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Fox News hostGreg Gutfeld honored the five-year anniversary of his friend Andrew Breitbartspassing by writing an op-edremembering his views and implying he would disapprove of some of the content coming from the site that still bears his name.

Andrew loved more than he hated, Gutfeld wrote on FoxNews.com.If you are one of those angry types who shouts in all caps on Twitter about how X needs to be fired and Y needs to be in jail Andrew would have avoided you like the plague.

Andrew would have loved the new right, but he would have kicked the alt-right goons to the curb, Gutfeld wrote. He hated creepy people of any political stripe and would have rejected all the assorted David Duke wannabes trying toclimb their way in. He would have known thatthe weirdos on the alt-right are just a mirror image of the weirdos on the hard left. They get off on fear.

Its too bad Andrew isnt around to call these ghouls out. Hed be great at it, he lamented.

Gutfeld admitted that he didnt know where Breitbart wouldve stood on Trump.I know he would have relished the implosion of pernicious tribal politics he wrote. Would Andrew be suspicious of Trumps autocratic outbursts, impulsiveness and disdain for critics? Or would he embrace Trump not just as a natural ally, but as the first real candidate in a post-ideological world? I dont know, but hed be enjoying every minute of it.

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Greg Gutfeld on Anniversary of Breitbart's Death: 'He Would Have Kicked the Alt-Right Goons to the Curb' - Mediaite

Richard Spencer talks to the media at the 44th annual Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland on 23 February 2017. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

For months, journalists have debated how to cover the alt-right, a fractured far right movement of racists, misogynists and antisemites that greeted Trumps victory with euphoria.

In these debates, liberals have often framed the greatest danger as understating or normalizing the true extremism of Trump and his allies.

But in a joint podcast in December, three alt-right leaders took the opposite view: by connecting their extreme views with those of White House leaders, journalists and left-wing advocates had done extremists a favor.

The neo-Nazi, the white nationalist and the antisemite all agreed: the media coverage of the alt-right had been amazing.

The coverage is very good, all the things theyre doing are so good, said the Neo-Nazi Internet troll. Theyre now saying that Steve Bannon is a neo-Nazi. I mean, think about how, how great that is!

Theyre giving us the microphone out of their own sort of paranoia and neurosis and sort of perverse desire to actually empower us, said an anti-Semitic and eugenicist blogger and podcast host.

I think in a weird level the left, like, secretly wants us to rise, said Richard Spencer, who became the face of the alt-right in media reports and was profiled as Americas dapper white nationalist.

Journalists usually argue that sunshine is the best disinfectant, and that exposing extremist opinions to public scrutiny is the best way to address them. But far-right leaders shameless self-promotion has challenged this assumption.

Analysts who monitor hate groups said that the racist leaders were delusional and conflated their rising prominence in the media with actual political support. At the same time, they said, the extremists did present real challenges for journalists.

Ryan Lenz, a former Associated Press war correspondent who now tracks hate groups at the Southern Poverty Law Center, said he saw a tipping point at the Republican National Convention last summer, when Spencer stood outside with a sign that read, Wanna talk to a racist?

Since the Civil Rights era, being publicly known as a racist in America had been seen as shameful, Lenz said. There were serious political consequences, social consequences, to be known to have these ideas.

But Spencer and his sign represented a new moment, he said, and a person who thrives on being called a racist, who does not suffer, and will not suffer, the social, financial and cultural consequences of being a racist.

Look, I get it that most all of these media sources are going to be negative, but like, we are able to communicate through the media, Spencer told the other alt-right leaders in December.

Kyle Pope, the editor in chief and publisher of the Columbia Journalism Review, said that the way Trump has energized fringe racists, and the connections between the administration and the far right was a totally legitimate area of focus, and one that could not be avoided.

I know there was some hand-writing in the press about, Why do we give these people so much air play? but I think this is a voice that we clearly have to understand, he said.

Pope said it was too bad that a neo-Nazi thought the media coverage was helping him. But, he said, People need to understand that there are people in their neighborhood or their city who have these views, he said.

