Mediaboss Marketing

The so-called alt-right rose to such prominence during the course of the 2016 presidential election, and was being mentioned in the media so frequently, that the Associated Press felt it necessary to issue guidelines on how to use the term. Just a few weeks after Donald Trumpwith support from the alt-rightbeat Hillary Clinton in the presidential election, the AP said mention of the movement should always be accompanied by a definition, such as an offshoot of conservatism mixing racism, white nationalism and populism, or a white nationalist movement.

The movement has remained active and visible in the months since Trumps election and inauguration, but another group of right-wing activists has also emerged onto the scenethe alt-lite. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) released a whos who guide to right-wing activists on Tuesday to define and differentiate between the two groups, and to identify several key figures associated with each.

In the past year, members of the alt right and alt lite have been increasingly at odds with each other, even as they hold public rallies to promote their extreme views, Jonathan A. Greenblatt, ADLs CEO, said in a statement. We want people to understand who the key players are and what they truly represent.

Daily Emails and Alerts - Get the best of Newsweek delivered to your inbox

The ADL defines the alt-right (or alternative right) as a segment of the white supremacist movement that rejects mainstream conservatism and embraces racist, anti-Semitic and white supremacist ideology. Its a loose network whose members tend to be relatively young and active on the Internet and social media. The alt-lite, which is sometimes also referred to as the New Right, refuses to publicly support the white supremacist aspects of its counterparts beliefs. But members of the alt-lite do hate feminists, immigrants, Muslims and anyone on the left. In other words, the main differentiator between the two groups is the explicit racial component of their nationalism.

While the alt right has been around for years, the current iteration is still figuring out what it isand isnt, Oren Segal, director of ADLs Center on Extremism, said in a statement. This is further complicated by the emergence of the alt lite, which operates in the orbit of the alt right, but has rejected public displays of white supremacy. Both movements hateful ideologies are still somewhat fluid, as are the lines that separate them.

Nevertheless, the ADL has begun a whos who guide to both branches of right-wing activists, featuring 36 key figures to start. Some have been in the spotlight in recent months, while others are less familiar.

The alt-right list includes figures such as Andrew Anglin, founder of the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer, who was recently sued by a Jewish woman in Whitefish, Montana, accused of orchestrating a troll storm of harassment and threats against her and her family. It also features Richard Spencer, the white supremacist who is credited with coining the term alternative right. Less than two weeks after the election, Spencer gave a speech at a conference of the National Policy Institute, of which he is president, that was met with Nazi salutes.

Milo Yiannopoulos, the well-known provocateur whose book was dropped by Simon & Schusterafter a controversy about comments he apparently made about pedophilia, is classified as an alt-lite figure here. Hes joined by Gavin McInnes, Proud Boys leader and founder of theFraternal Order of the Alt-Knights and Vice magazine, which heleft in 2008. A video he posted in March titled 10 Things I Hate About Jews sparked such controversy that he later changed the title to 10 Things I Hate About Israel.

The ADL plans to update the guide as new activists and leaders surface in the fluid landscape of right-wing figures.

See more here:
'Alt-Right' or 'Alt-Lite'? New Guide From ADL Classifies Right-Wing ... - Newsweek

A European alt-right group is taking to the Mediterranean Sea in a bid to stop illegal migrants crossing from Libya a move NGOs fear could starta dangerous game of cat and mouse with humanitarian rescue teams.

The mission, known as Defend Europe, is the project of the Identitarians, a right-wing pan-European movement opposed to immigration particularly Muslim immigration on the continent. Founded in France in 2002, the youth-dominated Identitarians have developed a reputation as the hipsters of the far right, noted for their slick social media campaigns and attention-grabbing political stunts, such as occupying a French mosque.

For their latest campaign, the group has crowd-funded more than $100,000 to chartera 40-meter ship, the C-Star, to take direct action against humanitarian NGOs operating search-and-rescue missions for migrants in the Mediterranean.

The Identitarians blame the rescue boats for encouraging the rising numbers of illegal migrants arriving from Libya into Italy, which has overtaken Greece as the main arrival point into Europe. So far tis year more than85,000 illegal migrants, the majority from sub-Saharan Africa, have arrived on Italys shores 20 percent more than the same period in 2016.

