 

[Great 2008]

You realise that this article refers to people like you right?

Conservatives that have been intentionally manipulated into far right wing positions by the insertion of fake (or exaggerated) stories and articles designed to alter your perception of reality?

You see 'leftist' plots everywhere now. Not because they exist, but because you've seen planted articles that say they do.

Not only dont these planted memes and viral stories need any evidence for you to believe them, they'll often contain no evidence themselves, or run contrary to all available evidence. Global warming being a 'sham' or mass killings being 'faked' or the Russian hacking thing 'not happening' or Pizzagate being 'real'.

Hook line and sinker. And you dont even realise its happening.

Are you saying the far left have no plots?

 

[Scallop Industry Thug]

Are you saying the far left have no plots?

We do, but all the alt right super geniuses with YouTube accounts keep fooling them. Poor Soros.

 

[Gough]

Interesting take on how the alt right are spreading their word.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/19/neo-nazis-hatred-comedy-racist-daily-stormer

he unindoctrinated should not be able to tell if we are joking or not.” So states the writing guide of the neo-Nazi website the Daily Stormer. As expressly outlined by the leaked guide, the goal is to make the site’s ideas digestible, palatable and visible to those outside its toxic sphere. By muddying the waters of Nazis’ hate, a greater number will drink.

While none of this is surprising to those of us who have been targets of Nazis and the alt-right, it’s useful to have their goals so plainly, if disgustingly, outlined. It helps show media sites contemplating profiles of white supremacists – like Mother Jones or the New York Times – that they’re only aiding them by putting forward their unchallenged ideas.

And it’s also important as it reveals how Nazis use satire, humour or “lolz” as partial immunity for their hate, allowing them tolerance from those who would (or should) otherwise repudiate it. As the guide states: “Packing our message inside of … humour can be viewed as a delivery method. Something like adding cherry flavour to children’s medicine.”

If you’re a person of colour, this might already strike a familiar chord: you’ve no doubt experienced bigotry from supposedly not racist people in the form of “humour” or “satire”. By placing bigotry in such a shell many white people seem to believe they can’t or shouldn’t be criticised. As the Daily Stormer guide says: “When using racial slurs, it should come across as half-joking – like a racist joke that everyone laughs at …”

If you’ve ever been the only person of colour at a social gathering, you’ll know what it’s like when a casual racist joke arises. “Everyone” laughs because of power dynamics, not the joke’s genius. People of colour have been told not to be hypersensitive throughout our lives, that it’s just humour, don’t be a wet sock, it’s just words, and so on. When white people wield the conch of humour, people of colour are supposed to just endure the racism that comes out and laugh at the humour encasing it. This is the model neo-Nazis view as fertile ground for spreading hate.

Bigotry obtaining immunity under the banner of humour is so widespread, there’s even a popular card game called Cards Against Humanity, centred on that premise. (The company even refers to it as “a party game for horrible people”.) This stepping over lines of decency is boastingly called being “politically incorrect” or “ironic racism”. Too many people have convinced themselves that such humour is daring for targeting marginalised groups, or somehow sending those who “do it for real”. This is exactly what neo-Nazis want. It’s lifted directly from their writing guide to make hatred digestible, to spread it via normalisation and tolerance, via claims of humour’s immunity.

Many white people have told me, sometimes proudly, that they mock all races, thus outlining a belief we’ve moved beyond racial inequality. But we haven’t: just ask the neo-Nazis and white supremacists marching openly in America’s streets, calling for the death of a group of people who aren’t like them.

Donald Trump built his platform on this idea of stepping on so-called political correctness – without really saying what the term meant. As Adam Serwer writes in a powerful essay for the Atlantic: “What Trump’s supporters refer to as political correctness is largely the result of marginalised communities gaining sufficient political power to project their prerogatives on to society at large. What a society finds offensive is not a function of fact or truth, but of power.”

It’s not that these jokes are suddenly offensive, but that marginalised groups have a little more power to be heard. Many would rather complain about “political correctness” than wonder if they might be wrong. Here’s a hint: if your view aligns with a neo-Nazi writing guide, it’s probably wrong.

