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.
“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.”
THIS! Wonderful point. Agh! Don’t get me started. Well, too late, I can’t resist.
World War II is an area of military history in which there is one of the widest gulfs between the approach and understanding of popular myth about the war and scholarly military history.
As for what you say about the issue of people of color under arms in World War II — Nowadays you’ll get something on African-Americans in World War II, but it’s the same stuff over and over again and it gets a little superficialized. It’s like somebody thinks they should get their diversity-cookie because they made another show about the Tuskegee Airmen. Look, I’m as much a fan as the Tuskegee Airmen as anyone. Make a show about non-white-male fighter pilots and I’m all-in. I’m just frustrated by what I see as sacrificing a pursuit of an understanding of the magnitude of World War II for the same narrowly-focused interests.
The reality is much wider. Heck, just *start* with other peoples of the African diaspora:
Afro-Caribbean peoples’ participation in World War II (in both U.S. forces and in British Empire forces)
Brazil in World War II – the Brazilian Expeditionary Force included people of color as one might guess.
Heck, if you can find one person in the U.S. who has even heard of that outside of the academic specialists or veterans who remember them from Italy, I’d be flabbergasted. But there is a whole bunch published on them.
French colonial troops in World War II – Huge area of historiography, especially on the issue of the relationship between West African fighting men’s experiences and the post-war independence movements.
Africans from Kenya, Tanganyika and Uganda – there were several excellent panels at the Society for Military History Conference in recent years with new research on the lives and experiences of East African men in the British colonial forces in World War II – especially regarding how they experienced and perceived Burma, where they fought.
Other peoples of color on the Allied side in World War II:
New Zealand’s Maori units – plenty written on them in English, but you’re lucky if people in the U.S. know or care about even white New Zealanders’ achievements.
None of this even gets into Southeast Asians contributions to fighting the Axis. I won’t even get started with the Indian army.
American willful ignorance about the USSR’s contribution to the Allied victory is so clichéd it’s almost laughable. Nobody in the scholarly world has tolerated it since the end of the Cold War; the best place to started is David Glantz’s and Jonathan M. House’s When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1995) Yet there is SO MUCH more – a lot of it written by Glantz and House.
Just as Civil War scholars fight an uphill battle in constantly reemphasizing to much of the public that the American Civil War was definitely, certainly and indisputably about slavery and not some abstract notion of “states rights”, World War II scholars have to fight the uphill battle of emphasizing that the Nazi war machine was defeated by the Red Army. Period. Sure, it’s not like the rest of us didn’t fight hard, valiantly and die to help. It’s not like, say, D-Day and the Normandy campaign didn’t matter. Of course it did. Even Zhukov himself said very clearly, yes, our allies helped and their contribution was critical. But let’s not fool ourselves on where the bulk of the effort and achievement lay. Sure, the whole thing is complicated by the fact that the USSR spent the first two years more or less helping Hitler. And Poles are right to hold the USSR historically accountable for what it did to Poland.
But the armed forces of the largest communist state in the world made the biggest contribution to beating the Nazis.
One other matter about the USSR in World War II: if people in the U.S. know ANYTHING about it they tend to equate the RKKA (Red Army) to just Russians. There’s a whole burgeoning historiography on the non-Russophone troops of the RKKA.
Today WWII veterans in Central Asian countries, what few survive, are almost forgotten.
But the Soviet victory wasn’t an exclusively Russian victory, it was a victory of Kazakhs, Tadjiks, Uzbeks, peoples of other Central Asian countries, men and women from the Caucuses and beyond. One of the men in the famous Flag over the Reichstag photograph is from Dagestan, I think.
Now if you REALLY want an area that’s forgotten it’s the experiences and contributions of some of the countries of southeastern Europe after they changed sides – especially Bulgaria and Romania. People outside those two countries usually don’t know or care that they fought in World War II AT ALL, much less that they fought on both sides. When Bulgaria changed sides in September 1944 it’s not like they were just kind of “ehhh…” and half-hearted about it because the Soviets forced them. I mean, as of early 1945 Bulgaria had over 100,000 people under arms (not sure how many men and how many women), but it was several divisions worth plus corps troops, etc. – and it’s not like the war was all but over. Those battles up in Hungary in early 1945 were bitter, hard fought and ferocious. Bulgarians fought hard and died to help destroy fascism.
