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By David Futrelle
Candace Owens — self-proclaimed “Red Pill Black” conservative — is having a bit of a moment, hanging out with new Trump fan Kanye West, posing for selfies with Don Jr., getting an effusive Twitter shout-out from Don Sr,, threatening to sue people who talk about her in what she considers the wrong way.
A lot of people have been left wondering just where exactly Owens came from. Well, there’s a bit of a story there.
Long-time readers of this blog first met Owens back in the days of Gamergate, after Zoe Quinn criticized her ill-conceived plan for an “anti-bullying” site that would have basically doxed a bunch of teenagers. After Quinn spoke out, Gamergaters spouting conspiracy theories quickly abandoned their own critiques of Owens and rallied around her. Owens began spouting conspiracy theories of her own, and, well, let’s just say things got very weird very fast, as they generally seem to do when Owens gets involved in anything.
In several posts, I tried my best to make sense of the whole surreal mess. I’m linking them here because I think they may illuminate a few things about Trump World’s newest heroine.
This post describes what happened immediately after Owens first heard from Quinn. Trust me, the headline (and the snippet from the post below) don’t fully capture the weirdness of the story.
Instead of listening to Quinn, Owens declared war on her, spewing forth dozens of angry and accusatory tweets, charging that Quinn and fellow anti-harassment activist Randi Harper … were somehow the puppetmasters behind a barrage of abusive, threatening, and often blatantly racist anonymous messages that Owens (who is black) started getting not long after news of Owens’ plans hit Reddit and 4chan.
Owens quickly began to sound like every other internet crackpot who sees conspiracies in every Twitter mention.
SocialAutopsy-Turvy: Candace Owens’ Twitter Trainwreck, Part One
(APRIL 24, 2016)
And quite a trainwreck it was. The story continued to get weirder, and at such a pace that I never had a chance to write part two.
In this episode, Owens writes an angry diatribe against an article she imagined that Washington Post writer Caitlin Dewey had written about her. No, really. She accused Dewey and her editor of attempting to libel her in an article that the Post never published and that as far as I know Dewey never even wrote.
Naturally, Gamergaters were thrilled to have such an, er, original thinker on their side.
NOTE TO READERS: Sorry for being MIA the last couple of days; I’ve been dealing with the double whammy of migraines and some really nasty lower back pain. Doing a little better today.
Idli’s original post.
I’ve been puzzled by the police/consent story since I first heard of it, because it seems to me there’s absolutely no justification for it — even if, for the sake of argument, someone *could* give meaningful consent to sex with the police holding them in jail, wouldn’t the police be soliciting/accepting bribes by having sex with prisoners?
And what is hilarious about Denizcan James’ tweet that idli quoted is that it was plagiarized from a Tumblr account, “pervocracy”, run by a fantastic former WHTM commenter, Cliff Pervocracy. (Old time readers will recognize Cliff’s name.)
Hope your back and head continue to improve, David!
Backs are a nuisance – seems it was a mistake to go for bipedalism after all. I’m doing quite a lot on the allotment at the moment and the back (and ankles and knees) are complaining constantly.
We went from freeze, snow, frost, more snow to a heatwave in 4 weeks, so all the weeds had just been lurking and waiting to leap into action and it was too cold to plant the things we want to eat.
So now the weeds are leaping and we are planting as fast as we can… all the spuds in as of this morning, but that’s very late, and some of the peas planted and defended with holly leaves. None came up last year, and I suspect it was some hungry little persons with twitchy noses, whiskers and long thin tails. Those same persons seem to have eaten the onions I planted in January, but they must be vampire rats, because they haven’t touched the garlic.
Re: Turning Point – if I hadn’t been watching Comedy Central I’d never have heard of Turning Point, and now I’m seeing truly awful memes appearing on friends’ facebook feeds and in discussion groups. Things like “hey, peasants: be grateful to your feudal overlord” (seriously: that got shared on a history thread I follow, of all things).
In other news: I’m helping organise the East Anglian storytelling festival (near Ipswich, 15th – 17th June) and it’s going to be utterly brilliant.
