Showing posts with label left wing Youtube. Show all posts
Showing posts with label left wing Youtube. Show all posts

Monday, October 4, 2021

Film Sessions: Crypto-Fascism and a Modern "Shirt Group"

 


Editor's note: welcome back to Film Sessions; our quasi-regular feature here on Media Madness in which I share, analyze and expand on a relevant video created by someone on the left wing of YouTube.


What Is Crypto-Fascism?

As I briefly alluded to in the latest edition of In the Aggregate, chasing down and debunking the deceptions, dog whistles, and coded language inherent to all fascist propaganda efforts is an exhausting, if still wholly necessary exercise. This type of antifascist effort is necessary because fascists lie relentlessly and habitually. Furthermore, debunking these lies can be exhausting because fascist propagandists spend seemingly half of their waking lives finding new and convoluted ways to lie, or at least evade detection while promoting fascist ideology and political activities.

Why would they go through all that trouble? Well, consider the situation from the odious perspective of the fascist "intellectual" or content creator for just a moment. Ultimately your goal is to build power by uniting politics with violence, and you accomplish that by recruiting more and more fascists, while eroding democratic structures. This is however, no simple task. Given fascism's history of racking up truly astronomical body counts through mass violence and genocide, as well as the fact that its adherents typically end up dead in a muddy ditch once a fascist regime eats itself, it's actually pretty hard to just come right out and say "hello, we're the nazis!" If you do that, people might stomp you out before you achieve any of your goals.

The obvious solution to this problem is to lie about, or otherwise obfuscate your ideology, and especially your long term political goals. Unfortunately for the fascist propagandist however, this activity creates its own set of complications. After all, if you lie too well, the reactionary lumpen you're trying to recruit may literally lose the plot. This ultimately requires you to communicate your ideas and intentions in a coded, almost encrypted way, that obviously signals to brainwormed fascist thugs you're on the same side, while simultaneously generating plausible deniability in what might be called "respectable discourse." This is then the essence of what we call "crypto-fascism."   

Crucially (for the fascists,) this type of encrypted "double speak" gives them a structural advantage when competing with Pig Empire liberals for influence and power; particularly in the public discourse. After all, the liberal devotion to capitalism and its inherently reactionary consequences, means they're already playing their own game of "Simon Says" built around coded language and an odious, deadly ideology. If however the target of this rhetoric understands the nature of the dog-whistles, as both the anti-fascist left and marginalized folks the fascists are trying to intimidate often do, this structural advantage is lost and the nazis are exposed for the pathetic hatemongers they objectively are.


A Case Study in Crypto-Fascism

The key then becomes understanding the coded camoflauge various fascists use to promote and propagate their ideology. This is unfortunately complicated by the fact that there are a dizzying number of hate groups, propagandists, and fascist "intellectuals" working on new ways to express these ideas all the time. The good news for anti-fascists however, is that virtually all of these obfuscations must conform to certain themes and ideas inherent to the fascist worldview; if you learn the themes, you can break down the code in real time. I'm confident that today's highlighted video can help us get a better handle on understanding this type of fascist bafflegab.

Produced by YouTube creator Renegade Cut (otherwise known as Leon Thomas,) this fifty minute video essay explores the history, activities, and ideological motivations of the Proud Boys. If you are lucky enough that you somehow haven't heard of the Proud Boys, they are a nationwide crypto-fascist gang with surprisingly close ties to the right-wing establishment in America, who engage in political violence and intimidation to protect and project white supremacist and nationalist political policies, standards, and ideas. They are quite literally a fascist shirt group, and would have been recognized as such in the America of the 1930s.

There are also however, a great many intellectually-stunted thug reactionaries who are quite demonstrably not the brightest individuals in America. This means that the crypto part of their crypto-fascist obfuscations cannot afford to be particularly complicated; otherwise the pinheads who ultimately join groups like the Proud Boys wouldn't understand the appeal. I'd personally describe the Proud Boys' ideology as "bog standard neo-nazi garbage that crudely substitutes the word 'nationalism' for 'fascism' and the term 'western culture' for 'white people' to spread reactionary and hateful ideology." These guys are literally "Fascism for Dummies", and their ideology represents a sort of lowest common denominator in American fascist thought. This in turn makes them an ideal training subject case for folks who're learning to recognize crypto-fascist ideology in the wild as it were.

