By David Futrelle
See correction at end of post.
The neo-Nazi internet tip sheet The Daily Stormer is warning CNN employees that itstroll army will “track down” their parents, siblings, spouses and children in an act of revenge against the network for its reporting on the racist and anti-Semitic Reddit memester who made a gif depicting Donald Trump body-slamming a man with a CNN logo for a head that achieved internet infamy after Trump himself retweeted it a few days ago.
What’s pissing off the Stormers, and the all-too-familiar assortment of internet deplorables (and bots) behind the #CNNBlackmail hashtag, is that CNN, which hasn’t publicly named the memester, says that as a news organization it retains the right to publicly identify him in the future.
Yep, that’s right: a bunch of dudes who have no problem doxxing or threatening to dox people they don’t like is mad at CNN for not actually doxxing someone. And neo-Nazi hacker Andrew Auernheimer, aka weev, seems to be the angriest of the bunch, his fury initially driven in part by false reports that the memester was 15 years old. (He is in fact an adult.) And so in a post on the Daily Stormer he rallied the troops for what he sees as a righteous campaign to force CNN “to taste their own medicine.” Although it isn’t the “same medicine” at all.
After presenting CNN with a list of ridiculous demands that no real news organization would ever meet — including firing all the journalists vaguely connected to the CNN story and setting up a $50,000 college scholarship for the racist memester — weev declares
If you do not do this, we are going to be tracking you down just like you tracked him down.
You are fake news, and we are the real media. As journalists, we have the right to track people down and seek comment on your criminal associations. We now have jackboots on the ground in every major metro area in the world.
We are going to track down your parents.
We are going to track down your siblings.
We are going to track down your spouses.
We are going to track down your children. Because hey, that’s what you guys get to do, right? We’re going to see how you like it when our reporters are hunting down your children.We are going to seek comment from them all, because you are fake news terrorists engaged in a seditious plot to undermine our President and the 63 million people who voted for him. HanAssholeSolo was a private citizen, but none of you are. We are going to see you brought to account for this, because that’s what real media does: expose criminals.
The difference being that when real real reporters “seek comment” from someone, they literally seek comment from them. When Stormers and their alt-right pals “seek comment” from people it usually means the targets of their “questioning” get sent a lot of death threats and oven memes, an impression Daily Stormer publisher Andrew Anglin doesn’t exactly dispel with his own post filled with an assortment of violent anti-CNN memes, including one featuring the heads of assorted CNN journalists pasted onto photos of Jews in a concentration camp and another one of CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski, the author of the offending story, warning him to “sleep with one eye open.”
Weev goes on to inform
Any CNN employee that does not want to be tracked down alongside their families will have one additional week to quit CNN and denounce their act of blackmail against a private citizen. After that, it is game on.
Do you understand what is coming? This is going to be ironic punishment. You are going to have the exact thing done to you that you’ve been doing to us for ages. You have an easy chance to stop this, so don’t say that we don’t play fair, and don’t pretend you didn’t have it coming.
We didn’t make these rules – you did – and now we’re going to force you to play by them. Hope you enjoy what is coming, you filthy rat kike bastards.
Kill yourselves, kike news fakers. You deserve every single bit of what you are about to get.
Lovely.
CORRECTION: This story originally attributed a Daily Stormer post to the site’s publisher Andrew Anglin; it was actually written for the Daily Stormer by neo-Nazi hacker Andrew Auernheimer, aka weev. Anglin posted his own threatening post later.
@JS
“Do you people who don’t like CNN’s reaction see the alt-right double standard yet?”
Yes. I’ve always seen it. BUT, if I think that threatening someone with the release of their name to the internet hoards is wrong, then it doesn’t matter to me who does it. It doesn’t matter that the neo-nazis are worse, or that the person being threatened is scum.
Fuck this year, and that we are now using “better than LITERAL neo-Nazis” as an actual standard of behavior.
@WWTH
Yes, the story of the “elistist” Democrat is used by Republicans as a diversion from their classism. Why do you think I get so pissed by jokes about “economic anxiety” and the like?
Who’s useful idiot am I? All I want is for the Democrats to STFU and be actually progressive. And win elections.
Let me ask you this; what do you guys lose by considering my POV? You’ll cinsider fighting to save low class jobs? Bolster the safety net? Stop offshoring pollution?
How unDemocratic.
Andrew Kacynzki’s family are getting constantly harrased already by phone calls and these assholes are planning protests in front of his house.
Cernovich, typically, is spreading around that KFILE is a pedophile.
WHO ARE THE ACTUAL BAD GUYS HERE?!??
Fuck these assholes. Goddamned hypocritical cretins.
Mrex, are you kidding me?!?
Do you honestly think this fucking bullshit is going to go away if democrats win elections?!?
You really don’t see a problem with somebody writing a mini dissertation on why they see nothing wrong with a meme they admit they hadn’t actually bothered to look at? But sure, I’ll let JS, WWTH and PeeVee take over from here, since apparently they can say the very same thing in the very same tone without you calling them out. ¬_¬
[Edit]
Yes that sarcasm is because those things are exactly Democratic. The Democraric party always was the party of unions and the working class. Now I have to deal with people who put “Trump” stickers next to their “Unions build America” stickers, and I wish for the ground to come swallow me up.
