Resistance principles: Keith Olbermann apologizes to George W. Bush and says John McCain is his favorite politician https://t.co/fqzEAMzD4j
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) November 3, 2017
marimite posted:
I can't wait for liberals to start unironically sharing the "Racist: a word invented by Leon Trotsky to silence dissent" meme
marimite posted:
its like shooting fish in a barrel but this is still great
le_nelson_mandela_face posted:trump still has an 80% approval rating among Republicans, including 60 who strongly approve. among white republicans that's easily gotta be 90/70. remember that the next time you see liberals swooning over some nevertrump dipshit. he has always represented the malevolence of the real republican party and they love him
i wonder why so many republican politicians go through the theatre of hating him
le_nelson_mandela_face posted:i don't want to defend wikileaks without knowing the whole story but i will note that in that atlantic article about them colluding with trump it explicitly mentions how hillary said she wants to drone assange, so maybe if you didn't threaten to murder someone and were trying to get into a position with the power to do so that person wouldn't be as committed to being your enemy
It's a really bad look for an organization ostensibly neutral and dedicated to transparency to be messaging and strategizing with the presidential campaign of a huge piece of shit. This is really, really bad for their reputation, even if hating Hillary is completely justified.
Edited by ilmdge ()
ilmdge posted:le_nelson_mandela_face posted:i don't want to defend wikileaks without knowing the whole story but i will note that in that atlantic article about them colluding with trump it explicitly mentions how hillary said she wants to drone assange, so maybe if you didn't threaten to murder someone and were trying to get into a position with the power to do so that person wouldn't be as committed to being your enemy
It's a really bad look for an organization ostensibly neutral and dedicated to transparency to be messaging and strategizing with the presidential of a huge piece of shit. This is really, really bad for their reputation, even if hating Hillary is completely justified.
The raping, though, not such a big deal somehow, even now
ilmdge posted:le_nelson_mandela_face posted:i don't want to defend wikileaks without knowing the whole story but i will note that in that atlantic article about them colluding with trump it explicitly mentions how hillary said she wants to drone assange, so maybe if you didn't threaten to murder someone and were trying to get into a position with the power to do so that person wouldn't be as committed to being your enemy
It's a really bad look for an organization ostensibly neutral and dedicated to transparency to be messaging and strategizing with the presidential of a huge piece of shit. This is really, really bad for their reputation, even if hating Hillary is completely justified.
I agree
Edited by le_nelson_mandela_face ()
le_nelson_mandela_face posted:i posted something about this a while ago but its great that liberals have been so successful in convincing themselves that any means of disagreeing with them is presumptively invalid, cringey at best but more recently a Soviet Propaganda Technique, like "whataboutism". this is a commie trick and not just a basic way that human beings argue about stuff. "you never take me anywhere nice!" "what about when i took you to Chez Fancy last week?" it owns that "entering narratively contrary evidence into discussion" is now something they consider disqualifying
what's funny is that what about ism used to mean to them the response to that accusation that would be like, "what about how you never take me to the strip club," but people pointed out to them repeatedly that the equivalent here was like "Putin stole the election with Facebook posts about That Swag Though" being met with "truckloads of official documents show the United States government responds to elections they don't like through brutal massacres of thousands upon and thousands of people by paramilitaries they create for that purpose" and "logical" or not they didn't like how a bunch of people laughed at them over that so it devolved into what you're describing where they frame any counterargument as changing the subject
Nerd and online communities are a ripe harvesting ground for neo-Nazism. Bigotry festers like a wound and preventing society and subcultures from going gangrene is about knowing the warning signs, identifying it early, and preventing the spread. White supremacist groups have strategies that work on selling people on their beliefs. I’m going to discuss a few here and how these tactics are especially appealing towards internet nerd spaces.
Isolated, lonely, insecure, unfulfilled, bitter young men who feel that society at large has abandoned them and denies them the opportunities they feel entitled to are prime targets. White supremacist recruiters approach these angry young men and tell them that they are special and have a greater destiny. They are told that every white man carries this legacy mantle of superiority because every white man bears the lineage of advancements and accomplishments of all white men throughout history. That every white man is imbued by his fore fathers with an important destiny to defend the white race. Thus the lonely NEET need not achieve anything himself to still hold this position of power and supremacy, his accomplishments that the recruiter can flatter him for is simply that he was born with white skin. These tactics transform nerdy bullied young men into proud white warriors, making them useful tools for the promotion and growth of the white supremacist ideology and agenda. Neo-Nazi groups know utilizing the insecurity and loneliness in their targets is an effective recruiting and radicalizing tactic especially when tailored to the large audience of socially awkward internet nerds.
Liberals are the real cult. They disown you or destroy your life for wrong think. Your considered evil for not bowing to their oppression. It is oppressive yo be told your the oppressor that everything you work for is because of your skin color not your work ethic. That what ever privilege you have was given by birth not by right or work. It is either bury your head in the sand and be a house slave or your deemed one of the guys holding a whip. I think alot of people would rather just not be a part of their twisted evil world.
this person is obviously a petty whining moron. but his anger is real and he has somewhere to point the blame. the problem with building an ideology around opposition to white men is that while a lot of more educated, more empathetic white men will engage honestly with the criticism and change, there are many who will take it as an attack on them personally, particularly losers who definitely don't feel very privileged. there is also the fact that fanboys have very limited experience with actual criticism of anything - the fact that their videogames are critically rated on a 7.5-10 scale is a joke going back 20 years, but also, if you don't like doctor who, you're not going to want to post on a doctor who webforum, and if you criticize it too much, you will be hated and banned. dissent is basically nonexistent on reddit. the experience of someone denouncing you is alien and scary to these people.