Closing our eyes to it is not going to make it go away, he said. Were not three year olds. You cant see something you dont like and close your eyes and it just disappears.

The December alt-right podcast, hosted by an antisemitic blogger known as Mike Enoch, represented an important political moment for the alt-right, with three leaders of different wings of the movement coming together to present a united front, two analysts who study hate groups said. In a conversation that lasted for several hours, the three alt-right leaders flattered each other, traded juvenile jokes, talked about their hair, and marveled at the extremely beneficial media coverage they were receiving. The analysts said the views expressed in the podcast seemed sincere not an attempt to troll listeners with false opinions.

For months, journalists had been publishing stories drawing connections between Trump, his staff, and his cheerleaders in the Ku Klux Klan, the so-called alt right, and other hate groups. While the alt-right leaders praised Trump in their December discussion, a month before his inauguration, they also said that they did not think his actual policies would excite them.

Im afraid that Trump really is going to be a big disappointment-burger for us to eat, Spencer said.

Enoch agreed, but said that did not matter. Trump now is just a vehicle, he said. The man Trump maybe doesnt matter so much. The meme of Trump is more important.

Enoch said that Spencer, once a fringe figure, had received so much press coverage because journalists were desperate to set up a story of Donald Trump and the alt-right.

By applying the label of Nazi too frequently, the left was weakening the impact of the word, the alt-right leaders agreed.

They cry wolf, you know, said Andrew Anglin, who runs a neo-Nazi website that organizes harassment attacks against Jewish people and their allies. People are going to look at you and say, This guy must be like this other guy they called a Nazi. Hes probably just normal.

Lenz, the Southern Poverty Law Center researcher, called this an astute observation of the effect of this coverage.

I hate to agree with Anglin in any way, [but] theres some truth in that, said Marilyn Mayo, a research fellow at the Anti-Defamation Leagues Center on Extremism. If you start calling everybody a white supremacist and neo-Nazi, you are making the term kind of meaningless.

There are people who are calling the president a white nationalist. I just dont see that being the case, Mayo added

Steve Bannon is not a Nazi, Lenz added.

At the same time, Mayo said, We also have to be very cautious on the other side, to make sure that when we do see extremism seeping into the mainstream, we call it out.

In November, after Spencer shouted Hail Trump! Hail our people! Hail Victory! at a conference, and some supporters gave the Nazi salute, Trump disavowed and condemned this Nazi support in an interview with the New York Times. But Trump has faced continued criticism for his lack of strong response to a wave of antisemitic and hate crime attacks. Steve Bannon, a leading White House advisor, once called the website he ran a platform for the alt-right, and has been labeled a white supremacist by house minority leader Nancy Pelosi. Bannon has told reporters, Im not a white nationalist but Im an economic nationalist.

There was an irony to the analysis of Trump voters, Spencer said: white nationalists were actually in agreement with some on the left that Trump was fundamentally leading a white identity movement even as Trump voters themselves vehemently rejected this label, and protested being called racists.

People on the alt-right believe themselves that they have a champion in the White House, Mayo said. That doesnt mean the White House wants their support.

Pope said that it was important for journalists to be very specific about the precise links they found and did not find between far-right figures and the White House, rather than taking the lazy route of talking in sweeping terms about a vein of thought thats now running the American government.

There hasnt been enough clarity and specificity to delineate between these various groups, Pope said. You read stories that encompass everything from the Wall Street Journal to neo-Nazi groups, which is obviously not helpful.

Like Trump and his allies, who have excoriated the media as the opposition party and labeled CNN the Clinton News Network, the alt-right leaders express a deeply cynical view of journalist motivations, suggesting that reporters give extremists so much coverage out of political bias, boredom or the desire to drive traffic to their news sites.

The simple reason his white nationalist views had been given the spotlight, Spencer said, was: Im very good looking, Im very intelligent, Im very compelling when I speak.