About 40 percent of arrivals are brought to Italy through search-and-rescue missions run by humanitarian organizations. This has prompted accusations particularly in Italy, carrying the burden of the migration wave that the NGOs are creating a pull factor by effectively offering a ferry service to Europe once the smugglers boats founder.

Italian prosecutors have opened investigations into whether there is cooperation between NGOs and human traffickers, and Rome has just drafted a code of conduct for charities operating in the Mediterranean, banning them from contacting smugglers by phone or firing flares, which mightfunction as a signal to the smugglers.

Humanitarian organizations reject such allegations, insisting they are doing vital work to save lives on a stretch of sea that has become one of the worlds biggest unmarked graves. More than 5,000 people died attempting to cross the Mediterranean last year, and more than 2,150 have perished so far in 2017.

Defend Europe says its mission is to document the activities of the NGOs, expose any collusion with the traffickers, and intervene if they act illegally. Eleonora Cassella, a member of Defend Europe based at the missions headquarters in Catania, Italy, told VICE News that the crew would try to gather evidence to prove their suspicions that NGOs collude with the human traffickers.

The more people try to go, more boats from Europe come to take the people, so even more people try to get to sea because they know that even with small boats, theyll come to help them, she said.

During the groups fundraising efforts, Defend Europe pledged to block the rescue boats something they attempted during an earlier mission in May, when a group of flag-waving activists in a dinghy tried to harass a much larger rescue boat leaving Catania for Libya. But the group has now walked back its vow to block the boats, saying that although it would tail the vessels, it wont try to interfere with their activities.

For now, we want to understand how they do it, how they talk with human traffickers, how they react when they see human smugglers, said Cassella.

But humanitarian organizations operating in the Mediterranean remain concerned about their mission. Activities of far-right groups planning to disrupt search and rescue operations aimed at saving lives are deeply concerning, a spokeswoman for Save the Children, which has rescued nearly 4,000 people in the Mediterranean this year, told VICE News.

Without NGOs and other search and rescue actors, many more lives, like the men, women and children we have rescued, would be lost. These activists wish to disrupt efforts to bring these people to safety.

She said her organization was not a ferry service. We do not communicate with traffickers or people smugglers. We work under the coordination of the Italian Coast Guard and respond to distress calls only if instructed by them, she said. She also said it wasnt true that the activities of the NGOs created a pull factor. When you cut the rescue ships, the death toll spikes, but people keep coming.

Nick Lowles, chief executive of the British anti-racism group Hope Not Hate, said Defend Europe posed a serious risk to life on the high seas. The group represented an increasingly international threat, he explained, drawing support from far-right activists and networks around the world.

Although the mission comprises only a couple of dozen activists, Defend Europe has managed to generate a lot of attention and raise substantial funds through its social media campaigns. When its initial crowdfunding attempt on PayPal was thwarted after protests from NGOs, it simply relaunched the campaign on another platform and swiftly exceeded its goals.

The group has drawn international attention from conservative media, with Canadian alt-right blogger Lauren Southern and right-wing British journalist Katie Hopkins joining the mission in Catania. These rescue boats are as easy to hail as an Uber after a big night out in Birmingham, Hopkins tweeted Wednesday.

Read more:
A ferry service - VICE News

A group of self-describednational socialists in Nova Scotia has posted personalinformation about people who haveshown interest in protests calling for the removal of an Edward Cornwallis statue in Halifax, labelling them as "potentially dangerous."

Cornwalliswas a governor of Nova Scotia. In 1749, he issued a so-called scalping proclamationoffering a cash bounty to anyone who killed a Mi'kmaqperson.

On Saturday,a large crowdprotestedaround the statue and demandedthe likenessof Halifax's controversialfounder be removed from adowntown park.

Demonstatorshad earlier threatened onFacebookto remove the statue but relented when municipal crews covered the monument in black cloth for the duration of the event.

An anonymous Twitter user affiliated with Cape Breton Alt Right published a list online last Thursday, releasing the names, photos and other identifying detailsof 28 people interested in the removal of the statue in a process known on the internetas "doxing."

