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Tag: Fascism

Fact-checking Fascism: Axios Platforms Violent Biker Gang Over Veterans DayIn a heated confrontation, Proud Boys in their yellow uniforms confront a group facing away from the camera. One in a yellow Proud Boys mask points angrily at us.
A confrontation with Proud Boys in Wasington, D.C. (Geoff Livingston / Flickr, CC NC ND license)
November 11, 2021
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Fact-checking Fascism: Axios Platforms Violent Biker Gang Over Veterans Day

Posted in Creative Commons, Journalism, and Occupy Wall Street

Over 5 years since the election of Donald Trump and the rise of the powerful white supremacist movement he empowered, the mainstream media still struggles to fact-check fascists.

It always interests me which organizations get the benefit of the doubt from the mainstream media.

I (and many others) have written about how the mainstream media tends to take the words of police at face value. Reporters often use whatever language makes police seem blameless after violent interactions.

Just like cops, right-wing fascists frequently get platformed by reporters who fail to ask vital questions.

Which brings us to an article by Asher Price, an Austin reporter for Axios.

Read moreFact-checking Fascism: Axios Platforms Violent Biker Gang Over Veterans Day
We Didn’t Fix Austin (Or America)’s Nazi ProblemA massive supercell storm cloud forms in a funnel shape over the fields of Oklahoma.
Just looking at this photo causes me a twinge of fibromyalgia pain. (Unsplash / Raychel Sanner, public domain)
September 1, 2021
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We Didn’t Fix Austin (Or America)’s Nazi Problem

Posted in Austin, Creative Commons, and Journalism

A friend that lives in Portland posted on his Facebook about the latest spasm of white supremacist violence that took place there.

Someone that I’ve a bunch of mutuals in common with responded. A sort-of-smug comment to the effect of “thank goodness we ran those people out of Austin, Texas!” And I’ll be honest, that comment shocked me: we did what?

The comment reminded me that this attitude is probably widespread in my city and across the country.

I asked myself, are there people in this country that go days without thinking about the rise of fascism and the collapse of the climate? What must that be like?

Read moreWe Didn’t Fix Austin (Or America)’s Nazi Problem
‘It Came From Something Awful’ Suffers From Factual ErrorsA Guy Fawkes 'Anonymous' mask looms out of a dark space. "It Came From Something Awful" detals 4chan, Anonymous, the rise of QAnon and what the author sees as a grand culture war.
(Tarik Haiga / Unsplash, public domain)
May 6, 2021
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‘It Came From Something Awful’ Suffers From Factual Errors

Posted in Creative Commons, Journalism, and Occupy Wall Street

I don’t write about books often, and usually I stick to good ones, but I feel this needs to be said: “It Came From Something Awful” is a book that, at minimum, needed more fact-checking before publication.

Though the book came out in 2019, author Dale Beran is back in the spotlight because of the January 6, 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol. Beran is seen as one of the experts on 4chan, and 4chan is seen as a key origin point of What Just Happened ™.

When I dug into the book, I found out this argument represents the first third of it at most, and my problems with the latter chapters make me call the whole thing into question.

Read more‘It Came From Something Awful’ Suffers From Factual Errors
Anyone Can Adopt Any Activist Tactics: A Spencer Sunshine InterviewA photo of a banner drop on an overpass, but the banner has been pixellated to make it illegible. Three small figures are visible behind the banner, attaching it to the bridge.
Banner drops and other tactics don't "belong" to the Left. (From a 350 dot org image on Flickr, CC NC SA license)
March 17, 2021
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Anyone Can Adopt Any Activist Tactics: A Spencer Sunshine Interview

Posted in Creative Commons, and Journalism

Activists sometimes forget that anyone can use tactics like banner drops, including the fascist far right.

Late in 2020 and in the first days of 2021, I spoke twice to Spencer Sunshine, a researcher of the far right and ways to oppose them. I included “40 Ways To Fight Fascists,” the zine he co-wrote with PopMob, in my Virtual Gonzo Zine Library.

Since Trump’s election, I’ve noticed more American fascists using tactics traditionally associated with leftist activism, like banner drops or wheatpasting. Patriot Front is one of several groups that frequently drops banners, with messages in support of white supremacy, from buildings and overpasses.

Read moreAnyone Can Adopt Any Activist Tactics: A Spencer Sunshine Interview
After The Coup Attempt, We’re All ANTIFA NowWe're all antifa after the coup attempt. Photo: Graffiti along a railway line reads ANTiFA with the familiar black and red flags of the antifascist movement.
We're all ANTIFA after the coup attempt. (Flickr / strassenstriche.net, Creative Commons NonCommercial license)
January 20, 2021
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After The Coup Attempt, We’re All ANTIFA Now

Posted in Creative Commons, and Journalism

I keep thinking about the guy at the coup attempt who tried to murder a cop in uniform, because he thought the cop was ANTIFA.

When I think about the fury that the crowd unleashed on that cop, and the ready justification this guy had at hand, it makes me realize that we are all ANTIFA now. When Peter Stager beat Metro cop Michael Fanone with an American flag pole (symbolism, y’all), he wasn’t imagining the cop was “antifa.”

That is, he didn’t consider the police officer to be part of a political tendency loosely organized around opposition to white supremacy, genocide, and dictatorial power. No, he thought the cop was all caps ANTIFA, a much more nebulous, and dangerous category. And every one of us that’s even a little left-of-center can end up in that category, at any time, in 2021.

Read moreAfter The Coup Attempt, We’re All ANTIFA Now