Archive for the ‘Alt-right’ Category

The ‘Alt-Right’ and ISIS Agree On More Than You Think – Patheos (blog)

You might not think conservative white nationalists within the so-called Alt-right could possibly agree with Islamic terrorists from the Middle East. You might be wrong.

Richard Spencer, who says he coined the term Alt-right in 2008, recently tweeted about Austrias controversial decision to ban women from wearing burqas in public places. He responded by saying he supports compulsory burqas for all Muslim women in Europe.

I support *compulsory* burkas for Muslims in Europe. The last thing we want is assimilation! https://t.co/aVMO4CKnuz

Richard Spencer (@RichardBSpencer) June 13, 2017

Ill give you one guess as to who else supports mandatory burqas for Muslim women: The Islamic State (ISIS) and basically all Islamic extremists. Women under ISIS rule in Iraq and Syria, for instance, face harsh wardrobe restrictions enforced by religious police.

ISIS also opposes the assimilation of Muslims into western cultures, and even encourages violence against their fellow believers to prevent it. Islamic terrorists were likely over the moon after a man drove his van into a group of Muslims near a mosque less than two weeks ago, according to Newsday Columnist William F. B. OReilly.

That fight is essential, in their doctrinaire minds, to prevent the assimilation of millions of Muslims into western society. Every burqa shed, every new Muslim Lions Club membership executed is a strike at the heart of fundamentalist Islam.

When interviewed, Spencer contested my assertion that he agrees with ISIS on this issue but couldnt explain how he doesnt.

Well, I dont *agree* with them. My sympathies are with European, secular leaders like Bashar al-Assad. That being said, this is projecting European norms onto a drastically different region.

Spencer went on the admit that he can see how a Caliphate is a more natural political order in the Middle East. Looks like another agreement to me!

I wouldnt say that such a thing would accomplish my goals. An ISIS caliphate could be an extreme danger to Europeans; it could become a base for a conquest of Europe. From one angle, perhaps an aggressive caliphate would be exactly what Europeans needdangerous, violent *challenge*, something that would make us understand who we are and bring about manliness in politics.

On assimilation, Spencer doubled down:

Yes, the last thing I want is assimilation, though. That would simply mean the loss of European culture and identity. To have an identity, one needs an Other. Liberalism (and Abrahamic monotheism, btw) basically has no concept of the Other; we are all one: all individuals, all Christians, all Muslims, etc.

The mandatory burqa isnt the only similarity between the beliefs of ISIS and those of white nationalists like Richard Spencer, of course. Spencer has championed the notion that things will be better if people returned to their cultural homeland (he calls it peaceful ethnic-cleansing), and thats pretty much all ISIS wants: An Islamic caliphate without outside (secular) influences.

It would be easy to play a game of Mad Libs with the following paragraph, written by Spencer, and make it apply to ISIS. You wouldnt even need to switch many words.

For us immigration is a proxy for race. In that way, immigration can be good or bad: it can be a conquest (as it seems now) . . . or a European in-gathering, something like White Zionism. It all depends on the immigrants. And we should open our minds to the positive possibilities of mass immigration from the White world.

Why are these similarities so easy to find? Because both ISIS and the Alt-right lie on the extreme end of the xenophobia and fascism scales, and they both propagate their nonsense by demonizing the Other. Oddly enough, all the racist outbursts and rants about manliness stem from the same place as the bombs and rigid fundamentalism: fear. They were so weak as to succumb to the fear of mere outsiders. Dont let the same thing happen to you.

David G. McAfeeis a Religious Studies graduate, journalist, and author ofNo Sacred Cows: Investigating Myths, Cults, and the Supernatural,Atheist Answers: Rational Responses to Religious Questions,The Book of Gods,The Belief Book,Mom, Dad, Im an Atheist: The Guide to Coming Out as a Non-believer, andDisproving Christianity and other Secular Writings. He is also the founder of TheParty of Reason and Progressand a frequent contributor toAmerican Atheist Magazine. McAfee, who writes about science, skepticism, and faith, attended University of California, Santa Barbara and graduated with bachelors degrees in English and Religious Studies with an emphasis on Christianity and Mediterranean religions.

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The 'Alt-Right' and ISIS Agree On More Than You Think - Patheos (blog)

Extremists Too Busy Smacking Each Other Around to Disrupt Waterfront Blues Festival – Willamette Week

In the latest staging of extremist political theater that has begun to carry the whiff of professional wrestling, a far right "march for freedom" took to the Portland Waterfront tonight without disrupting the larger entertainment at the Waterfront Blues Festival.

Leftist protesters trailed the alt-right free speech march along the Waterfront. (William Gagan)

The march included elements that are now standard whenever the "alt-right" and its associates come to town and meet antifascists: speeches about right-wing victimhood, smoke bombs, bare-knuckle brawling and defiling of each others' chosen flags.