[Edit edit]
@PV
Yes, if the Democrats win elections, they’ll gain power, and the neo-Nazis will lose power.
Will there still be internet assholes? Yes. But they won’t have the backing of the white house, like they do now.
http://68.media.tumblr.com/692c73b1092cfe79a1cb35f40c052ee4/tumblr_inline_miegjkiK5c1qz4rgp.gif
I’m still trying to figure out how shutting the fuck up will win elections in the first place.
Let me be clear… I’m not using “better than literal Neo-Nazis” as my standard. My standard is “would I be OK with my name not being revealed along with what could be interpreted to be a veiled threat to reveal it, if I posted such crap”. And I would. I’m surprised that CNN went along with his request for anonymity, but considering his apology and removal of account BEFORE he talked with CNN, I see why they said “OK, but..”.
You still don’t see the double standard. You are willfully ignoring it.
@Mish Future Empress of the Catladies: My pleasure! Finding out how trash humans who didn’t start life as trash humans became trash humans is a bit of a hobby of mine.
@Weird EBTR: You nailed it. Someone working with SPLC did a psych profile of Anglin not long ago, and that’s basically it (with some possibly accurate and disturbing hypotheses about his childhood and early adolescence) in a nutshell.
That sounds like a personal problem that any reasonable and halfway considerate person would work out on their own time and not expect an entire commentariat to work out for you.
But I reckon it’s way easier to outsource that work to other folks rather than do it yourself, so … carry on being a lazy fuck?
Mrex,
This BULLSHIT started under Obama.
Give me a goddamned break.
wrt to CNN’s “blackmail”:
This dude did a thing that is newsworthy. That makes him news. CNN tracking him down is just a news outlet doing its job. I would have had no problem with CNN just publishing his name in a story, but they elected not to do it, probably because he accidented his way into fame rather than putting himself out there purposefully. However, they aren’t going to swear not to publish his name ever, no exceptions, because he might push himself back into the spotlight at some point. CNN hasn’t done anything worth criticizing here, except for wording their announcement poorly.
The dude wasn’t very fussed about having his meme tweeted by Shinra until it turned out there might be real-world consequences. Then suddenly he became the very picture of contriteness. Obviously his apology is under duress, and he probably views CNN’s promise not to publish his name as long as he stays on the down-low from now on as a threat. Most people who are anonymous on the internet would view it as a threat. It’s not a threat, though, for a news outlet to reserve the right to publish future potential news. If you’re news, news outlets will investigate you, and may publish your name. That’s just reality.
@SFHC
Ya know what? Nevermind me, don’t stop on my account…
@WWTH
I think shutting up about how “rich” working class Republicans are, will win elections. I didn’t mean to shut up about policy duh.
@JS
Ok, I got you.
I don’t think I would be fine with what CNN did even if I had posted such crap. To me, CNN is the powerful entity in that equation. But maybe that’s just me.
@POM
It’s not laziness. I just don’t know how to stop it, without replacing it with something worse.
But you’re right, it’s not on anyone else to fix.
I didn’t say working class Republicans are rich and haven’t seen anyone else say that. I said Republicans are generally richer than Democrats.
If you’re going to constantly come here to pick fights, fine. But at least argue with things that people are saying and not shit that you just made up.
Guys, I get the feeling that this current discourse is not going to be very productive. Maybe y’all should lay off.
It is laziness, because I called it “work” for a reason. If it were effortless, I would have called it something other than work.
This is a good video about journalists and mathematical illiteracy. She also covers some feminist issues.
I’m gonna post this again, for those who aren’t getting it.
Andrew Kacynzki’s family are getting constantly harrased already by phone calls and these assholes are planning protests in front of his house.
Other reporters are already getting their addresses published online.
Cernovich, typically, is spreading around that KFILE is a pedophile.
WHO ARE THE ACTUAL BAD GUYS HERE?!
FOR THOSE THAT AREN’T PAYING ATTENTION, IT’S NOT CNN!!!
And this shit started happening far, far before Trump took the WH. DUH.
This is literal fucking terrorism. Jesus Christ, I hate the internet.
Good. Hopefully this time you’ll stay away.
The horror. The horror.
This Handle is a Test – comparing voting for Clinton to a dental appointment works for me. My dad used to say that the only thing worse than going to the dentist was *not* going to the dentist.
Part of me is starting to think that we’d be better off now if Sanders had gotten the nomination. We’d still have Trump, but nobody would be blaming her and the Sandersnistas would be a lot quieter.
Mrex, would it be more agreeable to you if Democrats focused more on how wealthy Republicans manipulate working class Republicans into voting *against* their own interests, while wealthy Democrats try to manipulate them into voting *for* their own interests – or would that also seem excessively confrontational?
@History Nerd
Forgive me for asking but why does your avatar keep changing from blue to red? And why does the red one always acts like a jerk.
Only if it’s some mrex doesn’t like saying it.
Wish you would, know full well that you won’t.
Hmmm, OogglyBoggles…since WP avatars are assigned by email (mine stays the same no matter what device I use) why use 2 email addys?
Questions, questions.