![I'm not sure that what Hitler did could really be counted as "civilzation."](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/fightfor.png?resize=580%2C566&ssl=1)
Once upon a time, or so the story goes, a reporter asked Gandhi what he thought of Western civilization.
“I think it would be a good idea,” Gandhi is said to have replied.
This story kept popping into my head as I worked my way through the seemingly unending torrent of horrendous Tweets that comprise the #FightForWesternCivilization hashtag on Twitter. I discovered the hashtag last night while looking at the reactions of assorted Internet-famous Nazis and their fellow travellers to the horrific attack in Nice yesterday. (You can see the results of this investigation in my previous post here.)
Even a quick glance at the #FightForWesternCivilization hashtag reveals that these would-be defenders of Western Civilization have a very strange notion of what civilization consists of, with some taking inspiration not just from Donald Trump, their lord and master, but from such historical figures as Adolph Hitler and Augusto Pinochet. The hashtag is lousy with raging Islamophobes and white supremacists, full of violent fantasies of retribution against the Muslim “invaders.”
Never mind that we don’t even know if the apparent killer in Nice was even motivated by radical Islam; neighbors told a French television station that Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel was less into religion than he was into women and salsa dancing. Local mosques say he never stepped through their doors.
But his name is Mohamed, so to those posting in the #FightForWesternCivilization hashtag he is not only a radical Islamist but the representative of all of the world’s Muslims.
As many of these self-declared civilization-defenders see it, Muslims are “savages” who need to be expelled from Europe and the US.
#FightForWesternCivilization Deport them. Burn their mosques to the ground. Let them live in the sand and filth best suited to savages.
— Ed Draper (@eddraper) July 15, 2016
https://twitter.com/KAISERHRE/status/753835250497695746
https://twitter.com/DogDuffy/status/753771842427432960
#FightForWesternCivilization means one thing: Expel Islam from the West.
— StoneFree2Rant is a Semi-fascist(Same on Gettr) (@StoneFree2Rant) July 15, 2016
You're either with the #FightForWesternCivilization and Trump, or your with the savages. pic.twitter.com/Uyx7j4zhe4
— Memelord 🐸🇺🇸 (@AltRightMemes) July 15, 2016
https://twitter.com/Toni_Price/status/753846254254206976
One Twitter Nazi suggested that expelling “kebab” would only be the beginning of a broader ethnic cleansing.
https://twitter.com/Fash__McQueen/status/753822780550852608
https://twitter.com/Fash__McQueen/status/753802113440894976
Others directed their animus at “the Jews.”
https://twitter.com/Linkshaender1/status/753773361025646592
https://twitter.com/TakeBack_USA/status/753810908661452800
https://twitter.com/WJudengas/status/753854146894176256
Regardless of their opinions about Jews, most of those using the hashtag seem to see”western civilization” as synonymous with “white culture.” Some tried to wake the “white man” to the alleged existential threat of Islam.
https://twitter.com/FashNova/status/753929139774644225
Others suggested that the honor and purity of white women were in danger:
https://twitter.com/apurposefulwife/status/753762421618020352
David Duke — yes, that David Duke — weighed in with this photo of an angelic-looking young white mother with baby.
https://twitter.com/DrDavidDuke/status/753929201267257344
This Tweeter Nazi-signaled by quoting the famous fascist “14 words.”
https://twitter.com/Slugulysses/status/753896510622867457
And let us not forget hot white chicks, who could easily turn into hot white mothers:
https://twitter.com/SergioSarzedo/status/753838010232221696
Others gave big thumbs-up to white people in general:
https://twitter.com/SkinheadNeoNazi/status/753811844939157504
https://twitter.com/SergioSarzedo/status/753835149456924673
https://twitter.com/Hungry_Goriya/status/753809489485103104
Some warned ominously of the alleged dangers of “diversity.”
https://twitter.com/TruthVictorious/status/753795754657853440
https://twitter.com/lama_escondida/status/753879119704752128
https://twitter.com/ExoAmericanus/status/753742235305385985
Others talked excitedly about taking up arms and/or fists against Muslims and various alleged Islamophiles.
https://twitter.com/FUFeelinz/status/753782284243898368
https://twitter.com/FUFeelinz/status/753784772292476928
https://twitter.com/justbrowsing22/status/753846219152044032
#FightForWesternCivilization we are in a war even if the politicians try to convince us to accept Muslims. Get a gun and learn to shoot.
— Infidel Investor (@Free_True_North) July 15, 2016
And if you can’t be with the gun you love, just grab a sharp pencil and aim for the eye:
https://twitter.com/GoPandora/status/753790008453111808
One Trump fan suggested that if the Donald failed to win the election in November they would be willing to help him shoot his way into the White House:
https://twitter.com/Jupiter_Giant/status/753839715170684928
Some looked back fondly on the original crusades:
https://twitter.com/AntichampReview/status/753862140474175488
https://twitter.com/Sighter/status/753812772425650176
While others call for a new one:
https://twitter.com/GAlighieri3/status/753815172771254274
#FightForWesternCivilization stop islam 2016. Start the crusades
— BuildThatWall (@wall_that) July 15, 2016
https://twitter.com/ramsesr93/status/753792799510790144
https://twitter.com/Bernietorbustty/status/753919971445571584
Naturally, there were more than a few clucking about cucks:
https://twitter.com/Erik_The_Fem/status/753742424158208000
https://twitter.com/Western_Triumph/status/753798148355723264
https://twitter.com/FantasyNugs/status/753808747747696640
https://twitter.com/ChrisCharabaruk/status/753733055018328064
Brainwashed beta male cucks saying #FightForWesternCivilization is racist are why we are in this spot in the first place.
