Thread by @slackbastard

The Great Replacement! (Go @SkyNewsAust!)

Yes. Intarwebs important. But, y'know ...

^^^ 'Australia's Most Read Columnist' ^^^

Ooh. 'Far left' v 'far right'!

(Not strictly equivalent, says expert.)

*shitpost >>> 'brave ANCAZ & extreme-ly well-paid pezzullo is beating drums of war, but not extreme-ly' ... as ever, 'extremism' is non-state phenomenon.*

Question Time. Alright. Paterson asks about utility of rendering unlawful possession/display of extreme merch. Grossman notes potential of such repressive measures to have perverse effects & unlikelihood of repression to alter deep-seated beliefs.

(Barbra Streisand Effect.) Duckworth says context critical, symbology dynamic.

JP on terrorist threshold for proscription. LK notes that network(ed) organisational forms present problems for such formal legal measures. MG compares AUS to UK, suggests thresholds may change w time.

JP asks about LWE. Ref made to submissions by Macquarie & VicPol. Portland Molotov ANTIFA -- issues? MD notes long history of LWE, & study of ANTIFA in AUS & its commitment to pursue violence.

MP says own study suggests moderate risk of LWE violence. Ref to counter-mobilisations in 2015/16. Utility of violence is contentious; militant, 'black bloc' forms limit appeal, on which success is dependent.

KK refs Christchurch killer manifesto -- how to deal (AUS v NZ)? Now asks inre employment of ironic fascism ...

MD notes that humour is weapon, consciously deployed (memeification of hate speech). [I'd suggest normalisation is key tool & in fact political strategy; fascism has always been syncretic.]

[See Overton.] MD hints that counter-narratives may be inept, which is sound ob in my view. KK now asks re misogyny ('What is manosphere?'); JR talks male supremacy as operational within jihadist & far-right milieu.

.@TheIRMS has pub a lotta relevant stuff on this Q too. AA asks about MRA & anti-feminist mvmnt contribution to manosphere & male violence. Veiled ref to public mobilisations (eg Sydney Watson's 'March For Men'?). JR makes ref to CAN exp of incel violence.

RCMP has charged at least one incel killer as 'terrorist'.

CH is worried about funny bones, but moreover -- 'root-cause analysis'. Why inc in RWE in AUS?

MP refs cultural / structural factors. Working class alienation / loss of control / decreased social mobility creates conditions for adoption of rad (RW) doctrines.

CH asks about impact of coarseness of public discourse, polarisation. MP advocates willingness to engage in difficult conversations. Now 'Cancel Culture' (CH).

LD: Study suggests yoof are dev particular skillz in navigating online enviro, & dev resilience, maybe? LK makes ref to social anxiety / status; inc in conspiratorial views; complexity engenders crisis; The Trump Effect; cites JM Berger's (US) work.

MG refs importance of info literacy (ie, its absence); encouraging illiterate parents to intervene inre children's use of intarnets, eg, is problematic. MD cites Giddens & decline in trust in institutional authority.

JD laments lack of literacy among yoof inre their status as Product for soc media but also as Prey for rad groomers. CH now has final Q inre lessons of history, what it offers inre resolving pol / soc crisis.

JR notes popularity of comparison of current era to Depression. GFC had longer-term effects. F-R in AUS kicked off 2014--2016 w similar laments to US. So; eco disaffection + COVID = Interesting Times.

AA now gots Qs. 'What terrorism now? What 'ideological neutrality' mean in app of CT?' LW refs JM Berger & distinction b/w terrorism as tactic & extremism as belief (structure & content).

Extremism has structure; is poss to approach Q in rel 'neutral' terms. [Not sure I'm understanding this discussion TBH.]

aww yiss -- 'Russian Anarchists of a century ago'!

Aw man. (MG on ideology & its complexities.)

AA asks about Muslim communities & CVE projekts: How applicable this model to RWE? MG: much to be learned from CVE practice; also, 'what is community?'.

MG: Need to recognise diverse, complex nature of (multiple, overlapping) communities. LK: refs individual interventions needing consideration of particular socio-psychological dimensions. ["t0bes!"]

AC suggests prev models may be app broadly (refs local programs & PRISM), & in domains of lifestyle / health / work / education / family / psychology / (ideology). MP & AA talk (risks of) stigmatisation.

AA refs CVE & social cohesion (mostly, it seems, directed at migrants). "Scanlon Foundation!" *drinks* AA Qs rel of this framework. MG: 'social cohesion' is valuable & (should be) routine; is not only rel to CVE. s/c halps promote resilience/tolerance.

[Wait. What.] NSW COMPACT program cited. Good model? (Malcolm Haddon.) See : strongcitiesnetwork.org/en/cve-spotlig….

New Q for LK from Julian Leeser on Those Darn Algorithms! Could soc media transparency be used by bad actors (gamification)? LK thinks transparency prolly Good thing as necessary to understanding.

[The Political Economy of Corporate 'Social' Media eh.]

