Recommended Reading: Trip Line

NinaIllingworth December 5, 2022December 5, 2022 American fascism, Amerikan Musik, analysis, Andrew Anglin, Andy Ngo, anti-LGBTQ violence, anti-trans pogrom, anti-trans propaganda, antifascism, antisemitism, Chad Loder, Crimethinc, Daily Stormer, eliminationism, Elon Musk, Essays, FA1, far right, far right online extremism, fascism, hate speech, James Lindsay, Jordan Peterson, Kanye West, Media, Micah Lee, MP6, neonazi, Nikki McCann Ramirez, Nina Illingworth, online fascism, Pork Reich, Propaganda, Rec Reads, Recommended Reading, Robert Mackey, Roger Stone, Rolling Stone, Ron DeSantis, Social Justice, social media, The Intercept, Twitter, Weimar America, white supremacy, Ye

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Instant Verification

Well folks, I’m not saying that “time is a flat circle,” but sometimes it sure does feel like I’m living out the script of a far less amusing version of the movie Groundhog Day. Last week I briefly talked about what billionaire fascist Afrikaner Elon Musk has done with the social media site Twitter, and what I expected to happen next. You will not be surprised to learn that I didn’t predict good things for Twitter’s future; in fact, I specifically stated Elon Musk would use the social media site to create a giant fascist propaganda machine designed to get his preferred presidential hopeful, noted “semi-fascist” Ron DeSantis, into the White House.

What made all of this ironic in a decidedly unfunny way, is that I’d already been talking about Musk’s fascist intentions once he got stuck with purchasing Twitter; I just didn’t think he’d prove me correct in less than a month. Despite the clear evidence available however, there has been widespread resistance to calling Musk what he is, a fascist, among “very serious people” in our public discourse. Apparently providing a platform for reactionary propagandists pushing an increasingly effective anti-trans pogrom in progress isn’t enough to trip corporate media’s “fascist” radar quite yet. Well, a funny thing happened this week; Musk did it again, and this time he skipped right past the sonic dog whistle stage.

In today’s edition of Recommended Reading then, let’s take a look at two articles that, when taken together, really pin the tail on the braying nazi jackass who owns Twitter. Is this a massive “I told you so?” I suppose it is; but given the horrifying ramifications of Elon’s actions here in the war against Americanized fascism, it’s also a subject worth keeping an eye on. Twitter may be finished as a social media company, but it’s still a valuable propaganda influence machine for billionaire reactionaries dead set on dooming us all to an agonizing death on a boiling planet. Let’s start with this November 29th, 2022 piece from Robert Mackey and Micah Lee published on The Intercept:

Left-Wing Voices Silenced on Twitter as Far-Right Trolls Advise Elon Musk

This article covers Musk’s open collaborations with known fascist propagandists, to ban antifascists and other left wing activist accounts on Twitter; a subject I briefly touched on last week. Although it would be nice to see the word fascist in this piece even once, the authors do cover three key points in detail; Twitter moderation is being run on reactionary conspiracy theories, the site is openly hostile to antifascist thought, and right wing extremists are coordinating with Musk to take out folks who publicly expose their lies and incitements towards violence. These targets include antifascist researchers, and activists working to help marginalized communities defend against reactionary extremist violence.

Friends, this is about far more than who gets to control the digital clubhouse. What Musk is doing here is helping violent reactionaries erase documented evidence of their (often explicitly criminal) activities from the public record; both going forward, and retroactively. This alone should be a resounding warning alarm for folks who claim to be opposing fascism in the mainstream discourse, but as the article makes clear, this clearly targeted suppression of antifascist activists is also happening at the same time as Musk is inviting openly fascist elements back to his website:

“The irony isn’t lost on us that our suspension coincides with a coordinated effort to reinstate the most vile antisemitic, transphobic hate accounts,” the Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club said in a statement to The Intercept. “Whether this is an indication of the future of leadership of Elon Musk’s running of Twitter, we cannot say but we can say that the timing and reasoning is deliberate and targeted.”