In an e-mail to the Guardian, Anglin, the neo-Nazi troll, adopted the lefts own terminology, and suggested that the non-stop media coverage of the alt-right had actually accomplished a normalization of his ideas.

He said the medias constant churn of outrage and spectacle was extremely beneficial to him, especially since his goal is changing the political orientation of very young Americans, particularly teenage boys.

This is why I love the media so much they cover my site with outrage, in turn I get more traffic and more on board with my agenda, in turn the media produces more spectacle, Anglin wrote.

The coverage only has one effect, which is the normalization of our ideas. And it doesnt take a political scientist to figure that out. If it isnt purposeful, then it is absurd incompetence.

Spencer said in December that even after the high intensity coverage of far right ideas melted away, the alt-right would have gained significant ground.

But Mayo said that much of the alt-right leaders analysis of their own rise to power was wishful thinking.

They may get attention, but people know what theyre about, Mayo said. Its not as if theyre gaining mainstream acceptability. Theyre not.

In January, Spencer was punched in the face at Trumps inauguration, an attack that prompted wide celebration on social media and debates over whether it was ethical to punch a Nazi. (A January survey of 1,000 registered voters found that 51% believed that it was unacceptable, but 31% were unsure.)

Asked whether the viral popularity of the video of him getting punched in the face suggested that most Americans found his views repulsive, Spencer said: Well see about that.

Contacted through his website e-mail, someone who identified himself as Mike Enoch declined to answer questions over email.

In January, Enoch was reportedly doxxed and unmasked as Mike Peinovich, a New Yorker and former tech worker married to a woman who is Jewish. The controversy sent shockwaves through the antisemitic alt right, where Enoch was a leading figure.

Pope said the mainstream media did fail in not covering these extremists groups enough before the 2016 election and then in being surprised at the size of their support and the content of their opinions.

Theyve been there for a very long time. There are segments of the American population who are totally not shocked to hear that this is out there, he said. There was a reporting failure to really understand who these people were, until the rise of Trump.

Originally posted here:
How leftwing media focus on far right groups is helping to normalize hate - The Guardian

Updated March 05, 2017 06:57:26

When I first met Jayda Fransen and Paul Golding they were charismatic and friendly.

It wasn't the welcome I was expecting from the self-described Christian crusaders, who lead fringe far-right political party Britain First an outfit known for its dislike of the media and one accused of inciting racial hatred.

"We want Islam banned in the UK," Ms Fransen told me, as she prepared to lead 150 supporters on a controversial march through the English town of Telford.

"We don't see why we should have to implement sharia law and sharia courts and have people wearing burkas, Islamic schools, mosques everywhere in our Christian country."

Members of Britain First claim Islamist terrorist attacks in Europe, Brexit and Donald Trump's election have helped make their views more mainstream.

Several believe the United Kingdom is headed for a holy war and most fear white British people will soon be a minority.

"That's the way things are going. Muslims are outbreeding native British 10 to one," Mr Golding said.

"They are going to be a majority within a few decades, it's going to lead to civil war.

"The bigger the Muslim population becomes the more terrorism, sharia law, the more problems that come along with them, Muslim grooming gangs that's why we're here today."

Many find those views very offensive and other right-wing groups, such as the UK Independence Party, have distanced themselves from the organisation.

But on Facebook the group has a whopping 1.6 million followers, including a significant number of Australians.

The page lures people in with patriotic memes but when you click through to the party's website there are also videos of their members "invading" halal slaughterhouses and mosques.

Mr Golding was recently jailed for breaching a court order banning him from entering mosques or encouraging others to do so, while in November Ms Fransen was convicted of religiously aggravated harassment for abusing a Muslim woman during a so-called "Christian patrol".

"I think there are individuals in Britain First that are out to subvert parliamentary democracy and to incite racial hatred," Labour MP Louise Haigh said.

Ms Haigh was a friend of Jo Cox the politician who was murdered by a neo-Nazi sympathiser in June and wants Parliament to debate listing the group as a terrorist organisation.

