By David Futrelle
Given how many of today’s alt-right Nazis and Nazi-equivalents grew up on 4chan, the internet’s Troll Central, it’s hardly surprising that they lie about almost everything. What is perhaps a little more surprising is how bad at it they are. Most of their deceptive propaganda is so obviously phony that in many cases the only people they are fooling are each other.
Case in point: In the wake of two violent alt-right rallies in Charlottesville, during which antifascist activist Heather Heyer was brutally murdered by a Trump-loving, Pepe-posting white supremacist, alt-rightists have been doing their best to try to smear Antifa counterprotesters as the real perpetrators of violence in Charlottesville.
They’ve done so in part by flooding the internet with mislabeled photos of other demonstrations, with one of the most widely distributed photos featuring an Antifa graphic crudely photoshopped onto the back of a Greek protester beating a cop.
Lefty Twitterer @2dAmMuslim took apart some of these claims in a recent thread. Let’s just look at his screenshots of the, er, discussion, which started off with a right-winger posting not one, not two, but four different bullshit pics, all of which have been widely distributed by right-wingers in recent days, intended to “prove” that Antifas were the true thugs in Charlottesville.
“Libertas” responded to this rebuttal by … blocking @2ndAmMuslim.
Alt-rightists have also been distributing what they claim is a secret Antifa manual allegedly discovered somewhere on the campus of The Evergreen State College. Its fakeness is so readily apparent — just read the thing — that it could only be convincing to dedicated Fox News viewers and especially gullible channers who don’t actually know anything about actual Antifa beliefs.
My favorite bits come at the end, when whoever wrote this thing basically stopped trying to be even slightly convincing.
But it isn’t just channers who find themselves duped by these crude fakes. Independent Journal Review “journalist” Benny Johnson — who was famously fired from Buzzfeed for plagiarism — recently reported on an obviously phony Antifa Twitter account as if it were the Twitter account of a real organization. The problem with his article was evident just from its headline: “Boston Antifa Thanks Hillary Clinton, Democrats for Their Support as They Burn American Flag.”
Anyone who knows anything about Antifas know that they aren’t exactly big Hillary Clinton fans. It’s a bit like reporting that a group of Boston Red Sox fans was heaping praise on the New York Yankees. See Angry White Men and NYmag for more on this particular debacle.
After Johnson was informed by half the internet that the group was fake, he or his editors added an “Alleged” to the front of his headline.
But this is probably my favorite bit of alt-right bullshit from recent days. Here an enterprising propagandist reuses a picture from a Cleveland rally in order to “prove” that some of the white supremacists protesting in Boston last weekend were black women. Not so fast, ironically-named “TruthInGovernment.”
https://twitter.com/BrettSVergara/status/899003964364120065
H/T — Thanks to Twitter’s Leon Tchotchke (@played_straight) for convincing me to do this post.
@Scildfreja:
No kidding. Brian Jean is also using Hamish Marshall to organize his campaign, apparently. Marshall is apparently trying to be Canada’s version of Bannon.
Needless to say, that radio segment I mentioned talked a fair bit about Ezra Levant, and his creation of Rebel Media mostly to get around the broadcast rules that prevented him from lying his ass off all the time on Sun Network News. They also noted that despite what Levant says about financial difficulties, fundamentally their business model has always been ‘whip people up into a frenzy of fear, then give them something to contribute to so they give money directly’. Rebel Media may be losing advertisers, but those have never been the real source of income.
@Molloy, Moran, Malone:
New email addresses generally go into auto-moderation the first time, and have to be explicitly let out, so first-time posters usually won’t show up right away. (This tends to be more a bot-blocker than a troll-blocker.) Once you’re through, new posts from the same email address should keep getting through unless you do something to warrant being put back into moderation again.
(I scanned back to find your post after I noticed things had moved because something was let out of moderation.)
Anyhow, welcome! As you may have already noticed, there is the ‘Official WHTM Welcome Package’ link on the right.
Yes, I find this is generally a good place.
@Molloy, Moran, Malone: Welcome! There is a welcome package on the right, so you can be stocked up with all the scented candles you could ever want.
I’m sorry you had such bad experiences participating in online discussions before, I hope you enjoy your time here.
… I was looking for a gif that had a puppy in it that had something to do with welcoming, and got caught on this one…
http://blog.photobucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/a7928c0b.gif
Hope that carries the message across, haha.
(Also your comment only showed up once, so that’s great.)