In today's feature presentation, our presenter does all the legwork by taking you deep inside the guts of the Proud Boys organization. Examining both investigative journalism, and the words of the Proud Boys themselves, Thomas guides us on a journey to answer a plethora of important questions about who these reactionary thugs are, and what they ultimately represent. Who started the Proud Boys, and why? How does the gang's crypto-fascist code work? What do they really mean by "western chauvinist?" How are the Proud Boys able to utilize token minorities to hide their fascist nature? Who is Henry "Enrique" Tarrio, really? Who actually leads the Proud Boys? Why is the gang inextricably tied to the Trump movement? Given their legal troubles, are the Proud Boys finished, and if not, why are they still dangerous?

For the answer to these questions, aspiring scholars of fascism, fascist politics, and crypto-fascism are encouraged to check out "The Violent Rise of the Proud Boys" from Renegade Cut by clicking on the header or the video box below:  


The Violent Rise of the Proud Boys on YouTube


(Unfortunately, this video is age restricted on YouTube; likely because in describing the Proud Boys, one is unavoidably required to mention fascist political violence. I assure you, there's nothing particularly adult about this video - to watch just click through "watch this on YouTube" in the box above.)


Additional Resources

Rengade Cut Youtube Channel

Leon Thomas Twitter

MAGA and Fascism by Renegade Cut

Film Sessions "Where Do We Go From Here?"

 Listening for Dog-Whistles

A Brief History of Fascist Lies

Film Sessions: And All The King's Men

Proud Boys Are Still Violent, Despite Legal Woes

Alt-Right Playbook: How to Radicalize a Normie

We May Be One Election From Permanent Minority Rule

Is Glenn Greenwald the New Master of Right-Wing Media?

Neo-Nazis & White Supremacists Are Coding Language To Recruit

Why American Fascism Never Dies

It Happened Here

How fascism has converged with capitalism to redefine government

Neo-Fascism, Or The Political Logic Of Neoliberalism

Neoliberalism is a form of fascism

Neoliberal Fascism and the Twilight of the Social

Neoliberalism is Fascism with Better Manners

How to Recognize Right-wing Dog Whistles and Symbols, From Viking Hats to Flags

Investigating the Contours of a “Broad Fascist Movement” in the U.S.

A Guided Tour of the Racist, Crypto-Fascist “Alt-Right” By Breitbart News

How White Extremists Teach Kids to Hate

Eternal Fascism: Fourteen Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt

SPLC entry for Proud Boys

Trump's useful thugs: how the Republican party offered a home to the Proud Boys

Conspiracy Charges Bring Proud Boys' History Of Violence Into Spotlight

Proud Boys are a dangerous 'white supremacist' group say US agencies

The United States was never immune to fascism. Not then, not now

Proud Boys Failed to Redact Bylaws & Accidentally Doxxed Their 'Elders'

How Hate Goes ‘Mainstream’: Gavin McInnes and the Proud Boys

Know Your Fash: The Proud Boys are Dangerous

Inside the Demon Factory

The Rise and Fall of the Proud Boys

Pride & Prejudice: The Violent Evolution of the Proud Boys

The Secret History of Gavin McInnes

Gavin McInnes Said His Proud Boys Were Built for Violence

Who are the Proud Boys, 'western chauvinists' involved in political violence?

Trumpism, the Proud Boys, and the Extremist Allure for People of Color

Florida Man Goes Fascist: An Encounter With Enrique Tarrio

Proud Boys leader was ‘prolific’ informer for law enforcement

Proud Boys celebrate Trump’s ‘stand by’ remark about them at the debate

Cellphone Data Ties Proud Boy With Trump White House Before Capitol Riot

After Arrests And Setbacks, Far-Right Proud Boys Press New Ambitions

Portland gunfight fuels alarm over growing use of weapons at rallies


- nina illingworth


Anarcho-syndicalist writer, critic, and analyst. 

You can find my work at NIDCCan’t You ReadMedia Madness and my Patreon Blog

Updates available on TwitterInstagramMastodon and Facebook. Podcast at “No Fugazi” on Soundcloud.

Inquiries and requests to speak to the manager @ASNinaWrites

Chat with fellow readers online at Anarcho Nina Writes on Discord!

“It’s ok Willie; swing heil, swing heil…”


Wednesday, May 19, 2021

Film Sessions: Capitalism and a World on Boil

 

Editor's note: welcome back to Film Sessions; our quasi-regular feature here on Media Madness in which I share, analyze and expand on a relevant video created by someone on the left wing of YouTube.


