rebel media

hot for a while then some fails?

canada?

see ezra levant /morano

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Marc Morano

Weekly update ⋅ January 30, 2026

Climate change takes a back seat at Davos | Fox Business Video

Fox Business

ClimateDepot.com executive editor Marc Morano argues that President Donald Trump has 'obliterated' the 'climate agenda' on 'The Bottom Line.'

WEF climate agenda takes a back seat as 'reality hits,' says Marc Morano - Rebel News

Rebel News

At the 2026 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Avi Yemini ran into friend of Rebel News and publisher of ClimateDepot.com, Marc Morano. The ...

World Bank President says reducing cash usage is 'very important' and 'the right thing to do'

Rebel News

... Marc Morano · Avi Yemini | January 24, 2026. Next News. 29:58. Featured. SPONSOR | Is silver's sudden surge just the beginning? Guildhall Wealth ...

Boomers offer to defend Canada from a U.S. invasion — Rebel Roundup reacts

Rebel News

'What has the CBC done to the grandparents of eastern and central Canada?' asked Sheila Gunn Reid on Thursday's Rebel Roundup livestream.

Democrat Senator Chris Coons dodges questions after trashing trump in Davos

Rebel News

Avi asked Senator Coons a simple question: is it appropriate for an American senator to debate internal U.S. foreign policy — and attack a sitting ...

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Mark Carney at the forefront of every harmful globalist idea: Marc Morano - Rebel News

Rebel News

Climate Depot's Marc Morano joins The Ezra Levant Show, where he explains how prior to becoming prime minister, Mark Carney was pulling th...

4 25 MORANO

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gmail 9 24

September 27, 2024

'The Science' is becoming a consensus enforcement mechanism: Marc Morano

Rebel News

Climate Depot's Marc Morano joins The Ezra Levant Show, where he says that mainstream science has become heavily politicized, especially in the ...

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Trudeau blathers to sparse crowd at UN Summit of the Future - Rebel News

Rebel News

'The Science' is becoming a consensus enforcement mechanism: Marc Morano.

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Dutch farmers' protests made for an anti-net-zero success story— but there's more to be done

Rebel News

Marc Morano explained that the purpose of net-zero ideology is to create big government-corporate collusion: 'It's happening in transportation, ...

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Hairshirts, Ritual Humiliation of Working Class in Plain Sight - One America News Network

One America News Network

Hairshirts, Ritual Humiliation of Working Class in Plain Sight. with Marc Morano.

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Whether it's massive rat penises or made-up airline policies, AI is going rogue

American Thinker

— Marc Morano (@ClimateDepot) February 20, 2024. If that's what's really going on with the rat population, there are more harmful chemicals in the ...

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Marc Morano: 'They're going after animal agriculture!' - Rebel News

Rebel News

Marc Morano of Climate Depot joins the show to break down the Irish government's proposal to sacrifice 300K cows for net zero climate goals.

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Climate Depot Founder on Short Flight Bans in the Name of Climate Change

One America News

Climate Depot Founder on Short Flight Bans in the Name of Climate Change. with Marc Morano. 0:00 / 0:00. To watch the full show head over to OAN ...

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[big tech csnsor trap to get addy?

morano gmail

no lnx vid

Global elites want to destroy current energy system and institute ‘green transition’: Marc Morano

'The World Economic Forum, the United Nations, the World Health Organization, players like Bill Gates, George Soros, it's a very simple vision. Their stated goal...is to intentionally collapse our energy system to create a transition to what they're seeking — solar, wind, green energy, and limited resources,' said ClimateDepot founder Marc Morano.

By Rebel News | May 04, 2023 | News Analysis

On last night's episode of The Ezra Levant Show, ClimateDepot founder Marc Morano joined the show to discuss how global elites are intentionally destroying crucial sectors of economies to set the conditions for a societal shift towards a "green transition."

As stated by Mr. Morano, "They're trying to collapse our current agriculture and food system, and they're doing that in so many different ways. But all under the umbrella, pretty much, of the net-zero agenda. And the net-zero agenda...deals with theNetherlands as the first test case where the idea is 'you can't have nitrogen because nitrogen creates nitrous oxide, it's a greenhouse gas, we've got to go after these farmers."

He went on to say, "They issued a report in 2007 — the United Nations — saying that cow emissions, i.e methane, were more damaging to the earth than the entire transportation sector — planes, trains, automobiles — combined. So they've had cows and meat-eating in their target for decades."

"We've had UK climate advisors say that 'we want to make meat rare and expensive,'" added Mr. Morano.

"What Bill Gates, as you mentioned, stated goal is to get Europe, the United States, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and all of Western nations off of eating livestock-grown animal meat. His stated goal is to have us eat synthetic, fake meat," said Mr. Morano.

This is just an excerpt from last night's episode of The Ezra Levant Show. To watch full episodes of The Ezra Levant Show and more exclusive content, subscribe to RebelNews+.

CANADA CLIMATE CHANGE ENERGY UNITED NATIONS OIL AND GAS BILL GATES NEWS ANALYSIS WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM

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https://www.rebelnews.com/carbon_credit_cards_the_world_economic_forum_s_new_climate_agenda

carbon credit cards?! The World Economic Forum’s new climate agenda

Mastercard and the UN announced their partnership for these carbon footprint monitoring credit cards, which will cut off your ability to spend once you hit your carbon max.

On last night’s episode of The Ezra Levant Show, guest host Sheila Gunn Reid spoke to Marc Morano, creator of ClimateDepot.com, about the World Economic Forum’s plans to use the ‘COVID template’ of micro-monitoring individuals in order to fight climate change.

The World Health Organization has declared that climate is the greatest health threat of the twenty-first century, and if the climate is left unchecked we will get more COVID-like viruses.

“So, if you don’t support the net-zero, Green New Deal, U.N. climate agenda, you are a grandma killer because that’s gonna lead to more runaway viruses,” said Morano.

Morano talked about how Al Gore joined forces with Google to come up with the 'Climate Trace Initiative' which is essentially a carbon social credit system that will monitor 70,000+ individual CO2 emitters such as farms, factories, and businesses.

“Mastercard and the UN last year announced their partnership for these carbon footprint monitoring credit cards. In other words, if you’re spending money it’s gonna monitor it, if you’re buying meat, gas, putting your thermostat too high, spending money on energy bills, then whammo, it cuts off your ability to spend once you hit your carbon max.World Economic Forum praised this credit card, Visa this year is joining it,” he said.

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11 22 morano

in case you're unaware, the annual United Nations climate conference is fast approaching. This year's event, hosted in Egypt, will bring the world's climate hypocrites together starting on Nov. 6 and running until Nov 18.

While Rebel News won't be in attendance this year, another skeptic of the UN's so-called green policies will be, Climate Depot's Marc Morano.

Marc joined last night's episode of The Ezra Levant Show to share his past experiences covering the conference and what he thinks about this year's gathering.

Speaking about how the world is facing an energy crisis, Marc asked rhetorically, “And what is the UN going to do?”

Well, in his opinion:

They're going to double down, as is Joe Biden and I'm sure Justin Trudeau, and say this is a great opportunity, all this chaos to now have a faster transition than we thought. And that's the insanity that is the United Nations conference in Egypt that I'll be attending.

