1/ A long thread on memes, extremism, #Diagalon, and the proliferation of hate across Convoy circles. At the #POEC, Jeremy Mackenzie claimed that Diagalon was a meme, as he has for months. The implication is that Diagalon is EITHER a threat OR a meme--memes aren't a threat.
2/ #Diagalon is both a meme country AND a threat. Meme-ifying extremism is not new--it really took off around 2014 with GamerGate and Trump. And the absurdity to those on the outside is what insulates memes. Silly cartoon frogs and clowns and baby talk can’t be serious, right?
3/ Mackenize & associates like Alex Vriend (The Ferryman’s Toll) are Extremely Online. They speak 4chan, the dot WIN network & subreddits that have been banned for years. The language is codified among the Extremely Online but it's not always recognizable as hate to the normies.
4/ Many people have covered weaponized satire in far-right extremism and these articles cover much more than we can fit into a tweet:
- vice.com/en/article/wx5…
- theguardian.com/technology/201…
- home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/networks/radic…
- splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017…
5/ In this excellent piece[1] Andrew Anglin, founder of the neo-Nazi blog The Daily Stormer is quoted at stating that the goal of the site’s aesthetics and culture are “Non-ironic Nazism masquerading as ironic Nazism.” Let's take a look at #Diagalon!
[1]datasociety.net/library/media-…
6/ A common term in #Diagalon-affiliated Telegram channels is “fren.” Fren started in 4chan but really took off in the now-banned subreddit r/frenworld. Users posted memes of a variant of Pepe the Frog using baby talk. It was a lot of barely disguised white supremacy and fascism.
7/ A fren is a white person or someone sympathetic to the alt-right. Frenler is Hitler. A nosefren or shecklefren is a Jewish person. A frenostate is an ethnostate. Bop generally means kill or remove, and many posts used the lines “Bop the nosefren” or “Bop the non-fren.”
8/ Another common meme on #Diagalon channels is Clown Pepe/Honkler. It’s part of the same Pepe universe as Frenworld and like both, it started on 4chan and grew on the also-banned subreddit r/ClownWorldWar.
9/ The same clown can represent “degenerates” (trans people, leftists, etc), the mega cope and nihilism of tolerating “degenerate” values to fit into society, or someone taking action against “degeneracy," depending on context. But you have to know the group to get the context.
10/ In #Diagalon’s BC chapter Telegram channel, users discussed an upcoming event featuring PM Trudeau in Surrey, which the PM ultimately skipped. A user posted a meme of Honkler driving a semi, a common meme implying that Honkler was running over a “degenerate.”
11/ Honkler memes are still popular in many Convoy groups. The Honkler term “Honk Honk” originated as meme-speak for Heil Hitler, which is wild to see on Convoy signs all over Parliament Hill and around the country. (see: antihate.ca/_honk_honk_ant…)
12/ The Ferryman's Toll prolifically posts fake news: fake stories/tweets altered to look legitimate. As with memes, they want to support their ideology and trick people into believing the stories, but when they're called out, they can't believe someone would fall for the joke.
13/ One fake story and tweet targeted PM Trudeau's child, which circulated through Convoy Telegram. Of the channels we're in, only one single user pushed back. Even then, the poster said, “I do not know [where the post came from], someone sent me, but why not, thats believable.”
14/ Memes/fake news are meant to be shared with outside groups without context. Inside Dag channels, fake news is posted beside real news, memes beside serious posts. This is dangerous in spaces that discourage critical thinking & hinge in-group membership on ideological purity.
15/ But many #Diagalon-related posts are just straight-up serious fascism. There’s fashwave.[1] There's white supremacy. There are shares from neo-Nazi channels. They come very close to just blatantly saying the 14 Words.[2]
[1]splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017…
[2]adl.org/resources/hate…
16/ The alt- and far-right wield satire and "it's just a joke brah" as a shield--and it works. If you give someone a chance to call hate speech "satire," they're going to call hate speech "satire" & walk away. That's the point. They've built an escape hatch into consequences.
17/ Example: the far-right subreddit r/metacanada was ostensibly space to shitpost around PC culture & troll libs. But under the cartoon frogs and clowns was serious hate & bigotry. The sub actively supported & engaged with white nationalists like Faith Goldy and Lauren Southern.
18/ Far/alt-right "jokes" end up in terrorist manifestos.[1] The Christchurch terrorist (in part inspired by Lauren Southern) names memes and people being passed around Diagalon and Convoy social media. Bissonnette & Minassian were radicalized online.
[1]start.umd.edu/news/new-zeala…
19/ The @Reddit user u/Seattle4Truth murdered his father for being a "leftist" after marinating in alt/far-right meme subs (incl. r/The_Donald) & other online spaces.[1] It's the same blend of political extremism & conspiracy as some Convoy spaces.
[1]buzzfeednews.com/article/joseph…
20/ At #POEC, NSIA Thomas said that Canada's definition of "threat" needs to be modernized. It's so frustrating to sit in radicalized spaces & see red flags but find there is almost no framework to discuss & share such threats. It might happen in postmortems but that's too late.
21/ In Vancouver, a radicalized kid repeats an anti-Semitic phrase popular with white supremacists while someone says he's willing to die for the Convoy cause. Someone referencing Honkler hangs out with a guy holding a sign that says DBH & Dix should be hanged. It's concerning.
22/ Convoys have been very active in promotion anti-LGBTQ2S+ agendas and attacking trans people particularly hard. They share racism and misogyny. The constant slow erosion of inclusion & human rights is harmful but harder to quantify until someone murders people.
23/ Convoy groups organized protests against Drag Queen Storytime events & abused people attending a library event. They held a transphobic protest at the Vancouver Pride Parade. Real grooming is getting hyped on hate memes & internet shitholes, then harming people in real life.
24/24 Alt- & far-right extremism won't disappear overnight, but movement to recognize the reach, intent & harm of the alt/far-right meme ecosystem is a great start. Don't give fascists and white supremacists a free pass. "Jokes" have already harmed & killed too many people.
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