Capitalism Is Incompatible With Survival

Back in early February of this year, I featured a video about the ongoing minimum wage debate in American politics by YouTube creator JT Chapman, otherwise known by the moniker "Second Thought." As I noted then, Chapman's work features an extremely high production quality, his essays are always jam packed with information, and the presentation is both articulate, as well as quickly paced; a quality I appreciate greatly. In fact, the only real problem here, and the major reason I haven't featured more Second Thought mini-documentary videos on Film Sessions, is that most of them are so damn short - I can say with some experience that it's surprisingly difficult to crank out a thousand word analysis of a seven minute video you almost entirely agree with.

Over the past couple weeks however, Chapman has released consecutive, interrelated video essays about climate catastrophe as it pertains to capitalism, and its handmaiden imperialism respectively. In response, I'm going to change up our format a little bit here on Film Sessions and group these two videos together with a third, slightly older video about why the origins of our climate crisis don't actually matter to our survival as a species, into a single analysis essay. To facilitate organized reading, I'll put my analysis under each embedded video and then lump all the additional resources and citations into a footer at the bottom.

As always you can check these presentations out on YouTube by clicking the headers above each video, or simply watch inside the embedded boxes below.


Why Capitalism Can't Handle Climate Change



At this point I strongly suspect that anyone reading this is already well aware of the statistical boundaries of the problem humans, and pretty much all other living creatures on Earth, are now facing down in terms of climate catastrophe. The situation is, to put it politely, extremely f*cking bad. Furthermore the problem is rapidly going to get much worse, our models may have underestimated just how horrifying the effects of boiling the planet might actually be, and we have precious few years to completely alter human energy production before any number of tipping points are reached. Despite the paid ravings of fossil fuel propagandists, our shared Earth is quite simply a planet on the brink, and the primary culprit is of course our old friend capitalism.

Given these unarguable realities, you might be tempted to say the obvious solution here is to get rid of capitalism to help save all life on Earth; and you'd be right. Unfortunately, but perhaps unsurprisingly, rich capitalists and most of the Pig Empire governments they control do not agree. While a more thorough discussion of the subject is somewhat beyond the scope of this essay, it is sufficient for our purposes here to note that virtually all serious ruling class action on climate catastrophe is currently being filtered through the completely unworkable rubric of  so-called "green capitalism."

In fact green capitalism is itself, a part of the problem. Even as we speak, trillions upon trillions of dollars are currently be funneled to private capital, for the sole purpose of subsidizing the profit margins of the very same companies and investors who caused the climate crisis, while we transition away from fossil fuel production; money that could be spent on simply saving the planet instead. The primary barrier here is neither public will, nor technological advancement; we can stop burning fossil fuels today, but we can't produce clean energy cheap enough to make pursuing alternatives "competitive" with oil and gas profits for the private sector.

The bald truth is that a our capitalist society is incompatible both ideologically, and practically, with our shared goal of preventing climate catastrophe; as Second Thought demonstrates succinctly in the above twelve minute video. Touching on concepts like the profit motive, and infinite growth, as well as his own personal experiences with the deregulated Texas energy sector, Chapman effectively eviscerates the self-defeating trap that is green capitalism, while pointing out the incompatibility of massive infrastructure spending with a near fully-privatized economic model. While much of the content in this video is also covered in the links above, our presenter also offers up a recommendation to a companion video that's worth checking out: Why Capitalism is Killing Us (And The Planet) by Our Changing Climate.


Let's Talk About Human Influence On Climate Change



Of course, understanding and accepting the relationship between capitalism and climate catastrophe doesn't mean much if you're unaware of how serious that catastrophe is. In this July 31st, 2020 video, Chapman offers an extremely brief overview of why climate crisis is definitely real, what sorts of catastrophic effects boiling the planet is likely to have, and why it fundamentally doesn't matter if you believe the obvious truth that climate change is primarily being caused by human activity.

For bonus points, folks still on the fence about climate catastrophe should check out this Second Thought video explaining why Exxon is probably the reason you sound like a dangerous idiot. Alternately, you could just look out your window. Although some of the material included here is also incorporated into the first video we looked at, our presenter's focus on what a world in climate crisis will look like, sets up our next video about climate-induced water imperialism.


The Water Wars Are Coming



While it's true that some combination of statistics, scientific testimony, and the growing absurdity of climate science denial has convinced mainstream media outlets like The Guardian to report extensively on the biological and economic effects of climate crisis, there remains very little public discussion of the political ramifications involved here. While it hardly takes a genius to realize climate catastrophe is already affecting elections globally, there remain far more sinister knock on effects that rarely break into the mainstream discourse. As I've already discussed in an earlier article for example, one of the driving motivators behind the rise of fascism in the Pig Empire is increasing resource scarcity; a problem obviously exacerbated by climate catastrophe.