This clip is just an excerpt from a full-length episode of The Ezra Levant Show. New episodes air weeknights at 8 p.m. ET | 6 p.m. MT and are available exclusively for subscribers to RebelNews+.

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GUEST: Marc Morano (@ClimateDepot) joins David menzies to talk about his upcoming book, The Great Reset: Global Elites and the Permanent Lockdown.

David “The Menzoid” Menzies is the Rebel News "Mission Specialist." The Menzoid is equal parts outrageous and irreverent as he dares to ask the type of questions those in the Media Party would rather not ponder.

8 22

Patrick Brown now has a $200,000 hockey rink in his own backyard — but who paid for it?

War On Farmers; Canada Keeps Vaxxing Children

REBEL ROUNDUP

Ontario senior detained at Pearson airport and fined for not sharing personal medical information

Why Salman Rushdie was targeted; New Rebel reporter Katie Daviscourt

Why Salman Rushdie was targeted; New Rebel reporter Katie Daviscourt

REBEL ROUNDUP

City of Brampton under Mayor Patrick Brown becoming increasingly ‘dysfunctional,’ says councillor Jeff Bowman

Petitioning the United Nations; Radicalized trans parade in Montreal

REBEL ROUNDUP

Thanks to the COVID-Karen brigade in West Lincoln, Ont., the mayor got shut out of his own event

Attention Walmart shoppers: If you value your privacy, don’t wear a skirt when visiting a Walmart store!

WestJet Mask Police; Tims Camps Vaccine Petition

REBEL ROUNDUP

PETITION: Say NO to the University of Toronto's booster mandate

convoy documentary campaign redirect

Trucker Rebellion: Convoy to Ottawa

Rebel News reporters Abdusselam Bezirgan and Selene Galas followed the convoy from Calgary to Ottawa to capture their historic uprising, and are now showcasing their never-before-seen footage in an in-depth documentary. Please help fund the creation and marketing of this production here.

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rebel GUEST: Marc Morano (@ClimateDepot) joins David menzies to talk about his upcoming book, The Great Reset: Global Elites and the Permanent Lockdown.

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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/tucker-carlson-suggests-government-wants-put-chemicals-milk-turn-kids-trans

snark?

amish

JEREMY LOFFREDO (GUEST): By taking out the middleman, by taking out the government, you're taking power away and taking leverage away from the government, and putting that power and leverage in the hands of the community and the farmers and the people. And another thing I'll add is Amos' farm doesn't use any gasoline or any fertilizers. Now as you know, these commodities have become very expensive because of Biden's policies in regards to the war in Ukraine and Russia. So Amos has completely eliminated any risk coming from the international or domestic politics of the Biden administration and they're coming after him for it.

TUCKER CARLSON (HOST): Maybe if he promises to put more chemicals in the milk to turn kids trans, they'll lay off.

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https://www.thecanadafiles.com/articles/cedh

aug 2020

Morgana Adby

The Fraser Institute has long been the boogeyman of the progressive ethos. A lobbying think tank with charitable status, it does everything progressives are ill-equipped to respond to.

Along with standard libertarian media,the institute also participates in research. The issue being, that often this research has a partisan slant that goes unacknowledged upon replication. There are a few ways to keep this under the radar of journalists and citizens alike.

Among the allegations of misleading information, these stand out:

In 2013 Fraser Institute tried to convince Alberta they were getting ripped off by their public healthcare program.
In 2015 Fraser Institute released a misleading graph that framed the Ontario job market as sprawling government bureaucracy and a struggling private sector.
Lastly, the most established fact check, Press Progress released a counter to the Institutes’ claim that the largest household expense of average Canadians is taxes.

From conflating two indifferent Y-axis on the same graph to selecting an artificially high average income to conduct studies- the Fraser Institute has tried it.

Maybe that’s why their funder of choice is the Koch Foundation, according to the spreadsheets provided by Desmog. It was also confirmed by a co-founder of the Institute when this information was made public.

The Koch’s are best known for being the billionaires that reshaped the American Overton window. Their business model is essentially to reinvest profits into propagandizing for deregulation, which in turn creates more profits. This has had a long term impact. Some have even claimed the Koch empire hijacked American Democracy, to prioritize their 'libertarian' agenda.

Unsurprisingly, the Kochs have their fingers in many Canadian pies, not limited to think tanks. After all, what would be the point of promoting free markets that they would have no use for?

In 2019, Koch Industries got out of their leases in Alberta’s oil sands. Beforehand, they were one of the largest landholders in the region. Koch’s empire is what it is because of natural Canadian resources.

This money goes towards the larger Koch political project in the US and to a lesser degree Canada. In practice, the funding of hundreds of organizations, just like the Fraser Institute. Any think tank that is a member of the Atlas Network is funded by the Koch’s among other giants. On that list of members is the Macdonald Laurier Institute.

It is practically common knowledge that the Koch Foundation routinely funds conservative media. What may surprise you is that one of these organizations has become somewhat of a household name.

Rebel News, in many ways a reincarnation of Sun News that had evolved with the Conservative Party. It has gotten more extreme with time, despite the firing of open White Nationalists like Faith Goldy. By more extreme, I do not just mean in rhetoric. Today, I am comfortable condemning Rebel News as an organization deeply steeped in White Nationalist violence.

In many ways, Rebel News is and always has been a safe space for Ezra Levant to fully explore his identity. The only problem is, Ezra Levant’s identity is one that encourages stochastic terror, deeply tied to the rallying cry of Gavin McInnes.

As the Proud Boys stopped being a cute internet meme, Rebel News was happy to cheer them on- or more often than not, scare them into continuing down the radicalization rabbit hole.

Regarding media influence in the mainstream, some have gone as far as to allege that ‘western alienation’ has been weaponized by the wider Koch influence on media and policy to reproduce division.

Although the specifics are blurry, there are many anecdotes of CBC, Global News and reputable reporters using the stats coming out of think tanks. Likewise, the extremism that is promoted by Koch funded right-wing media has a direct effect on the media world at large.

When more people see the world from Rebel News’ lens that is essentially the creation of a target audience, stimulating the whole white nationalism media economy. The impact of this population on mainstream media may be minimal, but still very concerning that it has gone largely unchecked.

All throughout the early 2000s, Koch’s influence in Alberta steadily increased and they maintained a solid lobbying presence. Likewise, at the national level, Koch Industries spent about 79 million in federal lobbying between 1998 and 2008.

What Now?

A challenge for all people that cover Koch Industries is that they are notoriously tight-lipped. The private organization will likely remain as such, and because of that their line by line funding is a mystery.

A starting point is to be aware of the influence, but until the firm is forced into a higher standard of transparency, it is difficult to know just how much our public life is the design of oil sand billionaires

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gmail alert 12 21

Marc Morano: Even the liberals are waking up to the lockdowns

The left has been largely silent on COVID human rights violations, but some are waking up.

By Rebel News | December 07, 2021

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On last night's episode of The Ezra Levant Show, Marc Morano (Follow @ClimateDepot on Twitter) joined Ezra to talk about the liberals finally speaking up about COVID vaccine mandates and lockdowns.

