By David Futrelle
So you all need to drop whatever you’re doing to read Buzzfeed’s amazing exposé of Breitbart’s use of conscienceless troll journalist Milo Yiannopoulos to push white supremacism into the American political mainstream (again).
Basing his reporting in part on a vast trove of leaked Milo emails, Buzzfeed reporter Joseph Bernstein is able to offer a somewhat gruesome behind-the scenes look at the symbiotic relationship between Milo and Breitbart’s Steve Bannon during the crucial months leading up to Trump’s electoral college victory.
If you thought the end product of the Milo/Breitbart collaboration was disgusting, well, it turns out that the sausage factory that produced it was even more disgusting. And lousy with Nazis to boot.
Again, you need to read the whole piece. But in the meantime, let me whet your appetite a little with what I’d like to call the 5 Nazi-est moments from Buzzfeed’s exposé of the Milo/Breitbart alt-right sausage factory.
Let’s start with:
Milo serenading a gaggle of sieg-heiling Nazis at a Dallas karaoke bar.
Roll the video;
Child molester aficionado and racists' favorite gay Stepin Fetchit, Milo Yiannopoulos, serenades American Nazis. pic.twitter.com/bQCWB7YpRA
— Mrs. Betty Bowers (@BettyBowers) October 6, 2017
According to Buzfeed, Milo later told them that his “his ‘severe myopia’ made it impossible for him to see the Hitler salutes a few feet away.”
Milo using Nazi references for his not-very-secure passwords.
As Buzzfeed explains:
In an April 6 email, Allum Bokhari mentioned having had access to an account of Yiannopoulos’s with “a password that began with the word Kristall.” Kristallnacht, an infamous 1938 riot against German Jews carried out by the SA — the paramilitary organization that helped Hitler rise to power — is sometimes considered the beginning of the Holocaust. In a June 2016 email to an assistant, Yiannopoulos shared the password to his email, which began “LongKnives1290.” The Night of the Long Knives was the Nazi purge of the leadership of the SA. The purge famously included Ernst Röhm, the SA’s gay leader. 1290 is the year King Edward I expelled the Jews from England.
Milo’s editors repeatedly having to remove horrible anti-Semitic jokes from his articles because they didn’t want to be quite that obvious about what they were pushing
Frequently, Alex Marlow’s job editing him came down to rejecting anti-Semitic and racist ideas and jokes. …
Editing a September 2016 Yiannopoulos speech, Marlow approved a joke about “shekels” but added that “you can’t even flirt with OKing gas chamber tweets,” asking for such a line to be removed.
Milo sending “his” now-notorious guide to the alt-right to several prominent alt-rightists for approval before publishing it
Needless to say, ethical journalists don’t generally send copies of their articles to the subjects of their articles before publishing them.
Interesting sidenote: Though Milo’s underling Allum Bokhari basically wrote the whole article, Buzzfeed reports, Milo wanted his name alone on it, telling his editor in an email that “I want the glory here.” Bokhari, wanting some credit for the article he’d written, appealed to Milo’s Machiavellian instincts by suggesting that “it actually lowers the risk if someone with a brown-sounding name shares the BL.” (Bokhari is half-Pakistani.) Ultimately, the article was credited to both of them, with Milo;s name listed first.
Milo has collaborators, just like the Nazis did!
Despite his obvious odiousness and his many ties to white supremacists and literal Nazis, Milo managed to win himself a number of liberal allies on the down low. As Buzzfeed notes:
Yiannopoulos had hidden helpers in the liberal media against which he and Bannon fought so uncompromisingly. A long-running email group devoted to mocking stories about the social justice internet included, predictably, Yiannopoulos’s friend Ann Coulter, but also Mitchell Sunderland, a senior staff writer at Broadly, Vice’s women’s channel. …
“Please mock this fat feminist,” Sunderland wrote to Yiannopoulos in May 2016, along with a link to an article by the New York Times columnist Lindy West, who frequently writes about fat acceptance. …
Dan Lyons, the veteran tech reporter … emailed Yiannopoulos (“you little troublemaker”) periodically to wonder about the birth sex of Zoë Quinn, another GamerGate target, and Amber Discko, the founder of the feminist website Femsplain, and to suggest a story about the public treatment of the venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale, who had been accused of sexual assault in a lawsuit that the plaintiff eventually dropped.
Lovely.
And these little details are merely the tip of the Nazi iceberg. You’ve got to read the whole thing.
UNRELATED HEALTH NOTE: Sorry I haven’t been able to resume regular posts just yet. I appreciate your patience and support and will get back to regular posting as soon as I can, but I don’t know if that will be a matter of days or longer. Thanks again, everyone!
