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(BuzzFeed) Alt-White: How the Breitbart Machine Laundered Racist Hate


No Excuses

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These new emails and documents, however, clearly show that Breitbart does more than tolerate the most hate-filled, racist voices of the alt-right. It thrives on them, fueling and being fueled by some of the most toxic beliefs on the political spectrum — and clearing the way for them to enter the American mainstream.

 

It’s a relationship illustrated most starkly by a previously unreleased April 2016 video in which Yiannopoulos sings “America the Beautiful” in a Dallas karaoke bar as admirers, including the white nationalist Richard Spencer, raise their arms in Nazi salutes.

 

These documents chart the Breitbart alt-right universe. They reveal how the website — and, in particular, Yiannopoulos — links the Mercer family, the billionaires who fund Breitbart, to underpaid trolls who fill it with provocative content, and to extremists striving to create a white ethnostate.

 

 

https://www.buzzfeed.com/josephbernstein/heres-how-breitbart-and-milo-smuggled-white-nationalism?utm_term=.rs58NRzJj#.cvm3O1Nqn

 

Initially I had decided to not make a thread out of this, because I felt it kind of fit into the other White Nationalist thread we had going.

 

But I've been reading some follow up pieces that are pretty interesting in their analysis of this article. 

 

Charlie Warzel has an analysis that really touched on something important IMO:

 

https://tinyletter.com/Infowarzel/letters/the-milo-emails-don-t-make-the-gamergate-mistake-again

 

The thousands/millions(?) of kids brought up on 4chan and related online communities are all coming to age now. They are such enormous ****bags that it's kind of interesting to imagine how they are going to integrate themselves into normal, polite society.

 

Did we ever have a GamerGate thread on this board? Someone's hot take yesterday that I found interesting was that a lot of books on the rise of Trumpism will have prominent chapters on GamerGate and the online movement it spawned. Which is ****ing crazy when you realize that GamerGate is maybe the dumbest, stupidest scandal, that was entirely spawned by men with fragile egos.

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Really is a shame that we already knew this, yet 24% of the country like it just fine

 

I hope 2020 is different, but after  last November, all incomprehensibly ****ed up scenarios are open in my mind, and it has been a daily struggle since to not blow a gasket due to my frustration at how America blatantly turned it's back on everything it was supposed to stand for.

14 minutes ago, No Excuses said:

 

https://www.buzzfeed.com/josephbernstein/heres-how-breitbart-and-milo-smuggled-white-nationalism?utm_term=.rs58NRzJj#.cvm3O1Nqn

Initially I had decided to not make a thread out of this, because I felt it kind of fit into the other White Nationalist thread we had going.

 

But I've been reading some follow up pieces that are pretty interesting in their analysis of this article. 

 

Charlie Warzel has an analaysis that really touched on something important IMO:

 

https://tinyletter.com/Infowarzel/letters/the-milo-emails-don-t-make-the-gamergate-mistake-again

 

The thousands/millions(?) of kids brought up on 4chan and related online communities are all coming to age now. They are such enormous ****bags that it's kind of interesting to imagine how they are going to integrate themselves into normal, polite society.

 

Did we ever have a GamerGate thread on this board? Someone's hot take yesterday that I found interesting was that a lot of books on the rise of Trumpism will have prominent chapters on GamerGate and the online movement it spawned. Which is ****ing crazy when you realize that GamerGate is maybe the dumbest, stupidest scandal, that was entirely spawned by men with fragile egos.

 

I mentioned years ago in a thread (probably about a mass shooting) that child rearing, failed mental health treatment, and technologically aided growth in anti social behavior would grow to be a huge concern.

 

We made a gigantic world smaller, and we were not ready for it.

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Of course, there are like infinitely more hot takes that can come out of the original buzzfeed story. Few being:

 

1. Confirmation that the alt-right is essentially a coalition of various hate groups, including racists, sexists and all kinds of losers with a chip on their shoulders.

 

2. It's being funded and supported by one of the richest families in the US.

 

3. This is a movement that really lacks any kind of obvious political goal besides immigration, since it's a coalition of groups who share little in common except a primary dislike of other people (be it people of color, social activists, LGBTQ, globalists, immigrants etc).

 

I can't really comprehend what the endgame to a movement like this is. Usually political movements can been defined by (1) a set ideology based around clearly defined principles and (2) some kind of political end-game that justifies fighting for your principles.

