Watch out! The Daily Stormer is coming for your children!
Or so they say. Earlier this week, Andrew Anglin of the Daily Stormer launched what he’s calling the “Pokémon GO Nazi Challenge,” urging his readers to descend upon their local Pokemon GO hot spots with crude flyers promoting race hatred in general and his site in particular.
Great news, everyone!
An enterprising Stormer has been handing out fliers at Pokémon GO gyms for the purpose of converting children and teens to HARDCORE NEO-NAZISM! …
HE’S HANDING THEM OUT TO CHILDREN!
THIS IS ALREADY HAPPENING!
HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF ANYTHING SO GREAT AS THIS???
The Daily Stormer was designed to appeal to teenagers, but I have long thought that we needed to get pre-teens involved in the movement. At that age, you can really brainwash someone easily. Anyone who accepts Nazism at the age of 10 or 11 is going to be a Nazi for life.
The idea is so ridiculous, and the flyer in question so crude and over-the-top, that I assumed at first that it was a troll job — that either Anglin was trolling us, or that someone was trolling him.
The flyer (see the whole thing here) bristles with rabid denunciations of “n***er monkeys,” “burrito rats,” and “HOOK-NOSED JEWS.” It urges its readers to “vote for DONALD TRUMP” even while acknowledging that most of those reading the flyer are “probably too young to vote” for the “GOD EMPEROR.”
It promises its target audience of white not-yet-men that
Oh, and it compares catching Pokemons to … the Holocaust. Favorably
If Anglin is trolling, though, he’s trolling his readers as well as the rest of us.
In a followup post today, Anglin insisted that he was dead serious about the “Pokémon GO Nazi Challenge” — and defended it from alt-right critics saying the flyer was so over-the-top offensive that it could end up hurting the Nazi cause, and perhaps even Donald Trump as well.
“Trump has been called a racist six million times,” Anglin tells his readers.
If the media were to present these flyers and say “look, racist Alt-Right Neo-Nazi Pokemon conspiracy!!!!” it would simply be more noise.
It would also look ridiculous. There is so much news about so many different things related to the election, people just get these bits and bytes, and “TRUMP RACISM POKEMON NAZIS” is all their brain would absorb, which would simply cause the media to lose more credibility in their minds and cause them to draw closer to Trump.
As for all the racial slurs?
[Y]oung boys like rebellious things. It excites them. It makes them interested. The flyer, in my view, was perfectly designed to appeal to young boys, and I think we’re going to get a huge response once people start handing them out.
And what were the options, besides going hardcore?
Black IQ statistics? What kid is going to be drawn into that?
Saying “save your race” or some other generic, vague, low-energy statement? Most kids won’t even know what that means, let alone be interested in it.
Making it obscene and aggressive appeals to a primal drive in boys who are in or approaching puberty.
So there you have it.
I still think this campaign is more of a publicity stunt than an actual recruitment drive, but we’ll see, I guess.
This is a very strange year, no question about it.
@Sinkable John
You’re right, that’s sort of why I started thinking about that. I was somewhat surprised to see them self-identify as Nazis and pro-genocide. I was mostly reacting to the fact that Anglin still bothers to whine about how Trump has been called a racist “six million times”, when it’s pretty obvious that Anglin himself only supports Trump precisely because Trump is racist. How long until the GOP splits up into one openly racist party and one blatantly racist but in denial party?
@kupo – I followed your cake link, and Google translated the name of the main cake on the page to “smart white” – so, not a good description of Andrew Anglin (ba-dum-tish).
Anyway, there’s “smart cake” and “magic cake” too, which is awesome! The glorious marriage of cake and Google Translate produces marvels. 🙂
@epitome
They think their “revolution” is just around the corner (they’ve been thinking that for, oh, more than a half a century now ?). They really see Trump as the game-changer. Right now they’re basically fighting for attention amongst themselves because they’re convinced that their fascist state is about to happen anytime now, and when it happens all charges and such will be dropped.
