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.
@Dormousing-it Yes, I think that’s the main problem. Remember being 14 and thinking that 25 was really OLD? And nobody over 40 knew anything.
I grew up hearing about world war II. It always seemed plenty real to me. I don’t think it’s nearly so real to my son.
@Alan Robertshaw
RE: Brochure
P. 25. Defense from an overenthusiastic handshake. I wish I’d known about that move years ago. Someone I met damn near broke my fingers once. I think he didn’t really intend to hurt me; he was a big young dude who’d probably been told to shake hands “firmly”. So, that’s what he did!
Page 33. Theater groper. I’d shout, ” Get your hands OFF me!”, before I touched the person.
P. 39. Who picks up a hitchhiker these days? Especially a woman driving a car alone. It’s been years since I’ve seen any.
This. So much this. I remember when I was a kid I absorbed all of this, and especially so when my mom and doctor told me I was overweight and put me on a weight loss diet, around when I was 10. I remember watching Batman and he asks Vicki Vale how much she weighs and she tells him 108. After the action scene he calls her out on this as being inaccurate. I knew that women lied about their weight because being fat is a bad thing. So I took that in as 108 is an acceptable weight, but more than that us fat. I held that belief for a very, very long time, that 108 was this ideal weight. I was always more than that, so I was clearly fat. Plus my mom and doctor said I was fat; so fat I wasn’t allowed to eat the same foods as my siblings. I developed an eating disorder as a result of this, with that one weight joke in that one movie being a ridiculously large factor.
@Weird Eddie
Your comment made it sound like this was a generic, rather than specific example. You could probably avoid giving false impressions by clarifying that you’re referring to a specific person in the future if you make similar comments. Just a suggestion.
I enjoyed the self-defence manual Alan. I don’t suffer from any huge disadvantage in height (5’6″)or weight (150lbs)compared to an average man, but I see a lot of huge gym-beasts I would need to use those techniques on, and I know a lot of apparently smaller men are stronger than me. I took wing-Chung for a few years and a lot of this seems familiar.
I was once grabbed from behind by the hair in a car park at night and used that very method to twist round and jab him in the eyes. Unfortunately he had a friend who came in from the side and split my eyebrow open somehow. Thankfully I had a half dozen friends who appeared at this moment in my defense. I have no idea what happened next but apparently it was all good. Sometimes this is what it comes down to, how many friends you have. I had a lot of friends to spar with back then and it really does make a difference to have practiced a lot. I think I could have taken them both if I hadn’t been blind drunk. Maybe.
@ Kupo;
Thanx, that makes good sense.
@ wwth;
annnnd… after checking the archive of the story about the class, my memory is definitely shot. The person weighed 96lbs. Still quite impressive given the better than 100% weight difference…
The effectiveness of most of these techniques, indeed of most of self-defense, is to turn the attacker’s reflexes and movements into advantages for you.
In a way being trashed helped me take the first guy out as I was so full of bravado and ready for anything. But I think it blinded me to the presence of the other attacker.
The next time I saw the guy he had fingernail shaped scars on the whites of his eyes! Nasty. It was a tense confrontation and he threatened more violence but once again I had many friends to cover for me.
This was many years ago and I still live in the same town. Haven’t seen him for a while though.
@Sheila Crosby
Yup. I figured, when I turned 25, I’d have life all figured out. Heh. I’d just started to live, when I was 25.
Misophistry: I can’t imagine being able to go on living in the same town as my attackers, let alone having the misfortune to come face to face with one of them so soon afterwards. This probably sounds cliche, but I admire your strength.
For good measure, I’ll throw a TW here for speaking very elliptically about rape, sexual violence, etc.
Hell, even after six years, even knowing they’re literally on the opposite side of the planet, even if it’s broad daylight and I’m sober and I don’t make any of the “mistakes” I made that night, I STILL have substantial difficulty leaving my apartment. Just knowing what happens, what happened, what could happen again…
Not to minimize what I’m sure was traumatic for you, but thank god you had friends within earshot, and the skills to fend them off, even in the state you were in. Sounds like you’ve got mad skills.
@Molloy, Moran, Malone I think I’ve been very lucky. As for trauma I did jump at every loud noise for months after.
I’m not leaving town. The ex-friend that molested me still lives here too. But fuck it I’m still not leaving town. All the friends who stuck up for me live here too.
I didn’t want to leave my flat for a while but ten years has passed and my job in retail means I look everyone in this town in the eyes everyday and brightly greet them. I am on anti-anxiety meds unsurprisingly.