One last rant:
I mentioned an affinity for studies of non-white-male fighter pilots. I’ve mentioned them before, but the Soviet women of the 586th IAP (Fighter Regiment), PVO, like Katya Budanova and Lidya Litvyak are my favorites. Say “Russian women aviators in World War II” in feminist venues and so often it’s just “oh yes, the Night Witches!”and then nothing else. Again, yes, no one’s a bigger fan. Brave women to fly PO-2’s *anyway*. But, come on, what in the popular memory modern warfare has more mystique than the trope of the dashing fighter pilot? If you want to use history to bust patriarchy, please, consider giving a shout to the 586th. Feel free also to burst racist bubbles not just with the Tuskegee Airmen but with the Mexican Expeditionary Air Force. There was a journal article in them in the Journal of Military History about 10-15 years ago. Will get the citation when I’m done with class tomorrow if anyone cares.
OK, done. Thanks for allowing the long rant-screed. Sorry for any typos I missed.
Troubelle: I don’t love how you phrased that, as I am not an ancillary character in a pulp novel, or the giver of a side quest in a video-game or something. But I’m pretty sure that I get why you did, and it’s okay. I’m not trying to shame you or call you out; I just thought it best to let you know that your comment made me feel…not great. I’m sure it was unintentional, I won’t hold it against you, and, unless you want to, we needn’t discuss it at all.
Yes, MMM is a perfectly fine abbreviation. And I, too, was surprised by how many transfolks there are in these parts. It was a moderately significant factor in my decision to start joining the conversations, even.
And by the by, is Troubelle an acceptable way to refer to you?
Misophistry: That really warms my heart, hearing how empowering and validating your job can be. I hope that at some point in the nebulous future, I’ll be able to glean similarly positive feelings from that kind of interaction, instead of feeling queasy-anxious-scared-thrilled-disbelieving-liberated-vulnerable. Which is how I feel when I feel eyes on me outside of my apartment, the lab, and various doctor’s appointments.
@ pavlov’s house
One of my favourite wartime facts is that a Spitfire pilot was more likely to have a Punjabi accent than a public school one. That’s because, contrary to what you see in films, most Spitfire pilots came from working class backgrounds, and also there were a lot of Spitfires operating out of India.
http://i.imgur.com/900vAX0.jpg
@Weird Eddie, others:
I remember training in Aiki-jujutsu back in University. One of the first five techniques we learned was basically a standard judo hip-throw: bend over, roll the (likely charging) attacker back across your hips, and slam the target down on the other side.
Needless to say, this was a technique which rewarded the lower centre of balance. The 4’6″ young woman could easily toss the 6’4″ man who weighed at least twice what she did. The other way around… well, he had to actually lift her, so it was a lot more effort on his part, while she only had to pretty much trip him and direct the fall.
@Alan
I love that! I bet there’s more stuff published on that than the narrow-minded people realize too.
@ leo
Thanks for that. Again, that’s the sort of insights I’m after.
You might find this interesting:
http://www.bartitsu.org/index.php/2017/06/at-them-girls-how-the-amazon-defence-corps-trained-to-take-on-nazi-invaders/
Quite a few women went through the regular Commando course anyway as it was taught to SOE agents.
As for SD and people with disabilities, there’s quite a bit of work being done in that regard. Unfortunately people with disabilities are far from immune to assault. Ironically having a stick with you can be an advantage. Sticks have always had a role in combat. Whether that’s all that Escrima stuff or just batons. So there’s plenty of stick based SD techniques that can compensate to an extent for lack of mobility.
(The Bartitsu enthusiasts are also big on sticks and canes.)
@MMM
Apologies! Sorry, it’s something of a stock phrase for me. (Besides, NPCs in real life are few and far between and will be until AI gets better.) I’ll not use similar terms towards you from now on.
And yes, Troubelle is the abridged moniker. A lot of us add stuff to our nym based on various things–Moonbeam Malcontent just sounded cool (Axe can back me up on this) and the Bard thing…well, check the most recent thread. I like to write songs. (Others get their bits from their own funny posts, unintentionally hilarious terms used by those in articles or by trolls, or…whatever else.)
Also, re: trans people on here: I know that Virgin Mary is transitioning to masculine nonbinary (or, er…something to that effect–I forget their precise words), and I myself am genderqueer. There’s a lot more trans women than other peeps under the trans umbrella posting here, though (unless I missed a lot of memos). Hell, one of us, Ooglyboggles (the one with the cat-plant in a pot avatar) came to terms with it, like…less than a week ago.
So yeah! Sorry about the bump, and you’re not alone on here at all!
@ pavlov’s house
This might amuse you. The BNP, a racist political party here, had a campaign against all those pesky foreigners coming over here and stealing our jobs. They used this poster, as an iconic symbol of Britishness.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/10/20/article-1221619-06E41C72000005DC-462_634x437.jpg
Military aviation experts took great delight in pointing out that that particular Spitfire is from an RAF squadron comprised entirely of Polish pilots.