Of course they’re deluded, but that’s what makes them more dangerous now. They think they’re invincible and unaccountable because “anything goes” and when their GOD EMPEROR is on the throne he’ll make them national heroes.
ETA : @Petal
(yep, I keep forgetting to refresh before posting, and then I need to ETA, sorry)
It’s more of a brag than a whine, I think. They regard the word “racism” as some kind of anathema that THE JOOS brand righteous nazis such as them with. They’ve appropriated it (because they don’t understand how appropriating works) and now they just flaunt it. Any day now they’ll start wearing PROUD RACIST t-shirts or something, especially since, see point above, they’re feeling more and more invincible now.
@epitome of incomprehensibility
Yeah, I think one of the versions I was looking at of this cake was called magic cake. It separates itself into 3 layers as it bakes, or that’s how it’s supposed to work. I went with the Croatian version because it includes white chocolate. 😀 This is my first attempt so I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Nazi fans never went away. A good example would be George Lincoln Rockwell. After being involved with a number of right wing groups in the 1950s he formed the American Nazi Party in 1959. Rockwell was apparently the first on the US far right to use the term White Power, inspired by groups like the Black Panthers using the term Black Power. He was assassinated in 1967 by a former member of what by then had become the National Socialist White People’s Party, Rockwell having decided as the ’60s went on to make his racist party less reliant on Nazi images and rhetoric. The ANP/NSWPP membership included at one time or another such future extreme right figures as David Duke and William Pierce, founder of the National Alliance and author of the infamous novel The Turner Diaries.
WW2 comics were popular in the US until the ’80s, when the genre fizzled out. Marvel’s Nick Fury originally appeared in Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos in 1963, before appearing in contemporary stories as Col. Nick Fury, head of SHIELD. DC had a wider array of WW2 series, the best known probably being Sgt. Rock. Others included The Unknown Soldier, about a master of disguise operating behind enemy lines, and The Haunted Tank, where the ghost of Confederate War General J.E.B. Stuart serves as a guardian to his namesake tank commander and (for much of the series) his M3 Stuart tank. Most of the stories featured the characters fighting against German forces.
@Sinkable John
not quite sure what you meant with your comment to me, sorry….
For those interested in it, the Cap/Hitler punch as featured in Captain America: The First Avenger:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EsTBWWyYkl8
Though for some reason the sound on this one wouldn’t work on my phone. 🙁 Still gets the point across, I think. Especially the propaganda point that cover was supposed to invoke to begin with.
@Imaginary Petal: Part of the reason that many racists can’t “own” it is because in a sense society has effectively brainwashed them to say that racism is bad because they never internalised the education society doles out to make that point.
Like they’ve understood from societal background noise that “Racism” is a bad word with negative connotations and that they “should not be racist”. But because this conflicts with their true internal beliefs such connotations lose practical meaning and become symbolic. As in they are racists but they have been bombarded by racism=bad from birth so much that when someone says “Racism” they say “Bad” as a call-response mechanism without deeper thought or consideration.
Because they never properly understood why racism is bad for society or the insidious forms that it takes, they only ever learned the most shallow understanding of racism as a “bad thing”.
There are a variety of topics on which each of us is “brainwashed” by society (for better or worse) simply because society has a default position on almost everything that we may never investigate and reflect upon for ourselves. For example many people would agree with socialist ideas in the USA and would call themselves as much if Socialist =/=Enemy of USA as a default position, by the same token there are a lot of people out there who won’t notice that they are Nazi’s by the same token.
Between this and the Nazi PUA posts we’ve had lately, it appears that the white nationalist/alt-right/whatever you want to call them are not only racially exclusionary, they also don’t seem to want women to be part of their movement. Sure, they want white women to make white babies with them and they need them to be racist and anti-Semitic enough to put up with their views but they don’t seem to want them politically involved.
