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.
@Axe
I barely remember…
@E. Oxenford No that isn’t the point at all. Did you read the OP?
It is a point, but not the one we are discussing here. Most people here are fairly non-violent and would only punch a nazi if the nazi came at ’em, at which point their gender matters less. I didn’t actually see any women in the nazi crowd at charlottesville.
The point here is that 4chan are starting an obvious smear campaign. Do you want to help them?
@Molly, Moran, Malone
Nothing specific or useful from me, but warm welcomes and ???
@Still Fiqah
That was you? Squeeeeeeeee
You believe in an incorrect position.
The point is that 4chan is trying to paint antifa as domestic abusers. Those are domestic abuse poster images being used. Did you miss that? Or do you just not care because you have an axe to grind with antifa?
You can start a debate about whether it is okay to punch Nazis, but you need to get off your high horse re: your position in that debate. You are not automatically correct because 4chan and reasons. Your side in that debate is not the morally righteous one by default. You need to demonstrate that it is.
@ molly moran malone (& ignore sandra)
Gawd, sorry to hear about that. I wish I could say I’m shocked, but unfortunatly it’s an experience I’ve heard so many times. Although I suppose there’s a selection bias thing there with the self defence instruction.
The short answer is ‘yes’; but when you’ve been around here a bit longer you’ll notice that short answers aren’t really my thing. 🙂
Firstly let me introduce you to what we call “the hierarchy of skills” when it comes to self defence. That is to say, the key aspects in decreasing order of importance.
Strategic awareness – that’s an understanding of how assaults occur generally, the techniques predators use, situations to be wary of etc.
Tactical awareness – that’s how to spot when the particular circumstances you are in at a given time may be developing into a risk.
Psychological awareness – that’s understanding how your mind may work when you’re in a stressful situation, and perhaps most importantly learning how to avoid the “freeze” instinct.
Technical ability – that’s knowing all the actual self defence moves and how to fight back.
Physical ability – not sure that’s actually a skill except maybe in relation to fitness training perhaps, but it’s mainly about body type. Are you big, small, fast, slow, able bodied etc.
You’ll note that body type is the least important factor. Fitness isn’t even that important. Generally with self defence you want the encounter to be over within a matter of seconds. We’re not training you for competition. There are no rules in the street as the cliche goes. So decent self defence will focus on your particular attributes. If you’re big then we might exploit your power, if you’re small then we might concentrate on speed, if you’re lanky then we may focus on ‘range’ etc.
But as Muhammed Ali used to say about boxing, the most important muscle is the brain. I’m not suggesting unskilled opponents present no danger, far from it; however generally speaking proper training can equalise and often extinguish any physical advantages your opponent may have.
So that’s the generalities. In your specific case it sounds like you may want to exploit your likely range advantage for example. If you can strike or kick someone at a range where they can’t reach you, then it doesn’t really matter how strong they are (as proved by every naval battle ever).
If you want to PM me via David I’d be happy to discuss all your available options. What I can say, and I hope this reassures you a bit, is that two of our favourite examples of women successfully using self defence involved two of our slightest built students. (One is a literal Vogue model, and they’re not exactly known for their bulk). They proved how effective elbows and knees are. They didn’t put a lot of power behind those, but if you know how and when to target it doesn’t really matter. There’s a nice Bruce Lee quote somewhere about how a baby’s thumb is stronger than the biggest guy’s eyeball, as anyone who’s changed a nappy knows.
@ axe
He is rather dapper isn’t he?
His name is M(a/o)hinder Singh Pujji. He won just about every medal going. After the war he set a few air race records and then became an airline pilot. He moved to London and there’s a rather nice statue of him (still looking very dashing) in Gravesend.
@ molly moran malone
Sorry, despite the lengthy tome I didn’t address some of your specific questions.
Really it’s best to discuss this with an instructor. There are various solutions; and as we always say “The best technique is the one that works for you”. This is an amusing introduction by one of our more eccentric mates. He really does know what he’s talking about though.
https://youtu.be/sMC_uLjzEZ0
Again yes. But also again, it’s something best discussed with an instructor. The ground is a really bad place to be, so self defence systems (as opposed to sporting martial arts) concentrate on getting back up as quickly as possible. If you haven’t been pinned down yet then it’s basically, keep your feet between you and your attacker if possible (can be difficult if multiple attackers), stamp at his knees or shins and as soon as he’s momentarily distracted get back on your feet. There is a technique for hooking one of your feet around the back of his ankle and stomp kicking through his kneecap with your other foot. That can be very effective; but none of these techniques make you invulnerable, it’s just a percentage game. It’s a lot of fun learning though and it does increase the odds a bit if the worst happens. Feel free to get in touch, I’m always happy to bang on about this sort of thing.