— Stan Zbornak, Jr (@SouthernDandy55) July 15, 2016
One inventive fellow argued that to win the war for Western civilization, right-minded right-wingers need to take aim not only at Islam but also such wily enemies as Buzzfeed, the long-defunct Soviet Union, Israel, Planned Parenthood and My Little Pony.
We must uncuck the CUCKED. #FightForWesternCivilization pic.twitter.com/7WjnPQ8nLO
— Memelord 🐸🇺🇸 (@AltRightMemes) July 15, 2016
This imagined Western Civilization that these people think they’re fighting for isn’t a place I want to live.
@Ms Vanilla Rose
You would be surprised at just how many bronies were right-wing, libertarian, MRA, racist…
Being in that fandom forced me to reevaluate the possibilities of human cognitive dissonance. My personal favorite was linking an article where Lauren Faust discussed explicitly using feminist ideas in the show and watching just how far the rationalizations went. The people could hyper-focus on just about anything and ignore surrounding context. Actively “ignore”.
Yeah, Mike, genocide is really funny.
Uh-huh. Mike, Nazis always make this “joke.” Like your humorous remark about genocide, it’s really funny.
@Mikey
Hitler lost. Deal with it.
Mike, don’t hand out assignments like we are sitting at your feet begging for your wisdom.
No one give the slightest fuck what you think.
No one asked.
Run along.
Cupcake, Muslims don’t exist just in Britain, and the almost 3 million of Muslims living in the UK alone aren’t all Holocaust denialist. For instance, over 40% of Africa is Muslim. That’s over 400,000,000 people. There’s over 2 million Muslims living in the United States, too, and not all of them are Holocaust denialist.
World-wide, there’s 1.6 billion Muslims. That 5x the population of the Unites States. Are you tell me that five United States worth of people all believe the Holocaust was fake because of their religion? Is that what you’re trying to peddle here?
I think you need to think about this a little more. Is it the religion that make people Holocaust deniers or a variety of factors? Where were most of the Muslims in those British mosques from? Were they raised in an anti-Semitic household? What was their education? What was their ages? What are the percentage of non-Muslim people in Britain who think the Holocaust is fake and does it correspond to the number of Muslims? Do they read anti-Semitic propaganda? Do they even know the Holocaust happened? There’s way, WAY more to factor here than just Islam.
Just that brain of yours filled with Hitler facts and actually apply some logic instead of just regurgitating what you’ve watched on the History channel, kiddo.
@SFHC
It’s always the martyr or ignoring the whole losing part with these people.
@Jackie
Also, about 240 million Muslims in South-East Asia.
(If anybody remembers the ’02 bombing in Bali – yeah, the victims and likely targets were other Muslims there, too.)
@Ooglyboggles
Or both.
We are the victorious victors!
Tragically, we have been brought low by a stab in the back from losing losers!
But soon — very, very soon! — we will repay this treachery and enjoy our victorious victory once again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@Kat
It’s the circle of neofascism. The strong/weak paradox goes on, and on, and on.
Anybody else get bingo? Having discovered that they can’t just handwave everything away as “SJWs” or “Cultural Marxists” or “regressive leftists” anymore, now reactionaries/alt-righters/GribbleGrobs are accusing everything of being “made up”.
I’m having an increasingly hard time justifying my daily consultation of websites like We Hunted the Mammoth, Right Wing Watch, Fundies Say the Darndest Things, and so on. Seriously, what’s the point? You’re not going to see anything you haven’t already seen. Since 2008; generic conservatives, neo-nazis/white nationalists, MRAs and randroids have essentially melded together into a homogenous mass whose every member essentially believes the exact same things about everything and expresses those exact same beliefs over and over and over again. Every argument, every statement, every meme, every website, every article on every website, every comment on every article on every website; is always exactly the same every time.
Rants about Obama. Rants about Clinton. Rants about socialism. Rants about feminism. Rants about Black Lives Matter. Rants about Muslim immigration. Rants about Anita Sarkeesian. “Muslims are coming to Europe to get welfare and rape white women, blah blah…”, “It’s women’s fault if they get drunk and men then have sex with them, blah blah…”, “White women aren’t having enough babies because feminism, blah blah…”
I can now predict, with pretty much 100% accuracy, how they’re going to respond to every event that happens in the world. I knew, for instance, the second I heard about the Orlando shooting, that they’d say it was a false flag instigated by Obama as a pretext for taking their guns. I knew, for instance, the second I heard about Ghostbusters getting positive reviews, that they’d say the critics were paid feminist shills.