@Alan
It does….especially since the Polish contribution to the Battle of Britain is well-known enough that it even filters down to the pop-history level occasionally.
No worries! I seriously appreciate you responding at all, let alone actually apologizing. Not much rarer than a sincere apology in the wild on the internet.
Yeah, I’ve seen people with little poetic snippets from this misogynist or that MGTOW (would it be MGHIW in the singular?). I just don’t know the etiquette, which can be tricky to judge; especially, believe it or not, when entering a relatively small, tight-knit, online community that’s been around for a long time enough time that the regular people have really gotten to know one another.
Anyway, thanks for the welcome and the information and such.
Certainly not so many people walk around carrying full-sized umbrellas, matches OR lighters. I’d think an attack would feature someone asking something related to a phone instead of asking for a light.
TW: description of assault and defense
I was hoisted off the ground from behind by my elbows once by a much larger stronger man. He wasn’t trying to attack me per se, just trying to prevent me from leaving a party. Long story. He was wasted and thought I was too and thought he was doing me a favor keeping me from getting behind the wheel on a cop-heavy holiday weekend.
I really did need to leave, however. And I couldn’t get any purchase or leverage, hanging suspended above the ground. I did have a thermos of freshly brewed coffee and was able to uncap the thing and warned him, counted down, and then tossed the contents in the general direction of his face. It worked but it splashed all over me too.
If he’d been really determined to hurt me, I don’t think I would have been able to do a damn thing.
There’s no real etiquette here around nyms. Obviously trolls try to play around with people’s names in a grade-school fashion, but if you’re posting in good faith and you shorten a long nym, it’s all good.
Generally this community is forgiving of mistakes so long as one doesn’t double-down, so don’t be afraid of the etiquette here. Most of it is common-sense, and what isn’t is listed in the commenting policy. I’m sure you’ll be fine.
@MMM
While I’ve become aware of a few schisms in our past, they aren’t dreadfully common in my experience. Maybe…once every few months, shit hits the fan and a long-timer takes a powder. It’s sad, but at the same time, for something online, that’s a pretty low turnover rate. And, with few exceptions, our regulars aren’t assholes to each other or legitimate newbies. (Obvious trolls, of course, are fair game as long as comments policy is followed.)
That said, just follow comments policy and don’t be a turd in general and you should be good!
Understood. Sorry for diverting the conversation away from what always deserves more attention: heaping scorn on goddamn Nazis, and praise on their foes, so long as those foes aren’t terrible themselves.
Speaking of nyms, I thought mine would be pretty obvious as an anti-fascist historical reference. Once last year though in a comment thread about conscription somebody (don’t remember the nym, but it wasn’t familiar) got all ‘splainy citing “Pentagon doctrine…” and so forth in a way that didn’t seem, to me at least, to be validated by the major published scholarly works on compulsory military service in U.S. history. I replied to that effect and an earful as if a few thought I was some kind of right-wing MRA troll, and I was kind of shocked given the nym I used. But it died down, I let it go as did the other person, and I’ve enjoyed the conversation here always.
@ eli
Sorry to hear about your experience, but once again, thanks for that commentary. This is all very helpful for me.
It’s hard to describe in words but there is a way of avoiding being picked up. It’s handy if someone tries to carry you somewhere.
Imagine you’re in front of the assailant. Wrap your lower right (or left) leg behind the attacker’s right (or left) leg. You basically want the front bit of your ankle pressing against the lower part of the attacker’s calf/achilles tendon. Press in so you’re lower leg is wrapped around his leg as tight as possible. Then you can’t be picked up or carried.
Then you need to escape his grip. There are a number of options depending on how he’s grabbing you. Rear headbutt to face if possible. If his arms are around your waist with your hands free you can break or twist his fingers. If your arms are pinned, jerk your butt back as hard as possible to create a gap, then rotate side to side as quickly as possible and try to get your elbows into his ribs. Scraping the side of your foot down his shin and carrying through to stomp on his foot also helps.
If you can find a willing volunteer it’s easier to understand if you try it.
Hope you’ll never need to know this again, but just in case.
@Molloy, Moran, Malone
“heaping scorn on goddamn Nazis, and praise on their foes, so long as those foes aren’t terrible themselves.”
I struggle to remind myself not to let admiration for Russians’ and others Soviet people’s achievements turn into excusing or ignoring the horrible things that Soviet authorities also did. It’s hard. The past is complicated.
Sweet Christmas! These fucknuggets seriously haven’t sharpened their tactics since I made #yourslipisshowing. I’d laugh, but I think I’m sad.