@Pavlov’s House
Just out of curiosity, how would you characterize the 1970s British documentary series “World At War”? I’m hardly an expert, but I take a keen interest in military history and I found that to be one of the best well-rounded doc series on World War II, particularly for the sheer amount of archival footage, but also for the fact that it was filmed when some of the key figures were still alive. Granted, being British, it’s got a noticeable bias towards events affecting the British forces, but it had interviews with Traudl Junge and Karl Donitz and Albert Speer along with Arthur Harris, Jimmy Stewart, Lord Montbatten, Mark Clark… a veritable Who’s-Who of the conflict intermixed with civilians and military personnel alike who were there on the ground.
The reason that I bring it up is that my recent trip to Nova Scotia brought to mind another seldom-discussed aspect of the war. The HMCS Sackville is preserved in Halifax Harbour as a museum ship to Canada’s naval history.
The Sackville is the last of the Flower-class corvettes, which served as escorts for merchant vessels crossing the Atlantic, and it was in the World At War doc episode “Wolfpack” that first gave me the appreciation for just how crucial that merchant fleet was. One thing that bothers me about popular portrayals of U-Boats (and this actually goes for the age of sail portrayals like the film Master and Commander), is that they’re often depicted as isolated one-to-one combatants against an enemy vessel, probably for both dramatic and budgetary reasons. The reality is that they were group hunters that preyed upon unarmed merchant vessels, torpedoing a stray ship in the convoy and then vanishing into the seas to strike again before their escorts could depth-charge them. The gap in radar coverage allowed them to rule the open ocean unchallenged for years, until technology closed that gap and left the subs open to aerial bombardment.
But when you see the Sackville, one of the sheepdogs that crossed the ocean dozens of times protecting its flock, you really get a sense of how hard a life it was to serve on one of those ships. Cramped quarters, no showers, the bridge in 1942 was completely open to the North Atlantic weather, which was merely pouring rain on a good day… winter meant blowing snow and thick ice covering every exposed piece of metal. But each and every convoy brought weapons, food, oil, clothing… every soldier depicted in movies like Saving Private Ryan only had a gun in their hand and clothes on their back because of the merchant navy risking storms and those wolfpacks to deliver them across the Atlantic ocean, and they only survived because of the keen seamanship and bravery of the 18-year-old sailors on corvettes like the Sackville.
And as my tour guide was quick to point out… who built the Sackville? Veterans Affairs Canada kept poor records during WWII, but it’s a sure bet that plenty of women worked as welders, riveters, carpenters… it’s the ladies we have to thank for those 70-year-old welds in the Sackville‘s engine room holding up so well. So every time I see that “women never built anything” garbage misogynists spew, I just toss ’em that picture up there. Women built that thing that supplied the war in Europe.
A bit of an off-topic rant, but something I think society needs to recognize more.
@ gussie jives
Leeds/Bradford airport used to be an Avro factory. That’s the company that built the Lancaster bomber. Here’s a rare picture of the workforce.
http://i.imgur.com/eBAsIqN.jpg
63% of white men voted for Trump, but the Right is always trying to hide behind the women!
Pavlov’s house:
Now I’m kinda curious on how this compares to Finland, which also fought on both sides in 1941-45.
I have this vague impression that countries such as Romania and Bulgaria were nondemocratic and politically divided between pro-German and pro-USSR factions, so a change in leadership could easily turn their war effort from one way to another. Did they switch sides because their leadership was replaced by a coup or by the occupying Soviets, or because existing leaders didn’t want to be stuck on the losing side?
In Finland’s case it was definitely the latter. Also, Finland was democratic and (in my perception) more politically unified and not very eager to fight for either fascism or communism. We fought hard against the USSR, mainly for national self-interest reasons, and our final fight against Germany was a relatively half-hearted effort mainly to appease the USSR.
I feel that between Germany and USSR you couldn’t really defend freedom on either side – except that by 1944 it turned out that German defeat could restore freedom in Western Europe. Finland didn’t want to sacrifice too many lives for that cause, and I’m frankly curious if Bulgaria did.
That’s the company that built the Arrow, too!
But that’s exactly it. Hell, more than just building these ships, plenty of women served aboard ocean-going vessels as stewards and records show several amongst the war dead from U-Boat attacks. They also had to deliver those planes to their air bases in Europe (Marion Orr was a celebrated Canadian aviation pioneer who opened a flight school after serving during the war flying Spitfires, Lancasters and 13 other craft across the Atlantic.)
Logistics is one of those things that just gets so easily overlooked, but it’s what keeps an army functional.