@ Marcus
You must be new to this site. Manosphere types tend to have a…surprisingly high correlation…with child-molester types. The textbook example, of course, is Milo Y. I suppose you could use this site’s Search box for terms like “pedophile” and “ephebophile” if you’re interested.
Rape is more complicated than that, and I will thank you not to recite trite catchphrases about the topic.
And?
WTF is the logic behind this?
@Markus
Sure you did, when you decided to rate women on attentiveness. We don’t care how women make your boner feel.
I’d like to point out that it’s entirely possible that the man who made that threat does have a rage boner for Valenti and tacked on the threat to her daughter simply to terrorize her. Although with MRAs, it sadly would not be surprise if one did actually want to rape a 5 year old.
I never actually claimed that they only threaten to rape or obsess about women who are conventionally attractive, just they have a pattern of obsessively hate wanking about women – especially feminist women – who are.
Also, men who are attracted to fat women exist and when those men are in the manosphere and alt-right they like experience a whole of cognitive dissonance about it because that attraction violates their rule about how there is one universal type of woman who is attractive.
Not good.
@kupo
?
I think you meant “attractiveness”, but I didn’t do that either.
I don’t know whose posts you’re reading, but they’re not mine.
@Markus
Stop trying to find consensus on what’s attractive. It’s not gonna happen.
MRAs want access to women’s bodies and to control women’s sexuality; therefore, they are especially angry with women who they feel should be sexually subservient to them. This is not in any way equivalent to the myth that homophobia is not a structural problem propped up by the people who benefit from it, but rather a problem that The Gays bring upon ourselves.
Also, bringing attention to the sexual component of MRA misogyny is definitely not the same as making a joke about how a homophobe is ~probably secretly gay lol~, a joke that itself relies on homophobia.
That is what I meant, yes. I just got a new phone and am getting used to the keyboard spacing and sometimes similar looking words get past me when autocorrect changes them.
Anyway, in what way are you not rating women’s attractiveness? What did you *just* say about Lindy West? Stop with the fucking boner notes. No one wants them.
Yeah, must be that I don’t understand the conversation, not that I hold an opinion you disagree with.
@ImaginaryPetal
I didn’t do that. I said “conventionally attractive”.
“I think we can agree that most heterosexual men don’t find (So and so) attractive.”
Is that better?
@Markus
No, not better.
@Kupo,
This one sounds very familiar to me.
Almost as if he’s been here before. And choosing WWTH’s post to launch from?
Hmmmm.
@PeeVee
Yeah, I swear we’ve had a Markus before
Yes, all people are equally attractive and desirable.
Except for me of course.
My bad.
If we can’t agree on what’s the best music, then all music is equally good.
To be fair to Markus, I’m the one who brought up conventional attractiveness as I stated that the manosphere and/or alt-right tend to focus their obsession on conventionally attractive progressive/feminist women because there’s a sexual component to their misogyny that comes from the cognitive dissonance brought on by hating the people that they want to fuck.
But, I never said that they only hate conventionally attractive feminists so saying that Lindy West isn’t conventionally attractive isn’t that big of a gotcha. I was more saying that they have a pattern of rage boners regarding women that they would fuck getting all uppity and feminist.
I’m also going to have to point out that the rape threats West gets are often about how she’s too ugly to rape, but they’re going to rape her anyway. That kind of thing does make rather than undermine the point that there’s a sexual component to their misogyny.
I’m not so sure yet that Markus is Mark/Miggs/MRAL though. He might just be a clueless mansplainer who’s digging a hole. Time will tell.
@Regular Folks: So. Hey, y,all.
I hate to censure/censor anyone, but I feel like once somebody has pulled you down from a conversation about MRAs into a (HIGHLY HIGHLY OH HOLY FUCK HIGHLY) triggering discussion about child rape – HOWEVER HYPOTHETICAL – continuing to engage will not fix it. There is NO “UP” from there. Not a piece if this is a teachable moment. Not your fault.
@Markus: You’re transparent as fuck. I’m pretty sure telling you to slide down a razor into a bucket of lemon juice violates the comments policy. So. I won’t say that. You’re still transparent as fuck.
Nah, still calling this one.
@Markus
https://captainawkward.com/2014/06/06/notes-from-a-boner/
Read it and at least give it a go at understanding it.
I’m a fat woman in my forties. I get a decent amount of passes from men in their twenties, possibly more than from men my own age. (this might have more to do with the differing rates of singledom in young vs. older, I couldn’t say) some of these men are gracious, and some get reeeeeallly belligerent at me when turned down. You see, while plenty of men are attracted to older women or fat women, our f-ed up system of Rating People means that they can pretend they are doing me a magnanimous favor by paying me any kind of romantic attention, and How Very Dare I not be grovelingly grateful. I’m sure someone like Lindy West has had similar experiences.
