By David Futrelle
Last night the Proud Boys went looking for a fight. After a speech by the group’s founder Gavin McInnes at the Metropolitan Republican Club in Manhattan, members of the group — a gang of pro-Trump goons who seem to get into fights at every event they attend — were caught on video violently attacking several people who had come out to protest their event, beating and kicking them.
The Proud Boys took obvious pleasure in the assaults, with one of the attackers yelling “do you feel brave now, f**got” at his victim, according to one eyewitness. Another Proud Boy was heard on the group’s own livestream boasting that
I had one of their fucking heads and I was just fucking smashing it [on] the pavement. I ripped that motherfucker’s mask off and kicked him right in the head! … He’s a fucking foreigner!
At one point, McInnes literally drew a sword that he had brought with him to the speech. The group, evidently quite pleased with how the night had gone, posed for a group photo afterwards. None of the Proud Boys involved in the violence were arrested.
Here’s how Fox News covered the events:
Antifa attacks again — swords and vandalism at New York GOP office @FoxNewsNight pic.twitter.com/N4Q5MWKuK0
— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 13, 2018
If you watch the video, you can see McInnes draw his sword. It’s not quite clear how Fox News was able to mistake McInnes — an easily recognizable figure who was the headliner at the event in question — for an antifa protester.
In case any Fox News reporters need to be reminded what he looks like, here’s McInnes doing an interview in which he offers his thoughts on how awesome he thinks violence is.
"It was a really fun night, and overall I cannot recommend violence enough. It is a really effective way to solve problems.” -Gavin McInnes, founder of the Proud Boys (Feb. 2017). #ViolentMob pic.twitter.com/OTxW3Vwx1O
— Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D (@RVAwonk) October 13, 2018
I guess my question here is whether or not this is deliberate disinformation from Fox, or whether everyone working there is so caught up in the Trump/GOP/Fox News reality distortion field that they can look at footage of Gavin fucking McInnes pulling out a sword and see antifa?
At this point, actual footage of right-wingers beating up people — followed by footage of these right-wingers happily bragging about beating up people — isn’t enough to convince many in the MAGA swamp that, well, right-wingers are beating up people. These people are essentially gaslighting themselves.
https://twitter.com/annie7589/status/1051041998218629120
Yeah, that’s the ticket.
Here’s more footage of what happened last night, from the assaults to the exalting over the assaults afterwards — complete with chants of “I like beer!” in honor of the newly installed Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Last night, Gavin McInnes and his gang of Proud Boy thugs instigated violence against protestors. Severe injuries, but none reported dead, yet. https://t.co/JpWV2UbM2D
— Nathan Bernard (@nathanTbernard) October 13, 2018
https://twitter.com/leftkist/status/1050973870511939584
Here's a portion of the livestream uploaded by a Proud Boy (since deleted) which shows a member bragging about kicking "a foreigner" in the head. full video here: https://t.co/PBJoW8hCGi pic.twitter.com/qlZipdRMsd
— Jake Offenhartz (@jangelooff) October 13, 2018
https://twitter.com/Kherman112/status/1050983568300630017
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The only thing uglier than Gavin McInnes is the stupidity of FUX Snooze. No, you spineless dolts, the peebees are NOT Antifa.
And anyone who reports for FUX are NOT journalists.
And word is the protesters are being charged with felonies.
https://twitter.com/DrRJKavanagh/status/1051197262901198848
The police should add put “To Protect and Serve Nazis” on the side of their cars, because that’s apparently what they think their job is.
The NYPD needs to be investigated for this. See if any of the officers on the scene are affiliated with white supremacist groups. Did the NYPD communicate with the Proud Boys in any way? This is just fishy as fuck.
Well, that is not surprising unfortunately. At this point, if Trump shot someone Fox would somehow blame Antifa or the left for it. That’s just how they operate. Their viewers are not going to think any differently either.