What do they imagine their path to victory is if such a small subset of people are welcome in their movement? They have enough numbers of angry white men to make people’s lives, particularly their online lives miserable. But how do they hope to achieve any actual policy goals? Do they even have any goals other than stewing in their bigotry? Apparently not.
@Jack
GLAD TO KNOW I’M NOT THE ONLY ONE.
I saw your new profile pic and I was like “YIIIIISSSSSSSSS SOMEONE TO TALK TO ABOUT IT”
I was so freaked out during that episode I just kept screeching 90% of the time. LITERALLY. I identify with Pearl SO MUCH and I am so immensely happy this season is finally giving her more focus! And this episode… She needed that. I needed that. You go, bad Pearl and bad GOOOORGEOUS Mystery Girl.
And I am SO hyped about the fact this will air on tv for countless children worldwide, that will learn two girls can flirt exactly like a boy and a girl… I just… This show is my favorite thing ever. It’s FLAWLESS and so important. I which I could hug Rebecca Sugar and thank her personally. It’s… The sweetest thing ever. So many important messages. My children will watch the HELL out of it.
*Sigh* Those assholes always have to ruin everything for decent people (or at least try), don’t they? (Team Instinct here)
Once again, I find myself reminded of a certain Indiana Jones line.
@Chiomara
Finally, some people to gush about the latest episode. Oh man the nervous awkwardness of the first meet, the level of desperation and then letting the new thing overwhelm you to do things you wouldn’t do otherwise. And then, Pearl managed to get her number just like that. I wish to properly say my thoughts on the episode but I’m just too happy about an episode whose subject manner literally the years before SU I would never believe would get on TV in my lifetime. And no creep shots or hypersexualization like some cheap porno, just 11 minutes of pure goodness.
@brian
Sorry, let me clarify.
What you and I would call education, they call brainwashing. They don’t see that thick line I mentioned – to them, it’s the same thing. So, as their thinking goes, since the evil librul HOOK-NOSED/SJW media and school system is brainwashing kids, them righteous nazis need to get to those kids and do it first.
The reason I empathized the word “thick” was to make sure no one would misread it as “thin” – easy mistake to make if you’re a fast reader, since “thin line” is a more common phrase.
The whole sentence was more punctuation on the previous points that had been made. Or a summary.
Sorry, even this isn’t quite clear. Can’t engrish up the right words, I’m afraid.
@WWTH
They have a weird take on women and activism. Anglin has stated that the Daily Stormer is “not for women” or something – they’re “allowed” to read it, but should “refrain” from commenting or trying to participate. ’cause it’s “male business”. This shit reads a lot like “let the adults talk”, it’s pretty sickening. At the same time he encourages the creation of separate groups for women, in which they would supposedly teach how to be an ideal white woman – spouse and mother, mostly.
There’s a case like this in France, with L’Oeuvre Française and the Caryatides, the former being now officially “dissolved” by order of the state on the grounds that they’re a hate group (that happened 3 years ago after the murder of Clément Méric – they’re still active, they just lost their legal association status and technically they’re forbidden to gather, but they still do) and the latter being a sister movement tailored specifically for women. The Caryatides do exactly what Anglin advocates, I believe groups like them may have been his inspiration ?
TL;DR they don’t want girl cooties in their “activism”, but women should join THE CAUSE by telling other women to stay at home and have babies.
@WWTH
Armed insurrection and/or a coup.
@Alan
Indiana Jones made Nazis look stupid and like losers. But that’s the only time I can think of US pop culture dealing with it.
@Mega: there’s no small number of wartime WB cartoons, but I don’t think any of them air any more (and the anti-Japanese ones DEFINITELY don’t).
OT but David, did you see that Matt Forney is trying to identify Brock Turner’s victim? He also claims that what Turner did isn’t rape.
@Sinkable John
If they are so intent on their spouses to be back to the ye olden days TM, then they might as well mass produce artificial wombs. They seem to not want anything to do with women other than a servant that can make more of them and mold said kids to be like them.
