By David Futrelle
So I was poking around in the KotakuInAction ubreddit — Reddit’s self-proclaimed “hub for GamerGate” — to see how the regulars were dealing with the news that idiot YouTube megastar PewDiePie was going to donate, and then was not going to donate, a big chunk of money to the Anti-Defamation League.
And within about thirty seconds I stumbled across this huge pile of Nazi shit that a one-day-old Redditor had decided to deposit in the comments.
This is classic Nazi recruitment propaganda. It reinforces a host of already-existing prejudices against an assortment of groups — from blacks to Jews to gay men to women. It tries to make these prejudices seem like rational responses to things members of these groups allegedly do, to change the terms of the debate from, for example, “bigotry against black people” to “black crime.” It offers sympathy towards those with prejudices, portraying them as the real victims.
The purpose of these rhetorical moves? To nudge those who may carry deep within them some or all of these same prejudices — and who may have faced blowback for expressing some of them in the past — towards more explicit and open racism, antisemitism, homophobia and misogyny. In short, it’s an attempt to convert casual bigots into outright Nazis.
I’m not posting this comment here today because it’s typical of KotakuInAction — though there’s certainly an antisemitic undercurrent (and sometimes a not-so-under current) in the discussions of PewDiePie and the ADL. I’m posting it because it’s so clearly an attempt at recruitment — whether it’s the work of one freelance wannabe Nazi-maker, or part of an broader organized effort.
Why might a wannabe Nazi-maker think that the regulars in KotakuInAction would be receptive to such a message?
You will find my answer to that question here.
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@Naglfar
Yup, nailed it. The accumulation of evidence is overwhelming on that score.
@Lumipuna
He doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who thinks that far ahead. But then I can’t fathom his motives.
@Naglfar
Sorry I’m late with the receipts, but I had some work to finish. Anyway, an absolute genius had the idea to take a screencap of PewDiePie’s youtube subscriptions:
https://twitter.com/gokunaruto3000/status/1107231751615606784/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1107231751615606784&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailydot.com%2Firl%2Fpewdiepie-new-zealand-alt-right-nazi%2F
@Diego
Holy crap. It doesn’t surprise me that he’s following all kinds of awful people, but it does surprise me a little just how many he is following. That screencap is a who’s who of the alt-right.
I object. Calling him a “philosopher” is like calling someone’s unfixed female cat who spends all night, every night yowling at the neighborhood, a “singer/songwriter”.
One of my uncles has refused to talk German to German people for 70+ years because of events that led to the death of his brother. I understand that. But it doesn’t mean he should be allowed to harm German folks in general, and it doesn’t mean he gets to try and indoctrinate other people to hate all Germans. And since he’s a decent person who’s kind of aware he just doesn’t know how to deal with his own grief in a healthy way, he doesn’t try.
Actually, not too many people interact with spewers of hatred. We usually prefer to avoid them. So, the NAZI dude’s sort of right. The fact he imagines he’d be able to explain his hatred of women, minorities, LBGTQ people and whoever else to a rational third party is one of the reasons he whines and asks his odd question.