'ATTN economy.' *drinks*

Mark Dreyfus nao. 'How do you regulate when you dunno what yr regulatin'?' Makes ref to internal memo affirming commercial importance of 'engagement'. LK: Corporate transparency requires lawful regulation (compulsion). See : EURO law, eg.

LW on echo echo echo chambers (Twitter v Gab, eg); soc media as critical sauce for yoof understanding. (JR on anonymity. Encourages licence, bAd behaviour. This needs moar ATTN.)

MD asks MG inre proscription, refs Proud Boys & AVERT submission. MG notes this not straight-fwd, as rel absence of clearly delineated, formal, hierarchical grpings. [See, eg, Shannon Craig.]

* SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES *

First, 'Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses' is the debut full-length album by American grindcore band Brutal Truth, released in September 1992 via Earache Records:

Secondly, to RETURN to START, I do actually think it significant & worthy of consideration that one of the chief popularisers of the Christchurch killer's chief thesis is now a regular on @SkyNewsAust; that Sky's business model is critically dependent on >

> exploiting the algorithmic biases that have proven to be most profitable to the other, 'social media' corporations (ie, gargantuan, private, data-collection agencies) on which it now depends; @Facebook's effective blackmailing of the AUS govt is highly-germane to this disko.

Thirdly, in the context of various forms of legislative mechanisms intended to provide the state with tools to penalise public expressions of extreme right-wing sentiment, the adaptability of fashy actors has obviously been noted by anti-fascists, over some years (decades).

Fourthly, inre proscription, the UK case is somewhat exceptional in the sense that, yes, there's a history, but also, the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox in 2016, eg, was significant. On 'National Action' & its proscription, see @macklin_gd : jstor.org/stable/26544646.

Note NA served as organising model for 'Antipodean Resistance', now folded into Tom Sewell's 'National Socialist Network' (a brand briefly adopted by NA foll its proscription); Sewell & the NSN are hopping-mad 😢 about the fate of their 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 kameraden, eg:

bbc.com/news/uk-englan…

But the distinction b/w terror(ism) & ah violent stoopid is applicable under AUS law & the AUS state has reportedly introduced more & more extensive 'counter-terror' legislation than any other jurisdiction since 2001 & the inauguration of the never-ending War on Terror™, so ...

Certainly, the distinction b/w formal grps & informal networks is germane, as is that b/w political ideology & pol/soc mvmt, pol rhetoric & symbology. Hence:

Fifthly, I deeply appreciate Blogger-Turned-Senator James Paterson's reference to Portland, ANTIFA & Molotov cocktails as evidence of the potential for another, local episode in the smash hit series 'Left Wing Extremists Gone Wild!'. However >

> I reckon he coulda profited more from 'The Killings of Aaron Danielson and Michael Reinoehl' -- though the OMGWTF unsolved murder of Sean Kealiher detracts somewhat.

theintercept.com/2021/03/03/ant…

It's also worth noting that, leaving aside All The Things, Cheet0 Mussolini publicly celebrated the assassination (?) of Reinoehl, which fact might also point towards the extreme-ly thin line b/w the 'mainstream' & the 'extreme', usefully examined in >

> eg, 'Reactionary Democracy: How Racism and the Populist Far Right Became Mainstream' by @aurelmondon & @aaronzwinter :

versobooks.com/books/3173-rea…

Sixthly, inre humour as weapon, there's some good lit on the subject of cultural & political transgression (as well as some bAd stuff -- eg, Nagle) & its uses. Mostly, it (consciously) serves as a form of (re-)socialisation, rendering the horrific more amenable to contemplation.

One relevant, local & recent ex is provided by way of billionaire Clive Palmer's employment of a semi-pro troll army to boost his pol influence. See, eg, @jordan_mcswiney's analysis : poppoliticsaus.wordpress.com/2018/09/27/alt….

(Inre govt / QUANGO responses & the production of counter-narratives, these have generally been a bit lacking, their 'authenticity' (& hence appeal) being freq dependent *precisely* upon their distance from governmentality; ie, 'organicism'.)

7) I question the extent to which RWE is dependent upon working-class alienation, along w the social demographics of RWE movements, but that's another story. (See, eg : theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/….)

8) To conclude:

@TheIRMS is good resource on manosphere etc.;
(Informal) security for Sydney Watson's 'March For Men' (AUG 2018) was provided by nazis, whose private expressions of appreciation for Watson's person was, ah ... 'problematic' ... but also underscores >

> the importance 'RWEs' attach to drawing from divers, related pol markets. Hence the Ordinary Mums & Dads™ of Reclaim were xclnt fodder, as are other groupings on R (see, eg, Proud Boy Jarrad Searby's recruitment to neo-Nazism), but this also tends to confirm >

> general comments by panel on 'illiteracy' & 'trust'. And while you should Never Read The Comments, doing so does, I think, tend to confirm the existence of a broad pool, comprising millions, of 'vulnerable' persons & communities. Certainly, awareness of this fact has always >

> informed my own concern (s/times subject to derision, tho' less so in 2021), over the potential appeal of fascist & far-right ideology (irrespective of its 'terroristic' dimensions). END.