@ gussie jives
Yup
http://www.azquotes.com/picture-quotes/quote-the-line-between-disorder-and-order-lies-in-logistics-sun-tzu-87-88-10.jpg
http://www.azquotes.com/picture-quotes/quote-the-amateurs-discuss-tactics-the-professionals-discuss-logistics-napoleon-bonaparte-106-2-0245.jpg
@Mish of the Catlady Ascendancy – Yup! And every time those Chan dingleberries do something “new,” it’s the same ole raggedy two-step: Transparent, sophomoric, WILDLY over-estimating the cleverness of the “operation” (and oh my God they REALLY talk this way) and insultingly under-estimating the intelligence of their targets. And always always ALWAYS pretending to be people they’re not, which has got to be some kinda psychological indicator of self-loathing. I really would laugh if it weren’t sad.
Also, we never ever ever have to justify punching folks who attack us with bats, kill and maim us with cars, and whose “differing political opinions” include enthusiastic implementation of GENOCIDE. For justice, for righteousness, for cardio – punch EVERY Nazi.
just a test – I tried posting a thing before and it didn’t work! Am I banz0rd?
EDIT – yaaay
I wrote a reply to the Trojan Troll in another thread and it is caught in moderation, and I have no idea why. Did … did I do a bad thing? :C
@Alan:
There’s always Mark Twain’s quote on that:
Unskilled opponents can be dangerous just through sheer unpredictability.
And with regards to logistics and Napoleon… well, Napoleon is regarded as being responsible for the development of canned foods, due to his offering a pretty large reward for methods to preserve food that could then be carried by an army. Yeah, logistics was a big thing for him.
One of the things I’ve realized from my reading about WWII is how utterly devastated eastern Europe was by the end. First the German army goes east, years of combat ensue, then they retreat followed by the Soviet army. I’m surprised there was a building standing between Stalingrad and Berlin.
Then the various ‘population exchanges’, displaced person camps, reprisals and et cetera. No wonder the postwar consensus was ‘Let’s not do this again, okay?’, which is what inspired the EU.
I believe that many Americans have only the foggiest idea of what having a war take place in your own territory means, since it hasn’t really happened to us since the War of Southern Treason. *Everybody* suffers, not just the fraction of the able bodied adult male population actually in uniform.
@ jenora
Well he did of course say “an army marches on its stomach”. I’ve tried that though and I’d definitely recommend you stick with feet.
http://i.imgur.com/jGAM3hx.jpg
@Robert Walker-Smith:
I was actually in Warsaw for a couple of weeks back in 1986.
One of the buildings in the ‘old town’ was a museum, which had a fairly large section on WWII; I think it was only about three storeys tall, and not a large building. One of the exhibits was a line drawn in chalk along the brick work of the wall on the inside of the building, mostly on the first floor though up to the second floor in a few places, and along ceilings as well.
We were told when we came in that the line signified how much of the building had survived WWII. That rather drove things home.
Warsaw was one of the world’s oldest walled cities, several centuries old, and was long one of the major cultural and trading centres of Eastern Europe. And according to Wikipedia, 85% of the buildings were in ruins after WWII. They know exactly what it’s like to be in the middle of the battleground.
Just in case people respond to my previous comment, I have to go offline until Sunday. Sorry.
Good luck for the Gulf coast.
@Everyone
Good grief, some *excellent* military history comment from many folks today….will reply when I get home.
RE: buildings…never been to Volgagrad but I think my namesake is still a residential apartment building with part of one of the original brick exterior walls from
Excellent points re: Flower class corvettes, logistics in general, Romania and Bulgaria having different experiences from Finland, women building and flying Lancasters, etc.
Hope to talk more soon….
One day I want to try to compute from the best sources available as accurate an estimate as possible of the total number of men and women under arms against the Axis as of some late-war date, say maybe Feb. 1945 (near end but still lots of hard fighting ahead) AND all the languages spoken.
Lots of women in combattant roles in resistance, partisan and guerrilla forces by the way…
@Robert Walker-Smith
Excuse me while I steal this.
Tov01 – use freely, it’s open source.
@Alan–Thanks for everything; it was both reassuring and informative, and, once I find myself in a position where I feel capable of doing so, I’ll direct my specific questions towards an instructor. But what you told me in itself was helpful.
I appreciate the offer, but PMing and emails are areas of significant difficulty for me. Have been since the doxxing, shockingly enough. But again, thank you.
@IgnoreSandra- First off, I really appreciate the support and empathy and all. Secondly, it’s always great seeing other tall women, no matter their bodily configuration, etc. It’s rare for me to meet women who are taller than me. Since I started transitioning the first time, seeing taller women feels to me like some sort of validation that height alone isn’t enough to instantly disqualify me from getting accepted while living, looking, and presenting how the way I do. Silly? Perhaps.
My partner, without whom I most certainly wouldn’t have been able to get through the past few years, is significantly taller than me, too. Not quite your height, but close, and she gets stopped all the time by other (frequently tall) ladies for having the “courage” to wear heels. Her entire family is gigantic: her brothers and dad are all in the 6’8-7’0 range, her mom was over six feet herself, etc. I had never in my LIFE felt short until I went over there for dinner the first time.