@Molloy, Moran, Malone
Welcome to WHTM!
@Sinkable John
It’s just another example of the power of narratives and framing. The archaic “Black bloc” tactic that was big in Europe back in the 80s is now just being straight-up conflated with Antifa strictly on the aesthetics of black hoodies and masks that some counterprotesters don. Circulated images don’t even have to be from the same year, let alone the same event, it’s just Antifa == Black bloc == SCARY anarchists!
Same shit went down during Occupy.
Armed Tea Partiers == Constitution-exercising patriots
Unarmed Occupiers == Cop-car pooping property destroyers
In a sense, the alt-right have a grasp of this to the extent that its opposition hasn’t quite figured out. That’s why they all wore golf shirts and khaki pants. We know it’s ridiculous, but with the police and media clearly biased in favour of the status quo, it’s going to be difficult to counter a narrative that paints all Antifa as destructive. All the media needs is a photo of a black hoodie throwing a punch and they’ve got their narrative set.
MLK put nuns and children at the front of his marches for a reason. I think Antifa would benefit from that example.
As a general rule, whatever they’re accusing us of, they’re doing themselves.
You can literally predict what people will be caught doing by keeping an eye of what accusations they throw around.
Holy cow! Rebel media has suffered nearly the same fate as the stormer!
It’s still accessible to half? the world, so not quite the same, but good!
The Protocols is an apt comparison, since it is also complete nonsense that only get traction if you already believe in the conspiracy before you even read it.
And yet it ended up being a major propaganda win on behalf of the far right that is still being peddled to this day.
@Molloy, Moran, Malone
Welcome! A word of caution: while the regulars here are great and would not do something like that to you, we do have a number of lurkers including MRA/MGTOW types who can’t be trusted, so I recommend against posting any info here that links back to your real details. David is the only one who sees your email address, and he’s trustworthy, at least as much as a bunch of cats in a human suit can be.
The antifa letterman jacket cracks me up every time. Like, if you just said it was antifa, none of your ilk woulda cared. The unnecessary effort tho, just to get caught with your hand in the Photoshop jar ?
@Molloy (ya don’t mind the abbreviation, do you?)
Hiya, I’m Axe! Welcome aboard the goodship Mammoth. Don’t be a stranger, eh?
@Molloy, Moran, Malone
Welcome aboard!
@Evan Parker
Antifa are Anti Fa scism. If you are not anti-fascist, you are pro-fascist. There is literally no middle ground. Most organized antifa groups are composed of members of a variety of leftist tendencies, united by a dedication to rooting out fascism and racism* wherever they arise, but plenty of antifa at these protests are progressives and even liberals, because they can see that we have kind of a fascist problem right now, and when the problem is fascists, not opposing them is the same thing as supporting them. Which side are you on?
*Also other forms of bigotry, but white supremacists are their principal focus.
@Axe
Hell, probably he was. Greece has a fascism problem right now too, and there’s plenty of antifascist action going on there.
@Dali
Fascists: yeah, I buy that, probably antifa… Fucker! ?
Communists: yeah, i buy that, probably antifa… Comrade! ?
I haven’t finished catching up with the thread, but I want to give a warm welcome to Molloy, Moran, Malone.
I’m sorry you had bad experiences in the past. There are good people here, and I hope you enjoy yourself.
It’s interesting that the automatic response here to an even slightly dissenting view is delegitimation and implicit calls for censorship (“read the comments policy!” which I already had, and nobody cares to explain how I’m supposedly violating it.)
And no, vague demands for “citations” without saying what specifically you’re disagreeing with is not a response either.
The only one to really try is Dalillama: Irate Social Engineer, but her response is totally dishonest. No, the fact that the specific political tendency called “Antifa” have named themselves after the term “anti-fascism” does not mean that opposing them means supporting “fascism.” Similarly, dissenting from pre-emptive street violence against “fascists” is not the same as “not opposing fascists.”
My feeling is that if people really did believe that Antifa tactics were legitimate, they wouldn’t resort to these sorts of tricks and distractions – they’d just say, here’s why I think it’s good and important to form Red street gangs and club neo-nazis in the streets if they try to hold a demonstration. People aren’t saying that because they know it’s indefensible. But at the same time they want to support “our team” so they come up with this babble instead.
@Evan Harper
Clearly you have not.
Ableism. You called people “crazy” or “insane” about a thousand times. Mentally ill and asshole are not synonymous.