An antifa supporter yells at alt-right rally across the street. (William Gagan)

But so far tonight, the right-wing marchers and their antifascist foils have been more interested in sparring with each other than harassing the crowds.

Alt-right and leftist anarchists share a weed blunt. (William Gagan)

Starting about 6 pm, the Patriot Prayer group marched northbound along Tom McCall Waterfront Park, with antifascist counter-protesters tailing closely behind. The march would pause periodically for speeches, where tensions flared.

During the march's stop at the Battleship Oregon Memorial, someone on the left-wing side tossed a blue smoke bomb onto the monument Shortly after this stop, the group stopped, a commotion ensued, and multiple American flags were set ablaze by the counterprotesters. A fight ensued.

During the fight, well-known local Patriot Prayer protester "Tiny" Toese punched a counterprotester, and others in "Proud Boy" black and gold trim could be seen delivering several stiff punches to another counterprotester. Kicks were delivered by standing alt-right protesters to downed counterprotester. Later, Toese could be seen sporting glitter on his faceevidence he had been "glitter-bombed" by antifaand exclaimed aloud that he had glitter in his eyes.

Tiny eventually produced an antifascist flag, which was apparently stolen, and wiped it between his legs before returning it to the opposition.

Antifa just had their flag ripped from them by the alt-right. 10 minutes later returned to them. (William Gagan)

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Extremists Too Busy Smacking Each Other Around to Disrupt Waterfront Blues Festival - Willamette Week

Local Alt-Right Activist Joey Gibson Says He Quit His Job After Antifa Pressure – The Portland Mercury (blog)

Joey Gibson speaking at a pro-Trump rally he organized in Vancouver in April. Doug Brown

Gibson is best known as the Vancouver-based alt-right vlogger who organizes events like the June 4 "free speech rally" in downtown Portland (and another this evening, be sure to follow Doug Brown on Twitter). But until today he was also a broker with the company Summa North Real Estate.

This evening, while prepping for a rally he's called near the Waterfront Blues Festival, Gibson told reporters he'd left his job because of coordinated pressure from leftist activists.

That's reflected in Summa's website, which has removed reference to Gibson's employment that was visible earlier this week. You can still see a cached version of the page here.

Rose City Antifa called its supporters to arms on Tuesday, advocating that people "jam" Summa's phone lines with requests that Gibson be let go. Here's the post:

PHONE JAM!!!! Joey Gibson is the primary organizer for the spree of Alt Right rallies attended by white supremacists, Nazis, and bigots across the Pacific Northwest.

His job as a real estate broker affords him a flexible schedule and ample income, so that he can devote the majority of his time to putting on these hate fests. Each of these events has caused a spike of bigoted aggression in Portland. So far those incidents have included two murders, a racist intimidation campaign at an elementary school, bomb threats to a local community gathering of people of color, and an attempt to assault LBGTQ people at Pride.

This must end.

Summa North has the ability to stop enabling this activity by refusing to do business with a violent Jim Jones wannabee. Please take a moment to contact them and tell them what you think:

The message was circulated on sites such as pugetsoundanarchists.org and redneckrevolt.org.

Rose City Antifa promptly cheered the news about Gibson's employment this afternoon, though in the group's telling of events he was fired.

Gibson has become an ever-more-visible presence in Portland's recently tense political landscape. At first running sparsely attended Donald Trump rallies in Vancouver, Gibson's Patriot Prayer group has gotten more ambitious. It led a right-wing march in Montavilla in late Aprilan event where accused MAX murderer Jeremy Christian showed up to bellow racial slurs.

And Gibson set Portland's leadership on edge earlier this month, when his group got permits from the federal government to hold a "free speech rally" at downtown's Terry Schrunk Plaza featuring prominent alt-right figures from around the country. That event, on the heels of the racially charged TriMet killings, drew hefty counterdemonstrations on all sides but was largely devoid of violence.

The following week, when Gibson's group participated in a "March Against Sharia" in Seattle, skirmishes broke out in the streets. That event was initially planned in Portland, but organizers moved it under pressure from city officials.

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Local Alt-Right Activist Joey Gibson Says He Quit His Job After Antifa Pressure - The Portland Mercury (blog)

Reddit Backs Its Neo-Nazis Four Months After Banning Alt-Right – Daily Beast

Its okay to be a neo-Nazi on Reddit.

Thats according to a spokesman for the internet giant, which claims it has been cracking down on hate groups for years, and banned two alt-right subreddits in February.

Extremist communities like r/EuropeanNationalism thrive on Reddit, the eighth most visited website in the United States, according to the web analytics firm Alexa. This week alone, the site has allowed threats of gas chambers to rise to the top of one subreddit before a partial removal, and another subreddit dedicated entirely to physically separating and removing Democrats from society has remained live.

