The Briefing Room
General Category => Editorial/Opinion/Blogs => Topic started by: Silver Pines on January 19, 2017, 03:32:28 pm
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The Alt-Right’s Meltdown Is Just Like Any Other Message Board Drama
By Katie Notopolous
January 18, 2017
Things have gotten bumpy for the alt-right online movement since the election. It’s facing an identity crisis (what does it mean to be the “alt” if you’re getting what you want?) and grappling with certain fundamental questions like “Are we OK with Nazis?” (Even if its very name was coined by, well, Nazis.) The handful of leaders who emerged over the last year or two are at odds with each other over those and other questions, forcing helpless anime-avatared Twitter trolls caught in the middle to choose sides.
The kerfuffle surrounds the DeploraBall, a black-tie-optional party in DC the night before the inauguration. There has been nasty and public fighting among the organizers. Stick with me here: Mike Cernovich, a lawyer who became an alt-right leader after taking up the GamerGate mantle, feuded with a fellow leader (and former BuzzFeed employee) who goes by “Baked Alaska” and announced that Baked Alaska had been removed from headlining the event because he had said anti-Semitic things on Twitter. Another leader, Bill Mitchell, announced he was no longer part of the alt-right after they started using the racist hashtag #WhiteGenocide. And just recently, Baked Alaska accused (and sources confirmed to BuzzFeed News) one of the DeploraBall organizers of planting a “rape Melania” sign at an anti-Trump protest in an attempt to make protesters look depraved. In the latest surreal twist, a popular alt-right podcaster and founder of the website The Right Stuff was revealed to have a Jewish wife, which sent his fans into a tailspin.
At first, this disarray might seem surprising. After all, the alt-right claims to be an unprecedented political phenomenon that memed a president into office. But if you want to understand what’s happening there, it’s helpful to think about it as an internet-first creature. While it’s possible — and necessary — to view it through the lens of political or social thought that it echoes, the other way of making sense of it is to look at it as a digital community, regardless of its politics. And if you view it as an online community rather than a political movement, its trajectory starts to look very, very familiar.
What we have here is a classic case of “mod drama.”
Read more at:
https://www.buzzfeed.com/katienotopoulos/the-alt-rights-meltdown-is-just-like-any-other-message-board?utm_term=.xp8N9B515#.sjxnpKwDw (https://www.buzzfeed.com/katienotopoulos/the-alt-rights-meltdown-is-just-like-any-other-message-board?utm_term=.xp8N9B515#.sjxnpKwDw)
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I saw this article linked and recommended on John Podhoretz's Twitter timeline. I thought it was interesting not only for its main topic, but also for the summary of forum crack-ups, which we've probably all seen.
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:dontfeed:
I've always wanted to use it.
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:dontfeed:
I've always wanted to use it.
@Sanguine
Lol
There are a few of those little guys I'm holding for the right opportunity. I expect one of them will be pasted all over the place tomorrow.
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The Alt-Right’s Meltdown Is Just Like Any Other Message Board Drama
By Katie Notopolous
January 18, 2017
Read more at:
https://www.buzzfeed.com/katienotopoulos/the-alt-rights-meltdown-is-just-like-any-other-message-board?utm_term=.xp8N9B515#.sjxnpKwDw (https://www.buzzfeed.com/katienotopoulos/the-alt-rights-meltdown-is-just-like-any-other-message-board?utm_term=.xp8N9B515#.sjxnpKwDw)
An excellent article, and I think very accurate in its description of online drama. Thanks for posting it!
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An excellent article, and I think very accurate in its description of online drama. Thanks for posting it!
@Ghost Bear
You're welcome. Even though it's from BuzzFeed, it was worth reading, IMO.
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I thought it was interesting not only for its main topic, but also for the summary of forum crack-ups, which we've probably all seen.
When I want real drama I'll watch a good film or listen to an old-time radio show. Online forum crack-ups aren't drama,
they're nursery school sandbox fights instigated of the children, by the children, and for (or against, depending on
your point of view) the children. Compared to them, the animules in Animal Farm were the epitome of right
reason and toleration. ;)
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One of things I noticed about reputed alt-right forums is the amount of anti-Semitism among the commenters....even though a number of writers and fellow commenters are themselves Jewish.
But it seems many of the commenters hate everybody who is not what they consider white. And that includes many Caucasians who are not sufficiently of Nordic-Ayran descent.