the point must be made to these people that racism and sexism are a sucker's game meant to distract them from the real enemy. that is the only thing that will work. yes, it is true that they have privileges they did not earn as a result of their race and sex. it is also true that they are not all irredeemable, and that they are also fucked by capitalism. and we have to meet these people where they are. yes, being ripped off by a star wars game is laughable compared to the murder of striking farmworkers in argentina. but that's how you get them in the door. SJWs aren't destroying net neutrality. black moms aren't leaving them lonely and emiserated under a pile of debt. once you make them understand that it's the same logic deliberately getting people addicted to a videogame to extract maximum profit from them, it's easy to point out that this is the same logic that previously got them addicted to cigarettes. and once you can demonstrate that a massive industry knowingly lied for decades at the expense of the death and suffering of millions, it's easy to jump to the point that this is what the fossil fuel industry is doing now, and once you've got climate change you've indicted the whole capitalist means of production. just four intuitive leaps from "the darth vader DLC costs too much" to "capitalism as an institution cannot be allowed to exist if human civilization is to survive" is not bad at all
le_nelson_mandela_face posted:there are many who will take it as an attack on them personally, particularly losers who definitely don't feel very privileged. there is also the fact that fanboys have very limited experience with actual criticism of anything - the fact that their videogames are critically rated on a 7.5-10 scale is a joke going back 20 years, but also, if you don't like doctor who, you're not going to want to post on a doctor who webforum, and if you criticize it too much, you will be hated and banned. dissent is basically nonexistent on reddit. the experience of someone denouncing you is alien and scary to these people.
i dont really think this is restricted to 'nerds', it seems like a trait of contemporary culture more generally
le_nelson_mandela_face posted:
i think the answer is to maintain a consistent and persistent critique of liberalism/idpol from the left. then you can actively pander to nerd travails like the evils of loot boxes or whatever but at least you're starting from a good theoretical base
rolaids posted:I may have said this before but IMO a lot of nerd culture is materially based in upper classes, where kids have excess money from parents for paintable figurines, rare foil trading cards, monthly fees for online games, and the latest movie action figures, etc. A lot of nerds are people who got whatever collectible they wanted growing up and now as adults have to deal with lack of gainful employment, lack of a romantic life, lack of social capital, etc. It is easier for people like this to retreat into fascist myths of grandeur--which consciously borrow image from nerd culture--than to engage with socialist materialism. While I agree that there may be nuanced ways of winning nerds over to the left I'm not sure the average white male nerd demographic is at all fallow ground for socialism.
also the ones who aren't just kids work in tech, a almost entirely ununionized industry dominated by the idea that all it takes to become filthy rich is the right idea and dedicated to ignoring how every tangible, material thing they produce is actually made by absurdly underpaid workers in china and africa. it might not be the perfect situation for developing a self-aware labor aristocracy but it's gotta be close
Edited by thirdplace ()
rolaids posted:I may have said this before but IMO a lot of nerd culture is materially based in upper classes, where kids have excess money from parents for paintable figurines, rare foil trading cards, monthly fees for online games, and the latest movie action figures, etc. A lot of nerds are people who got whatever collectible they wanted growing up and now as adults have to deal with lack of gainful employment, lack of a romantic life, lack of social capital, etc. It is easier for people like this to retreat into fascist myths of grandeur--which consciously borrow image from nerd culture--than to engage with socialist materialism. While I agree that there may be nuanced ways of winning nerds over to the left I'm not sure the average white male nerd demographic is at all fallow ground for socialism.
its not, though. or at least not always. the nerd subcultures most commonly derided as cringey repressed nazis are like povertygamers playing free to play shit on ancient hardware or fighting game guys who came out of a scene that was predominately non-white and too broke to afford home consoles. like a lot of this shit just reeks of the same hypocrisy that slammed hip-hop as low-class misogynist cRAP or whatever. obviously its silly to speak of a white working class as something that exists in the first world at all, but imo the people who spend the most cash on this stuff are mostly just being ripped off in one of the many myriad ways that people without a lot of money to begin with get roped into spending more of it.
kamelred posted:rolaids posted:I may have said this before but IMO a lot of nerd culture is materially based in upper classes, where kids have excess money from parents for paintable figurines, rare foil trading cards, monthly fees for online games, and the latest movie action figures, etc. A lot of nerds are people who got whatever collectible they wanted growing up and now as adults have to deal with lack of gainful employment, lack of a romantic life, lack of social capital, etc. It is easier for people like this to retreat into fascist myths of grandeur--which consciously borrow image from nerd culture--than to engage with socialist materialism. While I agree that there may be nuanced ways of winning nerds over to the left I'm not sure the average white male nerd demographic is at all fallow ground for socialism.
its not, though. or at least not always. the nerd subcultures most commonly derided as cringey repressed nazis are like povertygamers playing free to play shit on ancient hardware or fighting game guys who came out of a scene that was predominately non-white and too broke to afford home consoles. like a lot of this shit just reeks of the same hypocrisy that slammed hip-hop as low-class misogynist cRAP or whatever. obviously its silly to speak of a white working class as something that exists in the first world at all, but imo the people who spend the most cash on this stuff are mostly just being ripped off in one of the many myriad ways that people without a lot of money to begin with get roped into spending more of it.
I mean not always but I don't know, a lot the internet Nazis I see on twitter often reference 40k, which is notoriously expensive. And the Daily Stormer's traffic and donations are reportedly heavily concentrated in SV. James Damore grew up in the burbs. So while there are nerds from all sorts of economic backgrounds I would still imagine the ones who get into alt-right stuff are almost exclusively upper class. And I still think that any lifestyle that has maintaining extensive collections--whether of cards, figurines, swords, comics, merch, video game expansion packs, etc.--as a central aspect is going to skew more towards wealthier people.