Category Archives: Alt-right

Contentious Fox News host Tucker Carlson often refers to it live on air. It propelled a white nationalist to commit the 2019 terrorist attacks on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 51 people. Nowits resurfacing in its country of origin, where far-right pundit Eric Zemmour is propagating the theory on TV and social media. But what is the "great replacement" theory and howdid it originate?

Account suspended. Two bold words that decorate Renaud Camus Twitter profile, blocking his access to the platform he uses to engage in political debates and advance his beliefs. Though arguably not as internationally known as Albert Camus, the theories that author Renaud Camus has written about have travelled far.

It was in his 2011 book Le Grand Remplacement that he first coined the term the great replacement, which became a rallying cry for the far right worldwide.

Though he refuses to admit his words incite hatred or violence, thisis precisely why Twitter suspended his account at the end of October. Less than a week later, on November 4, Camus was tried for a second time in the southwest of France for inciting racial hatred after posting offensive comments on Twitter in 2019.

He has appealed a January 2020 verdictagainst him,and the court's decision will be announcedon January 20, 2022. For now, his two-month prison sentence has been suspended.

Camus didnt invent anything

Rooted in racist nationalist views, the great replacement theory purports that an elitist group is colluding against white French and European people to eventually replace them with non-Europeans from Africa and the Middle East, the majority of whom are Muslim. Renaud Camus often refers to this as genocide by substitution.

Notions of the theory date as far back as 1900, when the father of French nationalismMaurice Barrsspoke about a new population that would take over, triumph and ruin our homeland.

In an article for daily newspaper Le Journal, he wrote: The name of France might well survive; the special character of our country would, however, be destroyed, and the people settled in our name and on our territory would be heading towards destinies contradictory to the destinies and needs of our land and our dead."

At the time Barrs was writing, anti-Semitism was extremely mainstream, says Dr. Aurelien Mondon, a senior lecturer of politics at Bath University in an interview with FRANCE 24. Barrs spoke about the idea of racial purity, he says, which is why the theory of population replacement became so popular among the Nazis, for example.

But after World WarII, the French far right needed a new discourse to move back into the mainstream. Shifting away from biological racism towards cultural racism, the replacement theory gained ground in the 1970s and 1980s.

The Nouvelle Droite(New Right) and some French intellectuals were trying to find ways to move away from the margins, Mondon says. Over the years, these ideas spread among the far right, which was becoming more and more mainstream in France, eventually paving the way for Camus to publish his book on the topic without being disregarded as too radical.

Camus didnt invent anything, Mondon explains. He put concepts together and coined the phrase, but his theory is part of a much broader context that contributed to the reshaping of the far right [in France].

Dodging the racism bullet

The replacement theory has made its way all around the world, becoming very popular among identitarian movements in Europe and the alt-right in the US. For Mondon, this was made possible by the way the far right adapted their stance on racism. Rather than speaking of racial or ethnic hierarchies, the discourse focussed more on cultures and cultural power.

>>France bans far-right anti-migrant group Generation Identity

In a recent interview on French right-wing TV channel CNews, Camus claimed his theory wasnt about race but about defending civilisation. Racism is still a taboo in our societies, Mondon explains, Nobody wants to admit that theyre racist and nobody wants to be called a racist.

The people who watch that interview and who may fall for this moral panic, this idea that theyre going to be replaced ethnographically, he says, dont want to be called racist and will say theyre defending civilisation.

In the end, this works in their favour, because it makes people feel good about themselves while allowing them to be prejudiced and racist, all while protecting their own privilege, according to Mondon.

The end game

Camus has also sided with Eric Zemmour, a far-right pundit who is expected to announce his candidacy for the upcoming French presidential elections. In fact, Zemmour has long been inspired by Camus and has propagated the replacement theory in his own books, Le Suicide Franais(The French Suicide) and Destin Franais(French Destiny).

