Julia Ioffe is a political journalist, a regular contributor to Politico and a columnist at Foreign Policy. Last week, GQ published a lengthy profile of Melania Trump by Ioffe, revealing some details of her life that the wife of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee would have probably preferred to have left unrevealed.
Did I mention that Ioffe is Jewish?
Well, she is, which means that shortly after her profile of Melania T. went up the most predictable thing in the world, at least in this current political season, happened.
Can you guess what that is? I’ll give you a hint: I didn’t have any trouble finding horrendous memes to feature for Memeday this week.
Yep. Ioffe was treated to a wave of viciously anti-Semitic abuse from Trump’s Nazi-est fans, unleashed by Trump enthusiast Andrew Anglin of the Daily Stormer, who kicked the whole thing off with a post bearing the lovely title “Empress Melania Attacked by Filthy Russian [deleted] Julia Ioffe in GQ!”
Note: the word I’ve deleted there is a not-terribly polite reference to Ioffe’s Jewishness.
Naturally, the Daily Stormer troll army immediately got to work, defending their immigrant “Empress” by sending Ioffe an assortment of wildly anti-Semitic memes, including some they custom-made just for the occasion.
Here, for example, is Ioffe’s face photoshopped into a historical photo.
This one, for some reason, has a Britney Spears theme.
Happy #HolocaustRemembranceDay day to me! pic.twitter.com/Gajo3bMIPA
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) May 5, 2016
This one, posted on the Daily Stormer, offered a lazily photoshopped homage to the notion that the Nazis used the skin of their victims to make lampshades. (It’s not clear if this really happened.)
Ioffe was sent numerous other memes that, while not personalized, were certainly jarring.
From my inbox. Subject line: "They know about you!" pic.twitter.com/zp3v2GjTeI
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) April 28, 2016
At least they're fluent in 80s pop culture? pic.twitter.com/4pTTfa7jhE
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) April 28, 2016
This vicious harassment campaign against Ioffe — which also, she says, included threatening phone calls — has been covered in a number of media outlets. So what has The Donald had to say about this appalling behavior on the part of his “alt-right” fans?
Nothing. Less than nothing, really. When Wolf Blitzer asked him about the harassment on CNN, Trump pointedly refused to condemn it, instead going on about how “nasty” Ioffe’s article allegedly is, even though he claims he hasn’t read it.
Trump doesn't condemn fans threatening reporter @juliaioffe "I don't have a message" to fans https://t.co/95d0SnGj2c https://t.co/MI3lx1xVrD
— The Situation Room (@CNNSitRoom) May 4, 2016
By attacking Ioffe instead of condemning the literal Nazis sending her abusive messages and death threats (and pasting her head onto a lampshade), it seems pretty clear that Trump is offering tacit support — a wink and a nod — to the hate campaign against the journalist.
If that was indeed the message Trump meant to send his Nazi fans, it was received loud and clear by the Daily Stormer’s Anglin, who wrote
The Jew Wolf was attempting to Stump the Trump, bringing up stormer attacks on Jew terrorist Julia Ioffe. Trump responded to the request with “I have no message to the fans” which might as well have been “Hail Victory, Comrades!”
Such is the state of politics today.
As I’ve noted before, there are still some out there who who dismiss the vicious racism and anti-Semitism of the alt-right as a big goof, and not the primary motivating factor that it so obviously is. Breitbart’s Milo Yiannopoulos, who has been doing his best to cozy up to the alt-right, dismisses the anti-Semitic harassment of Jewish journalists as little more than the work of “mischievous, dissident” trolls who don’t really hate the Jews, as he gamely tried to argue in one recent interview.
When someone sends a picture of a crudely caricatured Jew being shot execution-style to a Jewish journalist, that’s not just a bit of good, old-fashioned fun. That’s hate speech.
The memes are terrible but I can’t get passed this sentence in the article about Melania:
Oh come on. Communism (or socialism) in Yugoslavia was an improvement from the system before it. I – Slovenian, born in Yu – have yet to meet a person from the generation of my grandparents who disagrees with this. I suppose those who were well-off before WW2 lost a lot (and often unfairly), but it was a huge minority. Of course it sucked if you were political, but most people in general just want to give themselves and their family a worthy life and this is what became possible with socialism for everybody.
Of course people were poorer than NOW, had less types of products in stores and so on. But I suspect that was the case with many non-socialist countries as well. And sure we were in general poorer than, say, our Italian or Austrian neighbours. But we still are, even 25 years after capitalism kicked in.
I am in no way a supporter of communism or anything, but people tend to exaggerate a lot about poverty in it. I can’t speak about other Eastern European countries, but Yugoslavia, and especially Slovenia, really didn’t have it so bad.
@Sinkable John
Trump’s fans have been engaging in this bullshit since day one, and all he’s done is wave it off like it’s no big deal. It’s only a matter of time before their threats become reality, especially if they have a whole government backing them, and I don’t want to be unprepared when that happens.