 

If you browse alt-right communities, almost everything seems to be centered around winning some kind of online meme war against whatever groups they decide are going to be the target of their ridicule. 

 

Is the only objective fighting for a white ethnostate?

 

Considering that Steve Bannon is almost entirely responsible for Trump winning the White House, it begs the question if the evolution of conservatism in this country is really towards a political movement centered around immigration and white nationalism. 

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18 minutes ago, Mr. Sinister said:

I mentioned years ago in a thread (probably about a mass shooting) that child rearing, failed mental health treatment, and technologically aided growth in anti social behavior would grow to be a huge concern.

 

We made a gigantic world smaller, and we were not ready for it.

 

I don't know if this is all mental health. I think most kids in these online communities are your standard American teenagers/young adults. If you saw them out in school, at shopping centers etc, you wouldn't know. In fact, I think one of the more common grievances they have is that they can't act out their online persona in the public.

 

Charlie Warzel touches this in the second piece I linked. He talks about Milo's prediction that the generation after millennial's will essentially be stuffed with kids who hate the rules of polite society. And as ridiculous as Milo is, I think he may be right. That a good chunk of these are teens/young adults growing up in toxic online communities, detached from some of the social norms that all of us had to learn in less, digitally connected worlds during our socially formative teenage years.

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The far right and the Dominionists want to force a Constitutional Convention so that they can make a white supremacist and even more patriarchal country. If one has been doing some reading on this, it's been going on for decades, certainly since after FDR but WWII got in the way. And really amped up during Nixon. 

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5 minutes ago, No Excuses said:

Of course, there are like infinitely more hot takes that can come out of the original buzzfeed story. Few being:

 

1. Confirmation that the alt-right is essentially a coalition of various hate groups, including racists, sexists and all kinds of losers with a chip on their shoulders.

 

2. It's being funded and supported by one of the richest families in the US.

 

3. This is a movement that really lacks any kind of obvious political goal besides immigration, since it's a coalition of groups who share little in common except a primary dislike of other people (be it people of color, social activists, LGBTQ, globalists, immigrants etc).

 

I can't really comprehend what the endgame to a movement like this is. Usually political movements can been defined by (1) a set ideology based around clearly defined principles and (2) some kind of political end-game that justifies fighting for your principles.

 

If you browse alt-right communities, almost everything seems to be centered around winning some kind of online meme war against whatever groups they decide are going to be the target of their ridicule. 

 

Is the only objective fighting for a white ethnostate?

 

Considering that Steve Bannon is almost entirely responsible for Trump winning the White House, it begs the question if the evolution of conservatism in this country is really towards a political movement centered around immigration and white nationalism. 

 

White losers and rejects who unfortunately have been given a voice (when in eras past they would've kept it indoors or probably just done us all a favor and killed themselves) serve to do only one thing.... Destroy anything good in this world. "Taking up arms" with E-Nazis and walking around with Glade candles is their way of striking back for...... I dunno

 

I still have yet to find the real reason why "Angry White Guy" is so angry all the time.

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4 minutes ago, No Excuses said:

 

Charlie Warzel touches this in the second piece I linked. He talks about Milo's prediction that the generation after millennial's will essentially be stuffed with kids who hate the rules of polite society. And as ridiculous as Milo is, I think he may be right. That a good chunk of these are teens/young adults growing up in toxic online communities, detached from some of the social norms that all of us had to learn in less, digitally connected worlds during our socially formative teenage years.

 

think there's certainly a trend of that.  People who are resentful and sullen about the fact that they can't tell jokes about Obama, fried chicken, and watermellon.  I think that's a good part of Trump's "appeal" to segments.  

 

That's also why Trump's victory has led to such a swell in this activity.  The folks in this group were always convinced that "real Americans" agreed with them, but them awful liberals (or just "Them") were suppressing them.  And now that "my guy" won, this proves that people like me are really the secret majority, and if I just come out, I'll be cheered by all of the people like me who've been repressed.  

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7 minutes ago, No Excuses said:

 

I don't know if this is all mental health. I think most kids in these online communities are your standard American teenagers/young adults. If you saw them out in school, at shopping centers etc, you wouldn't know. In fact, I think one of the more common grievances they have is that they can't act out their online persona in the public.

 

Charlie Warzel touches this in the second piece I linked. He talks about Milo's prediction that the generation after millennial's will essentially be stuffed with kids who hate the rules of polite society. And as ridiculous as Milo is, I think he may be right. That a good chunk of these are teens/young adults growing up in toxic online communities, detached from some of the social norms that all of us had to learn in less, digitally connected worlds during our socially formative teenage years.