But while Zemmour has made openly homophobic claims, Renaud Camus had a brief history as a gay icon in the 1970s and 1980s. He wrote for theFrenchLGBT+weekly magazine Gai Pied as a columnist and published an autobiographical novel in 1979 called Tricks, which gave detailed accounts of one-night stands with men in nightclub bathrooms and grimy apartments across the US and Europe.

This unholy alliance is also key to understanding how theories like the great replacement spread so easily. People in the far right are happy with contradictions, Mondon says. People who are deeply anti-Semitic can ally with people who are Jewish because they share the same Islamophobia and that trumps it all.And vice versa, people who are deeply anti-Semitic and Islamophobic will sometimes ally with Muslim people because the anti-Semitism trumps it.

For the far right, being contrarian is a strength, not a weakness. It shows that they are willing to go beyond these contradictions to win on the racialist agenda, Mondon explains. This is the end game for them.

So despite the fact that the great replacement theory is conspiratorial, seeing as only 9.6 percent of the French population was made up of immigrants in 2018, it is a tool to get into a position of power. And for someone like Zemmour, that is the end game.

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How France's great replacement theory conquered the global far right - FRANCE 24 English

Spencer and other Unite the Right organizers talked about war and violence multiple times before their event turned deadly, according to evidence presented in their civil trial Thursday.

Posted on November 4, 2021, at 7:13 p.m. ET

White nationalist Richard Spencer (center) and his supporters clash with Virginia State Police officers after the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, was declared an unlawful gathering on Aug. 12, 2017.

Richard Spencer, the one-time national leader of the alt-right movement who headed a Washington, DC, think tank promoting his racist ideology, strode confidently to the witness stand in the Charlottesville federal court Thursday morning.

By lunchtime, Spencer would become frazzled and irritated as an attorney attempted to undress his suit-and-tie brand of white nationalism and expose him as a violent racist who behind closed doors worshipped Adolf Hitler, launched into antisemitic tirades, and was bent on sparking a bloody and terrible race war to create an all-white ethnostate.

He was the latest person to testify in the high-profile civil trial that will decide whether a conspiracy to commit racially motivated violence existed among 24 white supremacists including Spencer who organized the deadly Unite the Right rally on Aug. 1112, 2017. They are being sued under the 150-year-old Ku Klux Klan Act by nine plaintiffs, who are seeking not only damages for their personal injuries but to bankrupt and dismantle the white supremacists organizations.

Over the course of hours of direct examination, Michael Bloch, the plaintiffs attorney, stripped away the polished veneer that Spencer, whom the Southern Poverty Law Center has called a kind of professional racist in khakis, typically presents. Under questioning, Spencer, who was once punched in the face in a viral video that sparked widespread conversation on the ethics of punching Nazis, discussed a report he authored that focused on the bogus claim that Black people are intellectually inferior to white people. Spencer also admitted to using hate speech in private while at his apartment, which other white supremacists had dubbed the fash loft; he confirmed that fash in that context meant fascist.

White nationalist Richard Spencer speaks at the University of Florida on Oct. 19, 2017.

Bloch played a significant portion of a leaked recording of Spencer from Aug. 13, 2017, the day after a neo-Nazi rammed his car into Unite the Right counterprotesters in Charlottesville, killing activist Heather Heyer and injuring dozens of other people. In the recording, originally published by alt-right figure Milo Yiannopoulos in 2019, Spencer is heard addressing fellow white nationalists and current codefendants Nathan Damigo, Jason Kessler, and Elliott Kline. Spencer can also be heard shouting racist and antisemitic phrases.

Little fucking kikes. They get ruled by people like me. Little fucking octoroons... I fucking... My ancestors fucking enslaved those little pieces of fucking shit. I rule the fucking world, Spencer is heard saying. Those pieces of fucking shit get ruled by people like me. They look up and see a face like mine looking down at them. Thats how the fucking world works. We are going to destroy this fucking town [of Charlottesville].