Here's a bit of what Marc had to say:

:{:{}:

“...The idea is that your rights are conditioned upon whether you are being obedient to the regime in power. And that's literally all it is. New York City now is going to be doubling down.

:{:{}:

“But here's the good news, Ezra, there are liberals who are waking up to this.

:{:{}:

“Robert F. Kennedy Jr., my new hero, a man who wanted to jail climate skeptics. Naomi Wolf, Max Blumenthal had an incredible piece about lockdowns. He talks all about how the left has just been largely silent on the greatest human rights violations on what's been going on.”

This is just an excerpt from the full Ezra Levant Show.

To watch the whole thing, become a premium subscriber to RebelNews+.

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Journalists

Ezra Levant - Rebel News Rebel Commander

REBEL COMMANDER

Ezra Levant

Host of The Ezra Levant Show

Sheila Gunn Reid - Rebel News Chief Reporter

CHIEF REPORTER

Sheila Gunn Reid

Host of The Gunn Show

Avi Yemini - Rebel News Chief Australian Correspondent

CHIEF AUSTRALIAN CORRESPONDENT

Avi Yemini

David Menzies - Rebel News Mission Specialist

MISSION SPECIALIST

David Menzies

Host of Rebel Roundup

Raheel Raza - Rebel News Chairman of the Rebel News Advisory Board

CHAIRMAN OF THE REBEL NEWS ADVISORY BOARD

Raheel Raza

Drea Humphrey - Rebel News B.C. Bureau Chief

B.C. BUREAU CHIEF

Drea Humphrey

Adam Soos - Rebel News Calgary based Journalist

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Adam Soos

Andrew Chapados - Rebel News Reporter

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Andrew Chapados

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Tamara Ugolini - Rebel News Journalist

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Tamara Ugolini

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QUEBEC BASED JOURNALIST

Alexandra Lavoie

Kian Simone - Rebel News Video Journalist

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Mocha Bezirgan

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Alexandra Marshall

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Fight Vaccine Passports

BY EZRA LEVANT

Fight Vaccine Passports

A new civil liberties project — fighting against forced vaccines!

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ezra

s weird to see video footage of German police, and Austrian police, sweeping through the streets, walking through private businesses, shouting “your papers!” I mean, it’s weird in that we’re generally used to seeing that in grainy black and white footage.

Papers please! Ihre Papiere, bitte! For the better part of a century, that was a western catch-phrase, summing up the police state aspects of Nazism.

I’m not saying that movies are real, or that catch-phrases have a deep meaning. It’s just that, for 80 years, that’s been a knock on Germany and even Germans.

I believe a lot of the liberalism of Germany over the last 75 years has been a reaction to, a compensation for, the “papers please” ideology of the Nazis. So it wasn’t just Hollywood movies; I think Germany had a psychological crisis, dealing with what they did, or what they passively permitted.

On tonight's show, we'll look at how COVID restrictions are rolling out in Germany this week.

After the Holocaust, came the Nuremberg Code — really the opposite of the racist laws — a code of medical ethics that requires free, informed, prior consent before undergoing a medical procedure. It came from the trial of Nazi doctors who performed experiments on Jews in the prison camps.

They’ve thrown it all out. All the lessons of the Holocaust. The demonization; the marginalization; the separation, the ghettoization; the incarceration.

I hope they won’t go the last yard — the elimination. I know it sounds insane to even suggest it.

But can you believe how fast it’s gone so far? Camps. They’re building camps. Papers. They’re demanding papers. They’re hunting for Jews, I mean unvaxxed people. They’re demonizing them. They’re going to inject them.

I’m sorry my friends. There are many wonderful German people, I have visited that country and I see many admirable things about it, I like the German people, I like how Germans think, I love their industriousness, I love a lot about Germany. There are a few asterisks, let’s say.

But I haven’t held a grudge; I’m a Jew who likes Germany. Why would I blame someone today for something done 80 years ago. I would never call a German a Nazi without cause.

My friends: the Nazis are back.

GUEST: New Blue Ontario Party MPP Belinda Karahalios (F

FINALLY: Your messages to me!

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https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/10/19/right-wing-attacks-greta-thunberg-canada-extremist-rebel

many lnx vid twt?

Right Wing Attacks on Greta Thunberg: How Low Can They Go? Canada's Extremist Network 'The Rebel' Tries for the Prize

By Brendan DeMelle • Saturday, October 19, 2019 - 11:21

The Koch-funded right wing echo chamber seems obsessed with competing to insult and vilify Greta Thunberg in the most vile and disgusting ways imaginable. The sixteen-year-old climate activist has faced a coordinated barrage of bullying and harassment that started long before she set sail for America. “Freak yachting accidents do happen…” was a particularly disturbing attack, coming from British businessman and Trump ally Arron Banks.

But right now, Greta's in Alberta, home to some of the world's dirtiest oil, and also apparently some of the dirtiest mudslinging against the courageous and clear-spoken Swede.

My colleague Mat Hope recently laid out an extensive map of the “free market” lobbyist network behind the attacks on Greta Thunberg, including Canada's far-right propaganda outlet masquerading as journalism, The Rebel.

Yesterday, The Rebel's Keean Bexte — who has a history of connections to white supremacists and once sold apartheid-era memorabilia — posted a video of his obnoxious and vile “interview” with Greta at her hotel in Edmonton. The situation got so far out of control that Greta's team mentioned the option of calling the police unless Bexte stopped harassing them.

Bexte’s edited video shows him following Greta in the hallway of her hotel, lobbing loaded questions about if “climate change is politics” as she disagrees and her team asks him to stop talking to her. He also shows clips of him confronting Greta and her father over whether she should be traveling so much, particularly to Canada and not China or India, while wrongly conflating her Asberger’s with a “mental illness” and “severe autism.”

Bexte flagrantly advertises where the teenager is staying and which car she’s using (a dangerous practice known as “doxxing”), and then clearly tries to accuse the 16-year-old climate activist of attempting to influence Canada’s federal elections.

Reactions to The Rebel's behavior on Twitter

The Rebel was founded by Ezra Levant, a climate denier who once interned at the Charles Koch Foundation. The Rebel earned some notoriety for their laudatory coverage of participants in the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville.

The fallout included statements from Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer, who said he would no longer grant interviews to The Rebel, as well as a similar rebuke from Vivian Krause, an industry-funded Canadian researcher and blogger who questions the accuracy of mainstream climate scienceand who refused to answer questions when confronted by The Rebel earlier this year. The interviewer in that case was, again, Keean Bexte.

Krause had appeared on The Rebel before, and Ezra Levant was quite enthusiastic about amplifying Krause's conspiracy theory about 'foreign funded radicals' otherwise known as Canadian climate action advocates and environmentalists. So I was surprised to see Krause so annoyed with The Rebel trying to cover her activities. But after seeing the way Keean Bexte treated Greta Thunberg this week, it makes more sense.

The Rebel is just a horrible outlet, focused on amplifying hate and polarization, and it exemplifies the scourge of propaganda that is infecting democracy across the globe.