The list, latershared and discussed on Facebook, also includedcategories like:

The final "notes" column identifiessome people as being "mentally ill andunstable," "extremely militant and dangerous,"having histories of being "drunk and disorderly"and being on police watch lists.

The list included a 'notes' column, labelling some people as violent or mentally ill. (Twitter)

Adam Lemoine ofNorth Sydneywas doxed as having affiliations with Antifa, a far-left, anti-fascist organization. Hesaidhewas "blown away" when he found out, as he hasnever evenbeen to a protest.

"The only information they had correct was my name and my hometown," said Lemoine, who caught wind of the list after it was posted on Facebook.

"They have me playing an instrument I didn't play, in a band that no longer exists."

Lemoine saidhe clicked "interested" on a Facebook event for a protest last Saturday at the Cornwallis statue to get updates on what happened.

He believes the Twitter user who posted the list saw that, put his name into a search engine and listed whatthey found.

Activists protest at the base of the Edward Cornwallis statue last weekend after Halifax staff covered it with a black sheet. (Darren Calabrese/Canadian Press)

Lemoine said that when he asked the Cape Breton Alt Rightgroup to remove his name from the list, it responded by saying even if he could prove his details were wrong, the rest of the information would stay.

The group continues to maintain anonymity andrefused to be interviewed by the CBC over the phone or inperson on the grounds that it would be "inappropriate."

In anemailedstatement, however, the groupsaid ithasreceiveddeath threats almost daily since the list was posted.

The statement goes on to compare the actions of Cornwallis demonstrators to the destruction of historical sites in Palmyra by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria,and indicates the list was compiled over the course of about two months "in the interest of public safety."

"The community at large has a right to know the identities of those around them who may pose a threat to their immediate safety and a threat to their property," saidthe two-page statement, signed onlyby "leadership."

Tanner Leudy, a student at Cape Breton University, sharedthe same event page for the Cornwallis protest on Facebook though he knew he couldn't attend.

Leudysaidhe hadnever even heard ofAntifabeforethe list linkedhim to the organizationand he's worried about how beingassociated with such a groupcould affect the futureofthose who've been doxed.

"I've never done anything to warrant [the inclusion]," said Leudy. "Being labelled as a dangerous protester, even if it's not true, isn't something that employers will want in their workplace."

Anthony Leudy says he shared a Facebook event and then was wrongfully labelled 'potentially dangerous' by an anonymous Twitter user. (Twitter)

The group maintainsall of theinformationwas gathered within the public domain, referencing social media and news interviews, but DavidFraser, an internet privacy lawyer in Halifax, saidit's thelanguage of the list's "notes" columnthat may push legal boundaries.

Information compiledfrom social media platforms is fair game when it comes to doxing, saidFraser.

However, he added that legal proceedings on doxing, as rare as they are,require that what hasbeen published is explored as much as whyit hasbeen published.

"To be defamatory, all something has to do is to harm your reputation in the eyes of a reasonable person,"saidFraser.

"It would seem to me that [the notes]at the end of the listwould be, on its face,defamatoryandthe onus would shift to the person who said themto justify them as being true."

FrasersaidtheHalifax Proud Boys provide a good example of doxing.

He saidtheywere "implicitlydoxed" by volunteering theirpersonal information when showing up at an Indigenous rallyon Canada DayinCornwallisPark.They were recordedand the videos eventually made it to their workplace, resulting in their reprimand.

But, Frasersaid, it's part of the "rough and tumble"of freely expressed politics.

CBC News reached out to the Cape Breton Regional Police, the Halifax Regional Police and the RCMP.They say no investigation is ongoing because no one has come forward with a complaint.

El Jones says the doxing proves the extremity of the racism surrounding the Edward Cornwallis statue issue. (Twitter)

El Jones, Halifax's former poet laureate and a well-known, outspoken activist,saidshe isnotsurprised sheended up on the list.

"You hope that this is just some form of extreme reaction that's perhaps just intended to intimidate people," said Jones.

"[But] you have totake seriously the intent behind it, which is an attempt to harm."

Go here to read the rest:
Alt-right group posts names, photos of 'potentially dangerous' Cornwallis protesters - CBC.ca

Thursday, July 20, 2017 at 8:32 a.m.

