UPDATE: See update at the end of this post. It’s kind of funny.
By David Futrelle
On Monday, I published a post devoted to the proposition that Alt-rightists and their ideological kin lie about everything — usually badly. As if to prove my point, right-wing trolls from 4chan and Gab have launched a false flag “meme campaign” designed to smear AntiFa activists as supporters of domestic violence against women and children.
The campaign seems to have originated at 4chan — see the graphic at the top of this post — where it was quickly taken up by some of the resident anons. (Click for full-sized graphic; I’ve censored the graphic depictions of bruises.)
The idea quickly found its way to Gab — the famously “censorship-free” Twitter alternative, positively overflowing with Nazis and shitlords — where an alt-right Gabber called @Sperg quickly assembled a vast library of grotesque memes.
Here are a few of the tamer ones, lightly censored to obscure graphic depictions of bruises and other injuries — though they’re still pretty disturbing.
I’ve taken the liberty of writing FAKE on each in big red letters.
Many of the memes were so over-the-top that they could only fool the most gullible — like those advocating the beating of children and elderly women.
It wasn’t long before these memes began popping up on Twitter — some of them posted by alt-rightists and Trump fans, others posted by clearly fake AntiFa accounts. (Or at least clearly fake to you and me, not necessarily to your typical Trump fan.)
It seems incredible to think that anyone could be fooled by such obviously fake memes — particularly since the evidence that this is a false flag is being spread around the hashtag by leftists trying to correct the record. But smear campaigns like this work even if only a small number of those seeing the fake memes think they’re true; they further poison an already poisoned well.
Dirty tricks have always been a part of politics. But for many in and around the alt-right today, politics has become almost nothing but dirty tricks. We need to remember that these are people who lie as casually and compulsively as their hero Donald Trump — and call their hoaxes out every time we spot them.
UPDATE: Naturally, 4chan anons are mad that they’ve been found out, as Robyn Pennacchia details in a lovely post on Wonkette.
@Molloy, Moran, Malone
My mom told me that being 6’6 puts me in a league with literal models. They’re just shot in a way that makes them seem shorter. I look a lot worse than that, but I’m trying. And it actually is important to me.
It’s weird because I don’t want to be catcalled or anything, but I kinda take it as confirmation that people are seeing me as my right gender.
Ugh, me too. I wear heels cause I want to. Period. It’s not a matter of “courage”, and I can and will walk right on past in my knee-high 5-inch stiletto boots if you think I shouldn’t just because I’m taller than everyone.
Yeah, I’m friends with a number of fashion models (almost all of whom I met through my partner, who was, for a very brief period, a model), and have met a great many more. They’re definitely way tall on average; maybe 6’0 or so, which is a hell of a lot taller than the average person with two X chromosones. People taller than that are well represented, too. Extremely well represented, actually, given how many standard deviations above the norm they find themselves in terms of height. I’d guess that models who are women and below 5’5 are, at best, about as common as than those who are above 6’0, which, statistically, says everything you need to know about the matter.
I’m glad my partner was already all but done with all that when we got together. It’s an almost unspeakably toxic atmosphere, which I know is common knowledge, but it bears repeating.
I can relate to how you feel, vis-a-vis catcalling. I wear sensible shoes for work, and need to wear clothes which are appropriate for the type of lab work I do most days, so, aside from makeup, I look fairly similar to how I did when I last commuted to and worked at this institution. I see many of the same people on the subway, where I get lunch and dinner, etc.
I’m simultaneously hyper-vigilant about all the potential dangers I face being who I am, doing what I’m doing, and anxious that it’s not…I don’t know, externally obvious enough that I’m transitioning, that I’m in the process of razing my old external self and, hopefully, building on its foundations one that is more congruous with all the parts of me which I spent the better part of my life trying to extirpate, all the parts they couldn’t see. Which, obviously, are directly at odds with one another. I simultaneously hope beyond hope that people see and respect the cues that I identify as a woman, and deeply, deeply fear the very real dangers that some number of them would pose me in the event that they see me for what I am. It’s so, so frustrating. Who’d have foreseen life being complicated, am I right?
How can MRAs think that people transition because it gives them social capital/privileges in a world dominated by radical feminism? How can so many people feel justified in attacking others for being something that has absolutely no effect on them? WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE???