It’s too easy not to care about words, jokes and actions when you’re not the one affected by it. While I’m glad most white people seem to passionately oppose Nazis, that’s not a particularly high moral bar to pass. If you believe that Nazi ideology should be opposed, you can’t just ignore the way this ideology is spread. And normalisation through humour is a key part of that.

People cannot get immunity because they couch their slurs in humour or because they believe they’re not racist, sexist or transphobic. Intention doesn’t equal reality, especially when it’s a reality lived by people unlike you. We should all be trying to figure out what counts as hurtful so we can avoid it in ourselves and use our own privilege to call it out when we see it.


That’s not oversensitivity, it’s that for far too long marginalised people’s concerns weren’t factored in. Now that our concerns are heard more, it undermines the status quo of whose considerations matter. Privileged people could continue their lives unaffected by whether their jokes hurt others. As Serwer noted in the same essay, this disjunctive alignment of consideration is why Trump is more outraged over kneeling athletes than murdered black children. Only one of those categories affects him and his base.

You may not be racist, but attempts to be funny cannot give you permission to say bigoted things for effect. It’s the foot in the door true bigots need to make their hate palatable and widespread. As Louise Mirrer, the president and CEO of the New York Historical Society, noted about Nazis normalising antisemitism in children’s books: “You kind of lose the capacity to feel appalled. And then you just believe it.”

There are no such things as monsters, only people who hold monstrous beliefs. They weren’t born with those views. Someone spread them. And now we have access to a modern Nazi playbook on how they do it.

Hatred should not be normalised and only we can prevent it. The Daily Stormer uses our complacency as fertile ground to further its agenda. It’s time we learned how the seeds of hatred are spread so we can stop them from blooming.

 

[strung_out7]

Interesting take on how the alt right are spreading their word.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/19/neo-nazis-hatred-comedy-racist-daily-stormer

Yawn

 

[Brunswick Trap King]

Interesting take on how the alt right are spreading their word.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/19/neo-nazis-hatred-comedy-racist-daily-stormer

I'd rather punch 300 innocent people and 1 Nazi than punch no Nazis at all - Gough.

 

[Gough]

I'd rather punch 300 innocent people and 1 Nazi than punch no Nazis at all - Gough.

I'd be interested to hear the thought process behind this comment when I posted an article about how the alt right use humour to cloak their real message.

 

[Brunswick Trap King]

I'd be interested to hear the thought process behind this comment when I posted an article about how the alt right use humour to cloak their real message.

I thought it was pretty self-evident. You, and others, seem terrified of this alt-right idea. They're nobodies and barely have any influence on our world.

Find something real to be concerned about.

 

[Chief]

I thought it was pretty self-evident. You, and others, seem terrified of this alt-right idea. They're nobodies and barely have any influence on our world.

Find something real to be concerned about.

So when Bannon was in the White House that was an example of the alt-right having no power or influence?

 

[Moshie The Mook]

I thought it was pretty self-evident. You, and others, seem terrified of this alt-right idea. They're nobodies and barely have any influence on our world.

Find something real to be concerned about.

That's not how postmodernism works.

They only need to perceive it to believe it.

The rest of us normal folk are, as per usual, stuck with sorting out real problems.

 

[Chief]

That's not how postmodernism works.

They only need to perceive it to believe it.

The rest of us normal folk are, as per usual, stuck with sorting out real problems.

So the actual documents that show how actual Nazis are doing the exact hate-speech smuggling outlined in the OP... that's just "perception"?

Come on.

 

[Gough]

So the actual documents that show how actual Nazis are doing the exact hate-speech smuggling outlined in the OP... that's just "perception"?

Come on.

Not if you agree with what they're saying. Which is the only reason I can think of that some willingly defend people with actual Nazi ideals.

 

[Chief]

"Many would rather complain about “political correctness” than wonder if they might be wrong. Here’s a hint: if your view aligns with a neo-Nazi writing guide, it’s probably wrong."

 

[Moshie The Mook]

So the actual documents that show how actual Nazis are doing the exact hate-speech smuggling outlined in the OP... that's just "perception"?

Come on.

Buzzfeed has an agenda against Milo. We already established their credibility is in question.

The articles concluded 'Alt-right gonna Alt-right' and outlined an elaborate Reverse Soros conspiracy theory involving billionaire backers.