I have nothing funny to say because this is not funny in any way-the actual event or the propaganda. It is not so much of how we reach these people anymore and more how do we stop them without this getting even more ugly, because it will be the most vulnerable in our society who will pay the most (like that video perfectly illustrated). I’m sorry if I’m preaching to the choir. I just feel so despondent about all the recent events right now. My only consolation is that this too shall pass, but not before innocent people suffer greatly because of it.
“The police just watched”
Nah, they’re not fooling themselves. They know they’re lying, and they know we know they’re lying. The lying itself is the weapon. The cruelty itself is the point.
It’s the same thing as Trump himself – there is not much more potent as a display of power than telling what everyone knows is a lie and getting away with it, and having millions act as if it’s true even though they know full well it’s bullshit.
Here’s hoping these fascist pigs get what’s coming them
Here I am just livid with anger and praying for a meteor to hit them
More than 50 cases of far right attacks in Brazil in the last 7 days, including 1 man being stabbed to death https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/11/brazil-election-violence-bolsonaro-haddad
Police voted for the dumpster 80%…
THIS IS WHAT THEY WANTED
While I can’t say I’m thinking straight at the moment, I think Cyborgette is right. I’d say it also fits with that Robyn Pennacchia article someone linked several threads ago.
I’m trying to understand how people can be this awful, but…I just…can’t—it just doesn’t make any sense to me.
I don’t know if it’s because of my privilege, my disability, or my being very upset right now, but I just can’t seem to put all the pieces together or make all the right connections.
Does anyone have any links to resources explains this kind of thing they wouldn’t mind sharing?
Fox News declares “Antifa attacks again — swords and vandalism”
No need to get riled up, Mammotheers.
Fact #1: Three Antifa protesters knocked a MAGA hat from the head of a Proud Boy. What’s a Nazi to do — just let it go? No. His honor, and the honor of his hat, must be avenged.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/proud-boys-new-york-assault-gavin-mcinnes_us_5bc20d60e4b0bd9ed55a96ee
Fact #2: Fox News mentions “swords and vandalism.” It doesn’t specifically say that Antifa brought swords. No. It leaves the viewer to infer that. So it’s not a lie, it’s just misleading. At worst, misleading the public is merely a kinda, sorta lie.
Fact #3: Are these young gentlemen white supremacists? No. They are self-identified “Western chauvinists.” Don’t they at least get some credit for knowing this word — and possibly, (just possibly) spelling it correctly?
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ct-proud-boys-violence-new-york-arrests-20181013-story.html
What? My arguments are dishonest?
So much for the tolerant left!
@Prophet309:
This seems to come to similar conclusions.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/the-cruelty-is-the-point/572104/
These people should be met with proper shield walls where ever they go.
I still can’t believe these guys actually call themselves ‘proud boys’, it honestly sounds like an infantilising insult to me. …How much does this group overlap with those guys who kept dressing up as babies on college campuses to ‘own the libs’? Will they stop having tantrums if we find a way to put them all down for a nap?
@Bina
That’s probably the impression they want to give, in order to avoid the glorious future the proud boys envisage, where journalists are all givena one-way helicopter trip.
It’s a reference to the song “Proud of Your Boy” from the stage musical version of Disney’s Aladdin (a ballad in which our hero apologises and promises to his late mother to improve his ways from being a street criminal and become someone to make her proud). Apparently McInnes hates the song and its message so much (for some reason; he thinks it’s unmanly to apologise or seek self improvement, perhaps) that he named his crypto-fascist group after it, because that makes total comprehensible sense as a decision.
When I first heard the name “proud boys”, I assumed it was a gay organisation. The fact that it’s named after a song in a stage musical does nothing to discourage this notion.
I want to take this moment to say something to a mass amount of the centrist left:
All of you who said that antifa are as bad as the nazis? This is what you allowed to happen. This is on you.
When you made that false equivalence (which, as a smart twitter person said, only shows that your only objection to fascism is that it’s rowdy), you gave these people a tool to gaslight everyone, and now people are hurt and unjustly facing felonies.
You didn’t directly harm them, but you’re not exempt. Your moral cowardice, your selling your moral compass for milquetoast appeals to a false peace, are responsible for this. Their blood is just as much on your hands.