Of course, according to most alt-righters, Jews are not white. (Curiously enough, recently in a Nat. Park I espied a family of Hasidic Jews whose skin was whiter than mine....and I am partially of British-German ancestry.) Greeks, Italians, and Spaniards might be white. A great many alt-righters are mightly concerned about where people are from.
And of course, a number seek the all-white "homeland" to be totally separated from the "mud" people. What they think about Trump having a Jewish son-in-law or a number of their leaders (Jared Taylor, John Derbyshire) having non-white spouses has not been made clear.
But overall they seem to be happy with His Orangeness as president.
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Of course, according to most alt-righters, Jews are not white.
I'm Jewish, and I wish I could have had a couple of those alt-right antelopes along when I dated a black woman
some years back---especially because I was darker skinned than she was! (Our relationship ended
for reasons having nothing to do with our races, by the way . . .)
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Goon Island: In 2009, a group of posters from the message board Something Awful attempted to move to Hawaii and live off the land. To the amusement of users on a different board from the same site, the group of message board posters was not exactly suited to life in the wild jungle. One moment in particular — a photo of one of the “goons” (as Something Awful posters call themselves) trying to shoot a wild pig with a BB gun — encapsulated how underprepared they were for the jungle.
:silly:
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When I want real drama I'll watch a good film or listen to an old-time radio show. Online forum crack-ups aren't drama,
they're nursery school sandbox fights instigated of the children, by the children, and for (or against, depending on
your point of view) the children. Compared to them, the animules in Animal Farm were the epitome of right
reason and toleration. ;)
@EasyAce
Points taken. I still enjoy watching. Call me shallow. ^-^
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Goon Island: In 2009, a group of posters from the message board Something Awful attempted to move to Hawaii and live off the land. To the amusement of users on a different board from the same site, the group of message board posters was not exactly suited to life in the wild jungle. One moment in particular — a photo of one of the “goons” (as Something Awful posters call themselves) trying to shoot a wild pig with a BB gun — encapsulated how underprepared they were for the jungle.
:silly:
@Cripplecreek
Lol, no kidding.
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@EasyAce
Points taken. I still enjoy watching. Call me shallow. ^-^
We'll be seeing a lot of it up close and personal.
The gilded world of hopeful fantasy ends tomorrow. I suspect its going to be quickly replaced by anger and blame.
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Nordic version, "What A Difference A Day Makes"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHnkVextoQw
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@truth_seeker
Nordic version, "What A Difference A Day Makes"
In the alt-right meltdown? Not following you.
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(Our relationship ended for reasons having nothing to do with our races, by the way . . .)
Your religions obviously. Geez, were not dumb ya know.
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@EasyAce
Points taken. I still enjoy watching. Call me shallow. ^-^
@CatherineofAragon
Shallow, not at all!
But I think of them more like comedies. Good for a laugh or two if sources are considered. Even if most of them
ought to fire the comedy writers they now have on their payrolls. ;)
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Your religions obviously. Geez, were not dumb ya know.
Well, I was an affirmed Jew and she was a devout agnostic, but the real issue was,
we were just two different people going in two different directions after awhile.
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@Sanguine
Lol
There are a few of those little guys I'm holding for the right opportunity. I expect one of them will be pasted all over the place tomorrow.
yeah baby! Prodigiously!
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yeah baby! Prodigiously!
@Wingnut
Less than one day! Can you believe it?
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@Wingnut
Less than one day! Can you believe it?
Yes!
I'm treating the day with the seriousness it deserves. I don't care for champagne, so I'm having pork pot stickers and a margarita.
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@Sanguine
Lol
There are a few of those little guys I'm holding for the right opportunity. I expect one of them will be pasted all over the place tomorrow.
Here's something to paste tomorrow---tell me this wouldn't be an appropriate inaugural speech (well, song) for any contemporary
president, never mind Donaldus Minimus . . .
President Rufus T. Firefly, "Just Wait 'Till I Get Through With It," Duck Soup (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSsUoxlSADk)
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One of things I noticed about reputed alt-right forums is the amount of anti-Semitism among the commenters....even though a number of writers and fellow commenters are themselves Jewish.
But it seems many of the commenters hate everybody who is not what they consider white. And that includes many Caucasians who are not sufficiently of Nordic-Ayran descent.
Of course, according to most alt-righters, Jews are not white. (Curiously enough, recently in a Nat. Park I espied a family of Hasidic Jews whose skin was whiter than mine....and I am partially of British-German ancestry.) Greeks, Italians, and Spaniards might be white. A great many alt-righters are mightly concerned about where people are from.