 

I agree with all of that, actually, and it's something I've observed, and had similar opinions when sharing with other people. I think the antisocial thing is the biggest detriment

 

As humans we were wired to be brought up in communities, interacting on a daily basis with a number of people, and raised by many people. Now with all these broken familes, 24/7 working parents, and plugged in children, instead, we have gone from tv raising our young, to the worst, darkest recesses of the internet raising them at times. I think we are finally seeing the results

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They are immature people who, instead of trying to improve themselves, will blame anyone they deem less than themselves (white male) to be the cause of all that stands in their way to some definition of success.

 

People of Color, women, and others instead of them not applying themselves in school, higher education, good trade, and not blaming Republicans who are writing tax laws that are gutting the middle class, gutting the safety net programs, health care, and the rest. 

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Has anyone here read Joshua Green's book on Bannon and Trump? 

 

https://www.amazon.com/Devils-Bargain-Bannon-Storming-Presidency-ebook/dp/B0728KHFD5

 

1. Great book.

 

2. Something from this book really stands out to me in retrospect. Bannon tells Green in this book about his experience as an investor in the gaming world, particularly the World of Warcraft community. 

 

Some notables that I can find through online articles that reference this segment of the book:

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/talkingtech/2017/07/18/steve-bannon-learned-harness-troll-army-world-warcraft/489713001/

 

Quote

Even though the business plan was a flop, Bannon became intrigued by the game's online community dynamics. In describing gamers, Bannon said, "These guys, these rootless white males, had monster power. ... It was the pre-reddit. It's the same guys on (one of a trio of online message boards owned by IGE) Thottbot who were [later] on reddit" and other online message boards where the alt-right flourished, Bannon said.

 

Quote

 

Yiannopoulos devoted much of Bretibart's tech coverage to cultural issues, particularly Gamergate, a long-running online argument over gaming culture that peaked in 2014. And that helped fuel an online alt-right movement sparked by Breitbart News. 

 

"I realized Milo could connect with these kids right away," Bannon told Green. "You can activate that army. They come in through Gamergate or whatever and then get turned onto politics and Trump."

 

 

There is a part of this that is kind of funny. The movement of Buckley, Goldwater and Reagan is losing ground to nerds who played World of Warcraft for 12 hours a day.

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3 minutes ago, LadySkinsFan said:

People of Color, women, and others instead of them not applying themselves in school, higher education, good trade, and not blaming Republicans who are writing tax laws that are gutting the middle class, gutting the safety net programs, health care, and the rest. 

 

I don't think anyone in this movement gives a **** about the tax code or the healthcare system. This is purely 100% a movement based around grievances.

 

I think it's why the Republicans can't get any momentum or public support behind them for any of their actual legislative goals. There is the Republican establishment world of the Heritage Foundation and related think tanks, stuffed with nerds who went to Ivy League schools and worked fancy jobs.

 

Then there is the online communities that fueled Trumpism, got the base energized and are now an integral part of the conservative movement, who simply don't give a **** about Paul Ryan's taxcode wet dreams. They are shaping and evolving conservatism, while Ryan and McConnell sit around twiddling their thumbs.

 

The Atlantic ran a piece on this last week that really summarizes what's happening on the right currently:

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/10/nobodys-in-control/541650/

 

 

Quote

 

'Nobody’s in Control'

 

But Nick Everhart, a GOP media consultant who has worked for dozens of Tea Party-aligned campaigns over the years, said there’s little use in trying to explain the unpredictable behavior of the conservative base with issues or ideology. “The idea that these movements are driven by any kind of intellectual, structured thing is ridiculous. They’re always a backlash to the moment,” he told me, adding: “Trump corralled the angry masses for himself. Other candidates with or without the president’s endorsement will also corral that mob for their needs.”

 

That sentiment was echoed by Reed Galen, a political consultant who served as Arizona Senator John McCain’s deputy campaign manager in the 2008 presidential race. “None of this is based on ideology or shared purpose,” he said. “The activist, angry wing of the GOP … doesn’t care about progress or making America great again. It lives and breathes on anger and resentment. That’s a difficult movement to direct and control.”

 

 

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2 minutes ago, No Excuses said:

Has anyone here read Joshua Green's book on Bannon and Trump? 