@Moggie
What’s so gay about stage musicals?
OT, today I learned someone has left KKK propoganda on porches on my hometown this morning. I can’t really do much about it cause I’m at college right now, but I’m honestly terrified for my friends back home. I don’t know what to do.
The cynic in me is kinda glad that the police “just watched”. I halfway expected them to go in and join the proud boys while loudly proclaiming “Oh my god, they are coming right for us!”
Remember these pictures. This is Trump’s America. The modern KKK doesn’t need masks anymore.
FYI here’s an important thread about the activities McInnes participated before this happened, and what’s the history behind it:
https://twitter.com/metasynthie/status/1051520835117375488
Do note that there’s a YT clip involved re: said history of assassination, and although it is B&W, it can be hard to view, so view with caution.
I’d love to see a “Proud Bozos” gathering where the counter-protesters are prepared and then turn the tables on those weak little “Proud Oafs”.
Oh; There’s footage and I see lawsuits a-coming. If the cops arrested the wrong guys and this is on video then the protesters have a case.
As for the “Righties” thinking they have carte-blanche….they got another thing coming.
This big burst of wingnuttery is Fascism’s extinction burst.
The majority of Americans are against them. The majority have numbers. Even if the GOP tries voter suppression, they can’t suppress everyone.
The amount of Progressives are growing and this latest mess has only energized us.
The day will come when Trump and Kavanaugh will be impeached and the corrupt police, officials and business have their reckoning.
Robert Mueller is on the case and has folks at the State level willing to take over in the even he’s kicked off the case.
Despite the purging of Black and Indigenous Americans from the voting rolls in a few states, the rest of Americans are about to make their move.
There are also a bunch of lawsuits against these purges.
It may be hard and it may be slow but, as Bob Marley once sang…..I’ll paraphrase…..The Corrupt may be a “Big Tree” but each Progressive is a “Small Axe”…..and little by little, we WILL cut them down!…..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gnd44Vx4s-U
….The demographics of America are changing for the better. Most Millennials….the next generation….REJECT this Far-Right awfulness.
Even if the GOP manage to steal the Mid-Terms; It’s NOT over! It won’t be over! Also; It’s best and easiest to change things from the bottom-up. That would be the new approach and not require massive wealth.
Finally; There was a mass-protest against the Far-Right in Germany a day or two ago….
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45851665
….There may be an upswing in the hateful but there’s a bigger bunch up against it.
Gavin was a fixture on Fox News for years prior to founding the Proud Boys, most notably on Red Eye. Would be interesting to see how Gutfeld covers this on The Five…you know they can’t turn down a Conservative Martyrdom story, especially with an Antifa/Mob Violence angle. I’d expect the “self defense” story to be played up rather than the blatant gaslighting of that headline.
FFS, if these guys wanted to start Fight Clubs so badly, they should have just done that. But no, apparently they don’t even have the stomach to punch each other; they have to just assault unsuspecting people to feel tough.
This is the mindset we’re dealing with. And clearly the NYPD are cool with it, which doesn’t surprise me in the least.
But on the gaslighting… it’s morbidly fascinating to watch in action. They have to disconnect themselves from their actions to keep their “Are We The Baddies?” senses from tingling, so on one hand they clearly revel in violence, but they have to ensure that it’s always deployed to perceived “Antifa” or “radical left” aggression. Their cognitive dissonance is so spectacular that guys like Christopher Cantwell go around strapped with firearms threatening their opponents with violence, but a little pepper spray in the face and they’re whining “But we we’re all peaceful and stuff!”
The “Soros-backed agitator” thing is new to this particular conversation. Because they always cast Antifa as true believers willing to use bike locks on poor unsuspecting fascists (despite the fact that only happened once and these guys routinely parade around armed). Now they’re put up to it by the evil (((Soros)))?
Are attention spans so short that they’re immune even to blatantly contradictory arguments?
@doomcup
PREACH!!!!!