The latter group is also promoting an incendiary NRA video that critics charge is an incitement to violence.

One of the top posts on r/EuropeanNationalism on Wednesday was titled Were going to need a bigger gas chamber, linking to a photo of a person in drag. At press time, eight of the top ten posts on EuropeanNationalism, which has been a subreddit for two years, were posted by users who had a swastika or Nazi SS bolts next to their usernames.

A third of EuropeanNationalisms moderators are also moderators of the subreddit r/KKK.

Reddit is an expression of the open internetand sometimes that can be an uncomfortable place. What makes Reddit special is that people feel free to express themselves, and we draw the line when one user expressing himself / herself freely infringes on another users ability to do so, Reddit spokesperson Allie Mack told The Daily Beast.

Reddit grants moderators of communities on the site the opportunity to enforce their rules first. In this case, the post has been removed by the moderators of r/EuropeanNationalism.

While the gas chambers post is no longer visible on the front page of EuropeanNationalism, the post and comment thread remain visible on Reddit.

The second-highest ranked post on EuropeanNationalism at press time was a quote from Adolf Hitler. With satanic joy in his face, the black-haired Jewish youth lurks in wait for the unsuspecting girl whom he defiles with his blood, thus stealing her from her people, it reads.

The top post of all time asks white women if they will choose to save [their] race.

Slightly more veiled threats of nationalist violence were levied on r/Physical_Removal, a far-right Reddit community dedicated to the physical removal of Democrats.

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A new National Rifle Association ad, titled The Violence of Lies, was marked as an announcement and pinned to the top of r/Physical_Removal, a subreddit named after Hans Hermann-Hoppes idea that Democrats will have to be physically separated and removed from society.

The spot calls for NRA members to fight this violence of lies with the clenched fist of truth.

The NRAs minute-long ad was met with swift condemnation from organizers and activists like Womens March founder Tamika Mallory, who called the video a direct endorsement of violence and demanded its immediate removal after its release on Thursday.

The moderators of r/Physical_Removal wont be complying with that request any time soon. The NRA is rallying the troops, moderator Pinochet-Heli-Tours posted at the top of on Physical_Removal. He later submitted the same video and title to r/The_Donald, the largest pro-Donald Trump community on the web.

Pinochet-Heli-Tours, along with the subreddits use of helicopter rides as a meme, is a reference to the 120 people the Chilean government admits were thrown into the sea from a helicopter under General Augusto Pinochets reign. The so-called helicopter death flights have become a meme among members of the alt-right.

Physical_Removal was created in July 2016 and now has more than 7,700 subscribers.

On Wednesday, one of the subreddits top posts celebrated a Venezuelan terror attack where four grenades were dropped from a helicopter onto the countrys Supreme Court building. Its like poetry motherfuckers, the post reads.

Keegan Hankes of The Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center has covered the impact of online communities in extremism for years, and told The Daily Beast that violent and extremist communities on Reddit arent anything new, but they are increasingly dangerous.

One of our big criticisms against Reddit is that inherently, in the way its structured, (extremist subreddits) can reach out to more people in a much easier way, said Hankes. Anytime this propaganda is showing up in these places, its not an accident. Its highly coordinated.

Hankes said moderators of extremist subreddits can effectively recruit in moderate parts of the site, or communities that have nothing to do with politics at all. That one-link-away kind of exposure can create a path to radicalism that otherwise doesnt exist.

Theyre not going to meetings and filling out a membership application. Theres an in-group culture. Its certainly a community. It would be nice to see Reddit take this seriously and start drawing lines about whats allowed, said Hankes.

Using these platforms is integral to all these strategies Ive seen (extremist groups) talking about in the last year and a half. You have more and more of these people showing up in physical rallies.

Reddit banned two alt-right subreddits, r/AltRight and r/alternativeright, for posting content that harasses or invites harassment in February. The site also banned r/FatPeopleHate and some anti-LGBT or racist subreddits in June 2015 for harassment.

Despite the infrequent but high-profile bans of prominent far-right hate subreddits, Hankes think that Reddit needs to take a stronger stance in getting these people off those platforms.

It would be nice to see Reddit take this seriously and start drawing lines about whats allowed, he said. And more importantly than having a strong terms of service, its about one thats actually enforced.

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Reddit Backs Its Neo-Nazis Four Months After Banning Alt-Right - Daily Beast

The Kids Are Alt-Right – Pacific Standard


Pacific Standard
The Kids Are Alt-Right
Pacific Standard
For all the confusion surrounding the alt-rightmost notably, what defines it?we know for certain that it's a movement dedicated to white nationalism. As such, one might argue that the most sensible response to the alt-right, given its hate-based ...

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The Kids Are Alt-Right - Pacific Standard