And of course, a number seek the all-white "homeland" to be totally separated from the "mud" people. What they think about Trump having a Jewish son-in-law or a number of their leaders (Jared Taylor, John Derbyshire) having non-white spouses has not been made clear.
But overall they seem to be happy with His Orangeness as president.
What this shows, is how the Left...has won.
The Left isn't about Black Supremacy or any such. What it IS, is about RACIALISM. Identity politics, based on race.
It's the game they've always played - with the Slave States, with the Klan after the war, with Jim Crow. With the hard segregation laws prior to King's movement.
They've just reversed sides, that's all - as they now pretend to be the promoters of blacks, as they egg on their sense of entitlement and offer the dream of Free Excrement. What the Left WANTS, is race war. Helter-Skelter, if you will. It doesn't matter if it's whites fighting blacks or blacks fighting whites. It's racialism...creating a tribal divider that America has moved away from...and use that to keep the factions warring one against the others.
In such an environment, personal liberty and freedom are IMPOSSIBLE. Once we have laws regulating racial conduct, there IS no free choice or movement. There is forever the iron fist of government, worried about the peons' race; worried about who he's with; watching where he goes...what he does...what he's paid.
Where he lives, who he copulates with, what work he does, what he's paid...all become subject to the edicts of government, BASED ON RACIAL GROUPINGS.
It's totalitarianism; it's a police state; and that is what the Left wants. And the Alt Right simpletons, eager for payback against those various other...pick your pejorative...are playing right into it. Whether they know it or not, or if they don't care.
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Mike Cernovich, a lawyer who became an alt-right leader after taking up the GamerGate mantle, feuded with a fellow leader (and former BuzzFeed employee) who goes by “Baked Alaska” and announced that Baked Alaska had been removed from headlining the event because he had said anti-Semitic things on Twitter
I read in another current article, Cernovich calls himself "new right" and says he is not "alt-right", he might run for congress too. I don't know too much about him. What I saw wasn't bad though. It's good if Cernovich booted someone for making such remarks.
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What this shows, is how the Left...has won.
The Left isn't about Black Supremacy or any such. What it IS, is about RACIALISM. Identity politics, based on race.
It's the game they've always played - with the Slave States, with the Klan after the war, with Jim Crow. With the hard segregation laws prior to King's movement.
They've just reversed sides, that's all - as they now pretend to be the promoters of blacks, as they egg on their sense of entitlement and offer the dream of Free Excrement. What the Left WANTS, is race war. Helter-Skelter, if you will. It doesn't matter if it's whites fighting blacks or blacks fighting whites. It's racialism...creating a tribal divider that America has moved away from...and use that to keep the factions warring one against the others.
In such an environment, personal liberty and freedom are IMPOSSIBLE. Once we have laws regulating racial conduct, there IS no free choice or movement. There is forever the iron fist of government, worried about the peons' race; worried about who he's with; watching where he goes...what he does...what he's paid.
Where he lives, who he copulates with, what work he does, what he's paid...all become subject to the edicts of government, BASED ON RACIAL GROUPINGS.
It's totalitarianism; it's a police state; and that is what the Left wants. And the Alt Right simpletons, eager for payback against those various other...pick your pejorative...are playing right into it. Whether they know it or not, or if they don't care.
THIS! ^^^^^^^^
They do not care, they want their pounds of flesh and payback.
And freedom?
Freedom is getting stuff by the hand of whatever regime you put in power, and denying it to the others you hate.
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I read in another current article, Cernovich calls himself "new right" and says he is not "alt-right", he might run for congress too. I don't know too much about him. What I saw wasn't bad though. It's good if Cernovich booted someone for making such remarks.
Tom - look into him a bit. You'll change your mind fast enough.
Dude's toxic.
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Tom - look into him a bit. You'll change your mind fast enough.
Dude's toxic.
And he's married to a secular Muslim woman, she looked like she's from the MENA.
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Good morning, all!
Did they leave? Is it :ODIO: :ODIO: :ODIO: :ODIO: :ODIO: :ODIO: :Obounce:?
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Here's something to paste tomorrow---tell me this wouldn't be an appropriate inaugural speech (well, song) for any contemporary
president, never mind Donaldus Minimus . . .
President Rufus T. Firefly, "Just Wait 'Till I Get Through With It," Duck Soup (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSsUoxlSADk)
That's my Hero!