Otherwise… life is a bit crappy at the moment, overall. The Beloved has been diagnosed with Parkinsons disease, we are both unbelievably skint and I have no work this summer. Hey ho.
More commentary on Bari Weiss’ “Poor Little Right-Wing Media” fluff piece, as well as commentary on others whose “mellow” we’re harshing…
https://slate.com/technology/2018/05/the-intellectual-dark-web-and-the-alt-right-dont-blame-the-social-justice-internet-for-these-bigots.html
re: Finland in May
Other people already answered to the original question, but I’d like to add that we’ve had wonky weather this year even before this heat wave. Just when you’d have expected the rather warm winter to taper into something resembling spring, the temperature dropped more than it had all winter, and snow was everywhere.
I don’t think I’d be surprised if we now get snow for midsummer, followed by an intense week of forest fires, and then just cold rain until September, when there’ll be summer again or something. I like all the seasons, but I prefer them in the usual order.
Isn’t it amazing how the people who belong to the political ideology that preaches personal responsibility never, ever, ever take any responsibility for themselves?
I seriously can’t think of a single time I’ve ever seen a conservative public figure hold themselves accountable for one single choice they make. Not once.
It’s also amazing that the right has the White House, the US House, the US Senate, several governor seats and state legislatures, the SCOTUS and the so-called liberal media outlets like CNN and NYT constantly bend over backwards to be sympathetic to their racism, misogyny, and xenophobia and it’s not enough. They still manage to have a persecution complex. I guess as long as anyone is allowed to publicly disagree with them or publish news pieces that aren’t right wing propaganda, they will always see themselves as the victims. No matter how much they are the bullies, as long as someone, somewhere is fighting back, they are justified in saying and doing anything. No matter how horrific. And these are the people who claim to be for freedom!
It’s such an abuser mentality. Look what you made me do!
That’s a huge assumption. And an incorrect one at that.
Re: Kansas
This article has an (out of date) map where it is (was) legal. I’ll try to find a more updated one.
Edit: that one is the BuzzFeed map
Edit 2: feministing has an article from February 2018 with the same map.
Addendum to my previous comment re Kansas: It’s less that it’s legal, and more that it’s not explicitly illegal. So a loophole, that Kansas has just closed.
Ugh, the incel is back on my Ace forum, now claiming that some people say they are Ace but are actually incel. He’s like a tumer that wants desperately to grow and become cancer.
@Masse_Mysteria
I love your ‘nym
@Idli
And 1/16 Cherokee?
I thought she was saying she was Asian and that’s why it’s okay to say problematic things about Asians. Now I guess she’s black and that’s why it’s okay to say problematic things about black people. So yeah, the great grandma was a Cherokee princess thing is probably impending.
I mean, not that someone can’t be biracial black and Asian, but it just seems awfully convenient that the black thing is just coming up now.
@WWTH
She’s vaguely implied blackness before. I tend to pick up on these things 😛 Figured I mighta been picking up a false positive, but, whatever, @idli being black wouldn’t surprise me nor would I find it suspicious. Just, it doesn’t matter is the thing
She’s wrong. I mean, her idea (getting black people armed in order to bring about gun control) is terrible in so many ways, but the biggest one is that she uses past examples. That is, it’s been done before. And yet here we are. So… not exactly a rousing success
That being said, just my $.02, I’m far less put off by the use of the word (which I don’t see as 100% a slur anyway, but ymmv) than the use of the word. An NRA pun… really? Fuck outta here!
She’s vaguely implied a lot of things wjen it’s convenient for her. Whether they’re true or not, she’s just using them to get a pass on being problematic and/or toxic.
My assumption was based on the fact that you responded to people pushing back on you for stereotyping Asians by claiming to be Asian. I assumed that you would also respond to people reacting negatively to you using an n-slur by also going “nuh uh! It’s not offensive because I’m black!” if you were black as well as Asian.