@ misophistry
Thanks for sharing that; it’s much appreciated.
Yeah, that’s still the standard technique. It’s also now taught as a hijab grab defence.
The techniques haven’t evolved much; but decent self defence training does now emphasise situational awareness a lot more. It’s generally “Defend, neutralise, scan for the next threat”. The manual doesn’t really cover that. But it was meant to keep things very simple.
It’s actually pretty much just an abridged copy of the Commando manual. The illustrations are almost identical, but with army uniforms rather than that rather nice frock.
Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever seen them project this hard. This is what happens when the useful idiots forget the big lie is the big lie. Suddenly the very thing that think believe women deserve is the thing that their ideological opponents do.
“No false flag, no false flag! You’re the false flag!”
Sadly, I expect this to be very successful. It’s an appeal to emotion, not to intellect.
@ malloy & misophistry
We do a bit of work with some women’s aid groups. There’s obviously a few survivors of things like DV and assaults. One thing we’ve noticed, and there’s a bit of literature on this, is that as well as the practical benefits of SD training, there’s also a therapeutic effect. It can alleviate symptoms of PTSD because it mitigates the ‘helplessness’ component.
Usual caveat about there being no obligation to learn SD, but it can be useful in that regard.
Thanks Alan you’re a rock. It still gives me butterflies in my stomach thinking about it. My town is a bit rough under the quaint exterior.
It’s weird…
a man who can’t conceive of the existance of women has a female “spiritual adviser”… almost as weird as evangelical xians supporting a man who is literally the physical embodiment of the Seven Deadly Sins….
If trump were a Democrat, they would be railing, fucking foaming in their denouncement of him….
… horse pee….
Alan,
The self defense book seems pretty good, and I would have loved to have known the “Being Strangled (One Hand)” defense about 25 years ago.
The “you’ve picked up a hitchhiker” scenario is pretty dated though, and I think most women might need a scenario where the attacker is in the driver’s seat rather than her. Most of time, it seems like dudes insist on being behind the wheel. I also have a hard time following the bit about keeping your arm against your left side and twisting and having the reach to be able to hit someone in the passenger seat of a modern vehicle. I think the book assumes a bench seat with the attacker in the middle, whereas my car has bucket seats with a large console.
I feel like more attention needs to be paid to the aftermath. It shows the attacker bent over, but not how incapacitated they will be. Are these all “do it, and run like the wind,” or “do it, and for gods’ sakes, don’t let up till help arrives” – I’m assuming run like the wind, but if I don’t know how quick he gets up, that’s scary, turning your back on a now-angry dude to run.
Again, I can’t imagine…makes the fact that I avoid my hometown seem, ah, petty, to say the least. You may attribute it to luck, but it sounds like you’re an admirably strong person. Again, I ask you to pardon how cliche that must sound, but it’s true. And what’s more, you have what sounds like people that you can rely on in times of trouble. I’m happy just knowing that you feel secure and safe.
I could never work in retail. At least not as a cashier/greeter/etc. That much is absolutely certain; no quantity of anxiolytics could possibly flip that switch. Doubly so while I’m in the process of transitioning. (M->F). The thought of working at the Target in my hometown and giving all the peoplewho bullied me as a kid such a perfect opportunity for cruelty…yeesh, here’s hoping I won’t remember that thought later, when I’m trying to fall asleep.
I, too, have a job. I work in a lab. It’s significantly lower level than the job I had before I got doxxed. But It’s quiet, and I rarely interact with people. And anyway, you can’t just lock yourself inside your apartment for two and a half years, incapable of using a phone or writing an email without having severe panic attacks, and expect to pick up where you left off as if nothing happened. It’s good, though. It’s doable. I’m doing it. And that sure isn’t nothing.
@Molloy, Moran, Malone
Exactly. <3
@ Capra;
You make a very good point. Most of the techniques illustrated here assume that getting out of the attacker’s grip means the end of the attack, which is decidedly NOT the case (and wasn’t when Fairbairn wrote the primer, either)
@Molloy, Moran, Malone
It sounds like you and me have a lot in common.
I wish I worked in a lab. But being seen and approved of in the community gives me a kind of strength. Whenever a customer says something nice to me I feel stronger. When a new customer comes in with kids and says to them “take your sweets to the nice till lady” I know I’m safely passing. I assume that some people have long enough memories to remember that I wasn’t always a nice till lady!
@Capra, yes the aftermath. I read a much longer book about SD once that went into detail. It’s all about the individual circumstance and location. If you felt like you wouldn’t be able to run to safety it suggested (amongst other things) stamping on their knee first.