An alternative since they (fortunately) actively stifle their ability to spread with their patronizing policy, would be adoption. But again I think that road is closed off by their lack of concern for children that don’t share similar DNA, or be able to pass off as a responsible guardian. And that isn’t even starting on their success rate of having their adopted kid sharing the same beliefs. They don’t exactly have a niche community to keep a steady supply of their base like in certain zealous parts of the US and they won’t take the alternatives to actively foster growth, yeah in terms of population the net rate is stagnant.
Now as this pathetic attempt of trying to brainwash children when their parents would not be happy seeing skinheads approaching their kids, seems to be an extant of the most successful way for them to congregate, the internet. Social media has enabled them to convene and feed off each others hate and since social media has little to no oversight, they can spread wherever they want. Them trying to exploit Pokemon Go to foster ideas of neofascism in children seems to be them taking social media and extending its vile tendrils to new territory.
Now since people have actively set up watch groups to keep other Pokemon Go players safe from muggings and creeps, I see a recipe of a couple news reports on these bozos anytime now.
I like what Mel Brooks said that humour is the best defence against Nazis. So we should keep doing like David is doing here at WHTM. Clearly they love it when people get outraged at them but they hate it when we laugh.
@Megalibrarygirl
Springtime for Hitler?
ETA: ninja’d by Valentine on Brooks
Yes, I never thought it would be a thing in my lifetime either. You know, before that, I used to watch Adventure Time, which was THE super different Cartoon at the time, and the most lgbt thing, at least until the point I watched, was the slightly implied relationship between Bubblegum and Marcelinne, and I was already losing it. Then came Steven and a romantic relationship between Rose and Pearl was kiiind of implied and I thought “Okay! Awesome! That’s as far as it goes, I guess?”, then the relationship between Pearl and Rose grew MORE important, then Ruby and Sapphire came and I just COULDNT BELIEVE MY LUCK, and then Stevonnie, and then Ruby and Sapphire began KISSING AND TALKING ABOUT EACH OTHER’S APPEARANCE and now there’s THIS. It’s so beautifully blatant. It’s the sort of romantic episode/situation that every show has, but with two women, and so what?
So organic, so natural, so beautiful. And it’s not only that. There’s the body positivity, the WRECKING of gender roles, and SO MANY important life lessons. It began as “my weekly ten minutes of pastel colors and sweet silly thoughts” and became “THE NEW GENERATION OF KIDS WILL BE MUCH GOODER*, AND IT’S HIGHLY BECAUSE OF THIS CARTOON.
I DON’T KNOW HOW CN IS LETTING YOU DO THIS, REBECCA, but never stop, PLEASE.
*I hope you understand the reference
@Axecalibur
I <3 the producers!
Valentine
We all deserve a moment of pure mockery at its finest.
@Imaginary Petal
“He brags that he’s never treated anyone differently because of their ethnicity, and thus he’s not a racist.”
I know it’s preaching to the choir here, but one of the things I do is user experience research and some ethnography – there’s a certain point where often someone will, right in front of me, say ‘I need W feature, because I always do X’ while their hand moves to select ‘Y’.
Later on in the debrief session, if I need to know, I might say ‘I noticed you did Y. You told me you only ever do X. Why did you select this option?’
‘No I didn’t?’
‘Here, on the film.’
And they stare, shocked. Because people are terrible self reporters. When trying to be truthful, we always report what we think we are doing, as accurately as we can to our imaginations. But we are actually very rarely ever correct. And this is in a situation that is mostly social-neutral – once someone gets over the weirdness of working under observation, there is no moral question here. No reason to self-deceive.
For someone to say they have NEVER treated someone differently because of their ethnicity, and be dead serious instead of being defensive?
All the researchers I work with would always say ‘But how do you know that?’
@mildlymagnificent
Goddamn i wish youtube wasn’t blocked where i am right now :'(