(Also your weird fixation with bashing Hinduism gave me the impression you were not African American, since I assumed that African Americans generally have limited interaction with Hinduism as a faith. It’s entirely possible to be black and NOT African American, of course, but the n-word slurs spread massively during American slavery and are often used against black Americans. I suppose I’m splitting hairs, really, and it’s not like the slurs haven’t been exported worldwide at this point.)
Perhaps I was premature. Sorry.
Catalpa, I appreciate your comment( plus a few other people who have weighed in) Idli just seems disingenuous to me whether or not she is black. I’m black (well half and half white mother black father but I am very well aware that Society doesn’t care and sees me as black)I consider myself biracial but I also consider myself black and I don’t think that’s a contradiction.
The thing is I feel uncomfortable with that word personally. I spent my formative years among mostly white people and I just feel odd saying it. But I have intelligent educated black friends who do use the n-word judiciously. I see no problem with that. Not gratuitously, not for shock value, only when they think it is appropriate and there is no other word that will convey the concept that they are trying to get across as well.
But the people I’m referring to in addition to obviously being black they realize there are certain places and times and communities where it is inappropriate. I would say this site is definitely one of them. Okay I kind of lost my train of thought I had a point but I think I smoked a bit too much weed. It’s partially I don’t care whether she is black or not, what she’s saying is still inappropriate in my opinion.
I haven’t been commenting much lately because I’m avoiding the internet a lot. My psychiatrist says and I agree and so does my boyfriend that it has an unhealthily strong effect on my mood sometimes. I don’t know if anyone here reads The Root, a black news website. I recommend it highly if anyone’s interested. All the blank while black cases, especially the one at Yale(actual literally not figuratively literally)made me physically ill and the f****** atrocities in Israel plus all the other insanity and I just can’t right now so I’m just chilling and reading fantasy novels for a while.
Rereading the Kushiel’s Dart Saga at the moment.(anyone here read that? It’s fucking awesome. But if BDSM distresses you you will not enjoy it)Its one of my favorite books not because of technical skill although Jacqueline Carey is definitely a decent writer but because I read it when I was 14 and it helped me understand myself. I really didn’t know what BDSM was. I had just recently lost my virginity and learned I like really rough sex and it made me feel very uncomfortable. I thought I was a freak and this book helped me so I have deep nostalgia for it. I hope everyone’s doing well and David I hope you feel better. Have a nice day everyone.
A nice piece in the New Yorker on the rage of the incel. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-rage-of-the-incels
Nothing in it that regular readers won’t know, but good nonetheless.
I do wonder about my ex (well, still technically husband). I was discussing property and our son’s inheritance with him recently and said that I wouldn’t be having any more children, but I didn’t know about him. He said he wouldn’t be, that he was no good at relationships. I can attest to that. He sounded bitter.
As I’ve discussed before he’s gone down the alt-right rabbit hole. If he were younger, he’d be prime ‘incel’ material. He bemoaned the fact that he couldn’t find a romantic partner, that he could get dates (he doesn’t seem so bad on paper, job, proof of past relationships, he writes well) but that they all resulted in platonic friendships. The ‘friendzone’ – though he didn’t use that word. Given the generally liberal attitudes of most women in London, I wonder even about the friendzone. He frequently drops little bigotry bon mots and tells that he’s a hateful POS.
But the funny thing is, when he had a wife with a healthy libido, he didn’t do much with that desire. I assessed at the 15 year mark that I’d had more sex with my college boyfriend of a year and a half than I’d had with my husband of a decade and a half. It was a sad calculus. I think it’s entirely possible that I’m still the only person he’s had sex with at all, though I do wonder if there was a failed or deeply unsatisfactory attempt or two since we’ve separated. A woman wiser and older than I was would walk away after attempting sexual congress with him, it was bad.
I think there’s a general consensus here that these guys don’t really want sex with a loving partner. My ex – an incel manqué – didn’t know what to do with me when he had me. He chose to chase hate. I’m so glad I’m out of it. I’m so glad I’ve had a second chance and a relationship with someone who chooses to embrace my passion and return it.
@ Bluecat
Sympathy over the Parkinson’s, it’s a right embuggerance.