Here is DeSmog UK's map of the lobbying forces attacking Greta wherever she goes in pursuit of climate action.

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no lnx

Here’s how techno-utopianism decayed into alt-right madness

Written by Amanda Marcotte / Salon October 9, 2019

New Yorker writer Andrew Marantz put his sanity on the line in order to take a deep dive into two parallel worlds: the reactionary universe of the alt-right, and the technological triumphalist paradigm of Silicon Valley. The latter is responsible for selling us a utopian vision of the internet that would (supposedly) bind humanity, yet which instead has stoked political division and created, indirectly, the alt-right. In “Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation,” Marantz offers readers an explanation as to how social networks created by idealist techies were co-opted by a rat’s nest of bigots, trolls, and fascists, who exploited the supposed “neutrality” of platforms to spread hate.

Marantz spoke to Salon about his new book and how the internet is changing democracy. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

This is a book about how the advent of social media really opened up the social and political discourse in this country to the people that Hillary Clinton aptly deemed a “basket full of deplorables.”

I think the deplorable part was more apt than the basket part. But, yeah.

How much do you think tech matters in the rise of not just the alt-right, but Donald Trump?

Tech matters hugely for the rise of Trumpism and for nationalist populism around the world. That’s not to say that it’s the only source of energy for those movements, and it’s also not to say that there aren’t huge benefits to opening up discourse in all kinds of ways.

I don’t want to paint a monochromatic picture or say that tech has only led to deleterious outcomes or antisocial outcomes, but I think for too long there was this tacit assumption among tech bros, and also just among the general public, that on the whole the internet would make the world more open and connected and set us all free and make it more fair and tolerant and generally be pro-social. And I think we’ve seen pretty definitively that that hasn’t entirely been the case.

What I like about your book is you really do talk about some of the historical antecedents to the rise of social media. This is something that I’ve been boring my friends with, pointing out, you know, it’s not like the printing press didn’t lead to violence, too.

Exactly, right. In fact, it led to many of the same kinds of violence, antisemitism, bigotry, and misinformation. None of this is new. It’s just that we’ve kind of forgotten those lessons of history.

As you said, the tech industry was very idealistic, promoting the idea that social media would connect people, would help spread good ideas. The Arab Spring was a big marketing event for social media, even as it was a real thing in the real world. Why do you think there was an unwillingness to look at the possibility that it would also give rise to hate speech, violence, bigotry, things like that?

Part of it is just that it’s uncomfortable and unpleasant to think about bigotry and hate speech. So people would rather not do it.

I’ve faced that even while reporting this book. I like to think that the book is engaging and even darkly funny. But I’ve had people indicate that they are scared to read it, because they would just rather not think about this stuff.

I think that the only way out is through, which is why I used James Baldwin as an epigraph. Nothing can be changed until it’s faced.

I happen to think this stuff isn’t as depressing as people worry it’ll be, but that’s a separate topic. But yeah, it’s not fun to think about.

Also, we tend to get stuck on this dichotomy of optimism versus pessimism, and I think that’s just the wrong way of thinking about these things. A more useful frame than either optimism or pessimism is what I refer to as contingency.

Tell me more about that.

:{:{}:

I borrowed that concept from the philosopher Richard Rorty, who wrote one of my favorite books called “Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity.” And contingency, boiling it down a lot, just means we don’t know what’s going to happen. We can’t have a teleological view of the future. We can’t assume that things are pre-ordained to happen in a certain way. We have to look at the facts as they are and make an informed judgment about whether we’re going to inevitably have a more perfect union and inevitably make progress.

:{:{}:

Often we just assume that those things will just happen inevitably. A more contingent view of history would suggest that they don’t happen automatically, and they don’t happen at all if you don’t work for them to happen.

In this book, you often explore your own emotions about institutions versus the “disruption” of the tech industry,and express some longing I think for some of the gatekeeping power that old institutions had before the time of social media. Having gone through the entire process of writing and publishing and now marketing this book, where do you fall on that scale right now?

I see it as a trade-off. By no means do I want to pretend that the whole gatekeeper model was perfect or even very good. It was flawed in all kinds of ways. It was run by upper middle-class white men who didn’t have a very nuanced view of the country for the most part. There were all kinds of problems with corporate control. Nothing about our past should be construed as a golden age.

It’s just that when you tear down all those structures, and don’t even try to even pretend to think about what’s going to replace them, or you replace them with something worse, then the problems don’t get better. They get worse.

Before even there was a term, the alt-right, feminists and social justice activists were observing that social media was allowing uglier forms of bigotry to flourish. A lot of the blame was kind of put on the white maleness of the tech industry, that there was a blindness of the people running it. How much do you give credence to that?

I definitely give credence to it. I think the basic critique that you can’t really readily empathize with people if you don’t have representation of all people within your company, I think is an apt critique.

But I don’t think that it would solve everything if the tech companies had diversity and inclusion statistics that accurately reflected the country. I think that would help, but I think the problems are deeper and more systemic than that.

The discourse around this particular problem has often been one of ignorance, right? There’s a sense that a lot of the white male leaders of the tech industry have progressive values.

Some of them.

On the other hand, you ran into Peter Thiel, at the DeploraBall.Do you think that’s an element of the problem right now? That we just have bad actors in tech leadership?

Well, my critique of Peter Thiel in the book was not based on his support for Trump, although I find his support for Trump extremely regrettable. My critique of him was based on the fact that I tried to engage him in a dialogue about the fundamental problems at Facebook, which arguably could not have become as successful as it is without his early investment. And instead of answering my critiques, he just left and didn’t respond to me at all. And didn’t respond to followup questions during the fact checking process.

So my critique of him is really more substantive. I mean there are lots of Trump supporters in the country, Peter Thiel being one of them. I can debate with them or decry their views, but really my issues with Thiel are that he got rich off of Facebook. I’m just curious whether he knew that there would be all these negative impacts on our society, in addition to the positive ones. And if he did know, why he didn’t do more to stop it?

Shifting over to the systematic issue, in this book you analyzed the concept ofvirality, which you frame in a Darwinian sense. Could you explain that more for some of the readers of Salon?

There’s this concept of the old gatekeeper outlets, specifically the New York Times, that they give you all the news that’s “fit to print”. It struck me that that word, “fit”, has the unintended double meaning. They mean “fit” as in what’s appropriate.

:{:{}:

But social media algorithms, for the most part, are not concerned with what’s appropriate. They’re concerned with what gets engagement. Engagement can be anything. It can be positive engagement like likes, and it can also be negative engagement like hate reads or shares for the reason of saying, take a look at this asshole. Algorithms are neutral with regards to that. Their job is to keep you hooked and keep your brainstem fired up so that you stay on the platform.

That’s what leads to this Darwinian outcome. A Darwinian system, like nature, doesn’t care whether you’re a surviving by being nice or surviving by being red in tooth and claw, as they say. All that matters is whether you pass on your genes.

The same is true in the world of memes, which is a term coined by a very prominent Darwinian biologist to explain how ideas struggle for dominance. These systems create a world in which the way that ideas struggle for dominance is pretty red in tooth and claw.