Pavlovs House: I quite agree about the Russians circa WWII, and all those who found themselves in the Soviet Sphere, who, incidentally, I was not intentionally attempting to reference in my comment. Although of course with a second’s thought I can see now how much more straightforward and sensible that interpretation is than the one I had intended, which was present-day right-wing groups, specifically (nominally, at least) those members of the GOP establishment.
Sleep deprivation: it leads to illogical antecedents.
Alan, would you have any recommendations for somebody who’s tall, but skeletal thin, with almost no muscle?
TW: physical and sexual assault
The long and short of it is, while returning drunk from a club/bar in a foreign nation I had only arrived in two days before, I walked in the wrong direction, ended up in one of the many parts of the city that had been badly damaged by earthquakes, which meant spotty street lights (at best), and close to absolutely no people. This was especially true at I think 2 or 3 AM on a Sunday. A pair of guys who I had briefly interacted with in the club took advantage of my almost complete vulnerability. After leaving the club and walking opposite to me for quite some time, one of them crossed the street and started a conversation. I hadn’t noticed until that moment that anyone was behind me at all until then (I was listening to music and trying to work out how to get to the hotel on foot with all the closed streets), so I was that sort of dully surprised in that drunk way, until, after a while, I realized the second guy had seriously caught up, and was now maybe one or two paces behind me.
TW: ASSAULT, SEXUAL VIOLENCE By the time the reality of what was happening started to sink in, the one behind me shoved me from behind, hard, and I slammed into the ground. I was wearing heels and I was intoxicated, I had no chance. When I tried to get up, they kicked me until I stopped trying, one of them twisted my arm behind my back, forced me up, and into one of the many buildings that had been deemed unfit for occupancy because of the quake.
I was taller than both these guys, but honestly; even if I was as sober as a judge, I just don’t think 6’2, 135 pounds really doesn’t seem to be ideal for the sort of woman-focused self-defense from the pamphlet you posted. Which I don’t mean as any sort of a criticism, either of you (of course) or of the booklet; most women, it goes without saying, don’t have anything remotely resembling my body type. it’s not like I expect to be catered to, let alone in WWII-era illustrated guides. I guess I’m worried that virtually any attacker could throw me around and pummel me into submission as easily as those two could, even a lone one. I know, situational awareness. And I’m sure I could effectively use my long limbs to my advantage in order to deal out some righteous vengeance on anyone who tried anything. But I keep getting flashes of what it was like suddenly finding myself falling, and realizing that I couldn’t do absolutely anything to stop those men from violating me. Do you know about ways to turn the tables if you’ve already been knocked down? What about if somebody has your arm behind your back like that?
I don’t mean to bother you, or assail you with questions. Of course it’s not your job to answer the questions of every sad, damaged person whose spheres overlap with yours in some way. I’m just…I don’t know, excited kind of? I honestly don’t think I’ve ever even considered learning stuff like this before. I just…cloistered myself. That was my solution, and it ended up consuming close to everything in my life.
When I’m better enough that I can bring myself to go out to things like that, I’m going to take a self defense class. I’m in a big enough city that there’s probably even one geared towards trans women.
One of the he reasons I stick around here and mostly lurk: all sorts of interesting things can be learned here in the comments section. Plus lots of gifs to be ganked…. XD
(Someone tell me there’s some historians someplace getting the stories of the Navajo Wind Talkers down before it’s too late. That was always something I found interesting, for some reason.)
It always amazes me that the never seem to remember that we can reed 4chan, too.
I believe you may be missing the point, which is that Antifa has no principled way to oppose punching “Nazis” just because they’re women.
If it’s OK to punch Nazis, it’s OK to punch women for being Nazis. It’s arguably required.
Sound ridiculous? It should. So maybe it’s time to lay off the “it’s OK to punch Nazis” routine.
@Alan
I like how into it the Sikh guy is in the plane pic. Everyone else just chillin, and he’s tryna get discovered. Start is modelling career. Love that guy now ?
@Troubelle
What was the other option? Sunshine… something or other?
This! In Minneapolis, a group of racist terrorists made a plan on 4chan (which they carried out) to provoke black men at a protest, shoot them, and claim self defense. It apparently didn’t occur to them that prosecutors would be able to find records of their conversation. The jury didn’t believe their “We feared for our lives” garbage, and they are now in prison.
@Molly, Moran, Malone
Speaking as a 6’6, 165 pound woman, I just want to signal boost this point. I’m probably not going to be shorter than my attackers.
I have a brother who used to hit me, and shove me against walls, and other shit. He was huge into martial arts. I tried taking a self-defense course once, but I just couldn’t handle it. I kept remembering things I was trying to suppress.
I also want to say that I empathize with your story. My story is different, but it’s similar in that several people got away with hurting me, and I reacted by hiding away from the world.