… the difference between “ignorance” and “willful Ignorance”…
https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/05/against-resistancegenealogy-digging-up-information-about-the-immigrant-ancestors-of-trumpsters-is-doing-more-harm-than-good.html
“Also your weird fixation with bashing Hinduism gave me the impression you were not African American, since I assumed that African Americans generally have limited interaction with Hinduism as a faith.”
Huh? How is this not a mildly racist statement? African Americans don’t have the gene for being curious/having informed opinions about world religions? #ThingsthatbringouttheSJWinme
There’s actually a point that dovetails nicely with something both @WWTH and the paragraph that @Weird_Eddie quoted:
As I mentioned on the previous page, our collective superpower here is our memories. But memory means little if the lies are halfway around the world while the truth we remember is getting its shoes on. That saying gets a lot of traffic, but it actually has a couple implications:
1. Lies from the mouths of media-trained talking heads are going to be pre-packaged in convenient sound-byte form while the truth often requires explanation. And if you’re explaining, you’re losing.
2. There’s an unstated implication that there are are no referees to call out lies. And that’s absolutely correct: as much as it sucks to admit it, the mainstream media, TV media in particular, have entirely ceded their responsibility to their viewers to call out bullshit when its spewed in their faces. It’s only in the absence of these referees that lies are allowed to thrive.
There’s a reason Jordan Peterson plays these rhetorical games in interviews: if he can flabbergast and flummox the host who hadn’t done the necessary research to find out this guy’s game, then he gets to walk away saying “Look at me, I pwned that dumb journalist! Worship me, royal smart man! Money please!” This is exactly why the pwnage culture of YouTube is so insidious and why it’s caught on: no refs to tell a sophist like Ben Shapiro “Okay, there’s more to it than that and you’re just lying by omission.” He’s just permitted to go in front of a camera and motormouth lies into the brains of an audience completely unchallenged, or when he is, just Gish gallop across a moderator and accuse them of bias.
In light of this, it’s incumbent upon us to rise to the occasion and not only tell the truth, but tell it in a way that sticks in people’s memory. It’s not easy and it might mean wandering into enemy territory, but there’s a reason that for all the echo-chambering these noxious buttwhistlers accuse us of being, they don’t invite a Sam Seder or a Dick Coughlin or a Contrapoints on their shows: all of them understand the game and have a way of dismantling bullshit arguments with memorable flair. It’s not a coincidence that two of the three people I cited are comedians and as much as I don’t like relying on comedians to get our points across, they’re the ones that make things stick in the mind like no other. They grasp the performance aspect better than anyone.
To sum up, it takes more than just pointing out historical ignorance or wrongdoing. They’ve gotta be hammered into the ground and then the ground has to be salted. These people have to be reduced to gibbering, stuttering, humiliated weaklings in front of their audience if historical fact and truth are ever going to win out. They’re going to blame everyone else and take no responsibility for their actions because nobody’s held them to account for the past 20 years.
@Ashent
Yeah, I phrased that poorly, my bad. I meant that Americans who are not culturally adjacent to Hinduism (i.e. Their family doesn’t originate from the Indian subcontinent or that general area), are generally not going to encounter Hinduism as much as they encounter other religions, since Hinduism is a relatively uncommon religion in North America. Not just black Americans, but also white Americans, latinx Americans, etc. (I was also under the impression that idli didn’t belong to those demographics.)
But, yeah, regardless, my attempts at divining people’s race over the internet were in poor taste and I’m gonna stop doing that. Sorry.
In some good news (in a way), there is now the equivalent of the SPLC in Canada:
Canadian Anti-Hate Network (CAN), founded by Evan Balgord
antihate.ca [not live yet]
https://tvo.org/article/current-affairs/how-a-new-organization-aims-to-monitor-hate-groups-across-canada
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/2018/05/15/new-canadian-anti-hate-network-looks-to-co-ordinate-efforts-against-far-right-extremism.html
Fundraising for them is here:
https://www.youcaring.com/canadianantihatenetwork-1181845