Your claims that antifas are all violent and celebrate cops being killed (which doesn’t even happen that often, BTW). You marched in here and acknowledged that the pictures in the OP were photoshopped, but then all but said that it doesn’t matter because they reflect how antifas are anyway.
How do you oppose fascists?
Where’s your evidence that antifas are usually the ones to start violence? There’s a looooooong history in this country of claiming violence on the part of social justice activists in order to do violence to them. This is just the latest. I’m not saying that there are no leftists who commit inappropriate violence, but you’re not making your case very well that it’s baked in to antifa, communism, anarchism or anything else that opposes the status quo.
There’s only one side that murdered someone a couple of weeks ago. It wasn’t the antifas. The fact that you haven’t even said a word against the neo-Nazis. The ones who did kill someone. The ones who boast about all their guns. The ones who have been committing loads of hate crimes since the election is telling.
And in case I’m asked for a citation, here’s a good example of what I mean when I say this country has a history of criminalizing social justice
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Haywood
@ Evan Harper.
As others have made very clear: Heather Heyer was murdered and 19 people injured on August 12th by a man who was radicalized by Neo-Nazis, white supremacists, Neo-Confederates, MRAs, and other monsters collectively known as the “alt-right”.
But, sure, let’s say that while the lies of white nationalists and Neo-Nazis are just that, lies, we can go on to then deride all anti-fascists with broad generalizations. That’s the “sane” thing to do. By your logic, it’s fine to ignore a protestor’s death because you think white supremacists have legit grievances about “free speech”.
Nevermind that all speech is threatened by fascists and white nationalists. And nevermind that counter-protests are not suppressing free speech.
Nevermind that anti-fascists are out there risking their lives to shut down racial hatred and discrimination, while certain people judge from behind a screen. Or that you continue to spout lies about anti-fascist violence in the age of Combover, despite all evidence to the contrary. (Including evidence provided not just in the WHTM blog, but by others earlier in the thread.)
Nevermind that by November 11th of last year, not even 3 full days after the election, there had already been over 200 instances of “hateful intimidation and harassment”. Whereas the actions of antifa are, in the words of Peter Coffin, “retaliatory actions; they are reactions”. Threatening or attacking members of Jewish synagogues and black churches is not retaliation for a lack of free speech, but an attempt by white nationalists to make Jews and black people feel terrified for their lives (before saying that they, the white nationalists, are the real victims).
Nevermind that you’re making false statements about everyone here, e.g. saying you don’t know the comment policy after having had it explained to you multiple times. Or your claim that people are calling for censorship when all they’ve asked is that you stop using ablest slurs. (Plus, you know, you’ve not actually been censored.) Or your claim that people are not responding to anything specific you said, when they have (and acting like you have no idea which claims people are asking evidence for is not fooling anybody).
Oh no. Let’s detonate nuclear takes like:
Whose “tricks and distractions”? Futrelle’s blog is about disinformation and propaganda by the alt-right about antifa. But those are all somehow the anti-fascists’ fault? That’s like saying, “if women catered to cis men more, they wouldn’t be sexually harassed so much.”
Or by “they” do you mean the alt-right? Because the idea that people wouldn’t lie about others if they didn’t have a reason to is some twisted “logic.” Although, it raises questions since you’ve misrepresented the responses you’ve gotten…
Lastly, you’re doing an awful lot of stanning for the alt-right, including repeating some of their talking points (e.g. claims that anti-fascists can only counter arguments with calls to censorship of right-wing and “dissenting” ideas). If you think being anti-fascist is the same as being anti-right-wing, then that says a lot about the right-wing.
But you’ve clearly made up your mind and decided that everyone who doesn’t share your opinion is worth delegitimizing. Plus, you’ve chosen to deliberately misrepresent everyone who’s talking to you.
Rather like what you accuse anti-fascists of doing.
Since the regulars have appropriately smacked Mr. Harper down for his ableism, I’d like to smack down this other nugget of pablum:
Yes, because that’s exactly what Antifa Aktion does (read: it isn’t). Let’s keep one thing firmly in mind; Antifa exists entirely as a reactionary movement to the rising profile of white supremacists, nativists, and outright neo-Nazi groups in North America and Europe. If these people didn’t gather, Antifa would not be a thing.