Bad hombre

Eric Hood / OC Weekly

With street battles against antifa quickly becoming a thing of the past, the Alt-Right is trying to stay relevant by organizing boring speaking events like every other political group; only they've encountered a little trouble along the way. In late May, "The Summer of Conservatism" event slated to take place July 9 at eSports Arena in downtown SanTana got cancelled and Old World German Restaurant in Huntington Beach scrapped an August gathering in the works billed as a "Celebration of Western Culture." Both venues faced a chorus of criticism from activists before canning the events.

But the Alt-Right is returning in OC after the brief retreat. "The Summer of Conservatism" found a new venue at the Embassy Suites in Garden Grove, with the Irvine-based Make Cali Great nonprofit revealing the location just days before, citing an internal email from an eSports Arena worker saying their owners received personal threats from activists. (The Weekly asked eSports Arena multiple times to substantiate the claim, but they declined). The sparsely attended event, with rows of empty seats, featured speakers like conservative media personality Larry Elder, Kyle Chapman (aka Based Stickman), Maxine Waters congressional challenger Omar Navarro and Huntington Beach Assemblyman (and gubernatorial candidate next year) Travis Allen.

Speaking of Surf City, the "Celebration of Western Culture" event is back on at Old World, too, only under a different name. After a number of conflicting online postings, Old World threw a "non-management employee" under the bus for making unauthorized comments in a statement on their Facebook page and opened their doors to the Alt-Right once more. So much for anyone who thought Old World turned over a whole new leaf from its days of hosting Holocaust deniers and allowing a neo-Nazi club to celebrate Hitler's birthday with a party!

This time around, a slew of modern-day "No MA'AM" speakers are lined up for "Make Men Great Again" on August 5 at the HB establishment (and not Al Bundy's garage). Joe Biggs (who's made nice with InfoWars again), Libertarian pagan Augustus Sol Invictus, Kyle Chapman, livestreamer Irma Hinojosa and former Villa Park councilwoman/current Bircher/forever Islamophobe Deborah Pauly are all scheduled to make appearances for the "celebration of masculinity." And then there's Lake Forest's Juan Cadavid, better known in Alt-Right circles as "Johnny Benitez," but who's gone under multiple aliases like Joey Cadavid, Sterling Abrade(s), and Dorian Navidson when involved with left-wing groups in the past. (The Weekly has since learned of two other Facebook pages still up under the names "Sterling Cadavid" and "Joey Benitez").

Juanny Cadavitez?

Illustration by Bob Aul

The curious Colombian-American is also set to speak at the event he helped organize. But for all the machismo he now boasts, Cadavid played the part of an ardent feminist trying to organize exploited women spa workers just this February. Under his "Sterling Abrade" alias, Cadavid sent an email to a local progressive activist back then wanting to raise awareness about the troubles of his industry with not-so-nice comments about Trump.

"The same principal with which Donald Trump used to cheat small businesses he knew could not afford to take him to court is used against the women of the spa industry," Cadavid wrote in the Feb. 2 email shared with the Weekly. "With an attempt to pass a national anti worker bill that would destroy California's worker protections and the election of a president who has no respect for women, it is especially important to stand up for women being oppressed in the spa industry."

Cadavid detailed wage theft and workplace grievancesincluding the practice of shifting around clients who sexually harass massage therapists rather than outright banning them. (Quick aside: Cadavid blamed the Weekly's expos for being fired because we mentioned his occupation, though he freely made the disclosure to the San Francisco Chronicle before making the claim on Facebook). A month after the email, Cadavid attended the Huntington Beach MAGA march in launching his Alt-Right Johnny Benitez persona. Accordingly, it's not bad bosses, but foreigners "overtaking" the spa industry that rubs Cadavid the wrong way nowadayseven though he's says online that he wasn't born in the U.S. himself.

Other all-too-sudden political flip-flops detailed by the Weekly created a cloud of suspicion in Alt-Right ranks that's followed Cadavid every step of the way since while trying to make a name for himself. He quit the Proud Boys, a self-described "Alt-Lite" fraternity, amid questions about his political leanings that reached all the way up to founder Gavin McInnes (one of the founders of VICE) himself. "Yeah, this Johnny Benitez thing is not working out," McInnes wrote on Facebook. "I don't know if you're a spy or if you're just a little too enthusiastic but you're not in charge, I am." Chapman later stepped in and tasked Cadavid with forming the Alt-Knights of Orange County.