Naturally there will be collaborators, crypto-fascists, and bootlickers who insist that the devil is indeed in the details here. Performing a rhetorical “Ship of Theseus” they protest that Musk is merely combating “extremists” from both sides, while passionately resisting the idea that conducting an anti-trans pogrom amounts to “real fascism.” Pointing to Musk’s suspension of noted anti-Semite, the artist formerly know as Kanye West, they will insist that Musk is opposing “actual Nazis” and anyone who says otherwise is part of a “woke agenda.” The truth is that these folks wouldn’t accept that Musk is a fascist, doing actual fascism, even if he invited the most famous neo-Nazi in America back to Twitter; and I can prove it.

To do just that, let’s take a look at this December 2nd, 2022 blog post by Nikki McCann Ramirez over at Rolling Stone Magazine:

Elon Brings One of America’s Most Prominent Nazis Back to Twitter

Once again, allow me to say “well that certainly escalated quickly.” Can anyone reading along at home think of an innocent reason to reinstate the banned Twitter account of a toxic piece of human dogshit like Andrew Anglin? Anyone at all? Perhaps you have the stomach for convoluted debates about whether or not guys like James Lindsay, Jordan Peterson, and Roger Stone are “strictly” fascists, but there’s absolutely no arguing about Andrew Anglin; the editor of the Daily Stormer is a known neo-Nazi propagandist who preaches eliminationist ideology and incites violence. That’s not speculation, those are legally established facts; and also why Anglin is a man with bench warrants out for his arrest.

Much like our Rec Reads posts, the real value in Ramirez’s article lies in the prodigious number of links she provides inside; I personally could not care less whether or not Musk’s stance is a hypocritical violation of his promise to advertisers that Twitter wouldn’t become “free-for-all hellscape.” Just to make sure we’re all clear on who Musk’s new edition of Twitter welcomes and who it does not however, let’s grab a quick quote from the piece, for posterity if nothing else:

“Anglin has publicly indicated that the goal of his operation and adherence to white nationalist ideology is to “ethnically cleanse White nations of non-Whites and establish an authoritarian government. Many people also believe that the Jews should be exterminated.” Anglin is a staunch supporter of Nazi ideology and regularly espouses Holocaust denail. In 2018, Anglin wrote that he “[hates] women. I think they deserve to be beaten, raped and locked in cages.”

Well, isn’t that just precious? Friends, I don’t know about you but I think any time a billionaire fascist muppet tells you he’s buying a media company to “defend freedom of speech,” you might want to ask questions like “whose freedom,” and “to speak what precisely?” While bougie media influencers banter about the true beliefs and intentions of the world’s richest nazi, an emboldened fascist movement is using Elon Musk’s new toy to transform their hateful rhetoric into the only ideas available on one of the world’s largest social media networks; history will not be kind to those who equivocated for the favor of the powerful in this moment.

This isn’t about social media, or political cliques online folks; and it never was. There are long term consequences for any society that normalizes hate speech and eliminationist ideology, while turning a blind eye towards the suppression of the marginalized and those who would resist a fascist takeover. It literally doesn’t matter whether or not you personally believe Elon Musk bought Twitter to push fascist ideology; his takeover of the platform has resulted in that effect all the same. Politically empowered American fascism didn’t just up and die after the US midterm elections; the Pork Reich is on the march online, and in the streets.

If your feelings about your Twitter account keep you from seeing even that much, what hope do you have of resisting the fascist creep? Personally, I don’t give a damn if you stay, or leave Musk’s smoking crater of a social media service; but don’t tell me it’s not fascism just because you can’t live without the dopamine hits. Elon Musk didn’t spend forty-four billion dollars and counting to harsh your buzz; there’s open fascist fuckery afoot, and it’s high time folks in positions of power admitted that. Retweeting our way to into a reactionary authoritarian nightmare is a choice; people, especially public figures, who make that choice should at least be required to admit as much in our discourse.