UPDATE: See update at the end of this post. It’s kind of funny.
By David Futrelle
On Monday, I published a post devoted to the proposition that Alt-rightists and their ideological kin lie about everything — usually badly. As if to prove my point, right-wing trolls from 4chan and Gab have launched a false flag “meme campaign” designed to smear AntiFa activists as supporters of domestic violence against women and children.
The campaign seems to have originated at 4chan — see the graphic at the top of this post — where it was quickly taken up by some of the resident anons. (Click for full-sized graphic; I’ve censored the graphic depictions of bruises.)
The idea quickly found its way to Gab — the famously “censorship-free” Twitter alternative, positively overflowing with Nazis and shitlords — where an alt-right Gabber called @Sperg quickly assembled a vast library of grotesque memes.
Here are a few of the tamer ones, lightly censored to obscure graphic depictions of bruises and other injuries — though they’re still pretty disturbing.
I’ve taken the liberty of writing FAKE on each in big red letters.
Many of the memes were so over-the-top that they could only fool the most gullible — like those advocating the beating of children and elderly women.
It wasn’t long before these memes began popping up on Twitter — some of them posted by alt-rightists and Trump fans, others posted by clearly fake AntiFa accounts. (Or at least clearly fake to you and me, not necessarily to your typical Trump fan.)
It seems incredible to think that anyone could be fooled by such obviously fake memes — particularly since the evidence that this is a false flag is being spread around the hashtag by leftists trying to correct the record. But smear campaigns like this work even if only a small number of those seeing the fake memes think they’re true; they further poison an already poisoned well.
Dirty tricks have always been a part of politics. But for many in and around the alt-right today, politics has become almost nothing but dirty tricks. We need to remember that these are people who lie as casually and compulsively as their hero Donald Trump — and call their hoaxes out every time we spot them.
UPDATE: Naturally, 4chan anons are mad that they’ve been found out, as Robyn Pennacchia details in a lovely post on Wonkette.
It’s harder to think what’s more annoying, hope blatant this is (like only slightly less than that “antifa manual”* but still damn blatant) or that i know for sure, there’s “centrists”** that will believe it without giving it much thought.
*As bad as that thing was, it actually shows that the neo Nazis/alt-reich do understand satire, so they can’t try and pretend ignorance and use “it’s satire”to save face. Thought to be honest, Nazis tend to be open about their hatred.
**I know people on the left rag on them a lot, but just yesterday i saw somebody mention that hoax about feminists aborting a baby because he was male, unironically, as an example of “extreme feminists”. I can honestly only think of this
@Alan Robertshaw
What a poignant story.
My mother used to be friends with a woman who was captured by the Nazis when she was young, and made to work in one of their brothels. I believe she was slavic. My mother actually named my younger sister after her. This brothel catered to, I guess, higher-eschelon SS men. According to what my mother told me, this poor woman had a better fate than other people the Nazis got their hands on, but everyone knew why her life was spared.
Amnesia:
We’re actually supposed to sympathize with the portrayed victims and condemn the “radical leftist activist” that wrote hateful commentary on them. Only that’s not clearly messaged in any of the posters David quoted. I think you’d have to already be deep in alt-right thinking to even understand propaganda this incompetent.
Angi:
This, plus there probably aren’t many stock photos about battered men. Or ugly women, for that matter.
Overall, I predict this campaign will soon digress into random jokes about battered women.
Once again the website are my link
http://www.theonion.com/amp/56691
I know! They can’t even get their propaganda right. They even give their Antifa opponents attributes and catch-phrases that they, the Fascists, use….
“….Six Gorillion….”
A real Antifa/Anti-Hate Person would say “Six Million”. Phrases like “Six Gorillion/Bazillion/Quintillion/Bajillion-Trillion/etc.” is the sort of jargon a Holocaust Denier would use.
On the bright side, at least we have tons of real-life FILMS of the actual events as they happened (with sound and some even in color) as well as footage of vets and Holocaust survivors giving their recollections. With that, WWII will always seem a lot more “real” than previous wars (where it’s just old grainy photos or old grainy silent movie footage).
