Thread by @kate_hammer

Back @BylineFest for day 3 - starting here in Forest Forum to hear @RVAwonk @J_amesp @zabrinazabrisky chaired by #BylineFest best-dressed chair Peter York

Audience member @stonesister7 offered to explain the #AltRight as a fake term invented by #SteveBannon - what are we taking about is #Nazism - to make it sound hip & trendy & it’s working

Another adds: #AltRight are nationalistic, xenophobic & prepared to suborn democracy to achieve their aims

Chair @PeterPeteryork takes these on & asks what links these trends across USA & Europe

.@ZarinaZabrisky says term #AltRight was coined by Jared Taylor

From the left: @RVAwonk @J_amesp @PeterPeteryork @ZarinaZabrisky

.@ZarinaZabrisky agrees with @stonesister7 definition & says the challenge is to develop a new mentality to counter something that is indirectly a Russian military technology

.@J_amesp says society broken & kids of David Duke have learned to press their shirts & appear more reputable. Russians have studied us & developed a wedge so that small fracture widens thanks to the artificially managed social media

Foreign hostile state sponsored Nazis have become celebrities like Milo. #OvertonWindow has shifted their position from outlier to 1st-name known celebrities. But just in 🇺🇸 also UK - @J_amesp #BylineFest #BylineFestival

.@RVAwonk adds: #AltRight is putting new labels on old things. Euphemisms, humour to make extremism more socially acceptable. Example: Identitarians. Dark money + foreign money + mainstream conservative groups fund the hate rallies. Use the banner #FreeSpeech or vs Sharia Law

Plausible deniability evokes possible @RVAwonk explains. Insidious. Use irony. Parallel with earliest KKK in the USA - silly names & costumes to make them seem more trivial, trickster. Same dynamic happening today - using oddity strategically. #BylineFest #BylineFestival

Dugan’s strategic thinking enters this. Racism & separatism pre-existed and its mobilised. @ZarinaZabrisky made to study Special Propaganda as part of her English Literature degree in Russia. Textbooks not permitted to leave the classroom.

Russian doll scheme for money laundering. - @ZarinaZabrisky

Lot of financing is hidden not just in money laundering but also #cryptocurrency - watch how they’re shorted in opposite direction to main markets. Also crowdfunding model. Eg Yaxley-Lennon. They don’t need to ferret

👆🏼 @J_amesp who concludes it’s most dangerous time in a decade

[thank god for @BylineFest]

.@PeterPeteryork says: give us British names. Who besides Neil Hamilton?

@J_amesp Dugan 1998 book gives us a tick list. US democratic system should be dismantled. NATO should be dismantled. Etc. Asia-Pacific trade & security disrupted.

🇬🇧 should be cut off from Europe.

One party that has consistently pursued this: UKIP. - @J_amesp #BylineFest #BylineFestival

How does this relate to Trump? @PeterPeteryork asks @RVAwonk

Media cos & figures like Steve Bannon is using populism to sweep his agenda into power. SB describes Trump as a vessel. Hard to know if Trump believes in anything. He has energised very extreme elements of society

...they’re not wearing their hoods anymore. Largest # of white supremacists running for office in modern history. Trump has given template. Bannon now trying to do the same thing in other country. In short term, Trump has shown extent to which a population can normalise extremism

People look to leaders to define their norms. Trump rt’ing hateful memes makes a new centre. That’s empowering white nationalists running for office. - @RVAwonk @BylineFest #BylineFest #BylineFestival

Audience member asks for clarification of a SuperPAC which @RVAwonk & @ZarinaZabrisky brings in Mercers who are connected with Russian telecoms co & Alfa Bank - pls go online & explore our work *Know Your Nazis & Their Backers*

The goal is to figure out how to confront their power which they want to concentrate in old world order - they are motivated by banal fear of death 💀 postmodern smirk. We need to confront them @ZarinaZabrisky

.@PeterPeteryork asks us to think about tropes that stir people. Trump doesn’t like tobread, it’s short term opportunism. Why does he fulfil Dugan’s list?

@J_amesp says it’s not that complex. It’s emotional messaging. They repeat. Again & again. It spreads rapidly
@BylineFest

Ever since Trump engaged w Russians & their money in 1987 he has espoused Russian lines - @ZarinaZabrisky

Look @ timing. Many white Americans don’t want USA to be white-minority country. Bannon capitalising on this. MAGA can be interpreted as Make America White Again - @RVAwonk

Perfect storm. Plug Trump into it - Russian mob ties. - @RVAwonk

Trump a human whoopee cushion. You only need 20-40% of ppl to engage to change norms. Division of rest into no meaningful response. Eg Clinton - Saunders split couldn’t respond to 38% Trump base. - @J_amesp

.@J_amesp expects democratic vote in 2018 will continue to splinter.

Hardest thing for a human to do is admit that they’ve lied to themselves. James has seen this in domestic violence & fraud in his policing days. Lie to themselves can’t be undone.

@BylineFest

.@PeterPeteryork says it’s *doubling down*

@ZarinaZabrisky says it’s cognitive dissonance. There is a science to this that has been developed & taught in Russian schools. Here are examples to method in action:

Flipping narrative.
Alt-Left.
Antifa.

This are produced by the propaganda method for dividing & conquering. A political technology.

Key Q: what do we DO?? <applause>

@RVAwonk advocates education in media literacy. Media agenda has helped them succeed. Pushing advertisers to kick off some of hate group leaders. [eg @slpng_giants ]

@BylineFest

Advertisers have even split from Fox News - wow! @RVAwonk

Are Bannon, Trump, Farage taking instructions from Russia?

@J_amesp it’s no accident. Yes. Actively involved. Detached or deniable asset.

@ZarinaZabrisky unverified but Russian tweets which Trump repeats a few days later- hard to catch b/c if named, they change @BylineFest

Q: the question with Mercer - receiving payments from DARPA for psyops

A: absolutely this is psyops says @RVAwonk - entered this at time she now recognises as early message testing. Profile groups, ppl, sectors of society. Content. Imagery. What the text looks like - big bulky letters. It’s the base 33-38% told Alternative to Trump is chaos, war

A: @J_amesp doesn’t speak publicly about the rest of the work he does but it’s clear AltRight, hard left, anti-vax
James thinks it will sadly lead to regulation because we’re too emotional to think clearly. #BylineFest #BylineFestival

A: goal of #hybridwar is demoralise population. Bring the hype in the media down. Take time away from social media so that we don’t get physiologically stressed. Each think, take a pause, & re-educate ourselves on the overall picture. Take care of own mentality - @ZarinaZabrisky