:{:{}:

On Twitter, if you write a “look at this asshole”, you get yelled at by people saying don’t give trolls attention, that it just raises their profile. The counter argument to that is, if we don’t look at it, we can’t criticize it. How do you kind of feel about the debate? Is there anything that we, as individuals, can do to change the incentive structures of the internet?

To take the first part first, there’s no good answer to the question of how to respond to noxious trolls, because if you give them attention, even negative attention, then you’re feeding them oxygen. If you ignore them, then you are risking seeming complicit. So that’s why that’s such a vexing problem because there really is no good individual answer to it.

Systemically, there are ways to tweak the systems to diminish that kind of stuff, but as a person, I don’t really see an easy way out.

I think the flippant answer that a lot of people land on is to just say, I’m just going to log off, which is really good for your mental health. And I recommend it for a lot of people in a lot of circumstances. But you don’t get to log off of the country, right? So these systems can still be affecting who your president is, and whether you get to live in a country that has environmental regulations and all the rest of it. So you can’t opt out of that.

So let’s talk about some of those trolls, because they are admittedly fun to talk about. You spend a lot of time in this book engaging them as personalities. You went to the DeploraBall. The right wing trolls, they really think of themselves as rebels. It’s both their identity and their justification. But I couldn’t help but think that their ideologies are just old-fashioned racism and sexism, their behavior is like out of a bad beer commercial and their jokes reminded me of the lame jokes from some high school locker room. How on earth are they holding themselves out as rebels?

Yeah, they’re really bad at it. Yet it’s still really effective. It reminds me of the kind of comedian who is not a good comedian but just gets laughs anyway because he or she — let’s be real, it’s usually a he — will just say whatever makes the audience uncomfortable and get those kind of uncomfortable laughs from the crowd. It’s just cheap.

A lot of this rebel attitude is so central to a lot of these people that “The Rebel” is a name of one of their big media companies. This woman,Faith Goldy, got fired from The Rebel. The line she crossed was going on a Nazi podcast during the march in Charlottesville. When she got fired for that, there were commenters online who were saying to the owners of that media company, “You guys should change your names from The Rebel Media to The Conformist Media.”

:{:{}:

And it’s like, so being a Nazi is being a rebel? That’s just a really, really shitty and unoriginal way to be rebellious, in addition to being terrifying and disgusting and all the rest of it.

:{:{}:

When I think of the Nazis, I don’t think of people that were really into rebellion as a concept.

:{:{}:

[Scoffs] Yeah, free spirits.

:{:{}:

One of the interesting paradoxes of the entire alt-right is they often get called contrarian, provocateurs, transgressive, but the values they stand up for don’t remind me of transgression at all. They just remind me of the same old sexism and racism that was socially normative when I was growing up.

Well, they’re transgressive in the sense that they’re saying things that you’re not supposed to say in polite company. That doesn’t make it interesting or cool or original. It does make it transgressive in the sense that you can offend people. You can freak them out. And then, if you created a set of norms within your own little subculture that declares that anybody who ever gets offended or freaked out is therefore triggered and whatever, then okay. By the terms of that self-sustaining logic, you can quote unquote “win”, because you triggered people. But ultimately, you’re not serving any very interesting end other than having a moment of infamy.

There’s a lot of hiding behind the term “free speech”, which is treated as a kind of empty set value, because nobody’s really taking anyone’s free speech away. Why do you think that there’s so much emphasis on topics like free speech and supposed transgression, and very little about the actual content of this “free speech”?

This is part of why I thought it was so important to actually spend hours and months and years of my life hanging out with these people. It wasn’t because I enjoyed it, or because I preferred to get dinner with Mike Cernovich and Jack Posobiec rather than hanging out with my wife and child. It was because the real way to understand how these people think and talk and interact with each other is just to hang around them for long enough that they forget you’re there.

The free speech thing is one example of that. They can talk about this stuff in the abstract and use language that sounds really principled, but when you hang around for long enough it becomes clear that it’s just a tool they’re using. Like anything else, it’s a weapon.

If they can use “free speech” as a talking point to advance their agenda, they’ll use that. If they can use something else, they’ll use something else.

At no point did I want to be so contrary to the contrarians that I became anti-free speech. It’s just that when you see what’s really motivating them, you can see through their game. But that only happens when you put in the time.

Having spent as much time as you did with them, do you have any advice for readers on self care and mental health management when faced with this vile stuff?

I do think it’s appropriate a lot of times to step away from it and log off. Being a keyboard warrior 24 hours a day is not healthy for anyone. But I also wouldn’t want to live in a world where social media were only inhabited by nihilists and trolls and bigots. So I don’t want all good people in the world to permanently abandon all internet spaces. But I do think it’s worth just stepping back and thinking in a slightly broader way about what is all this and what are we trying to accomplish?

The larger frame of the book is about the hijacking of a national conversation.On any given day, you can sit out all of the trending topics and not weigh in and not even know they’re happening and you will be totally fine. The world will go on without you and you won’t really miss anything.

In a larger, more sustained sense, I do think that part of the job of being a fully engaged citizen of a putative democracy is to have a stake in the national conversation. If part of that or a lot of that is happening online, then so be it. But I think it’s just worth doing with as much of a clear head and a sense of purpose as possible.

Amanda Marcotte is a politics writer for Salon. Her new book, “Troll Nation: How The Right Became Trump-Worshipping Monsters Set On Rat-F*cking Liberals, America, and Truth Itself,” is out now. She’s on Twitter @AmandaMarcotte.

rww

From Stormfront to the Oval Office

Saturday was NSM’s first appearance in the Natural State’s capitol, where in 1957 nine young black students enrolled at the nearby Little Rock Central High School despite Gov. Orval Faubus’ efforts at the time to prevent its desegregation. Because of this, Little Rock stands as a landmark of the civil rights era. The approximately 20 NSM members gathered on the steps described land reform efforts in South Africa as its own kind of civil rights crisis.

“White genocide,” as NSM speakers called it, is a popular conspiracy theory in the white nationalist movement, promoted by the white supremacist website, Stormfront, among others. Believers in the white genocide myth assert that governments, through immigration policy and promotion of racial and ethnic diversity, are secretly plotting to erase white people from their nations.

Ever since the first calls to end apartheid in the 1960s, South Africa has been a fascination of white nationalists.In recent years, as politicians in South Africa debate land reform measures that would redistribute farm land seized by white colonizers from black people back to those communities, the country has received attention from the online far-right–and, most recently, by President Donald Trump. A 2017 audit by the South African government showed that 72 percent of South Africa’s farmland remains in white hands.

YouTube celebrity Lauren Southern and Rebel Media’s Katie Hopkins both traveled to South Africa this year to produce separate documentaries about land reform efforts; their films emphasized violence taking place against white landowners, which lifted the topic from fringe white nationalist forum boards like Stormfront into mainstream right-wing discussion online. Southern, in particular, even went so far as to visit a whites-only town in South Africa and to present that town as a potential solution to the image of racial violence she painted for her viewers in the rest of her film, which has been viewed on YouTube almost two million times.