It’s hard to “connect” with someone/something in a grainy yellowed daguerreotype from a long ago era before cars, radios and other “modern” stuff. It’s easier to “connect” with someone/something from an older era with some things common to now (cars, radio, pop-culture, movies, kid’s shows, pre-packaged food, early primitive TV, etc.) that’s a moving picture with clear sound. The Late 1930s-1940’s are more relatable to our sensibilities in a way.
Therefore; It may be harder for future folks to forget WWII and the awfulness of The Nazis. One can easily find a film of Hitler giving his over-the-top, shrieking speeches.
That said; Today’s Nazi-Wannabees don’t seem to be the sort of crowd to sit around watching educational documentaries and they probably only pay attention to the flashy Triumph of the Will junk and it’s “Nazis look cool” aesthetic.
@Mish
KITTEH! I LUFF KITTEHS!!!!
@JeyneDoe
With these kind of jackasses I wonder how many of them make these with a “wink to my pals at Stormer” versus “this ia how antifa acts, right?”. Like it’s just like that fake antifa manual, that ended up sounding more like white nationalist propaganda than an antifa manifesto.
@Spuki
Unfortunately, I don’t think the fact we can see Hitler’s speeches has had much of an impact on hope dreadful the Holocaust and WW2 wad, judging by all the jackasses that like to make “lol so ironically subversive” gifs of Hitler and goose-stepping Nazis
I hope women who align themselves with the right thinking that they’ll be fine in a white nationalist state because they’re white and cishet are paying attention to this.
Because what if this campaign wasn’t so inept? What if it actually convinced liberals to punch Trump voting white women or white women in general?
These guys they’re apologizing for in order not to seem like an uptight man hating feministing or embracing because of a common racist cause will happily throw white women under the bus. If white women think white nationalists value white women like they pretend to do, they’re deluding themselves. We’re just transport for the uteri that can grow white babies. They only see cishet white men as real humans and that’s never going to change. No matter how many sandwiches you offer to make them. No matter how vigorously you agree with them that “those people” are destroying America.
I’m in my forties. When I was in college, I met an older woman who told me stories of being a child in Berlin, during the war, and how she would occasionally see one of her friends get blown up by one of the grenades, theysometimes found in the wreckage of the city.
She looked so calm as she told me these memories, but for her these memories were long ago, and she was used to having them. I found her memories horrific.
I think the nazis are afraid. That they are losing against the antifa. I expect there will be more smear campaigns like this one to come.
On the bright side, these recent smear campaigns prove one thing. Antifa is scaring the shit out of the alt-reich. They really did think the “SJWs” were weak and would melt into nothing once Trump won. Like most bullies and cowards, these shitlords didn’t anticipate and can’t deal with it when people actually fight back.
Might I beg a favour and prevail on the excellent writing skills and background knowledge of the commentariat?
This is a women’s self defence manual from WW2.
http://formerlynmurbanhomesteader.weebly.com/uploads/2/2/5/0/22509786/hands-off-self-defense-for-women-fairbairn-21444015-.pdf
I’d be really grateful if any folks could maybe do 100 – 500 words on their thoughts. Doesn’t have to be about the self defence aspect. Be really interested in say, sociological, historical, gender expectations etc perspectives.
Cheers
In the last couple of decades, images of war have gotten much more sanitized in the US. As a kid during the Vietnam war, I remember seeing the relentless parade of bodybags and white crosses on the news, and photos of civilian casualties. That footage was significant in turning the tide of public opinion against the war. For that reason, the Pentagon banned pictures of dead soldiers’ homecomings during the Iraq/Afghanistan war. The majority of American civilians under 40 haven’t had regular exposure to graphic images of the horrors of war, except in video games. It’s all too easy to forget, for collective memory to fade as eyewitnesses pass on. The WWI generation is gone, the WWII generation is going.