“Dude---we r in a global existentialist war where our enemy EXISTS in social media and u r jerking yourself off w/ marginalia!!!! U should be OWNING this conversation because u r everything they hate!!! Drop your toys, pick up your tools and go help save western civilization.”

Pfft is that it?

You and kidd vicious probably share juicier pm's.

 

[Chief]

Buzzfeed has an agenda against Milo. We already established their credibility is in question.

a) As should all normal people.
b) We have established that? When? I'm no big fan of BuzzFeed but their writers sometimes come up with the goods.

The articles concluded 'Alt-right gonna Alt-right' and outlined an elaborate Reverse Soros conspiracy theory involving billionaire backers.

It's not a conspiracy when the records of ownership and the public statements, plus the private emails, actually show the owner has had a good bash at shaping public opinion to be more favourable to far-right bullshit. That Milo was groomed to become MILO.

I suppose what is missing is a dodgy YouTube channel devoted to linking it all to some ancient club of uber-rich goat-*ers.

No, it is just campaign marketing that worked pretty well. Sort of like Jamie's 5 Ingredients or Trinny and Susannah telling everyone What Not to Wear.

Only really bigoted and evil.

Pfft is that it?

You and kidd vicious probably share juicier pm's.

 

[Chief]

Not if you agree with what they're saying. Which is the only reason I can think of that some willingly defend people with actual Nazi ideals.

Just as long as when you using racist terms you act like you're half joking. Then when anyone objects it's "lelelel u hav no sens of humur".

 

[Brunswick Trap King]

Just as long as when you using racist terms you act like you're half joking. Then when anyone objects it's "lelelel u hav no sens of humur".

Like when people 'jokingly' use the word Mussie here.

'Omg it's so ironic and clever'

 

[Brunswick Trap King]

So when Bannon was in the White House that was an example of the alt-right having no power or influence?

Some fringe group having some semblance of power fleetingly, in the form of Steve Bannon, is hardly the 3rd Reich.

Which of his stated aims did he achieve in his role? Which policy did he influence?

 

[Brunswick Trap King]

That's not how postmodernism works.

They only need to perceive it to believe it.

The rest of us normal folk are, as per usual, stuck with sorting out real problems.

Not sure what you mean. The cost of living is increasing while wages stagnate but I'm more concerned about the Neo-Nazis I never see on the street.

 

[Chief]

Some fringe group having some semblance of power fleetingly, in the form of Steve Bannon, is hardly the 3rd Reich.

Which of his stated aims did he achieve in his role? Which policy did he influence?

Who said it was the Third Reich?

It is a neo-Nazi marketing campaign.

"You may not be racist, but attempts to be funny cannot give you permission to say bigoted things for effect. It’s the foot in the door true bigots need to make their hate palatable and widespread. As Louise Mirrer, the president and CEO of the New York Historical Society, noted about Nazis normalising antisemitism in children’s books: “You kind of lose the capacity to feel appalled. And then you just believe it.” "

I don't know what he influenced. But we can see it in everything Trump prioritises (kneeling during a national anthem over murders). We can see it in the horrendous Nazi marches.

And the dickheads trying to justify all of this as "lulz".

And my son's mates chats on Discord.

And their "*shrug* it's just free speech" when saying something racist.

 

[Brunswick Trap King]

Who said it was the Third Reich?

It is a neo-Nazi marketing campaign.

"You may not be racist, but attempts to be funny cannot give you permission to say bigoted things for effect. It’s the foot in the door true bigots need to make their hate palatable and widespread. As Louise Mirrer, the president and CEO of the New York Historical Society, noted about Nazis normalising antisemitism in children’s books: “You kind of lose the capacity to feel appalled. And then you just believe it.” "

I don't know what he influenced. But we can see it in everything Trump prioritises (kneeling during a national anthem over murders). We can see it in the horrendous Nazi marches.

And the dickheads trying to justify all of this as "lulz".

And my son's mates chats on Discord.

And their "*shrug* it's just free speech" when saying something racist.

I see a bit of the 'Muslims are bringing Sharia' type fear in this alt right terror.

There will always be those people on the internet. If it's the alt right getting shut down, it'll return in another guise. Disenfranchised racist losers are disenfranchised racist losers, wow.