Last time around, the Weeklyleft Cadavid's political motivations up for question. Whatever the case may be,text messages sent from "Sterling Abrade" in April to a left-wing activist after the Huntington Beach march professed one motive behind his pro-Trump persona. "I want to climb the social ranks and push a hard right conservative agenda and create a rift between libertarians and conservatives and split up the base," reads one text shared with the Weekly. "Also it's fun."

Visit link:
OC Alt-Right Returns: HB Event Pledges to "Make Men Great Again" - OC Weekly

Some Medieval Studies professors are worried that the alt-right is co-opting the discipline to promote a fantasy of the Middle Ages with undertones of white supremacy.

It should be a really, really important time for the field to reflect on why are these things going on and what can we do to combat that, Vassar College professor Dorothy Kim told The Chronicle of Higher Education. The worry I would have is that, is the field going to be forever linked to white supremacy?

"The worry I would have is that, is the field going to be forever linked to white supremacy?"

The article recounts the experience of Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei, an author and scholar in the area of Medieval studies, during the International Medieval Conference in England.

After noticing that all of the speakers presenting a lecture on otherness in the Mediterranean were white, Oei was further incensed when the moderator joked that he doesnt look as much like an old, white man after vacationing at the beach.

Whether or not he intended it as a joke, it obviously ridicules the entire importance of race in this debate, as if it was merely a matter of lying in the sun," Oei said. "I was thinking I could do two things: Either I can just get up and leave, and it will be very awkward, or I can tweet about this."

[RELATED:Prof: 'white marble' in artwork contributes to white supremacy]

Other attendees leveled similar charges about the lack of diversity at the conference, arguing that the field of medieval studies is too Eurocentric and male-dominated.

"The IMC simply chose to ignore the expertise of people of color and others whose knowledge on issues of race and otherness has informed decades of scholarship," declared Jonathan Hsy, an associate professor of English at George Washington University. "If the thread organizers had listened to critiques voiced about the threads problematic framing and exclusions at any point during the planning process or indeed during the conference itself, this entire conversation could have been inclusive and innovative."

Some scholars also expressed concerns that white supremacists on alt-right online forums are increasingly using medieval themes to promote their worldview, which the professors claim is at odds with the historical reality of the Middle Ages.

Calling the alt-right interpretation a fantasy, Suzanne Akbari, director of the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto, countered that the medieval past is actually highly integrated, highly diverse, with a tremendous amount of cultural interchange.

Medievalist Eileen Joy agreed that the Medieval Studies discipline is a safe place to be elitist, speculating that this has to do with its reputation for focusing on European and Christian cultures.

The field has been rather proud of its resistance to critical theory, which then just attracts even more people to the field who themselves want to be resistant to theory and see medieval studies as a safe placea safe place to be elitist, a safe place to be white, a safe place to be Christian, Eurocentric, misogynist, etc., she asserted.

[RELATED:Susquehanna U drops Crusaders nickname to ensure school is 'welcoming and inclusive']

Joy claimed that she eventually grew so frustrated by the situation that she resigned from her position as an assistant professor in order to help found a publishing house called Punctum Books, as well as a working group called BABEL that promotes nontraditional scholarship

"I realized the only way the field will change or be more welcoming or more inclusive is if some of us actually devote all of our time and energy to creating new spaces, new presses, new journals, new conferences where this kind of work can be developed," Joy explained.

Notably, both Hsy and Kim were among the signatories of a January 2016 letter to Barbara Newman, president of the Medieval Academy of America, objecting to an anti-feminist and explicitly misogynistic website run by Medievalist Allen Frantzen.

Akbari, who wrote the letter in her capacity as Chair of the Organizing Committee for the 2017 MAA conference, claims that Frantzens website exemplifies the abusive behaviors common within the discipline, demanding that the MAA issue a public statement reaffirming our commitment to creating and maintaining a culture that does not tolerate harassment, bullying, or other forms of abuse.

Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @MrDanJackson

Originally posted here:
Profs fear 'alt-right' is taking over Medieval Studies - Campus Reform