I can only imagine. Even imagining it is scary. Also; I’m doing what Tov01’s doing. “War of Southern Treason” is an awesome term and a great and more accurate retort to the Con-Fed-Freaks’ “War of Norther Aggression”.
In speaking of “Freaky Con-Feds”, here’s a HILARIOUS bit from Stephen Colbert a week or so ago….It’s about (among other things) the SILLIEST-looking Confederate Statue ever made! You gotta SEE this thing! It “fits” The Confederacy PERFECTLY! Be sure to empty your bladder, first.
https://youtu.be/LvCjM1lPwg4
I’m doing what Tov01 is doing!
“WAR OF SOUTHERN TREASON” is awesome, accurate and a great way to needle the jokers who say “War of Northern Aggression” unironically.
In speaking of War of Southern Treason….Stephen Colbert made a monologue around a week ago about (among other related things) what has got to be THE SILLIEST-looking Confederate statue ever made! This abomination has to be seen to be believed!….
….Another article from a few years ago mentions it….
http://gawker.com/alarming-statue-of-a-racist-and-horse-perfectly-honors-1713422930
….I agree with this guy. Keep that one sculpture up! It fits what it represents. Take the others down. The Confederates don’t deserve nice dignified monuments of marble and bronze. They deserve a giant fiberglass nutcracker riding a wet lizard as he screams “SNAP INTO A SLIM JIM!” as he accidentally shoots his own men!
Finally; How do you post a video that WORKS on this board? I’m hit-or-miss and I often forget my “hits”.
WAIT! IT WORKED! IT JUST TAKES TIME! I JUST POST THE LINK. *sheepish grin*
@ molloy moral malone
Glad to be of service. Any more queries feel free to ask.
I completely understand on your doxxing worries. One aspect of ‘priviledge’ that I’m constantly aware of since discovering Mammoth and hearing all about stuff like that video game thing, is how lucky I am as a cishet white guy that I never have to worry about that sort of thing. It’s not merely privilege it’s like a full on immunity. One of my major berserk buttons is bullying; especially when accompanied by cowardice (as it usually is; so I find the MRAlt-Right anonymous targeting of the most vulnerable particularly loathsome.
I can’t pretend to know much about the intricacies of stuff like sex, gender, gender identity etc. but my views were really encapsulated in a law report of all places. To paraphrase the judge:
“Nobody would go through all the grief that comes with being trans if it wasn’t real”
To keep the legal theme going, there’s a test we use in law (well, equity technically) called “the balance of convenience”. It’s used when there isn’t time to decide who’s wrong or right. So the person who will be most affected by the decision ‘wins’.
I try to use it in arguments about situations like the ones you describe. Basically “Whatever happens, it doesn’t affect you one jot, but the outcome means everything to that person. So why are you making a fuss?”
Alan: I know what it’s like coming face to face with aspects of one’s own privilege like you have with doxxing. It’s a very important part of being an activist while also being a member of privileged groups, IMO. I constantly try to keep in mind all the different advantages which I was lucky enough to be born with, and how easy it is to slip into a self-centered and short-sighted mindset.
For example: getting doxxed and outed and all was a nightmare, one that completely annihilated my life and family relationships. As a result, I locked myself in my apartment and shut away the world for years on end. Doing so was, in a way, a privileged reaction. What happened to me was terrible, yes, but being extremely wealthy is what enabled me to do it. What happened to me happens to lots of people, the overwhelming majority of whom don’t have the option to both shut themselves off in the way I did and keep, y’know, being alive. Because I have high-level academic credentials and had prior relationships with important people where I was applying, I was able to get a job. I’m white. Up until recently, for most of my life, everyone treated me as though I was male. I’m tall, and have never wanted for sexual or romantic options. As an adolescent, I was capable of enormous cruelty. I didn’t even realize how mean I was being half the time. That still leaves the other half, though, a fact of my self that I still struggle with.
I constantly remind myself these facts, to keep fresh in my mind the fact that, while I have suffered enormously, I haven’t done so in a vacuum. I’m guilty of taking advantage of the same frameworks which prop up all the iniquities in the world. Without admitting and examining the ways in which we benefit from these structures of power (those of us who do, I mean), we seriously limit the extent to which we can dedicate ourselves to dismantling them. What kind of activist, let alone person, would I be if I wasn’t capable of coming face to face with all this stuff?