Of course, I should hope to be out of the country if this happens, but if I’m stuck here, I want to be able to protect myself.
I know this is very dramatic, but Trump’s fans are that scary, and if they are going to be threatening our lives with impunity, I think it’s wise take the “im-” out of that word.
@Sinkable John – We should be over that way for awhile in a bit (moving for a job).
Please make me a promise: If Trump is elected and you happen to see an American and ask (or hear someone else ask) them, “What in the hell is wrong with your country?” and their face becomes grey and dispirited, sympathize.
re: the possibility of him getting elected: I’m less optimistic than some of y’all here.
I deeply fear that a combination of
* A mass of voters who often don’t show up at the polls voting for Trump,
* Republican party die-hards weighing their hatred of Clinton against their dislike of Trump and casting their vote for him combining with those who consistently vote Republican and who also actually like the man (or at least hate the same things that he hates),
* The part of Sanders’ base that are seldom-voters not turning out or voting third party,
might mean a win for Trump.
I know that it can be said that the electoral map’s not on his side, that history’s not on his side, that demographics aren’t on his side…but look at the general consensus in August, then look at today.
The prospect has me dejected.
@ varalys – lovely cat. Could be the cousin of our two – when they yawn I see their mouths are black and pink on the inside too, as they are black and white on the outside.
I kind of like the lampshade one because it looks a worried woman astral projected her soul into a lamp to offer a dire warning.
Outside of the Daily Stormer fanbase no one on earth could have even remotely figured out what it’s actually supposed to be about because that’s a lampshade with a human face on it.
Why on earth couldn’t he say “I have Jewish family members, and I take insults of the Jewish people personally.”?
Because he is a really horrible person I guess?
Why do they not realize that his daughter is Jewish?(Not that she should be harassed or anything, I’m glad they’ve left her alone) I…I just don’t understand! Is it because she converted and so they think her “ethnicity” is still pure? Or is it extreme selective thinking? Or do they just know that little about Trump’s family and/or are just really stupid? I have no idea how people like this think. I hate this stuff and the idea of President Trump is so scary. Fuck. Will be back with animal pictures.
http://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/cute-baby-sloth-institute-costa-rica-sam-trull-17.jpg
did I mention I like sloths?
what a testament to Twitter’s shitty job at anti-harassment that the impersonator who has an i instead of an l in the name has a freekin checkmark!
uh that was stupid of me please delete that comment David. I got confused.
He can’t say anything because he doesn’t want to lose votes.
Im.still not sure how terrible a president Trump would be, as he has yet to give us a real platform, but I don’t want to live in a country that would elect him as president.
Anyone know if Canada accepts the USMLE’s (United States Medical Licensing Examination)? I’d rather not have to take the medical boards again.
Most american accreditation isn’t accepted in Canada, unfortunately. The CSA certification is a lot more strict than american UL, for example. USMLEs aren’t accepted. Ref:
http://www.usmle-forums.com/general-topics-forum/15520-usmle-recognized-accepted-canada.html
Should be a link to what you’d have to do to get certified up here at that link.
@Bina, re: “EMPRESS”,
These people want monarchy, want authority, want oppression. They think that they are going to be part of the ruling class, as a jackboot if not a ruler. They want someone to punish the liberals and progressives. They want an Emperor Trump. Dark Enlightenment at its worst.
This is absolutely disgusting. How long will it be before he takes back his statement, like he did with the David Duke incident? Compare him to Bernie, who directly told his supporters to stop harassing Clinton’s supporters. Then you look at Trump, who won’t even condemn anti-Semites and the KKK. My theory still holds. He doesn’t want to be president. He just wants to win and he will say whatever he needs to say to make that happen.
Off-topic, but related to Trump:
I’m currently resisting the urge to get drawn into a Facebook political debate. Not only would it be with family members, but I’m also going to be looking for a job soon, so I’m trying to keep my social media presence to a minimum and as neutral as possible.
My dad posted a meme with a kid going to stick a knife in an electrical socket with the caption “Trump or Hillary? Top socket or bottom socket?” To make it worse, another family member (my second cousin, I think) responded with “Anyone but Hillary.”
I’m not saying Hillary is perfect (she’s not), but equating her with Trump like that is so disingenuous. He promotes hate (both actively and passively), has no experience in the government, and is not even a very good businessman. Hillary has problems (like flip-flopping on certain issues, not a great record with civil rights issues, and corporate ties), but she is vastly more qualified to run the country. I’m just so disappointed in my family for this. I still love them (and we don’t discuss politics very often), but this bothers me a lot. As much as I would like to live near my immediate family again, moving back to Indiana doesn’t really seem like an option anymore.