"We talk an awful lot about Islamic radicalism in this country whenever there is a terrorist attack but that's very rarely the case when there's an extremist on the other side," she said.

"When Thomas Mair murdered Jo, he was described as a loner with mental health problems. Well, he wasn't. He was directly radicalised by the far-right movement in this country."

Despite its large social media presence, Britain First regularly struggles to get more than 150 people at public events.

Total membership is probably fairly low.

The Telford rally began when dozens of national flags started fluttering, Rule Britannia blared from portable speakers and the group which features some men in homemade security uniforms marched behind a large banner.

Within five minutes, there was trouble as Britain First came face-to-face with a counter-demonstration by anti-fascist protesters, who chanted, "Nazi scum off our streets."

More than 600 police just managed to keep the two groups separated but a brick was thrown, sticks and insults flew, a woman was injured and there were a few arrests.

Emboldened by the encounter, Ms Fransen and Mr Golding later delivered long-winded speeches filled with anti-Islam rhetoric where they mentioned driving Muslims into the desert and "hanging" liberal traitors.

In the middle of it all they paused briefly for the Lord's Prayer.

"I don't think Britain First are going to be directing terrorist action", said Paul Jackson a lecturer from the University of Northampton who studies the far-right and extreme right in Britain.

"But they will legitimise views that then might lead somebody who wants to act violently to build on that culture."

The British Government is closely monitoring the broader far-right movement.

It recently took the unprecedented step of banning neo-Nazi group National Action, and even though jihadis are the main focus of its flagship de-radicalisation program, far-right referrals are up 74 per cent.

"The far-right, or extreme-right movement in this country is probably not growing but they are energised by recent world events," Dr Jackson said.

"I think we should see those figures as an increase in awareness in the potential problems posed by [the far-right], not an increase in overall activity."

For the record, Britain First claims it isn't racist and doesn't do anything illegal, though its star speaker for the rally, radical Polish priest Jacek Miedlar, was detained by border authorities en route and prevented from attending.

"We are being targeted ferociously and persecuted by the politically correct police authorities in this country," Mr Golding claimed when I asked why the group had so many encounters with the law.

"I've been arrested 10 times for confronting Islamic extremists."

It seems unlikely Britain First will be shut down but it isn't something that seems to particularly worry the group's leaders.

They claim they've got nothing to fear because God the Christian one at least is on their side.

Topics: government-and-politics, immigration, community-and-society, activism-and-lobbying, united-kingdom

First posted March 05, 2017 06:33:25

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Britain First: A day with the UK's anti-Islam alt-right group - ABC Online

(((Echo))) Parentheses When used around someone's name, a means of indicating that they are Jewish. The "echoes" are a reference to some old gobbledygook about Jews "echoing through history," but the parentheses are a handy tool on Twitter for anti-Semites to signal to one another when someone they dislike is Jewish. Once the tactic was exposed, some Jews and non-Jews started adding them to their own Twitter usernames as a way to subvert the practice and make it less powerful.

#AnimeRight Alt-righters who use anime avatars on Twitter and other online spaces. The kinds of people who hang out in spaces like 4chan or 8chan tend to also be big anime fans. Like many of the items on this list, this idea occupies a constantly moving point on the irony spectrum.

#HWNDU The hashtag used by Shia LaBeouf's He Will Not Divide Us livestream project, wherein people could go up to a camera outside a museum in Queens and say an anti-Trump message. This quickly became an IRL trolling destination for the alt-right.

14,88 A sort of code used among neo-Nazis and white supremacists. 14 stands for the number of words in the white supremacist creed, We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children. 88 comes from the fact that H is the eighth letter in the alphabet: HH means Heil Hitler. Seriously, its that stupid. You would most often see this used in usernames or handles something like @examplename88.

Alpha male, beta male, etc. A ranking system based on perceived masculinity. It originated on bodybuilding forums and pickup artist sites and has been adopted by right-wing trolls. Obviously, the alt-right are alphas, and people who disagree are betas.