I completely agree with the quote from that judge, as well as the notion of the balance of convenience.
@MMM, Alan
I put up a channel on the Discord (link should be in my ‘nym. lemme know if it’s broken again) for discussing self-defence, for y’all and anyone else who’s interested. No PMs, all out in the open, and y’all can go on at whatever length.
@Dalillama, I appreciate it, and am sorry for derailing things and going on and on. It’s one of my “specialties”, and Discord seems like something I would be comfortable using. However, the discord link in your username is expired.
Here’s a fresh one. I keep setting them to not expire, and they keep expiring :p
No worries! It’s standard of discourse around this place. I created the discord specifically to allow continuation of lengthy discussions without concurrent thread growth, which can screw with mobile browsers.
Alright, it worked, super. Again, sorry for the derail(s). If Alan (or anyone else) should be inclined to continue this conversation, the option is there for them. Much appreciated.
@Joseph
I certainly do appreciate someone who at least tries to save me from my useful idiocy and my victimization.
Especially when he himself is a victim of something or other.
@ molloy moran malone
I’m well up for that if you are.
I’ll sort out that Discord thing (by which I mean I’ll contact Dalillama and ask her to explain it to me)
@ joseph
Hey, nobody gets to call me ‘useful’.
@Joseph
From what? And how? And why?
Aww. Come on Broseph. Don’t leave us hanging. In what way are we just like Nazis and how are you going to try and save us?
What is it with dudes (and really it’s mostly white cishet dudes) thinking that the ONLY moral high ground is in the center of every. Fucking. Topic?
Like, you literally have ACTUAL NAZIS and PEOPLE WHO OPPOSE THE ACTUAL NAZIS and your great fucking idea to “save everyone” is to go “You’re both wrong, and obviously you need ME to show you the way of the lazy, apathetic centrist who never takes sides in anything!”
This idea that you can’t be passionate/upset about/have strong feelings about anything or you’re automagically an “extremist” needs to really fucking die, kthx.
Being in the center isn’t always a bad decision, but there are times where yeah, you need to take a fucking side. There are black and white scenarios in the world, and this is one of them. You’re either a nazi, or you oppose nazis. There is no “but”, there is no conditions, there’s none of that corollary bullshit.
When you have people on one side saying shit like “We’re going to murder/throw out everyone not like us!”, “Jews will not replace us!” and chanting actual slogans from Hitler’s nazis, and then people on the other side going “Please don’t murder us or throw us out of our homes!” and who are willing to fight when the nazis start to throw down, then there’s not really much room for centrist nonsense.
This also ties into the (also bullshit) idea that the oppressed people need to be REALLY EXTRA SPECIAL NICE to those who are oppressing them so we can “save them from themselves”, otherwise it’s our own fault that we’re being oppressed, and that’s another idea that really needs to fuck off.
If people want to be nice to nazis to hope they can change, that’s cool, but expecting us to do that is bullshit.
I’m under no obligation to be “nice” to people who want me dead for existing in a way they don’t approve of, and I shouldn’t be held to such a bullshit standard when my oppressors clearly are not.
You want a nice queer person? You should have been nice to the queer person.
TL;DR: Fuck off, broham. We don’t need “saving” from the idea that nazis are morally repugnant people, and even if we did, you’re obviously not the shitbasket for the job.
Re: Dormousing_it’s theory on the current rise of Nazi/fascist sympathizers, back on page 1
I’m roughly the same age cohort as a lot of these guys (I’m 25-this is probably the first time I’ve listed my exact age online, other than on an official form), and I’ve never doubted the Holocaust. Is it possible that the general cultural tendency to socialize girls to be empathetic and emotionally aware and to socialize boys to remain out of touch with the emotional world has something to do with men in my age cohort being more likely to be Nazis/fascist sympathizers/Holocaust doubters than women in my age cohort?
To keep the women’s self defence theme going, here’s another nice article about the Suffragettes and Edith Garrud.
http://m.ranker.com/list/history-of-suffrajitsu/melissa-sartore