Questioned by Bloch on Thursday about the recording, Spencer owned up to the remarks but claimed they didnt represent who he is.

That is me at my absolute worst. I wont dispute that thats me, because at the end of the day I have to live with that, he testified. My animal brain. Thats me as a 7-year-old. Its a 7-year-old that is probably still inside me. Im ashamed of it. That is a childish, awful version of myself.

Spencer said he doesnt believe in demeaning people to their face. But he admitted he privately used slurs to describe Jews and Black people.

Bloch showed another video of Spencer delivering a speech at a booze-soaked afterparty for a torchlight event in Charlottesville in May 2017. In that footage, Spencer is heard saying, I was born too late for the Crusades. I was born too early for the conquest of Mars. But I was born at the right time for the race war.

In yet another video from the party that was played for the court, Spencer is seen giving a Nazi salute and chanting, Sieg heil! The footage was reminiscent of the 2016 video of the white nationalist leader addressing a crowd after Donald Trumps election victory in Washington, DC, where he shouted, Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory!

Spencer testified that his alt-right movement had been growing and gaining momentum at the time he began helping to organize the Unite the Right rally. But he denied that the violence at the event was planned.

A white supremacist and a counterprotester are seen fighting on Aug. 12, 2017, in Charlottesville, Virginia.

That issue is at the heart of the lawsuit, brought by civil rights nonprofit Integrity First for America on behalf of the plaintiffs.

Bloch, however, presented evidence that he said showed that Spencer and his codefendants had methodically planned for racist, antisemitic violence there. He showed text messages between Spencer and other alt-right figures in which they discussed how they would dominate the streets and that 2016 was the meme war, 2017 is the IRL war.

He tried to dismiss the dominate the streets remark as merely a metaphor for having a presence and engaging in [a] demonstration.

Bloch also showed that Spencer had difficulty telling the truth when it came to his communications with other white nationalists and alt-right figures in the run-up to the Unite the Right rally.

Presented with evidence of dozens of text message exchanges between himself and neo-Nazi and codefendant Christopher Cantwell after claiming they had communicated a handful of times and ate lunch once, Spencer stumbled.

Between July and August you exchanged 88 text messages with Mr. Cantwell, Bloch told him, referring to evidence submitted to the court. But you said, We shared a few text messages, seven in total. Isnt that what you told the jury?

Spencer fell silent. After a long pause, he said, I think I was referring to instances.

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White Nationalist Richard Spencer Was Confronted With His Own Violent Rhetoric On The Witness Stand At The Charlottesville Trial - BuzzFeed News

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WPTA21) - A lawsuit filed in federal court seeks to set aside part of Indiana's Election Code relating to corporate contributions to political action committees, of "PACs."

The plaintiffs are Indiana Right to Life Victory Fund and Sarkes Tarzian, Inc., a broadcaster whose holdings include radio stations WAJI (Majic 95.1), WGBJ (ALT 102.3) and WLDE (Classic Hits 101.7), all serving the Fort Wayne market, as well as television and radio stations in Indianapolis and Bloomington; Reno, Nev.; and Chattanooga, Tenn.

The suit was filed on Thursday in the U.S. District Court - Southern District of Indiana, which encompasses Indianapolis as well as all of the southern part of the state.

Sarkes Tarzian is headquartered in Bloomington.

The Right to Life group and broadcast company are seeking Court intervention to lift certain limits that apply to corporate contributions to PACs and how they may be used. Those limits are outlined in Indiana state code, and vary depending on a number of factors involved.

The lawsuit -- which names Indiana Secretary of State Holli Sullivan, Attorney General Todd Rokita, Election Commission Chair Paul Okeson and others as defendants -- claims the regulations infringe on the plaintiffs' First and Fourteenth Amendment Rights.

Those Amendments concern free expression and equal protection under the laws of the United States.