@ Markus:
Okay, Weirwood and Imaginary Petal have already told you how this whole “conventionally attractive” business is probably mythical and, in any case, irrelevant to why death-threateners like to death-threaten. So this —
— Comes off like a weird mix of obtuseness and self-pity. Don’t do that. It’ll get you marked as a boring troll, and then banned. At this point, you probably just want to admit you were wrong…back off for an hour…and then address one of the many other mine-fields you’ve blithely strolled into. (Personally I’d go with the confusion over those “homosexual homophobe” statements, but that’s your call.)
Right now I’m leaning towards incel, personally.
@weirwoodtreehugger
Thanks for being the voice of reason here.
But I’m not sure how having a different opinion constitutes “mansplaining”.
With Jessica Valenti, I think much of the hate comes from posing wearing a “I Bathe In Male Tears” t-shirt.
Similar to Lindy West wearing a t-shirt with “Give Me The Confidence of a Mediocre White Man”.
Rape threats, in my opinion, don’t necessarily mean “rage boner”.
I realize you may disagree and that’s your right.
Oh, boy.
Definitely incel.
(That post pinged the hell out of my Mr Al-dar even before WWTH mentioned him as a possibility, for whatever that’s worth.)
If this is Mr Al, he has absolutely learned nothing in…what? Nearly 7 years since his first appearance here?
I think this may be the first time I’ve been regarded as the good cop instead of the bad cop.
I might be about to make you enter the WWTH is a meaniepants corner though. You should also know that any benefit of the doubt I might have given you is diminishing every time you post. Notice that I pointed out that you’re digging a hole. You might want to note the first rule of holes here.
If I’m wrong, say so but between the nature of your comments and your username, you seem to be a man. Do you really think that women can’t identify the sexual attraction + misogyny combo when we see it? Because most if not all women experience this stuff for ourselves at some point in our lives. I’m not sure where you get off assuming you understand misogyny better than the targets of it do. Particularly those of us who have been following this blog for a long time and have seen countless examples of the misogynist hate boner.
1. You’re kind of implying that she had it coming by engaging in ironic misandry. And please tell me we’re not going to have to explain the male tears meme to you.
2. Their anger at that shirt doesn’t mean they don’t have rage boner for her.
3. Really. What was your point here?
Nah, I wasn’t going to add the “except for me” part, but I figured that if I didn’t, someone else here would. Just trying a preemptive statement.
And no, I am not “MR AL”.
Petulant Man Child carries on with rape apologia due to his own insecurity over his looks.
Eye rolls all around, Dude.
You don’t know us very well if you think we attack anyone’s looks. I’m sure you’re used to others being dicks to you for no reason, but we don’t actually do that here.
Lol. Valenti didn’t wear that shirt because she’d already been subjected to years of hate-boner misogyny or anything. It was a brand new phenomenon to her, caused by her wearing that shirt for NO REASON
And rape threats to those he deems “not conventionally attractive” – is supposed to be some kind of compliment?
How about the little kids threatened? What if it was a little boy?
Oh, men say this shit about everyone, it’s, it’s….. locker room talk!
Funny how you don’t see too many rape threats against male children or grown males.
Another thing I thought of, in regards to these people raging against democrats, liberals, hipsters and weirdos –
When they decide to go off on the “Feminized Men”, they cough up much BS, but I’ve never seen a rape threat directed at them.
@Oh, hai Markus
Unless “so and so” refers to another dude (and even then, amirite):
http://third-bit.com/greatest-hits/img/wikipedian_protester.png
This whole thread is kind of ironic because I’m making my way through the archives and am on a post about an MRA saying that women who are the victims of street harassment are to blame because they oppress men with their sexy clothes.
https://wehuntedthemammoth.com/2014/04/18/women-who-get-catcalled-are-the-real-sexual-harassers-explains-mens-rights-redditor/
If that’s not an example of a hate boner wank, I don’t know what is.
First, sorry if the opening statement of my first comment offended. It was an implicit apology that I should have made explicit. I’m explicitly apologizing for that.
Second, hello. My name is Frank, and I’m a recovering centrist. Actually I don’t know if I’ve been moving leftward, especially this past year, or if it just seems that way because the whole U.S. is flocking to the right the way lemmings do in faked footage. I do, however, support feminism, civil rights, Black Lives Matter, Antifa (in principle, at least), and most or all of the so-called “SJW” causes. Sadly my chronic depression and continued unemployment restrict my support to occasional donations and arguments on the Internet.