In our final video, we find Chapman delving into one of these rarely-discussed, sinister knock on effects of bringing the whole planet to a boil; specifically water imperialism. Simply put, rising temperatures and demand are stressing the global supply of usable water. As our presenter notes; given that less than one percent of the water on earth is consumable fresh water, and the vast majority of that comes from a mere five river systems globally, access to that water is quite literally a matter of life or death. Indeed, this competitive struggle for water is already a reality in some of the areas most affected by climate change, such as Africa and the Middle East

Of course, these conflicts are currently localized outside of the imperial core, and numerous mainstream observers remain skeptical that water imperialism is a serious threat. When even U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is openly admitting future wars will be fought over water instead of oil however, you can bet your bottom dollar that Uncle Sam believes it's real. Furthermore, as history has demonstrated quite thoroughly, when nations find it necessary to control and monopolize a vital strategic resource, Pig Empire governments have no qualms about unleashing their powerful war machines to do so. In light of the intricate relationships between capitalism, imperialism, fascism and climate catastrophe, the water wars do indeed seem inevitable.

That is of course unless we all unite together to smash capitalism and end climate catastrophe, before that happens. No sweat, right?

 

Additional Resources


Second Thought Youtube Channel

JT Chapman Twitter

Why Capitalism is Killing Us (Our Changing Climate)

We have 12 years to limit climate change catastrophe, warns UN

As Climate Change Worsens, A Cascade of Tipping Points Looms



The New Climate Normal: Capitalism is Killing the Planet

Here’s Why Capitalism Can’t Fix Climate Change

Ending climate change requires the end of capitalism

Socialism is the only realistic solution to climate change

What If Preventing Collapse Isn’t Profitable?

Greenwashing Capitalism Won’t Heal the Planet

Capitalism Killed Our Climate Momentum, Not “Human Nature”

They pollute, you pay: why profit doesn’t equal progress

The climate crisis solutions we need are already here

The Case for Climate Reparations

Neoliberalism has conned us into fighting climate change as individuals

To Counter Climate Change, We Need to Stop Burning Things

What a Burning World Tells Us About Climate Change

"Relentless" climate crisis intensified in 2020, says UN report

No Stopping Climate Change, But How Bad It Gets Is Still Up To Us

Everything Is F*cked, Major New Extinction Report Finds

Is climate change an “existential threat” — or just a catastrophic one?

Climate Paper So Depressing It's Sending People to Therapy

Global Warming is Happening and Humans are the Primary Cause

Climate change: Where we are in 7 charts & what you can do to help

What Does The Sixth Mass Extinction Mean For Humans?

The Climate Crisis Will Be Steroids for Fascism

Only a Green New Deal Can Douse the Fires of Eco-Fascism

Climate crisis: our children face wars over food & water EU deputy warns

Water wars: using climate data to predict conflict hotspots

Where will the 'water wars' of the future be fought?

Why Australia Is Ground Zero For Climate Catastrophe

How Exxon Deceived The World (But Not Their Investors)

How Cruise Ships Are Destroying The World

Capitalism, Climate Crisis & the Rise of Fascism in the Pig Empire


nina illingworth


Independent writer, critic and analyst with a left focus. Please help me fight corporate censorship by sharing my articles with your friends online!

You can find my work at ninaillingworth.comCan’t You ReadMedia Madness and my Patreon Blog

Updates available on InstagramMastodon and Facebook. Podcast at “No Fugazi” on Soundcloud.

Inquiries and requests to speak to the manager @ASNinaWrites

Chat with fellow readers online at Anarcho Nina Writes on Discord!

“It’s ok Willie; swing heil, swing heil…”


Saturday, May 1, 2021

Film Sessions: The Hate Nerd with Thought Slime

 

Editor's note: welcome back to Film Sessions; our quasi-regular feature here on Media Madness in which I share, analyze and expand on a relevant video created by someone on the left wing of YouTube. 


Nick Fuentes Should Be In Jail Though

As you may have heard recently, perhaps even from everyone's favorite crypto-Strasserist online media personality, noted insurrection enthusiast and white nationalist provocateur Nick Fuentes is claiming that he's been placed on the U.S. government's "no-fly" list, presumably as retaliation for his, um, political commentary. You might remember the "no-fly" list as an authoritarian relic of the War on Terror that was typically applied in an extremely racist manner to restrict the movement of Muslims in America; most of whom were in fact U.S. residents, and some of whom were mere infants at the time. Given these known facts about the no-fly list, you might also be surprised to learn that yes, it still exists; even though we know it doesn't work and is habitually abused. It is in short, an extremely bullshit form of security theater that probably should have been abolished a long time ago; regardless of the current row with Fuentes.