Eventually, the topic made its way to viewers of the Fox News channel via Tucker Carlson, one of the network’s primetime hosts. After one segment on Carlson’s show, Trump took to Twitter to order that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo investigate the issue. Department of State spokesperson Heather Nauert was particularly cagey when reporters asked about Trump’s tweet the day after, saying that Pompeo would “take a look at it.”

Heimbach told Right Wing Watch that he interpreted Trump’s acknowledgement of the situation in South Africa as an affirmation of their cause, but was skeptical it would lead to a consequential shift on the issue.

“I think it is a validation that people are identifying what’s happening in South Africa, what’s happening in Europe, but one of the big problems is that Republicans have a mad tweet game but that doesn’t lead to substantive legislation,” Heimbach said.

Heimbach added that he had been in contact with activists on the ground in South Africa, including members of the Afrikaner Resistance Movement (AWB), a South African neo-Nazi separatist political and paramilitary organisation. Heimbach said that he had donated to Suidlanders and had read literature published by the organization, but that no formal political affiliation existed between NSM and Suidlanders, one among a small handful of organizations, also including AfriForum, that have courted the international far-right in efforts to make their agenda in South Africa an international cause. Members of such groups have specifically targeted U.S. white nationalist groups for their advocacy, but have also sought relations with more establishment figures and organizations on America’s right wing. Earlier this year, two members of AfriForum met with officials at USAID and the Heritage Foundation, as well as with members of the staff of Sen. Ted Cruz. They also had their picture taken with National Security Adviser John Bolton (though it remains unclear whether Bolton knew who they are).

Whatever Heimbach’s misgivings about Republicans’ commitment to stemming the tide of what he and his comrades call “white genocide,” NSM Commander Schoep took heart from the president’s tweet. Speaking on the steps of the Arkansas state capitol building, Schoep declared, “Even President Trump pointed out that there’s a genocide going on. … Our people are being wiped out on a daily basis by communist criminals.”

“If you think for one second we will surrender without a fight in this nation, you are sadly mistaken,” Schoep said.

Burn, Baby, Burn

:{:{Morano**: Activists target Scott Pruitt because he's effective}::{}:

The Rebel

On Friday's show, Marc Morano of ClimateDepot.com joined me to discuss activists and the media attacking Environmental Protection Agency Administrator (EPA) Scott Pruitt. Marc and I agree that Pruitt has been Trump's most effective cabinet secretary, so naturally, he would be one of the left's main ...

Jones blamed a terror attack on Muslims; it was inspired by one of his regular guests

On June 19, 2017, a van plowed into a group of people leaving a mosque in London. One person was killed and many more were injured. Immediately as news of this attack broke, Infowars' Alex Jones and Mike Cernovich blamed Muslims. The driver is now on trial, where he admitted that, in addition to people outside the mosque, he hoped to also kill the mayor of London Sadiq Khan, and the head of the British Labor Party, Jeremy Corbyn. It also came out in the trial that the driver was radicalized by a frequent guest of Jones, Tommy Robinson. Robinson is the head of an anti-Muslim hate group in the U.K. called "the English Defence League." In an appearance with Jones just 13 days before the London attack, Robinson said the time was coming for English men to take matters into their own hands.

More: It's not just Jones. There are deep connections between Robinson and right-wing media. Robinson is an employee at Rebel Media, a Canadian "alt-right" website which has published things like "Ten Things I Hate About Jews." Rebel Media just hired Sebastian Gorka, former top aide to Donald Trump and current Fox News contributor (who also has apparent connections to a Hungarian Nazi-allied group). Rebel Media also recently hired Katie Hopkins, a former Daily Mail columnist who during an appearance on Fox News called for putting Muslims in internment camps.

poso ex rebel?

https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2017/05/31/alt-right-troll-files-civil-rights-complaint-after-today-show-mocks-him/216723

LOOMER tag

https://www.mediamatters.org/people/laura-loomer

From meme wars to death threats: How far-right internet culture turns into political action

Blog ››› July 7, 2017 4:01 PM EDT ››› JARED HOLT

/ Media Matters

Members of online forum boards dedicated to President Donald Trump and far-right ideologies have called for the “next meme war,” this time against CNN. The call to arms is retaliation for allegations that the cable network blackmailed a Reddit user into publicly apologizing for creating a pro-Trump GIF that depicted Trump tackling a man who had a CNN logo superimposed on his face, and removing his hateful posts on these message boards.

This declaration of a meme war is the latest example of these online community members banding together in highly organized troupes to create and distribute memes attacking their given targets across multiple social media platforms, often times shaping public perception and influencing American political narratives and actions.

Users of Reddit and 4chan, two message board communities that have long expressed their hatred for one another, were united in their outrage over a CNN report, published on July 4, that detailed the origin of a GIF depicting Trump tackling a man who had a CNN logo superimposed on his face. The meme was edited into a video with music and eventually tweeted by Trump with a hashtag calling CNN a “fraud.” CNN reporter Andrew Kaczynski, who wrote the story, discovered that the meme’s creator was a middle-aged man with a history of posting “racist and anti-Semitic imagery” through his Reddit account. The man called CNN to confirm his identity after he had issued a detailed apology on Reddit and deleted his previous posts.

Reddit and 4chan members didn’t find the man’s history of hateful posts problematic. Rather, they latched onto one section of the article in which CNN explained that it had decided not to publish the man’s name, “because he is a private citizen who has issued an extensive statement of apology, showed his remorse by saying he has taken down all his offending posts, and because he said he is not going to repeat this ugly behavior on social media again.” The article also stated, “CNN reserves the right to publish his identity should any of that change.” Members of meme-heavy subreddits perceived that sentence as blackmail and accused CNN of attempting to dox and blackmail one of its critics.

On July 5, CNN responded to the blackmail allegations with a written statement that said, “Any assertion that the network blackmailed or coerced [the user] is false.”

But CNN’s statement came too late; multiple posts on 4chan and Reddit had already called for a full-scale “meme war” against the network. During the 2016 presidential election, factions of Trump voters used memes to attack and discredit others’ preferred candidate. Among these factions, highly organized pro-Trump meme war “units” found tremendous success and were able to create and spread numerous trends on social media.

A post on 4chan explained what the latest meme war, titled “Operation: Autism Storm,” would entail. The operation’s primary focus, according to the post, would be to produce “as many anti-CNN memes as possible and spreading it” to high traffic websites beyond the fringe. The call to arms also urged participants to “discredit every journalist at CNN,” and to target CNN’s advertisers to stop them from advertising on the network.

In the days after the article was published and 4chan and Reddit users called for meme warfare, “#CNNBlackmail” was a top trending topic on Twitter. The contingent of pro-Trump internet wizards also overran numerous boards on Reddit and 4chan with images attacking CNN’s credibility. Infowars editor-at-large Paul Joseph Watson suggested that CNN may have reunited “the alt-right & the new right in a common cause” after a prior rift among the “alt-right” factions.