Now, why do these gatherings happen? It’s obviously not to celebrate “pride” of any kind, as pride marches typically doesn’t involve nighttime torch walks and chants of “Blood and soil”. That leaves intimidation, which is the obvious reasons for any hate group to gather. They want those they consider undesireables afraid for their safety. Because with fear properly instilled, they don’t have to lift a finger in any kind of action that could leave them discredited or worse, open to legal jeopardy. Klan-ruled towns in the South didn’t have to burn down a black church to make their point if a burnt cross on the front lawn of the preacher did the job.
But what happens when they don’t make their opposition afraid enough? That’s when you have folks showing up with weapons, particularly firearms. And let’s not pretend that the torch mob is somehow opposed to firearms; the Vice documentary alone profiled that Cantwell guy as being armed to the teeth. There’s a reason Oath Keepers and Three Percenters are attracted to alt-right gatherings.
And the alt-right loves them some violence. Sure, they’ll feign righteous indignation at the very idea that they’re prone to violence, but ten seconds later they’re out memeing another “Based Stick Man” GIF on 4chan or Reddit. The left actually found itself embroiled in a moral and ethical debate about a single punch being thrown at Richard Spencer, meanwhile 4chan was reveling in the fact that an unarmed woman with dreadlocks was viciously beaten by a man with multiple prior assault convictions.
This is the context Antifa finds themselves confronting. Their opposition is not only armed to the teeth, but are just aching to find any excuse to use those weapons and they will find a reason whether to use them whether Antifa is armed or not. So some come with defensive implements in order to protect not only themselves, but counter-protestors that angry white supremacists are all too willing to attack.
Does a masked vigilante or two lash out unprovoked? Perhaps. They are then properly investigated by law enforcement and face the consequences for their action. But I’m not going to sit here and condemn Antifa for taking the incredibly brave stand against a mob of armed supremacists intent on intimidation. It takes courage to be the one to do that, courage I haven’t had to call on. So if they’re the group receiving your ire, it certainly leaves me wondering whether you think standing in opposition to white nationalists isn’t necessary (which makes you naive), that unarmed counter-protesters will not be assaulted by said nationalists (which makes you even more naive) or that you actively support those nationalists and are concern-trolling us (which makes you a terrible person).
Take your pick.
Isn’t it funny how the right pretends like being armed for self defense is some sort of sacred right. Until someone they hate or fear has weapons. Then they’re violent thugs who should be disarmed and/or killed. They’re fine with condemning antifas for having clubs or sticks while white nationalist’s guns go unremarked on. They’re fine with their patron saint Ronnie Reagan having implemented gun control while governor because it was in response to Black Panthers. They’re fine with children of color being gunned down by cops for having toy guns. It’s almost like the right doesn’t care about self defense at all. It’s almost like they just want special rights no one else has to arm themselves in order to intimidate people they don’t like.
And they’ll find a reason whether Antifa is there or not. Antifa is like a lightning rod. Every punch (or worse) thrown at them is one not thrown at a black church or a synagogue or who/whatever.
Which means that in the current climate of Trump, being against Antifa is like being against lightning rods right after they’ve issued a severe thunderstorm warning.
Since Trump took office, there have been how many anti Trump/anti alt right/ anti-fascist/lefty liberal protestors in the streets?
Hundreds of thousands? Over a million? since the women’s march, the first massive counter-protest. (And which neo-con David Frum described as the most peaceful protest of its size he had ever seen).
How many cops have been killed by these hundreds of thousands of protestors? How many have been deliberatelytargeted for serious injury (as opposed to cuts, bruises and other injuries that result from angry & emotional groups facing off in the street)?
And yet these asshats keep claiming that anti-fascist groups have a policy of maiming & killing cops. If they have, they sure suck at it.
This is key. This is a big part of why I give Antifa enormous credit. They are putting their bodies on the line to keep these supremacists from taking anger out on a Muslim girl wearing a veil on a train or a black church full of parishioners.
It’s also why I find the BLM/Antifa concern-troll contingent so damned odious (looking your way, Armoured Skeptic). If they hate these groups so much, then they sure did little to prevent them from being necessary. Like regulating the cops or pushing back on their friends’ racist 4chan memes. It comes off less as a principled stand for nonviolence and more of a “how did you people get so uppity?!” kind of thing.
@Evan Harper
People here don’t do that because the comment policy frowns on calls to violence, but in other contexts plenty of people are saying precisely that. That, however, is merely one strand of Antifa; opposition to fascism comes in many forms, and they also serve who organize medical tents, circulate antifascist materials, call out fascist bullshit in their daily lives, etc.
And then they accuse the left of doing all this.
They psychologically project about everything. It’s really sad