Third, I’m obviously not a reporter. I was a programmer, back in the Before Time. So I clearly blanked on the half of journalism that afflicts the comfortable. I was picturing the scenarios Jarnasaxa brought up: having an expert source review a technical piece, or having a sympathetic minority subject check for accuracy. So thank you Jarnasaxa, Scildfreja, Luzbelitx, and Katie’s Minion for setting me straight.
We now return to our discussion what MRAs find attractive, which I hope is no longer in progress.
Oh good, another techbro who thinks he understands a problem better than the established experts, or at least well enough to add his opinion as if it has any weight.
Hi, Frank. This made me laugh, so thank you for that.
And, welcome.
Anti troll kitteh
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5v9ntecXB1r6bovho1_250.jpg
@Markus
Bless your heart, cupcake.
So what’s the likelihood Mark is a new Mark vs. a returning “You Feminsits Are All So Mean!” Mark?
Any bets on how long it will take Markus to explicitly state that ‘the men who make rape threats against feminists are just trolling, they don’t REALLY mean it, guys, they’re obviously not actual rapists’?
@Markus
So glad we cleared that up. Also glad that you’re arguing the minutiae of rape. That’s super appropriate with any woman in any forum — or IRL, for that matter.
Thanks so much!
Everyone thinks they can do journalism better than journalists.
It’s a never-ending source of irritation to us.
For the record, I doubt I’d ever try to be a journalist, let alone be good at it.
Sometimes I do a little fiction writing for my own amusement. A character in something I’m procrastinating is a journalist. David’s statement struck me as odd, and as I’m trying to get in the mindset of a journalist I asked a question I clearly couldn’t think of an answer for.
That’s it.
One of the difficulties I have in joining a group, online or IRL, is that existing members of the group make statements as if they’re intuitively obvious. Whether I lack the background or simply aren’t thinking clearly at that moment (or, as I occasionally suspect, whether groupthink has set in), I ask why it’s so obvious. The average response I get, from a patient explanation/suggestion for further reading to a resounding “shut up moron” determines how eager I am to stick with the group.
When people say “there are no stupid questions”, I laugh. Clearly there are, and I apparently ask them.
Frank,
You said
Can you see how framing it as a quibble and a quibble being the only reason you ever comment would read as trollish?
If you’re just writing a story with a journalist character and want some insight as to how journalists do their jobs, why not just say that off the bat?
You could’ve said something like
I’m not a journalist, but I’m writing a character that is one. Can you explain why this is unethical? I figured a journalist might put a draft of their article in front of the subject to make sure they aren’t misrepresenting statements, opinions, or basic facts. The reporter can still decide whether to change the article based on the critique or not.
That’s a pretty big difference.
@ Frank
You did not just ask a question, you asked a question in a fairly rhetorical manner and gave reasons why you thought that there should be no reason for journalists to not give their reports to the subjects of those reports first.
There’s a difference between going:
“I’m confused, why is it unethical to provide articles to the subjects of those articles?”
And going:
Generally leading off a question with: “is it, really?” does not imply that you believe “it is”, or think that it MIGHT be, it means you’re being dismissive of the idea that it is.
Also, sometimes communities may be hostile towards others asking questions of them if the community is not geared towards providing 101 level education (and especially if people tend to ask them the same damn questions all the time), and instead has an expectation that people interacting with the community do their homework (or, you know, just go to Google with their questions. That’s kind of what it’s there for).
Perhaps this was not your intention, but your post came across as very “I know better than you”. Next time, perhaps consider if the reaction you get from “just asking questions” is because the community is just a bunch of meanie pants, or if your behavior was the reason you were shown animosity.
Or, you know, you can just leave, if you prefer. Don’t feel obligated to stay on our account. If you feel unwelcome, by all means seek out greener pastures.
EDIT- dammit, ninjad by WWTH.
Well isn’t this fascinating.
But do you honestly believe these guys want to have sex with a kindergartener?
Markus please address this statement you made. It is the one we will forever judge you by. I for one couldn’t give a fuck about what conventionally attractive is or isn’t. Do you or do you not deny the existence of pedophilia?
Does the law draw a distinction between threats of child rape done for trolling or those that are serious. No, no it doesn’t, for good reasons.
It’s already bad enough that there are people enabling abusers and rapists by running around saying “they were just joking!/well, I’VE never seen them do something so awful, how could such a nice person do that kind of terrible thing!”
We don’t need more enablers. And it’s time to start taking ALL threats of doing people harm seriously, without adding the step of needing to debate whether or not the person making the threats means it ‘for realsies’.
Andplusalso:
If the alt right racists can’t see that the old white racists like Bannon are intending to use them like the modern version of cannon fodder, while guys like Spencer are out doing Nazi parades to make it all seem…normal…
Sometimes I weep for what the future could have been. This would be one of those times.
And now I suddenly believe that you are.