Baneposting A convoluted meme about Bane from The Dark Knight Rises. In the opening scene, Bane is brought onto an airplane by a CIA officer played by the guy who plays Littlefinger in Game of Thrones. While Bane, the anarchy-loving villain, seems like an obvious idol for 4chan, they became weirdly enamored with the CIA agent, partly over an awkwardly homoerotic piece of dialogue (CIA: Youre a big guy. Bane: ...for you.) While Baneposting isnt explicitly alt-right, its bled over. For example, a guy dressed as the CIA agent showed up at the counterprotest of Shia LaBeouf's anti-Trump art project He Will Not Divide Us.

Bernard the Polar Bear A forced meme that a polar bear cartoon purports to be an alt-right symbol. Theres a real cartoon show from South Korea about a polar bear named Bernard, but this isnt totally related. The meme is basically fake and spread only in hopes that people will fall for it. Thing is, if you force a meme hard enough, sometimes it works. So far, this is still pretty obscure.

BTFO "Blown the fuck out" similar to "owned." To be publicly humiliated, particularly by losing an online argument. Another more obscure version of this is "blacked the fuck out," a reference to Blacked.com, a pornographic website specializing in videos in which white women have sex with black men for the first time.

Bogdanoff Brothers An ironic conspiracy theory about a pair of French celebrities. Igor Yourievitch Osten-Sacken-Bogdanoff and Grichka Yourievitch Osten-Sacken-Bogdanoff did a popular science TV show in France in the 90s, and more recently had extensive plastic surgery (think Jocelyn Wildenstein). The meme is that they are secretly the masterminds and leaders of the alt-right (they are not). Its vaguely like pretending Tara Reid is the puppet master of the government.

Bogpilled To become aware ("pilled," a term derived from "redpilled," described below) of the Bogdanoff brothers. This is extremely jokey and ironic, and involves pretending that Donald Trump alluded to the conspiracy when he said the phrase "bogged down in conflict all over the place" in a speech.

Centipedes A self-adopted term for some Trump supporters. Its a reference to a YouTube series called "Can't Stump the Trump" that mashed up footage of President Trump in a Republican debate with audio from a nature documentary about a centipede killing a tarantula.

Cuck Short for "cuckold," or a person who watches someone have sex with their significant other. It's the most common insult among the online far-right.

Cuckservative A portmanteau of cuck and conservative, used for old-guard Republicans who arent on board with Trumps agenda. Think John McCain or Mitt Romney.

Dark Enlightenment An anti-democratic philosophy that believes in a return to monarchism, traditional gender roles, rejection of egalitarianism, and a libertarian economic model.

Discord A popular chat application for far-right groups.

Feelsman meme A black-and-white cartoon man who is the victim of Pepe the Frog's pranks. Feelsman is a sad loser, a beta to Pepe's alpha. The name "feels guys" comes from the meme's early beginnings when his sad face would mean "know that feel, bro."

Frog Twitter The alt-right on Twitter. Its a reference to Pepe the Frog.

Gassed A term for "blocked" or "banned." It's a reference to the gas chambers used to kill millions of Jews during the Holocaust.

God Emperor A nickname for Donald Trump.

High Energy A complimentary term that references how Donald Trump calls losers like Jeb Bush "low energy" and refers to himself as high energy.

Incel "Involuntary celibate" and "voluntary celibate." A volcel is someone who is celibate by choice, but an incel is someone who wants to have sex, but can't find anyone to actually do it with. These terms get used a lot in the forums and subreddits to describe pickup artists and men's rights activists, who are known as the "manosphere." Think Elliot Rodger, the gunman who shot and killed people on his college campus and left a manifesto about how he was angry at the women at his school for not dating him.

Kek A replacement for "LOL." If you're an Alliance player in the online multiplayer game World of Warcraft and you type "LOL" to a member of the Horde faction, it'll be read as "kek."

The Cult of Kek/Kek the religion A joke based on the fact that there is an ancient Egyptian deity named Kek, who is supposedly a god of chaos and darkness and just so happens to be sometimes depicted as a frog like Pepe. The joke is that Pepe is a modern incarnation of Kek, and fans of Pepe worship him.

