SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Editor's summary: BuzzFeed, a media outlet and Pulitzer Prize finalist, obtained leaked emails from Breitbart News, some of which were published in Buzzfeed's roughly 9,000-word exposé of the site's inner workings. The article chronicles the rise of Milo Yiannopoulos, Breitbart's tech editor, and his relationship with Steve Bannon, the recent White House Chief Strategist who left the Trump administration and resumed his position as executive chairman of Breitbart News in August. It also details exchanges between Yiannopoulos and people such as Peter Thiel, Devin Saucier, and Curtis Yarvin, among others. The article shows how Breitbart "smuggled white nationalist ideas into the mainstream" by using Yiannopoulos as a go-between for white nationalists and others in his following, who provided him with story tips and constructive (?) criticism.
Vice Media has fired Mitchell Sunderland, an editor and writer for Broadly, Vice's women-focused site. Sunderland emailed Yiannopoulos and encouraged him to mock the feminist writer Lindy West. He also sent a Broadly video about the Satanic Temple and abortion rights to Tim Gionet, Yiannopoulos's tour manager, resulting in this story. Dan Lyons, a writer for the TV series Silicon Valley and author of Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble, and David Auerbach, a former technology writer for Slate, also passed along news tips to Breitbart. Auerbach has vociferously denied writing the emails.
Milo Yiannopoulos responded on Thursday, mainly taking issue with a video of him singing karaoke while Richard Spencer and others raised Nazi salutes. Yiannopoulos wrote, "I have said in the past that I find humor in breaking taboos and laughing at things that people tell me are forbidden to joke about. Everyone who knows me has seen me make jokes about some awful things. But everyone who knows me also knows I'm not a racist. As someone of Jewish ancestry, I of course condemn racism in the strongest possible terms. I have stopped making jokes on these matters because I do not want any confusion on this subject. I disavow Richard Spencer and his entire sorry band of idiots. I have been and am a steadfast supporter of Jews and Israel. I disavow white nationalism and I disavow racism and I always have. I have severe myopia, due to a congenital eye defect, as has been widely reported and as many people know or have seen from my squinting during public speeches. In a dark bar, I did not see these hand gestures. If I'd have realized white nationalist losers were hailing me as their leader, I'd have immediately walked off stage. I stand for, as always, race-blind nationalism. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm enjoying my honeymoon with my black husband."
Broadening Brush: Alt-White, Buzzfeed Exposé!
BuzzFeed has published documentation of the direct connection of Breitbart News, the alt-right movement, and Milo Yiannopoulos to white supremacists and neo-Nazi groups:
In August, after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville ended in murder, Steve Bannon insisted that "there's no room in American society" for neo-Nazis, neo-Confederates, and the KKK.
But an explosive cache of documents obtained by BuzzFeed News proves that there was plenty of room for those voices on his website.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, under Bannon's leadership, Breitbart courted the alt-right — the insurgent, racist right-wing movement that helped sweep Donald Trump to power. The former White House chief strategist famously remarked that he wanted Breitbart to be "the platform for the alt-right."
The article is extensive, quoting from emails from the Breitbart organization itself.
In March, Breitbart editor Alex Marlow insisted "we're not a hate site." Breitbart's media relations staff repeatedly threatened to sue outlets that described Yiannopoulos as racist. And after the violent white supremacist protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August, Breitbart published an article explaining that when Bannon said the site welcomed the alt-right, he was merely referring to "computer gamers and blue-collar voters who hated the GOP brand."
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.
Sometimes, it is good to know who you are lying down with, so you will know why you have fleas. And sometimes, journalists ought to "follow the money." I highly recommend reading the article, "Here's How Breitbart And Milo Smuggled Nazi and White Nationalist Ideas Into The Mainstream".
Liberal collusion with Alt-right! Shocking!
Now the Salon is getting into the fray, reporting on BuzzFeed's dump of Breitbart emails and pointing out that many liberal journalists are implicated.
