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JHan

(10,173 posts)
Sat Oct 13, 2018, 03:20 PM Oct 2018

The Proudboys

The Metropolitan Republican Club invited The Proud Boys to one of their gatherings, and of course, violence ensued:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211275374

This is a photo of them, all proud to be fucking idiots. Note that they're using, and ruining for sane people everywhere else, the A-okay hand gesture the alt-right has twisted into a symbol of supremacy to TrOlLtEhLiBz



There are also a few brown faces, which doesn't surprise me. Their presence doesn't change the fact this is a hate group. Ideas can unite people from different backgrounds, whether those ideas are anti-establishment, misogynistic, anti-immigrant or racist.

The Daily Beast looked into this about a month ago:

David Neiwert, author of Alt-America: The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump, says, “The ranks of people of color who show up to these right-wing events are totally dominated by males.” He says the alt-right targets white males between the ages of 15 and 30 with a message of male resentment, which ends up attracting black, Latino, and Asian men as well.

Neiwert says many young men of color in the far-right grew up on conservative traditions common in minority communities. Their journey to the far-right has been enabled by the ease of recruitment in the internet age and the endorsement of extremism by Trump.

Entry points to the far-right include male-dominated video-game culture, the anti-feminist gamergate, troll havens on 4chan and 8chan, and the conspiracism that flourishes on websites like Infowars. Libertarianism is another gateway.

“A lot of these young guys,” Neiwert says, “especially from the software world, who are being sucked into white nationalism, start out being worked up about Ayn Rand in high school.”


I mean, I just use Ayn Rand as a feeler for figuring out who not to date.

So who are The Proud Boys?

Gavin McInnes, co-founder of Vice, left Vice in 2008 because of "creative differences". Since then he's forged a far right/alt-right path culminating in the creation of The Proud Boys in 2016. He's the sort of Supremacist in the vein of Mike Cernovich and Stefan Molyneaux- rather than flaunt his anti-semitism and racism outright like most unapologetic white supremacists, he opts instead to veil his bigotry with coded language. When faced with accusations of racism, he uses his marriage to a woman with Indian Ancestry and their children as his get out of jail free card.

These are the core tenets at the heart of being a "Proud Boy", a mash-up of reactionary garbage.



"Minimum Government"
- this really means a rejection of social and economic justice and a rejection of checks and balances.

"maximum freedom"
- which exists nowhere, It's a pipe dream fueled by Libertarian delusions about what freedom actually means. Without checks and balances, the powerful will use their freedom to dominate with impunity. "Maximum freedom" allows those with more power to impose their will on the less powerful. Always. "Maximum freedom" isn't even feudalism, it's barbarism.

"Anti-racism" and "Anti-racial guilt"
- where "White guilt" is deliberately conflated with a collective responsibility we should all share to improve quality of life, so people are not targeted and discriminated against because of their immutable traits. "Anti-racial guilt" is a rejection of introspection. And the alt-right, which this group aligns itself to, cares about race a whole lot so "anti-racism" is also a lie. The politics they support are the politics of anti-immigrant rhetoric, poor shaming and race-baiting. It is the politics of voter suppression and undoing every bit of progress that was made to address racism in America.

"pro free speech" / "anti-political correctness"
- what they really mean is speech and behavior without consequence and without challenge.

"pro-2nd Amendment,"
- where they reveal their delusional fantasy of overthrowing the government. It also means intimidating those less powerful or those they hate with juvenile displays of machismo - like open carrying in a restaurant like a fucking moron.

"Glorifying the Entrepreneur"
Here's a spock gif addressing this very serious problem:


"Venerating the Housewife"
- a call to revert to traditionalism, where a woman's role in life is to be subservient to men. The only acceptable sort of woman for a Proudboy is a traditional woman who submits to them.

"Western Chauvinism"
- so let's be real. The reasons these people like "the west" have nothing to do with freedom, access to opportunity, or some of the liberal ideas which improved our quality of life - like the Civil Rights Act. The Proud Boys get to decide the Western Culture they like....... which they'll use as a cudgel against those they demonize. This is all about dominance.
17 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Croney

(4,657 posts)
3. Venerating the housewife? Barefoot and pregnant
Sat Oct 13, 2018, 03:35 PM
Oct 2018

in the kitchen, struggling with one income, treated like shit. Just buy a blow-up doll and eat at your mom's, if she'll let you in the door, you worthless jerks.