 

https://www.amazon.com/Devils-Bargain-Bannon-Storming-Presidency-ebook/dp/B0728KHFD5

 

1. Great book.

 

2. Something from this book really stands out to me in retrospect. Bannon tells Green in this book about his experience as an investor in the gaming world, particularly the World of Warcraft community. 

 

Some notables that I can find through online articles that reference this segment of the book:

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/talkingtech/2017/07/18/steve-bannon-learned-harness-troll-army-world-warcraft/489713001/

 

 

 

There is a part of this that is kind of funny. The movement of Buckley, Goldwater and Reagan is losing ground to nerds who played World of Warcraft for 12 hours a day.

 

That is funny, because I was having a conversation with my cousin last weekend and I basically said that we are living out Revenge of the Nerds in real time.

 

Also funny/sad, it a convo with LKB that i am reminded of when he was talking about which stereotypical mindset/personality was worse, the alpha jock or the alpha nerd. Basically something like the jock thinks every chick wants him, but the nerd thinks he deserves them, and that those who shun him would pay (if they weren't such pathetic, punk ass ****es). 

 

I thought about that a lot, and it really did change the way i viewed that helpless victim playing, antisocial rage personality type.

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15 minutes ago, FanboyOf91 said:

Gamergate is the moment everyone in tech should have finally realized that they needed to take back control of the forces they unleashed. Naturally, they ignored it, and now the West Coast has a non-trivial chance of reaching 1 million degrees Fahrenheit.

 

Game developers sound borderline depressed these days. I recall reading two separate pieces, one from a guy at Ubisoft, and another at Blizzard, basically expressing their frustration with gamers being toxic little ****heads.

 

I remember when Bungie used to be highly engaged with their hardcore Halo base. But gamer communities have gotten so toxic that developers hardly engage the player base at all now. It spawns this vicious cycle where gamers complain 24/7 on message boards and social media, get ignored, and then complain about being ignored.

 

Gamergate really should have been an eye opening cultural moment for a lot of us, even outside the tech and gaming world. I think it got ignored because we've generally treated hardcore gamers as outcast/nerds lacking any real social power.

 

It is hilarious/scary that Bannon and Breitbart essentially hijacked them politically.

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7 minutes ago, Mr. Sinister said:

 

That is funny, because I was having a conversation with my cousin last weekend and I basically said that we are living out Revenge of the Nerds in real time.

 

Also funny/sad, it a convo with LKB that i am reminded of when he was talking about which stereotypical mindset/personality was worse, the alpha jock or the alpha nerd. Basically something like the jock thinks every chick wants him, but the nerd thinks he deserves them, and that those who shun him would pay (if they weren't such pathetic, punk ass ****es). 

 

I thought about that a lot, and it really did change the way i viewed that helpless victim playing, antisocial rage personality type.

 

Revenge of the nerds these days is targeted online harassment and doxxing. Zoe Quinn became the target of every sexually and culturally frustrated male in the country. 

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I often wondered what people would turn into after high school.  Nearly 18 years later for me and I have a few generalizations.

 

The white losers who were into goth became typical Trump trolls.  Jocks became educated republicans.  Most of the black dudes became a mixture of woke men and down for the cause men.  Yo boys became democrats.  The Latinos became more republican than I’d like to admit.  Asians hate trump.  About 75-80% of the females are democrat, maybe more.

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Where are all the randos that showed up in the Kap protest thread? I'm sure some of those dudes religiously read Breitbart. Would like to know how it feels to read a site where some of the works are ran through Nazis for constructive criticism. Heck, how do you read a site in which the editor is a Nazi himself?

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12 minutes ago, Cooked Crack said:

Where are all the randos that showed up in the Kap protest thread? I'm sure some of those dudes religiously read Breitbart. Would like to know how it feels to read a site where some of the works are ran through Nazis for constructive criticism. Heck, how do you read a site in which the editor is a Nazi himself?

 

Nazis aren't black folks.  They're totally cool with it.

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20 minutes ago, Cooked Crack said:

Where are all the randos that showed up in the Kap protest thread? I'm sure some of those dudes religiously read Breitbart. Would like to know how it feels to read a site where some of the works are ran through Nazis for constructive criticism. Heck, how do you read a site in which the editor is a Nazi himself?

 

The same way they justify voting for a candidate who the KGB is endorsing.  

 

"Hey, if it helps a Republican, then they must be our allies."  

 

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