(If it’s not obvious by now, I’m a Bernie supporter, but regardless of who wins the primary, I’m going to do everything I can to keep Trump out of the White House.)
http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2n72dxsLu1qbolbn.gif
@ej
Any Sanders supporter who votes for Trump to keep Hillary out of the White House is nothing more than a collaborateur, a Vichy Socialist, if you will. And this is coming from a Sanders supporter.
http://publisher.attn.com/sites/default/files/U3qbTat.png
Give in to your hatred.
I really want Captain Phasma to turn out to be a secret anti-hero who joins Finn and Rey and goes on space adventures together
(it will never happen :c )
Anything can happen in fan-fiction/your imagination 🙂
We’re starting to see a generation of kids more bigoted than their parents.
Which is obviously the fault of people who promote tolerance and kindness. For the throat-cramming, and the terrible assaults on freeze peach.
(rant)
I was trying to talk to a friend about this; she’s not an “Internet person” in the way I am. I failed to make my point well. I see something different happening with the latest crop of shitlords; I remain the only one in my circle who seems to understand that support for Trump isn’t really coming from old people. It’s coming from college students and college-aged non-students.
Ten or fifteen years ago, it seemed like the vast majority of Internet Nazis were just trying to get a rise out of people – outside of eg Stormfront, it was safe to assume that racist slurs were not meant as racist slurs (this didn’t make them less racist). I don’t think this is the case anymore.
It’s like we lost Herd Nazi Immunity, and the isolated clusters of Nazi hit the tipping point – they are now (once again) endemic. Agitators who are primarily trolls (looking at you, Milo) provide cover and apologia for the agitators who literally believe Race War (or revoking women’s suffrage, or deporting all Muslims, or [insert your own abomination]) is a good idea.
Of course no one thinks that. We’re all just joking. We’re being hyperbolic. I’m just frustrated. An activist was mean to me, I’m just being mean back. Just fooling around lol [rape threat] [death threat] [call for race war] [Holocaust joke] hahahaha.
Nasty commenters often ask me if I’m “scared” of them, if I’m “triggered.” I’m not scared of anyone. I’m afraid for the precious humans that live in my country. I lament that we’ve done such an appalling job caring for Americans that they feel this angry, this disenfranchised, so impoverished that anything given to someone else feels to them like a kick in the shins. I want to help them. I want them to feel like they have a future, like they belong. I want them to be free from suffering. I hear their hate and it just sounds like pain.
And it hurts me, too.
/rant
@Joekster, I’m not sure about board exams, but as far as I can tell from the DO international practice rights (I’m currently in a DO program) some provinces will accept an ACGME residency for practice without requiring the Canadian boards. I’m not entirely sure how it works if you want to apply for a Canadian residency program.
Its actually sort of sad how many people are looking into fleeing… I was telling a friend about said international practice rights while at a train station, and I got stopped by a random other guy who really wanted to know where he could go. It was amusing, but also sad.
@calmdown
And his son-in-law, his son-in-law’s parents, and his grandchildren. I wonder about this too.
I think that maybe the Nazis are so excited to see someone who looks, talks, and quacks like a Nazi that they’ll ignore the rest.
How I’d love to be a fly on the wall of Ivanka’s in-laws’ home! You can bet everything you’ve got that they talk about Donald and his Nazi-ish salute and his Stormfront fans! I’d just like to hear the details. . . .
@Mike Hisandry
I beg to differ on the “millenials are becoming more bigoted” theory. If you look at opinion polls, millennials, by and large, tend to be more likely to support social justice-related things (i.e. gay marriage).
On the other hand, we are seeing a lot more of this hateful alt-right bullshit. But I think that’s because the internet has allowed these assholes to come together. Neo-Nazis have existed since Hitler shot himself – they’re just becoming more visible online now, largely because for the past decade the internet has taken the coward’s approach to trolling: do nothing, and maybe it will go away (Spoiler Alert: It fucking didn’t). Perhaps through tribulation we’ll learn to be a bit more vigilant and stop giving “satirists” a free pass.
I think Ivanka gets a pass because they find her attractive and see her as one of the good ones.
If she ever steps out of line, or even if Donald ever disappoints them, they’ll turn on her. But for now, she’s on the acceptable list. Women who please a misogynist’s boner can sometimes get that all too easily revocable free pass.
@Dal
That’s similar to what my friend said. It’s probable that I’m just distracted by the pomp & bluster, and we aren’t going to hell in a handbasket.
Skinheads were the biggest gang threat growing up where I lived. I kind of got used to them – it was easy to tell who they were, and easy to leave them alone. They kept to themselves (except when hate-criming). The new shit is, well, new, and much more aggressive and surprising to me. The mob harassment, and the fact that so many of these folks feel totally OK with having their name and face attached to their actions.
Yeah. I’m really looking forward to that Silenced documentary – I need someone to explain to me (in many, many loud words) how Chuck C. Johnson and Voxman have been silenced. The cover-up is so good that I thought they were writing, making videos, selling books and articles, and generally making a living working in the media. Turns out, they’ve been prohibited from writing and speaking all along! Does Amnesty International know?