So Parler has been in the news a lot lately, as a number of prominent conservatives and far-right figures have been talking up the “free speech” platform as an alternative to Twitter, which they think is too quick to censor their terrible tweets.
There is a just a teensy bit of irony in the fact that so many of these right-wing celebrities — I’m looking at you, Paul Joseph Watson and Mike Cernovich — are talking up Parler on their Twitter accounts. So far at least, they’re not devoted enough to Parler to give up their still much bigger audiences on Twitter.
Anyway, so I thought I’d take a little tour of Parler and see how things are going over there. And the answer is pretty much as one might expect: the site is flooded with far-rightists yelling about the things that far-rightests like to yell about.
But if you’re still curious I thought I’d save you a little time by presenting you with an impressionistic survey of the Five People You Meet on Parler — or, at least, the five people I met.
The MAGA Who Speaks Entirely In Hashtags
The Lovesick Nazi
Here’s one Nazi fella who thinks he’s found the girl of his dreams in the form of a proudly pale-skinned young woman who made a little video of herself singing a song about how Hitler was right. Nazi boy just doesn’t know how to contact her to profess his endless love.
The Jargon-Spewing MGTOW, with a meme no one but other terminally online misogynists (and those who monitor them) will understand.
The Proud-Boy-loving Tradwife Who Don’t Want No SImps
If that’s impossible to read, try this:
Momma don’t let your babies grow up to be #simps
Mom teach your girls that it’s just fine to be a wife and a mother
Dad teach your boys to #veneratethehousewife and be #proudboys
#MAGA#MakeFamilyGreatAgain
And then of course there are The Trad Dudes Who Are Trying to Start an Intentional Community for Dominant Men and Submissive Women Though it’s Really Not Going to Be All About Spanking Though it Maybe Sort of Is.
I’ll let the fellows at the Enlightened Men’s Club explain:
We’re a small group of Men and women who’ve had enough of the toxic feminism and misandry that is destroying Western countries today.
We’re creating a new #club for #EnlightenedMen and #submissivewomen who prefer Men to lead society in more traditional roles.Our goal is to start a new #IntentionalCommunity and a timeshare “Red Pill Resort”, where eventually Men and women can meet others who share their beliefs and values.
This is not as much about sexual submission as it is in other areas of life, even if sexual submission is often a natural consequence in these type of relationships.
Instead of trying to change society from within, which we believe is an almost hopeless task at this point, we are simply “walking away”.
However, unlike the #MGTOW movement we are not walking away from women.
By offering financial support and the ability to live in fairly luxurious accommodations completely for free we will invite and select only the highest quality women to join the community.
But it’s NOT going to be all about spanking, though maybe it partly is, they explain in a followup post, except this time it seems to be a woman posting:
People interested in our Enlightened Men Club often assume it’s purely about #sex and #bdsm and #spanking etc.
Although for us #submissive women in the club this is part of the appeal, it’s far from everything.
I want to find a Man to lead me, guide me and care for me in life. And yes, I want him to discipline me also, (when he thinks that is appropriate), but mostly I just want to feel safe, protected and loved and cared for by a good Man
This is the general feeling of all the #women who’ve joined our club so far. The motivations of the Men varies, but yes there is a lot of request for sex and #sexual #submission for sure
Glad they got that all straightened out!
Despite the, er, variety of people one meets on Parler — from Nazis who admit they’re Nazis to Nazis who won’t admit it — I rather doubt it will end up being a serious challenge to Twitter. Why? Because it basically only attracts far-rightists, and far-rightists are rarely content just to talk amongst themselves, unless they’re outright plotting terrorism or something — they want a steady source of liberals and leftists to troll, and the only places that provide those reliably are Twitter and Facebook and other mainstream social media sites. And if they don’t have that, they end up fighting amongst themselves, as they did on Gab.
And for that reason I wish Parler all the best. The more these guys troll and attack one another, the better.
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I need to learn to make socks. I crochet, so I keep looking for a simple pattern to get started on. Those socks look rather warm, very useful in chilly climes.
@ Vicky P
Naalebinding sounds like a Wagnerian opera about knitting. Which I would pay to see.
@ Hambeast
How do you fancy a posting to Hadrian’s Wall?
@ North Sea Sparkly Dragon
Weirdly, some of the best examples of Roman socks come from hot places like Egypt. That’s a selection bias thing because the conditions there are more likely to preserve them. It does seem to confirm though they were as much about fashion as practicality.
@Alan Robertshaw : I can see plenty of use for sock in Egypt tho. Especially with sandals.
I suppose it was only a matter of time before the Nazi and Gorean subcultures merged.
Actually it’s rich right winger Rebakah Mercer who is one of the backers of Parler.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/15/media/rebekah-mercer-parler/index.html
Meanwhile TV personality and New Age musician John Tesh is moving to Parler. He urged his Twitter followers to join as well, saying they’d “say goodbye to viciousness and censorship.” Yeah, sure, John.
Alan – I’d love to see Hadrian’s Wall! Who would I be knitting socks for, though?
Parler…so this is another Gab/Minds – basically Twitter for content/people who Twitter won’t let on the platform?
I felt like I only found odd people when I browsed Parlor. Not exactly the clusters mentioned, but similar. It was more of a odd curiosity for me to browse parlor and many would call me a traditionalist.
When twitter mistook Iyad El-Baghdadi (think pro-democracy, pro-modernization of theocracy) for Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (think mustache twirling vilian) and temporarily banned him in a key moment of him translating messages (because of Russian misinformation), I realized these are not platforms. These are just another tool of control being used by those who have always sought to control.
Parlor has at least 2 million users (I don’t quite trust the 2.8 million number) this shows there is a demand for a speech platform those individuals trust. It is worth note that those on parlor are typically a bit outside the range of normalcy, so the following numbers are low ball estimates. Assuming 3% are radical thats at least 60k people. Personally I prefer those 60k be on the mainstream platform so they are exposed to the social rubber banding and watched/mocked by more eyes. But to each their own I guess.