I Found HanAssholeSolo's anti-Semitic Posts. Then, the Death Threats Started.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Hat tip, JoeMyGod: http://www.joemygod.com/2017/07/07/reporter-uncovered-creator-trumpcnn-video-details-many-death-threats-hes-since-received/

I Found HanAssholeSolo’s anti-Semitic Posts. Then, the Death Threats Started.
This is what it’s like to report on extremism in the Trump era.
By JARED YATES SEXTON July 06, 2017

It took only a few minutes to figure out that HanAssholeSolo, the person behind President Donald Trump’s most retweeted tweet, had also used racial slurs and posted derogatory comments about Muslims. Then, there was the one that caused all the problems: a thread titled “Something Strange About CNN…can’t quite put my finger on it…,” with a graphic of dozens of the network’s talents with tiny blue Stars of David.

Shared more than 300,000 times, and the subject of debate over whether it inspired violence against the media, HanAssholeSolo’s animated GIF reengineered Trump’s 2007 WrestleMania appearance into a living, breathing political cartoon in which the ostensible leader of the free world clotheslined a man with the CNN logo for a face and then proceeded to beat him with his fists. Allies argued it was a joke and all in good fun, but the post I uncovered painted it in a new, more sinister, light.

My reporting on the Stars of David meme quickly went viral. At this moment it’s been shared more than 14,000 times by the likes of CNN’s own Jake Tapper and MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, who’s had his own run-ins with the president as of late. In the past, when a post or story of mine has garnered that much attention, I’ve always dealt with the inevitable criticism and harassment that follows. Sure enough, it wasn’t far behind.

Before the hour was up, I was receiving messages from the usual customers: anonymous accounts with Pepe avatars and bios declaring themselves “ethnonationalists” and “white identitarians.” Despite my Southern Baptist upbringing, they assumed I was Jewish because I’d uncovered anti-Semitism, and so the threats and memes predictably featured pictures of Adolf Hitler, scenes from the Holocaust and other anti-Semitic garbage. I was peppered with the usual slurs and insults before a user calling his or herself “Pepe’s Imam” told me: “There’s a civil war coming, leftist. Memes are the least of your problems.”
....

Jared Yates Sexton is a writer, academic and journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Republic and elsewhere. He currently serves as assistant professor of creative writing at Georgia Southern University and his book The People Are Going To Rise Like The Waters Upon Your Shore: A Story of American Rage will be published by Counterpoint in September 2017.

[Behind the Aegis]

1. I am glad he was somewhat prepared for the onslaught.

I know journalists get lots of shit every time they write/publish/report a story which draws a strong reaction, but when it comes to anti-Semitism, it draws out the long knives, so to speak. While stories about anti-Semitism rarely generate traffic (or even interest) on the left, it is quite the burr under the saddle of the right, who, like the left, mistakenly believe because they "support" Israel, they love Jews. The far-right is by far the worse, they enjoy being anti-Semites, even being called out for it, but almost always start in with threats and, sometimes, acts of violence. The right/conservatives are more nuanced, but generally will get whipped up in a frenzy and start pulling their "some of my best friends" routine, when their "best friend" is actually Israel. Centrists, both versions, are a bit harder to predict. Liberals simply ignore the allegations, like they often do with stories about anti-Semitism, though, if Jews are going to find support, it is usually from members of this camp. The far-left are as predictable as the far-right, must be the extremist nature. They will howl about "false accusations", make claims it is only "anti-Zionism", or, like the right again, pull the "some of my best friends are" card, but unlike the right, they probably do have a few Jewish friends, usually zealots like themselves.

Jews make for an easy target because most people don't know any Jews, know little about Judaism and anti-Semitism, and anti-Semitic stereotypes are so engrained in society, people have an easy time passing over acts of anti-Semitism as inconsequential.

It will get worse until people take a stand with us. It will get worse until this nightmare "president", his VP, and his administration are relegated to the dustbin of history!

[ResistantAmerican17]

2. But it's the liberals who are the violent ones, right?

I swear I'm gonna verbally unload on the next repugnant piece of shit that tries that line.

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. Those clowns have gotten all brave & shit since that guy shot the gop guy in washington.

They aren't brave at all, it's all about, "I'd do it if I didn't get caught" kind of bullshit.