Lgenpresse German for "lying press." The term predates the Nazi period, but was used heavily in their propaganda to discredit the media. The word has been revived by the alt-right to describe the mainstream media as purveyors of fake news.

Meme Magic A term for when the influence of internet memes breaks through and causes real life consequences. The day after the 2016 election, 4chan users described getting President Trump elected as an example of "meme magic." Sometimes related to the whole "Kek religion" thing.

Moon Man A giant moonfaced guy from a 1980s McDonald's ad campaign, now a racist symbol, partly because of the fact that he looks a little bit like he's wearing a KKK hood. For years, it kicked around as a low-level meme where the Moon Man was combined with rap songs, but it gained steam recently by becoming completely racist. The absurdity of an obscure fast-food ad swearing allegiance to the KKK is not lost on the alt-right. The irony is thick here, but so is the actual racism.

NEET An acronym for someone "Not in Education, Employment, or Training." Basically, someone who lives in their mom's basement. It's a self-deprecating joke by people on 4chan and elsewhere that theyre all basement-dwelling NEETs whose mothers cook them chicken tenders for dinner. This isn't specific to the alt-right, but its very popular there.

Neoreactionism or NRx An alt-right ideology variation. As Rosie Gray describes in The Atlantic, "the alt-right can be seen as a political movement; neoreaction, which adherents refer to as NRx, is a philosophy. At the core of that philosophy is a rejection of democracy and an embrace of autocratic rule." A lot of the big proponents of this are popular on Twitter, and some of them are fairly ironic about it.

New Balance Comfortable sneakers. During the election, the CEO of New Balance came out with a pro-Trump statement, which made the neo-Nazi site the Daily Stormer declare them "the official shoe of white people."

Normies Normal people, as opposed to internet trolls.

Pepe the Frog The meme that launched a thousand Twitter blocks. A cartoon smiling frog created innocuously by comic artist Matt Furie that has, over time, become the official mascot of far-right extremism in the US and parts of Europe.

Redpilled A reference to Neo choosing to see the truth by taking the "red pill" from Morpheus in The Matrix. Being redpilled means you've become aware of the truth about society (which, according to them, means typically alt-right viewpoints). The term redpilled predates the alt-right, and has been a staple of the soup of men's rights/Gamergate/pickup artist/Reddit/4chan internet for a while.

REEEEEEE! An angry shrieking sound. Used ironically in the voice of a typical 4chan user. It's part of a larger joke that most people on 4chan are NEETs who live with their parents, play video games all day, eat only chicken nuggets, watch anime, and are on the autism spectrum. Typically, it's used to show anger at "normies" for invading their online spaces. There are memes of Pepe the Frog making that noise when he's angry.

Robot A term for the users of 4chan's /r9k/ messageboard. Extremely withdrawn social outcasts who see themselves as unfeeling robots. Most of the time they just post about how they can't get girlfriends.

Shadilay A bad Italo-disco song from 1986. Someone in the alt-right discovered an obscure track called "Shadilay" by a band called P.E.P.E. (as in Pepe the Frog, the alt-right cartoon mascot). The song itself has nothing to do with the alt-right except the band name, but in a truly weird twist, the record has a cartoon frog on the vinyl label.

Shitposting A classic forum term for flooding a thread with worthless or annoying posts, either because you're bad at posting or because you do it on purpose to troll. The alt-right uses shitposting as a derailing tactic, kind of like a digital filibuster. The term is used flexibly to sometimes just describe any kind of online posting: tweets, memes, etc.

SJW An acronym for social justice warrior, a pejorative term for people concerned with feminism, civil rights, and liberal ideology.

Snowflake Short for "special snowflake," an insult to SJWs. The joke is that that they're fragile and coddled millennials who were raised on participation trophies and being told they were special.