As for the shitbags creating these memes, they just want an excuse to post photos of abused women and trick leftists into thinking DV is not only morally okay, it’s a patriotic duty. I wonder what JudgyBitch would make of these memes. I’m sure she’d be totally on board with them because “she’s one of the good ones”. Until she isn’t.
I love step 5 above, “Sit Back”. Step 6 is “Endure the mockery of people who are far more moral and intelligent than you, and can actually recognize a Nazi when they see one.”
@Alan Robertshaw:
I believe I learned ‘knout’ and ‘troika’ from ‘Flashman at the Charge’ back in the 1970s/80s and was struck by the similar sounds of ‘troika’ and ‘truck’ as I believe both can mean ‘wagon.’ My favourite Russian word, though, has to be ‘vodka.’
@Alan Robertshaw:
I believe I learned ‘knout’ and ‘troika’ from ‘Flashman at the Charge’ back in the 1970s/80s and was struck by the similar sounds of ‘troika’ and ‘truck’ as I believe both can mean ‘wagon.’ My favourite Russian word, though, has to be ‘vodka.’
You are all useful idiots, just like those young white men identifying with nazism. I don’t know how to save you people, but I ‘m going to try anyways. Just like I’m going to try to save those young white men. We’re all victims here. Such a sad state our nation is in.
@SpukiKitty
Trigger warning for real-life horror:
Those films. Yes, we have those. When I was in high school, we were made to watch a documentary about the Nazi concentration camps. The narration was in French, but it had English subtitles. The Nazis actually filmed the camp footage. It was all in black and white, thank god. Just unbelievable footage of bulldozing mounds and mounds of skeletons and corpses in varying stages of decay. And, every time I saw a human skull, its eye sockets especially, I thought to myself, “That was once a living human being.”.
One girl got up and left the room. She couldn’t take it anymore.
Well, I guess Buttercup Q. Skullpants ninja’d me.
I wonder, what with school budgets being cut and all, how much US kids are taught about World War 2, and the Holocaust. I think all children should see those films.
One of the problems with using the available (deeply powerful and disturbing) films, especially in attempting to convince members of the younger generation(s), of which I am a part, is that technology has progressed to the point where films like that can be brushed off as computer-generated fakery, high-budget propaganda, etc. There’s no way to prove that something happened to somebody who’s already completely convinced that it didn’t, especially if their belief also involves the existence of a shadowy conspiracy with unlimited resources.
Any copies of the films from before such changes were possible would get hand-waved as modern forgeries, anyone testifying that it’s exactly the same as it was 70 years ago is going to be accused of being a shill. And anyway, as others have said, very, very shortly, there won’t be anyone left who personally witnessed all these horrors. It’s just going to get easier to convince edgy, contrarian pricks that it’s all a fraud. Don’t get me wrong, those films absolutely need to continue to be shown as part of standard school curricula; I’m just saying that film doesn’t have the same evidentiary weight it used to. They’ll still be convincing and poignant, and credible to the overwhelming majority of students. But not universally, as I imagine was the case in decades past.
All thry did was take their anti-woman memes and slapped new words on them. And @Antifarleft? How in the hell isn’t that a glaring signal that it’s bullshit?
re WW2 films:
There’s been an awful lot of WW2 docs on American Heroes Channel (used to be the Military Channel). Some have been very good (The World At War, the Final Solution) and some not so much (shows with Nazis + UFO’s and/or zombies in the titles makes me weep for their quality). Very Hitler-centric as opposed to holocaust-centric, however, to the point of our household renaming it the All Hitler Channel. 😛
Makes me wonder how much of their programming was to fetishize Hitler rather than to warn against people like him.
Weirwoodtreehugger: chief Manager
Exactley, maybe these guys would white women let alive in their horrible dystopic dreamcountry. After all they need someone to give birth to their precious white boys. But they would love to beat them into submission.
Sadly these people are not only destroying America they try the same in Europe. I live not far from the village were Hitler was born. In school we learned a lot about the horrible things the Nazis did. Almost everyone in my country has at least once visited a KZ while they were in school and there are still many older people alive who lived in the Nazi regime. And while the situation here is better than in the US the far right is on the rise and so are hate crimes.
