This year was a total shit show. So, just to stick it to ourselves one last time, we decided to relive 10 things which we either led, were a part of or were inspired by in 2018.
Just under the wire, this is...
THE SLEEPING GIANTS 2018 YEAR IN REVIEW
Just under the wire, this is...
THE SLEEPING GIANTS 2018 YEAR IN REVIEW
1) January saw Steve Bannon go from the title of "Racist Blog Manager" to just "Racist" as he was deposed from Breitbart after only a few months back on the job. Of course, we had nothing to do with this, but it's nice to relive again. Just because it is.
2) After a year and a half of us screaming into the void about it, Unilever finally came out swinging against @facebook and other social platforms refusing to address the hate and harassment on their platforms. Still a long way to go, but...a massive step.
3) We just provided support, but good to see 25+ advertisers decide that Laura Ingraham slagging Parkland teen David Hogg, saying that internment for kids at the border was like "summer camp" and "demographic changes" were something "none of us voted for" didn't work for them.
4) Well, shit. After being anonymous for a year and a half, The Daily Caller decided to end that by publishing an article exposing us, resulting in doxxing and death threats against my wife and kids. Luckily, we had a lot of support from all of you.
5) After asking social platforms for a year why they refused to enforce their own Terms of Service on Alex Jones for harassment and conspiracies, the dam finally broke in August, with Apple and then the rest of the platforms deciding it was enough. washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/styl…
6) We continued to alert advertisers showing up on Breitbart, with now over 4,170 advertisers deciding to drop the site, but their readership and influence also fell dramatically with massive drops in traffic this year, which likely led to number 7 below.
money.cnn.com/2018/07/24/med…
money.cnn.com/2018/07/24/med…
7) Breitbart sent us a letter threatening to sue us, asking us to preserve any and all correspondence with anyone and everyone. Our new lawyers sent them a similar letter asking to preserve their correspondences with the Mercers.
We haven't heard back. thedailybeast.com/breitbart-prep…
We haven't heard back. thedailybeast.com/breitbart-prep…
8) After tweeting and asking and waiting and wondering, Les Moonves was finally canned from CBS for sexual harassment WITHOUT his $120 million dollar "severance". We obviously had nothing to do with it, but it was satisfying as hell.
washingtonpost.com/arts-entertain…
washingtonpost.com/arts-entertain…
9) After Tucker Carlson said that immigrants make our country "poorer and dirtier" (& questioning if diversity is good for this country a month before), 20+ advertisers left his show, prompting Fox to call us out instead of taking responsibility themselves.variety.com/2018/tv/news/t…
10) Ended up on TV for the first time and maybe last time ever which, besides the stammering and incessant "um"s and thinking that this would be an anonymous effort forever, actually ended up being pretty cool.
cnn.com/videos/tv/2018…
cnn.com/videos/tv/2018…
Heading into 2019, it's really hard to say what's going to happen with this thing. To be honest, we've never really known. We've never had a real plan. We've been kind of hoping that this would have ended by now, but there always seems to be something else that comes up.
It's very much our hope that, eventually, social media companies and advertisers decide on their own that bigotry and hate aren't something that they should support. We should all be able to have conversations without vilifying groups of people based on race, gender or religion.
In the meantime, thank you for all of your endless support. This community is absolutely mind-blowing. You are now 300,000+ strong and you keep this thing going. Never thought this would last past 2 weeks, so entering year 3 is pretty surreal.
Happy new year, everyone.
Happy new year, everyone.