The Overton Window A general concept to describe the limits ("window") of what the public finds acceptable. Some pundits have suggested that Trump has shifted the scope of this window, and that things like the "grab her by the pussy" comment would have previously been career-ending for a politician. The alt-right believes it's helping shift the Overton window for the public by making the movement's extreme speech normalized, and in its wake has opened up the path for Trump.

Trash Dove A popular Facebook sticker of a purple pigeon (aka Trash Dove). Trolls on 8chan decided to spread a rumor that the pigeon sticker is actually a pro-Nazi symbol. This is a good example of the thorny layers of irony in these memes: Trash Dove was created purely as a joke to trick people (especially the media) into believing this innocuous cartoon was a Nazi symbol, but then it kind of became true. If enough people believe something is a Nazi symbol, then that's what it is. This is kind of like what happened with Pepe, an image that had no inherent tie to racism or politics until people started using it that way.

White Genocide A conspiracy theory among white supremacists that immigration, globalism, and abortions rights are part of a larger conspiracy to exterminate white people.

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BuzzFeed News Reporter - BuzzFeed News

The former porn star and adult icon now spends her days retweeting conspiracy theorists, sharing anti-Muslim scare stories, and defending Milo Yiannopoulos. What happened?

Jenna Jameson is once again the talk of the porn industry. An icon with close to 200 adult films under her belt, Jameson is still idolized by many women getting their start in the biz. But there will never be another Jenna. The former Queen of Porn has achieved more mainstream recognition than any female porn star, despite remarking at the 2008 AVN Awards, Ill never, ever, ever spread my legs again in this industry. Ever. While shaming the adult industry is apparently forgivable, a series of alt-right social media tirades has forced even Jamesons most ardent supporters in the XXX world to reexamine the woman whos come to represent it.

Since the start of her conversion to the Jewish faith, a journey she embarked on in order to marry her shady Israeli jeweler/fianc Lior Bitton, Jameson has adopted a fierce and public anti-Islam stance, ranting against Muslims online and clapping back at those in disagreement. She regularly shares stories and videos about the alleged havoc wreaked by adherents of Islam from dubious far-right sites like the pro-Trump agitprop outlet Breitbart and conspiracy theory forum Infowars, along with bigoted replies from her army of close to 700,000 Twitter followers.

Her XXX industry defenders, who would mostly like to remain nameless, point out that the terror of ISIS hits a bit close to home for Jameson, who is eight months pregnant with Bittons baby. She tweeted: My husband is a morrocan Jew his family was forced from morocco by the escalating violent Muslim climate there.

But then there was the time Jameson made headlines for her apparent defense of the KKK. Jameson tweeted: Do the klu klux klan follow a religion that orders the death of apostates? When was the last time we saw a klan member blow up infidels?

Shortly after her alleged defense of the KKK, Jameson followed it up with another tweet clearly not in favor of the Klan, or Democrats: Yes, and thank god theyve been all but eradicated and forced into obscurity no thanks to the democrats who created them. (The KKK was affiliated with the Southern Democrats, but those people were mostly absorbed into the Republican Party following the implementation of Nixon and Goldwaters southern strategy.)

Jameson claims it was all a misunderstanding in the service of defending her family. She explained to The Daily Beast, Another Twitter follower compared ISIS to the KKK and I responded with facts. Saying I defend an organization that wants the death of all Jews is wrong. I am Jewish and so is my family.

Nonetheless, many who revered her as an outlaw-idol of porn now find her tirades on Twitter shocking.

Shes progressively gotten more aggressive and I feel like shes trying to be controversial, says 21-year-old porn star Janice Griffith. Being a sex worker people look down on us, were stereotyped and put into these rigid boxes of who they think we are and what we do, and now shes doing that to other people. I expected better from her.

Before entering porn almost four years ago, Griffith looked up to Jameson, admiring her shrewd business acumen and the space she carved out for herself, but now says she feels bad for her. I try to stay away from the crazy, I dont follow Jenna Jameson or Trump, says Griffith, whos changed her Twitter handle to janice hates trump to weed out the undesirables.