I know way too many people who openly hate Muslims and refuggees and probably every non white person. They would rather want them to be dead than to live in the same country with them. They don’t care that history has shown to what horrible results their hate leads.
Gladly there are also many people who oppose these hateful assholes and see the parallels between them and the Nazis.
In re Hands Off! by Major W.E. Fairbairn.
(Parenthetically, now I really want to grasp how and why the Matchbox Defense works, whether one might make use of an appropriate substitute should the occasion arise, and, if so, why consideration of such an eventuality is omitted from the text.)
Apart from that … in no particular order: I appreciate the fact that the assailant is a respectable middle-aged white gentleman in a suit (can’t quite make out whether it’s the author?) and that the defender is wearing typical-for-the-day high heels. I love the measured tone, so conducive to calm recollection in adversity; I merely raise half an eyebrow at the advice to knee one’s assailant “in the pit of the stomach”, presumably because it was unthinkable – even in this eminently practical and serious text – to actually mention the genitals. All this needs is some slow-motion animations, and you could re-publish it today.
There’s something about the style and tone – its being so matter-of-fact, utterly free of any trace of sensationalism – that makes it feel all the more perfectly normal that of course any woman might make use of the techniques depicted. Though I do feel that perhaps this invaluable treatise lacks sufficient emphasis on the need to anticipate and take measures to prevent subsequent reprisals.
Thanks are due to the inestimable Mr. Robertshaw for bringing this interesting publication to the attention of the parties presently assembled and enjoying the hospitality of our esteemed and gracious host Mr. Futrelle.
HA HA HA HA HA!
Cantwell was denied bail in court.
Hos next appearance is October 12th.
I have a friend who’s a pacifist, and he keeps wringing his hands about how wrong it is to use violence and punch Nazis, and honestly I just want him to sit down with a Holocaust survivor and explain to them how we could have beat the Nazis back then with just words.
@ Alan;
Several of these techniques were taught at the karate school I attended. There is one caveat, which applies here as well, practice these, practice, practice,practice these. The value of immediate self-defense techniques lies in their being reflexive. Understand, too, some of these techniques can be lethal.
Self-defense begins long before an attack, tho. Be aware of your surroundings and of others around you. You will likely be unable to tell who is “friend” and “foe”, but it is invaluable to know who is THERE, and what they’re doing vis a vis you and whoever else is there.
My instructor stressed that we never accept someone argumentatively touching us uninvited. Call me any name you wish, curse my religion and my heritage, spit on my mother’s grave if you will, but don’t put your hands on me.
My instructor was in that group of “blood’n’guts” competitors in the late 60’s, including Jim Harrison, Joe Lewis, et. al. I tell you this not to name-drop, but to tell a story. One of the people in that circle was Bruce Lee. My instructor said he was so fast, he would not only catch flies on a hot day, (any fool can catch flies), he would catch one, let it go and catch it again, catch one with each hand, let them go and catch the same two with the other hands… *(O_o)*
FishyGoat,
My dad watches that channel all the time. It also fetishizes the weapons and planes used in the war. There’s plenty of hero worship of allied troops, but they always seem to focus on the white male American and occasionally British soldiers. There’s not much acknowledgement that the USSR was a huge part of things and not much about the women and people of color who fought. My mom thinks the channel is about invoking what people think of as a golden age in this country. A golden age of white male supremacy. I have to agree.
We entered the war not to stop the holocaust but because it was in our best interests as a budding world power to get rid of the Axis powers and we celebrate the veterans and victories because being on the winning side of that war and coming out of unscathed compared to the other countries involved cemented our status as a world power. It feels like the ideology of the Nazis is either mentioned as an afterthought or sensationalized as a kind of lurid sideshow. So wacky that it could never happen here. Opposing white male Christian supremacy too vigorously doesn’t really help the interests of the military industrial complex after all.
Sorry. That was more of a rant than I intended.