JHan

(10,173 posts)
4. for real.. I do think they have myriad mommy issues
Sat Oct 13, 2018, 03:51 PM
Oct 2018

this gem from Molyneaux is a treat.



hahaha how dare they put a fictional woman on a tin of pasta. Omfg.

HOW DARE they put a fictional woman in a fictional dude's costume. Only cucks kissing SJW ass defend this horror



BigmanPigman

(51,569 posts)
5. A group of Proud Boys came to San Diego from LA
Sat Oct 13, 2018, 03:52 PM
Oct 2018

to disrupt an Impeachment rally about a year ago. They incited violence and the sheriffs stood there and watched. When one of the speakers (a former city councilman) called the chief of police the sheriffs finally separated them from our group which was 100% peaceful and didn't fall for their lame taunts.

BigmanPigman

(51,569 posts)
16. They wouldn't have if the chief of police wasn't called by a city official.
Sun Oct 14, 2018, 01:18 AM
Oct 2018

I find that if you smile and show the "peace sign" they are disarmed. They look so sad when they can't bait you....poor little proud boys had to leave without a single fight.

trc

(823 posts)
7. Remember that the right proclaimed this particular hand gesture
Sat Oct 13, 2018, 04:07 PM
Oct 2018

was a troll of the left and really didn't mean anything? I would like to see that lie revisited by the press after this event is fully exposed. Nazi salute anyone?

Amishman

(5,554 posts)
12. it started as a troll by 4chan, we were suckered in, the right adopted it
Sat Oct 13, 2018, 04:40 PM
Oct 2018

and now the joke has become real

stranger than fiction

JHan

(10,173 posts)
15. That it started in 4chan shouldn't be overlooked.
Sun Oct 14, 2018, 01:16 AM
Oct 2018

One of the seeds of the alt-right movement was 4chan itself - a breeding ground for online reactionaries.

"Reddit and the chans, with their male-centric and game-ified trolling cultures, gave birth to the bastard child that is the alt-right. That nazi-who-gets-punched actually hit on something when he said that neo-Nazis don't like him. We're dealing with a very different demographic. The geek alt-right stuff is not coming from the uneducated rural working-class whites - it is coming from educated white nerds. "

Far from being suckered in, liberals who noted these trends were on to something and unfortunately dismissed as being hysterical. We're dealing with dysfunctional people who get high off of trolling, they don't care what symbols they use. They ruined Pepe the frog, and now a common hand gesture for kicks. Their impetus in all cases is hate.

10. CW: image
Sat Oct 13, 2018, 04:19 PM
Oct 2018

I read this story and was reminded of this photo:



“Jewish woman chased by men and youth armed with clubs during the Lviv pogroms,1941.”

More background on the event and photo here: https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/jewish-woman-chased-men-youth-armed-clubs-lviv-pogroms-1941/

jmowreader

(50,533 posts)
11. You missed one and blew off another
Sat Oct 13, 2018, 04:31 PM
Oct 2018

"Anti-drug war" and "Glorifying the entrepreneur."

What they really mean is a lot of them are supporting themselves through the manufacture and sale of currently-illegal drugs, and many more are working in constant fear that someone's going to inform their employers as to how terrible they are, and they'll be fired. On the other hand, they have no problem with the drug war being continued against people they don't like - liberals, nonwhites and non-subservient women. These tie into the "pro-free speech" and "anti-political correctness" statements.

As to the "pro-gun rights" and "pro-free speech" things, they're only for white people. You know they'd demand the forced dissolution of the Huey P. Newton Gun Club if they could get away with it.

JHan

(10,173 posts)
13. The glorifying the entrepreneur thing was so dumb I could only muster a gif for it.
Sat Oct 13, 2018, 04:48 PM
Oct 2018

"On the other hand, they have no problem with the drug war being continued against people they don't like - liberals, nonwhites and non-subservient women. These tie into the "pro-free speech" and "anti-political correctness" statements.

As to the "pro-gun rights" and "pro-free speech" things, they're only for white people. You know they'd demand the forced dissolution of the Huey P. Newton Gun Club if they could get away with it."

This^^.

Well said.

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