They don’t merely each utilize the exact same terms (“beta male”, “cuck”, “cultural Marxism”, “dindu”, “hypergamy”, “libtard”, “SJW”, “Trump2016”, “western civilization”, etc.); they each utilize the exact same sentences (“Asia for the Asians. Africa for the Africans. White countries for everybody. Anti-racist is a code-word for anti-white.”, etc.) Frankly, I’m just sick of the lot of it. It isn’t shocking or offensive anymore – it’s just a tiresome, predictable bore.
@Mike
Nazi punks fuck off
@abras01
In some ways I actually take joy in the repetition, makes it more funny to tinker around the responses to get and end result you want. After all we reached a point where it’s pretty much a gestalt of all the things you describe, might as well ditch absurdism/dada and get some laughs from it.
Well this one has some reasoning problems.
@Mike
Who cares about possibilities? You have have a reason for choosing one.
You have no reason to assert that homophobia comes from theism. The narratives of theism are just as likely convenient excuses for social role-modeling of fear, disgust rend anger directed at particular sexual expressions of male and female people
Or you could stop being a lazy preacher and back up your assertions about reality.
@social Justice Cenobite
A strong contender for the most baffling person I’ve seen on the internet is the author of a blog called My Nationalist Pony, who is an openly gay neo-nazi Brony. I have no clue how the hell he exists or what the fuck show he’s watching.
@Mike
Woohoo! I did a thing! Really the only reason I know is because I’ve done it so often. 😛 Well, that and logic resulting from having done the thing so often.
Mike, fuck off. You’re wrong and boring. Nobody wants to hear your “possible reasons” for something happening on the site that don’t even make sense. Like, really? A website visited by people internationally hasn’t figured out time zones? And “lol” about genocide? Really?
Ugh. Also not all theists are anti-gay, fyi.
Axecaliber.
These guys love putin almost as much as they love trump. Putin sits on a piramid of corruption. He wants a world like the old СССР which they say they will erase in that graphic. So I was hoping they would erase putin too.
So off topic from Mike I guess it was confusing
@Valentine
Any time they talk of corruption it tends to come with the tagline of “since it doesn’t benefit me.” They really just want the throne chairs and nothing more.
@abars
I’m still here, cos the regulars are good people. That’s good enough reason for me! Does indeed get tiresome after a while tho…
@Valentine
Noice ?
OK. You caught me in attack dog mode. Shouldn’t have assumed you meant something sinister. Sorry 🙂
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9RAQsdTQIcs
@ skybison
That’s unsurprising and they would fit right in with the sorts of people I argued against.
I moderated the serious discussion board for Ponychan, which was the Brony image board founded when 4chan kicked the bronies out. I was a morbidly curious observer of 4chan that never participated, and Ponychan actually was a pretty nice for a while. Until the show was less interesting than political dissagreements. Then the community split and ate itself in a hatefest.
I’m not sure I will ever return (I spent all my time bashing ignorant bigots at the end), but our Fluttershy mod founded a new board (ponyville) that was banning bigotry and doing pretty good when I discovered I had to reduce my social interaction to maintain my sanity.
That was my first fandom. Woooooooo!
I wish I knew how to embed videos every time.
My favorite is when someone actually said to someone “Point out one feminist that has done anything for the MLP fandom. You can’t, there are none.”
Of course, that someone that it was addressed to immediately posted a picture of Lauren Faust.
Then my also favorite: a clip from Lauren’s Ms. Magazine article circulated on Twitter where she self-identifies as a “life-long feminist”.
And someone was like “Nah, Ms. Magazine made that shit up, that’s not a real article, blah blah blah.”
And a more level-headed person was like “Ms. Magazine has been around for quite some time and is a very reputable magazine.”
“That’s irrelevant. They made up the article to bad-mouth the fandom! There’s no way Lauren Faust wrote it!”
So, the second person actually @s Lauren on twitter (Because she’s on twitter, because of course she is), and asks her if that’s her article. And of course, she said it was.
I didn’t see anything that might have happened after that though.
My kind of second favorite is full grown men whining about how “awful” Equestria Girls was and I had to step in like “It wasn’t made for you, jackass! It’s primarily a show for. Little. Girls.”
TL;DR: I can totally vouch for Brony here. There is a lot of cognitive dissonance in the MLP fandom when it comes to bigotry, especially racism and sexism, and that’s why I don’t actively participate in it anymore. I leave the little girls to their part, and I will ardently defend their part from the assholes.
I still like the show, I still love the toys, I still love to see critiques of the episodes, and I’m still a fan, but I refuse to take part in the “Brony” bits of fandom because I don’t want to die from the toxic waste.
@PI
What I’m getting at here is grown ass men taking away something that girls can enjoy and look up to and telling them “this isn’t yours.”
@ Paradoxical Intention
The Ms. Magazine article is the very one I was talking about.
Such a waste. The creativiy outshone by a herd of rabid assholes. At least I got some experience out of it.
Eh. Bedtime.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DzS7OLd6faw