Source:Reddit.com/r/The_Donald

This potent group of like-minded internet campaigners repeatedly proved their ability to organize and operate extremely effective smear campaigns during the 2016 election. According to an entry on Encyclopedia Dramatica, one of the most notable moments in “The Great Meme War” was the group’s viral portrayal of former presidential candidate Jeb Bush as a weak and sad “stinking turtle-lover with a guacamole fetish.” This characterization of “low energy” Bush cast him as a man unable to withstand what meme creators referred to as “high-energy” Trump. The Encyclopedia Dramatica entry also credited the same organized effort to push “a stream of new and fearsome dank memes,” featuring “Pepe the Frog” after the Anti-Defamation League classified the character as a hate symbol.

Fringe far-right media figures have also noticed the potency of these groups, and have used their platforms to encourage their followers to participate in the effort to spread the anti-CNN memes to larger audiences. Infowars’ Alex Jones has even launched an anti-CNN meme contest, promising a $20,000 reward for the “best meme” he receives. Alternative right-wing media figures such as online personality KimDotcom, Infowars contributor and internet troll Mike Cernovich, and even the president’s son Donald Trump Jr. have used their platforms to spread anti-CNN rhetoric and images alongside those leading the online meme brigades.

Meme wars can often have real-life consequences, a phenomena known within these communities as “meme magic.” During the 2016 election, these meme-makers effectively shaped Bush’s public image, and now they are provoking people to harass CNN journalists.Rebel Media’s Laura Loomer, who gained notoriety for interrupting Shakespeare play Julius Ceasar in New York City, ambushed CNN host Chris Cuomoabout the controversial article while he was walking down the street. Other CNN staffers told The Daily Beast they feared for their safety after receiving a flood of threatening phone calls and messages and the reporter who discovered the Reddit user’s anti-Semitic posts wrote in Politico that he received a barrage of death threats. Cernovich even hyped a supposed protest “planned to be held” outside of Kaczynski’s home in New York.

Users’ motivations for participating in the new meme war against CNN may vary from pure entertainment to deep ideological bias, but their participation will ultimately reignite a pack of internet trolls capable of smearing and bullying any target in its crosshairs. This group had been mostly dormant after it declared Trump’s election a victory, but the latest meme war against CNN proves that its ability to spread vitriol online is alive and well.

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https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2017/09/14/fox-business-hosts-far-right-troll-who-yelled-seth-rich-conspiracies-hillary-clinton-book-signing/217947

no link

Fox Business hosts far-right troll who yelled Seth Rich conspiracies at a Hillary Clinton book signing

Fox Business cut away from video before Seth Rich attacks the network was forced to retract

Blog ››› September 14, 2017 9:05 PM EDT ››› BRENDAN KARET

Fox Business host Liz MacDonald invited far-right, Seth Rich conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer on to the network to promote her ambush video attacking Hillary Clinton at a book signing event. MacDonald hosted Loomer, who has pushed the conspiracy theory that Clinton was involved in the murder of a Democratic National Committee (DNC) staffer, even after the network’s sister company, Fox News, was forced to retract a Seth Rich conspiracy story.

MacDonald introduced her September 14 segment with Loomer by highlighting footage from Loomer criticizing Clinton during a book signing where she attacked the former presidential candidate over emails and relief money to Haiti. But the video abruptly stops before the footage shows Loomer asking Hillary Clinton “What happened to Seth Rich?,” referring to the debunked conspiracy theory that Fox was forced to retract. From the September 14 edition of Fox Business’ Risk & Reward with Deirdre Bolton:

LIZ MACDONALD (HOST): Conservative activist Laura Loomer confronted Hillary Clinton about the missing emails at her book signing.

[VIDEO BEGINS]

LAURA LOOMER: Hi, it's so great to see you.

HILLARY CLINTON: Well, it's great for you to be here.

LOOMER: Thanks for having me.

CLINTON: Thank you for coming.

LOOMER: Thanks for having me. So, the American people would really like to know what happened to your 33,000 emails? What happened in Benghazi?

CLINTON: Go read the book, you want to find --

LOOMER: What happened to the millions of dollars that was supposed to go to the people in Haiti?

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CLINTON: You know what? I'm so sorry you believe things that are untrue.

[VIDEO ENDS]

MACDONALD: Laura Loomer, from Rebel Media. Laura took those -- the footage right there, is with me now. What was it like to confront Hillary Clinton?

LOOMER: You know, it's always a good time. I've done it a couple times in the past before, which is why I was surprised that she hasn't recognized me. But, you know, it's -- it's definitely an adrenaline rush because this is probably the most hated woman in America and, you know, to be asking her questions that so many --

MACDONALD: To some. Not to everybody. She got 55 million people who voted for her.

LOOMER: Yeah, to many, but to ask her questions that one, the mainstream media refused to ask her, and two, that so many Americans want answers about, it was great that I was able to do that."

Fox News heavily promoted the Seth Rich conspiracy theory and even after the network conceded that the story was completely false, personalities like Sean Hannity continued. Hannity promoted the story after Fox retractions and media criticism and even pushed the conspiracy theory after Seth Rich’s family demanded he stop his disgraceful campaign.

Loomer also has a long history of promoting Seth Rich conspiracy theories on Twitter, claiming Seth Rich was murdered for “testifying against Hillary.”

no link img

You may have mocked claims about the existence of paid protesters as just another lie from the right. As it turns out, at least on this one issue, they’re actually telling the truth. The problem is, the right neglected to mention those paid protesters are part of the right-wing apparatus.

The story starts last week, when the right wing decided to aim its selective outrage at a free staging of Shakespeare’s play "Julius Caesar" held in New York City’s Central Park. Mike Cernovich, a self-described member of the alt-right who thinks the U.S. should give immigrants IQ tests, put up a YouTube video in which he offered cash to any protesters willing to disrupt the play for pay.

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“I’ll give up to 10 people $1,000,” Cernovich says in the footage. “I need you to get up with either a ‘CNN is ISIS’ or ‘Bill Clinton’s a rapist’ or ‘The media is terrorism’ [sign]. And if you’re able to get up and be escorted out by security, then I will give you $1,000.”

In other words, Cernovich was actively and openly looking to recruit paid protesters. You know how conservatives made up that ridiculous myth about George Soros sending checks to liberals who march in protests? This is the real version of that, only sponsored by Cernovich.

The story actually gets richer, so to speak, as it continues. The night after Cernovich’s offer, two protesters went to see "Julius Caesar" in the park.Semi-notorious right-wing media figure Laura Loomer snagged a ticket for a second-row seat that definitely should have gone to someone who actually wanted to see the play. Alt-right provocateurJack Posobiec, whose greatest hits include pizzagate and the Seth Rich conspiracy lie, also showed up. The two Trumpites told the New Yorker they hadn’t planned to meet—which may or may not be true—and once they spotted each other, they sat apart so as not to arouse suspicion. “Are you here for the Cernovich contest?” Posobiec reportedly texted Loomer, according to the New Yorker. She responded, “Just stay tuned.”

In the middle of the production, Loomer stormed the stage, briefly halting the action and earning a chorus of boos from an audience that just wanted to see some Shakespeare. There’s footage of the whole thing, including Loomer being removed from the stage as she shouts “CNN is ISIS"—the exact phrase Cernovich suggested—over and over. As Loomer was escorted out, Posobiec stood up and began yelling “Nazis” and “Goebbels” at the audience, until he was removed. He also recorded his outburst, possibly because Cernovich wants proof before he’ll pay out.