A recently released cache of email correspondence revealed direct collaboration between popular alt-right website Breitbart and purported white nationalists and neo-Nazis. While the revelations are damning, they are not entirely surprising to those who follow Breitbart's editorial strategies. More shocking, perhaps, is that a number of purportedly liberal journalists have also secretly colluded with Breitbart over the years.
Again, this is a lengthy article, well worth the read, that goes into detail on the relations of Breitbart News to other journalistic entities, and political extremists. One example:
The surprising journalistic connections to Yiannopoulos include David Auerbach, a tech critic who has contributed extensively to Slate and has been published in intellectual left magazines like n+1, Triple Canopy, and even the Nation, one of the most esteemed voices of the American left. Auerbach once wrote a longform piece of cultural criticism for Triple Canopy exploring how the politics of anonymous online forum culture (A-Culture, in his parlance) eventually evolved into the fusion of libertarianism and racist nationalism that we now associate with sites like 4chan, 8chan and Reddit in its prelapsarian days.
Though anonymity does not play directly into the majority of the discussions on forums associated with A-culture, it is responsible—along with the written nature of the discourse—for the characteristics that have emerged from those sites. . . . Anyone entering into an A-culture forum is likely to witness a nonstop barrage of obscenity, abuse, hostility, and epithets related to race, gender, and sexuality. Anyone objecting to this barrage will immediately attract a torrent of even greater abuse. These forums maintain an equilibrium of offense designed to drive away anyone who is not sympathetic to the general libertarian mindset.
But it does seem that Buzzfeed has stirred up a hornet's nest of buzzing, the type of thing that may even attract buzzards.
Shortly thereafter, Auerbach tweeted that he had "told [Buzzfeed editor Ariel Kaminer] that this stuff was untrue. He's currently trying to put words in my mouth." Auerbach went on to speculate that "Buzzfeed might have it in for me because I criticized Buzzfeed chair Keith Lerer for hiring 4chan's founder." "I also criticized Buzzfeed's business model in NYMag," he added. "So yeah, they're probably pissed at me."
More about sexism and male privilege than racism. Or more of a cat-fight among journalists and whatever those who work for Breitbart are. As Alice said, "Curiouser and curiouser."
(Score: 3, Informative) by KiloByte on Sunday October 08 2017, @11:08PM (6 children)
Yeah, those who discriminate based on skin color and whether your genitals are mutilated or not. Like, say, Zuckerberg (who sounds like a likely candidate for 2020). Also spewing praise for a vile ideology whose adherents tend to literally (in the real rather than popular sense of the word) put "death to Jews" on their flags.
Yeah, we're indeed talking about actual Nazis here.
Ceterum censeo systemd esse delendam.
(Score: 1, Troll) by aristarchus on Monday October 09 2017, @02:40AM (5 children)
I have no idea what you are trying to say, (((KiloByte))). What is the "popular sense" of "death to Jews"? Not a Nazi, are we, now?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by KiloByte on Monday October 09 2017, @03:36AM (4 children)
Uhm, have you tried reading what I wrote? The comment you cut of of context was inserted after "literally", a word which millenials just love to use contrary to its real meaning.
In this particular case, I used the word "literally" as this group, whose US Dem leaders often voice support of, instead of just vaguely racist statements write "death to Jews" on their very flags, put this into constitutions, etc. Heck, they even try to replace the Declaration of Human Rights with their own version [wikipedia.org] — count the number of times their document condemns Jews!
I don't get why you accuse me of being a Jew (that's what putting one's name in ((( ))) means these days, right?). I'm not one, nor do I have any Jews in my ancestry I'm aware of. I'm a mere Polack, and that's a nationality that has only a small fraction of contributions to science/etc that Jews have. But neither am I a Nazi, SJW, Alt-Righter, BLM terrorist, or a member of any other hate group.