Arguing politics on social media is an exhausting waste of time for adult film actress Richelle Ryan, who says she learned her lesson after putting her two cents in during the election. When I came out and posted a couple of tweets supporting Trump I had so much backlash! It was so stressful to constantly defend myself, so I applaud anybody that can dish it back, says Ryan. Before she entered porn ten years ago, Ryan was an exotic dancer by the name Jenna, paying homage to her idol. And Ryans admiration for the former porn goddess hasnt dissipated. She has a lot of balls. I respect anyone that comes out and speaks his or her mind, says Ryan. Its extremely draining to argue with people over politics because youre not going to win. We all have our own views.

Its that lack of restraint that one of her old colleagues remembers most about her. As fellow contract girls for Wicked Pictures in the mid-90s, former adult actress Serenity (who left the industry over 12 years ago) encountered Jameson frequently over the yearson the same sets, signing at the same conventions, and attending the same meetings. The Jenna I knew back then wasnt so political but I dont find it surprising or out of character. Thats just Jenna, Serenity tells The Daily Beast. Jenna is a flamboyant personality. Its why she was separated from the pack.

Yet, some may wonder how its possible to respect Jamesons public defense of Milo Yiannopoulos, an alt-right fellow traveler who was forced to resign in disgrace from his perch at Breitbart after video emerged of him defending hebephilia.

Jameson tells The Daily Beast that she does not condone Milos comments, but empathizes with him. I think people were quick to judge and label him without realizing he was a victim of sexual abuse, says Jameson. Having been a victim myself, I know people can deal with the pain of victimization with callousness.

Shes had a lot of pain in her life, notes Serenity. It wouldnt surprise me if that were coming through on some of her stances.

The 42-year-old ex-porn star clearly appears happy to embrace the controversy of her alt-right views. She idolizes Ann Coulter (I want to be her when I grow up) and the illuminati-obsessed Paul Joseph Watson, has called Iran a cancer, regularly shares anti-Muslim scare stories, and even tweets anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about George Soros funding cabals of liberals (the irony is apparently lost on her). She even trolled Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), who is a Muslim, into blocking her on Twitterbefore declaring him anti semetic for doing so.

Jamesons attacks on outsiders are rubbing the porn industry the wrong way, especially when so many women in porn understand what it feels like to be marginalized firsthand. Its shocking that someone who has represented the adult industry can be so intolerant. Born in Serbia, and then raised in a Serbian community in Canada, it wasnt until her teens that Nina Kayy relocated to the United States. Kayy, a 28-year-old adult actress, no longer looks up to Jameson and finds her controversial outbursts on social media disturbing. Shes a minority too: shes a woman and she was an adult performer. Shes also been harassed so I dont understand why she cant relate to other minorities, says Kayy. For me, its very important to not be complicit when it comes to race, bigotry or homophobia. You have to be active in fighting it.

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Identifying as neither Democrat nor Republican, Kayy says she simply has a problem with hate. I dont want to make excuses for her. Shes an adult woman with her own agency. She didnt grow up in a privileged environment. She was stripping as a teenager and her last name was inspired by a bottle of whiskey. She didnt have a perfect life so I dont know why she feels so privileged, says Kayy. Her comments are extremely ignorant and its disturbing to see hate speech like that from someone who should know better. She is allowed to have an opinion but we also have to call her out when its hateful and offensive.

As a fellow mother, Alana Evans, vice president of APAG (Adult Performers Actors Guild) and an active porn star, understands that being pregnant can be stressful and worries about Jamesons condition. When youre pregnant you cant always do other things, but its not healthy for a woman in this stage of her pregnancy to be engaging in arguments with people, says Evans. I would love to come over, turn the phone off, rub her belly and say its okay, were not going to talk to anyone until these babies are out because shes gone off the deep end.

Meanwhile, not everyone is surprised to see that Jameson has embraced the corrosiveness of the alt-right. Nothings changed, says her ex-husband Brad Armstrong. Shes not news shes a cautionary tale.

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Jenna Jameson's Shocking Alt-Right Transformation - Daily Beast