@MMM (is that an okay abbreviation?)
Well, it seems we’re unlocking your tragic backstory. That said, I’m glad that you live on in confidence.
Also, I’m starting to realize just how many trans women there are on here. Which is a lot. And I’m glad y’all came here!
@kupo
“I remember watching Batman and he asks Vicki Vale how much she weighs and she tells him 108. After the action scene he calls her out on this as being inaccurate. I knew that women lied about their weight because being fat is a bad thing. So I took that in as 108 is an acceptable weight, but more than that us fat.”
I was just thinking of that! It seriously rankles with me – “those silly women, they’ll lie about being an acceptable weight even when it REALLY MATTERS”. Apparently she actually weighs 121 lb, which… you’d have to be VERY DEDICATED to very harmful weight ideas to think that 121 lb is a horrifying amount of weight. (And there’s the standard point about how a lot of these men want women to weigh 108 lb AND have at least D-cup breasts, which… is possible, I suppose, but vanishingly unlikely, and probably quite bad for you.)
@Weird Eddie
“She described Trump as a generous, humble man of “character and integrity” and vouched repeatedly for the state of his soul.”
Oh, I can see how you get there easily. You can get character for $250,000, integrity for $300,000, or both for the discount price of $500,000. I wouldn’t expect that generous, humble man to actually end up paying the money, though.
@Molloy, Moran, Malone
“It’s good, though. It’s doable. I’m doing it. And that sure isn’t nothing.”
Absolutely agreed and much respect.
@Original Post
Maybe it’s the fact that they so rarely seem to want to apply empathy? But I’m always shocked at these SECRET RAID IDEA masters… they seem not to have learned the very basic idea of “I can hear it when you talk”. Quite apart from, yes, “I can’t stop lying about the Holocaust even when I’m pretending to be someone who cares.”
@ Weird Eddie:
Thanks, you managed to make it much more succinctly than I did!
@ misophistry
It seems a bit counter intuitive, but being told that there was nothing that a person could have done also helps. We’ve had that with some of the army blokes teaching. Unfortunately it’s not uncommon for victims to blame themselves somehow and keep thinking they should have done something or been more successful. But if some H2H expert Commando goes “Nah, I’d have been stuffed too, there’s no way out of that” it can alleviate that “What if…?” burden.
@ capra
I’ll try to avoid turning this into a seminar, but you’re very right about the aftermath. The preferred model now is one of total incapacitation. That’s not always an option of course; sometimes your best choice might just be to do a quick escape and scarper. There are some relatively quick ways of at least partially debilitating an attacker though. Side kicks to the knees can slow someone down, and there are a few techniques for breaking ankles, knees, or feet.
@Alan
Thanks for posting the manual.. : )
I’m interested that it says that it goes without saying that women should always know how to protect themselves. It goes somewhat against gendered expectations in suggesting that as an option (and the manual isn’t messing about, it’s pretty matter-of-fact), but also plays into them in suggesting that this is just the way things are and always will be. The obvious question is, who from? (and ‘why?’) The manual does know who, the assailant is ‘he’, and a male in the photographs. It’s apparently doubly necessary in wartime. Will she be defending herself from other women, I wonder? Hmm… I’m assuming they’re not expecting it to get to the point of invasion, and those aren’t the types of scenario focused on. It seems more as though she needs to defend herself, because less of the men of her country are around to do it, with it not quite fully sinking in for the writer that those men are who she’s protecting herself from and that maybe she’s safer with less men around.
I’d be worried that reacting like that to an unwanted hand on the knee (cinema more likely today than theatre, or perhaps public transport) would be perceived as an overreaction by most, and would be more likely to say something (Hands off?) first, if I didn’t freeze up. I wonder if it’s an attitude change, that back then there were maybe the hostile sexists who expected women to put up and shut up, and the benevolent ones who thought of course she had a right to defend her virtue (though ideally a man should do it for her). I’m disabled, might be able to pull off the umbrella techniques with my stick, but generally not optimistic about my chances in a confrontation physically, especially getting away. In any case, I’d be very doubtful I had the strength to stop an opponent for long even if I wasn’t disabled. A modern addition might be to use an alarm to facilitate escape?
No way would I pick up a hitchhiker, even if I could drive. The thing that really bugs me is getting taxis, especially late at night. I don’t like to worry too much, it’s not high probability, but a couple of drivers have hit on me, which was a bit weird.
The Orientalism in the bio is quite noticeable.