I merely consider that, while discriminating against people based on their ethnicity is evil, some ideologies do deserve being called out as vile. You don't get to pick your race, you do get to pick your religion (and I consider Communism or Nazism to be religions).
Ceterum censeo systemd esse delendam.
(Score: 3, Troll) by aristarchus on Monday October 09 2017, @04:23AM (3 children)
Thank you for your response. It "literally" clarifies nothing, in the literal sense of "literal". What is the "popular" sense of "death to Jews"? Are you suggesting that American conservative anti-Semites are not "literal" when they say things like, "Jews will not replace us!"? Or are you saying that only Arab anti-Semitism . . . um, you do realize that Arabs are Semites? So the Arabs would have to hate themselves? I am starting to think you are as confused as TMB on these issues. Literally.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Arik on Monday October 09 2017, @05:00AM
"What is the "popular" sense of "death to Jews"?"
That, or rather a similar phrase which I shan't repeat, is used 'in a popular sense' by some young people in a back-handed, humorous way. I rather dislike it myself, obviously, but I can still grasp the difference in intent and meaning. When it's used in this sense the meaning seems to be very much like when people of my generation would (with as straight a face as we could manage) claim to 'eat babies' as if we were 'huns' out of some world war agitprop.
There's an instinct to defiance that guarantees political correctness always provokes political incorrectness. And one common form of political incorrectness is to outwardly claim the very most politically incorrect title or aim you can think of, even (nay especially) if it can only be done in jest. This also helps form the in-group out-group boundary, and to police it. Other members of the group play along with the joke, again with faces as straight as can be managed (and these days so much interaction is digital making this part less of a limitation,) and out-group members, normies if you will, simply do not get the joke. Since they don't get the joke, they're easy to spot. Then they become the joke.
"Are you suggesting that American conservative anti-Semites are not "literal" when they say things like, "Jews will not replace us!"?"
If you could cite me a specific person that you're purporting to say that, and the context in which it was said, then we might be able to deduce what was actually meant.
Nah, I know, it's easier just to call everyone that you don't like a bad name, one that justifies punching them instead of talking.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 10 2017, @04:13AM (1 child)
Aristarchus normally I like your posts but in this you make yourself look very foolish. The phrase with the parenthetical clearly meant "they are literally (in the true sense of literally) putting 'death to jews ' on their flags." It's fine to nitpick but this is an informal conversation, not an array bounds check, and you make yourself seem /intentionally/ stupid by writing as you did.
Note well the /intentionally/ as no reasonable person would make the 'mistake' you did.
Which means you're not contributing to the conversation, you're just trolling.
I know you're better than that. I normally look forward to your contributions. Either someone's hacked your account to post making you look bad, or maybe you have beef with the other poster and are trying to troll? Regardless, you hurt our community, and impugn your own reputation.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Tuesday October 10 2017, @04:57AM
As serious criticism deserves a serious response. Yes, of course I "got" what KiloByte was trying to say. But as with the Masturbatory Buzzard, this is exactly the problem. "Death to Jews" does not literally mean "death to Jews", it just "popularly" means that? There is a reason that the interesting part of the Buzzfeed article is the attempt to get the Nazis, and Milo, by the way, to stop with the anti-semitic stuff. My point is that by normalizing this sort of "edgy" (as Arik puts it) young white guy posturing, we are in fact normalizing Nazism, and not just some Prep-school, Prince-Harry-for-a-gag, type Nazism, but opening the door for the real thing.
Now if you want to contrast that with Arab resentment over European imperialists and Zionists forcibly taking over the Levant and creating the state of Israel, well, that is another matter, and one only tangentially related to the issue at hand because of the alt-right simultaneous support of Nazis and Israel. And, of course, pedophilia. And you fear that I am damaging the reputation of SoylentNews? Pssshaw! My long experience in the world has shown me that you do not even let people play around with this sort of stuff. It has consequences, absolutely evil consequences.