Perhaps then you will not be surprised to learn that Fuentes' claims about being placed on the no fly list, immediately lead to widespread calls to protect his civil liberties across a broad spectrum of the fascist and fascist-curious reactionary right; including outlets like Andy Ngo's Post Millennial, the Tucker Carlson show on Fox News, and of course, Glenn Greenwald. This hue and cry in turn has lead some portions of the online left to question whether or not responsible opposition to the clearly authoritarian no-fly list, would require one to defend someone as odious as Nick Fuentes; an issue we will return to in a moment.

Of course, it must be noted here that there is some doubt about whether or not Fuentes actually has been placed on the so-called "no fly" list; he's provided a short video on Twitter as proof, but this is in fact something he's been accused of lying about before. Furthermore there is at least some evidence that Fuentes is currently under some type of investigation by the FBI, and the internet is full of video clips featuring this little hate troll threatening to murder airline stewardesses if they ask him to don a mask because of Covid-19 concerns. Maybe the reason Nick can't get on a plane is because the airlines themselves would rather not have him as a passenger; who can say? 

Truthfully, I can't answer that question, so I won't waste any more time speculating on it here. What I am going to do however is present you with a twenty-two minute video published by anarchist YouTube creator Thought Slime, and in doing so answer some key questions about the larger debate surrounding Fuentes. You may recall Thought Slime's work from our December 2020 Film Sessions post looking at their emotionally satisfying video "Oligarchs Will Let The World Burn," or perhaps my recent essay about online crypto-fascism "The Enemy of My Enemy Is Still a Fascist, Actually," in which I featured Thought Slime's video essay "The Boogaloo Boys: A meme that kills people."  

So what kind of questions are we talking about answering here? How about things like "just who the fuck is Nick Fuentes," or "where did this goddamn muppet come from," and why does this discount Matt Gaetz-looking dipshit matter at all?" Although I don't want to spoil too much of the video, let's offer up some back of the napkin answers to these three basic queries:

Naturally, our YouTube video essayist delves into each of these topics in more detail over the course of this presentation, but given the reason we're even talking about Nick Fuentes today, it's that last point I'd like to focus in on here for a moment. Look, I know it can be hard to take Fuentes seriously because he's a walking meme with ginormous hands and extremely weird hobbies for a fascist. The problem is that despite all this Nick is still a very real danger to not only marginalized communities, but basically anyone who isn't also a white nationalist with open fascist beliefs. Furthermore, this is only partially because of his ability to spew hateful and eliminationist rhetoric; despite his bizarre game of Simon Says provocation, Fuentes also appears to be criminally responsible for inciting a violent insurrection attempt, election interference, and encouraging his devotees to obstruct a federal investigation into the January 6th, Capitol Hill riot by destroying their phones.

In other words, even by the extremely permissive standards of the "defend free speech for nazis" brigade online, Fuentes isn't a victim of political repression so much as a guy engaged in criminal acts of inciting violence; which means this isn't a civil liberties issue at all, and pretending otherwise ultimately makes one a party to those acts - at least from a moral perspective. Even setting aside the fact that Fuentes probably isn't on the no-fly list, the hard truth here is that whatever harm preventing this muppet from stepping on an airplane causes to political freedom in the United States, is more than offset by the harm reduction accomplished by simply not defending and legitimizing a shithead like Nick Fuentes with "civil liberties" arguments on his behalf; especially from the "left." Frankly I'm inclined to believe it's probably always a bad idea to cry tears of outrage for fascist criminals who sincerely want to kill you for political reasons, but as always your mileage may vary.

While I'm certain that staring deeply into the abyss that is the mind of Nick Fuentes has by no means made you happier, I hope this mini-essay and Thought Slime's video will demonstrate to you why you shouldn't let yourself get roped into defending this human piece of fascist dogshit by nazis arguing in bad faith. You can check out "Nick Fuentes is the Hate Nerdby clicking the header below, or watching the embedded video itself:


Know Your Fash: Nick Fuentes is the Hate Nerd



Additional Resources






















nina illingworth


Independent writer, critic and analyst with a left focus. Please help me fight corporate censorship by sharing my articles with your friends online!

You can find my work at ninaillingworth.comCan’t You ReadMedia Madness and my Patreon Blog

Updates available on InstagramMastodon and Facebook. Podcast at “No Fugazi” on Soundcloud.

Inquiries and requests to speak to the manager @ASNinaWrites

Chat with fellow readers online at Anarcho Nina Writes on Discord!

“It’s ok Willie; swing heil, swing heil…”