Loomer continued yelling even once she was put outside the venue, and police finally showed up at some point to arrest her. She was then led away, upright and intact, like a human being who does not also happen to be an unarmed black kid.

It’s important to note that Loomer works for right-wing Canadian media outlet Rebel Media, and until late May, so did Posobiec. The blog Canadaland describes it as a Breitbart-esque site filled with contributors who “have called for a new Crusade to expel Muslims from the 'Holy Land,” outlined what they "hate about the Jews," and most recently, said that British Muslims are "enemy combatants," at least some of whom should be placed into camps.”

Loomer was released hours after her arrest. Rebel Media put up a “Free Laura page” on its website, including a link to a fundraising section for her "legal defense fund." Loomer herself also tweeted a request to "support [her] legal defense fund." The link in the message leads to a campaign on WeSearchr, a crowdfunding site that’s like a Go Fund Me for hard-right causes. As of this writing, Loomer’s page has banked more than $12,000. Josh Jordan, who's written for both Forbes and the conservative National Review, pointed out that Loomer's page previously noted she had a fundraising goal of $25,000, complete with screengrab. That target number has been erased, but the total intake keeps climbing. And presumably, while the Rebel Media “Free Laura” page doesn’t display tallies, there’ve been contributions via that site as well.

Josh Jordan ? @NumbersMuncher

Laura Loomer has now banked over $10K for her play publicity stunt that will carry at most a $1,000 fine and she's asking for another $15K.

7:45 PM - 18 Jun 2017

997 997 Retweets 1,542 1,542 likes

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There are a few things that are curious here, that brought out the social media detectives. The first is that Rebel Media creator Ezra Levant made the Free Laura page at 6pm UTC or 2pm Eastern time, a full four hours before Loomer was actually arrested. It’s safe to assume that Levant doesn’t have the power to see into the future, but that he and the team at Rebel hoped she'd get arrested and planned to use the fabricated injustice to raise funds.

View image on Twitter

Gowilla Minethet @anonops_nato

That's interesting. http://Freelaura.com was created by Ezra Levant at 6pm UTC, 2pm EDT. Laura crashed the play at 6pm EDT.

8:26 PM - 16 Jun 2017

1,082 1,082 Retweets 1,777 1,777 likes

There’s also the matter of Loomer’s hefty request for donations. She faces charges of disorderly conduct and criminal trespass in the third degree. The latter is a class B misdemeanor, while the former is merely a violation, meaning it’s even less serious. I spoke to Matthew Galluzzo, a New York City criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor for the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. He isn’t representing Loomer, so he can’t speak specifically to her case.

“Most people charged with trespass with no criminal record are unlikely to be convicted of a crime or serve jail time,” he noted, “or have to pay a fine in excess of $120.”

In fact, based on the charges she faces, there's no outcome that could account for the funds being requested, unless Loomer has a rap sheet as a serial killer that's been kept hush-hush. So why is Loomer raising so much money? It’s unclear, and no one aside from Loomer and Rebel Media know. However, it is worth noting that Levant recently lost a libel case on appeal, which keeps him on the hook for an $80,000 fine. It’s also true that a company that targeted Breitbart for a boycott has done the same with Rebel Media, which has resulted in at least one major company pulling ads from the site.

If it seemed incongruous that the “new right”—whose members have declared themselves the defenders of free speech and conservationists of Western culture—claimed to be so outraged by the recent staging of a Shakespeare play, this might explain why. And when the right talks about “paid protesters,” just assume they personally know whence they speak.

http://www.alternet.org/right-wing/there-are-real-paid-protesters-theyre-all-right-wingers

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...

On the coattails of President Donald Trump’s successful election campaign and an anti-"political correctness" wave, an alternative right-wing media echo chamber successfully reverberated itself into virtual relevance on social media, where it now reaches millions of people every day. This new-media ecosystem exists outside of traditional newspapers and cable news networks, instead taking to social sites like Facebook, Twitter, Periscope, Reddit, and YouTube to promote its far-right nationalist politics and conspiracy-laden worldviews to an audience it has isolated and now dominates as its preferred news source.

Key players in this circular far-right alt-media echo chamber, such as online troll Mike Cernovich and Infowars’ Alex Jones, have successfully crafted a false impression of credibility. They have synthesized a “new right” echo chamber from “alt-right” ideologies and orchestrated a media machine that disseminates content across multiple media platforms with extreme efficiency.

Key voices in this ecosystem often work a redundant media circuit across allied platforms to reinforce each other’s worldviews and concepts of reality, cast doubt on mainstream media, and suggest widespread conspiracies along the way. Cernovich demonstrated this tactic as he circulated a faux scandal story that suggested Susan Rice, who served as national security adviser to former President Barack Obama, was responsible for improper unmasking of Trump officials caught in surveillance of foreign officials.

Cernovich toured the Rice story around the alternative media sphere he occupies until it eventually broke into mainstream media. On April 2, Cernovich first tweeted the “breaking news” that Rice had ordered the unmasking. Later that day, Cernovich published his full story about the explosive allegations. On April 3, Cernovich promoted the story in a livestream broadcast to his tens of thousands of Periscope followers. The same day, “alt-right” thought leader Richard Spencer publicly slammed Cernovich in his own broadcast, granting the story a direct platform into the "alt-right" fanbase. On April 4, Cernovich took his story through the alternative media circuit, appearing on Infowars and Free Domain Radio and earning shoutouts from Stefan Molyneux, Lee Stranahan, and Donald Trump Jr. After riding the wave, Cernovich continued his self-promotion in a Reddit AMA thread and a post-story interview with Rebel Media.

Members of the echo chamber attract and maintain a fan base by developing an abusive relationship with their audience members -- a process they label “redpilling.” They gaslight their audiences until readers and viewers feel unable to trust any media other than those particular outlets to deliver them “the truth.” As a result, these new-media companies have groomed rabid fan bases that turn to them as beacons of honesty in a media world that they believe is orchestrated to distract the public from this echo chamber’s version of “the truth.”

Many media outlets disregard this new-media echo chamber, continuing to speak about the movement with the same blanket terms and condescension they used before the so-called “new right” distanced itself from “alt-right” leaders. But now, months later, this far-right alternative media apparatus is encroaching on its mainstream competition online. For example, Infowars recently surpassed CNN in its number of subscribers on YouTube, which marked a major milestone in far-right alternative media's encroachment on the video site’s news ecosystem.

According to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in early 2016, about half of people age 49 and under said they get their news online. And as cable news viewership declines and as Americans’ trust in news media sinks to an all-time low, alternative new-media stars have leveraged a unique opportunity to redefine right-wing media and reach mass audiences once loyal to established journalism outlets. The alternative media ecosystem has also benefited from attention from top government officials and those close to them; presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway recently elevated Cernovich on Twitter, Donald Trump Jr. pushed an Infowars conspiracy theory, and Michael Flynn Jr., the son of Trump’s former national security advisor, has promoted Infowars and conspiracy theories like “Pizzagate” sourced from the alternative media sphere.

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