Within the documents filed with the Court, plaintiffs' attorneys state that: IRTL Victory Fund wants to solicit and accept unlimited contributions for the purpose of making independent expenditures. However, corporations are prohibited from making a contribution to IRTL Victory Fund unless the contribution (1) does not exceed the contribution limits and (2) is designated for disbursement to a specific candidate or committee."

Sarkes Tarzian, the lawsuit explains, "wants to make a $10,000 contribution to IRTL Victory Fund, earmarked for the purpose of independent expenditures."

The Bopp Law Firm represents IRTL and Sarkes Tarzian. It is the same firm that filed suit against Indiana University this past summer on behalf of students seeking to overturn the school's COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

ABC21 has reached out to three attorneys with the firm seeking additional context on the lawsuit, and to the Indiana Office of Attorney General for its response.

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Ind. Right to Life, broadcast company suing State over political donation restrictions - wpta21.com

Biden signs bill awarding Congressional Gold Medals to Jan. 6 officers

President Biden honored law enforcement officers who defended the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riots by awarding them Congressional Gold Medals.

Associated Press, USA TODAY

A Texas realtor who said she wouldnt go to jail for her role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot because she has blonde hair and white skin soon will be behind bars.

Jennifer Jenna Ryan was sentenced Thursday to 60 days in jail and ordered to pay $500 in restitution and a $1,000 fine after pleading guilty to charges of demonstrating in a Capitol building.

Ryan was charged in the U.S. District Court in Washington but entered into a plea agreement with the Justice Department in July. She faced a maximum sentence of six months in jail and a $5,000 fine.

She was among the supporters of President Donald Trump who staged a riot at the Capitol building on Jan. 6 to try to overturn the outcome of the presidential election. Lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence had to temporarily stop counting electoral votes as violence erupted.

More: Capitol riot arrests: See who's been charged across the U.S.

Prosecutors said Ryan traveled with two other people on a private plane from Denton, Texas, to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 5, posting along the way on social media about the trip. In one Facebook video on Jan. 6, Ryan said were gonna go down and storm the capitol before posting a 21-minute Facebook live video walking toward the U.S. Capitol and several photos on the Capitol grounds.

In one photo posted on Twitter, Ryan wears an American flag scarf and Trump stocking cap in front of a broken Capitol building window while holding up a peace sign. Window at The capital. And if the news doesnt stop lying about us were going to come after their studios next, the caption read.

In a deleted Facebook live video that was uploaded to YouTube, prosecutors said Ryan can be seen in a large crowd trying to breach the Capitol entrance and can be heard saying the group would be going inside. She also promoted her real estate business on the video.

Life or death, it doesnt matter, she said. Here we go.

More: When Trump started his speech before the Capitol riot, talk on Parler turned to civil war

Federal prosecutors charged Ryan nine days later on Jan. 15.

In the months after those charges, she continued to post on social media. In a now-famous March 26 Twitter thread, Ryan lamented her portrayal by alt right media outlets, saying she was being left to the vultures of the left.

Definitely not going to jail. Sorry I have blonde hair white skin a great job a great future and Im not going to jail, she wrote in response to another user. Sorry to rain on your hater parade. I did nothing wrong.

Ryan's attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.

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Capitol riot: Texas realtor sentenced to 60 days for role in Jan. 6 insurrection - USA TODAY

Oh, the fragile male ego. Dont call me baby when you did me so wrong is one of the milder jibes hurled at a straying girlfriend by Post Malone as he trades verses with the Weeknd. She may want to get together, but the guys have already moved on, with one coming over and one right now. A very 1980s track springy synthesizer bass line and hook, programmed beat carries pure, focused resentment about how much damage shes done to my feelings. JON PARELES

Charli XCX featuring Christine and the Queens and Caroline Polachek, New Shapes

What you want/I aint got it, Charli XCX snarls over a blast of 80s pop gloss. The British pop provocateur unleashes her ultrapop persona, brooding over cinematic new wave synths. New Shapes leverages the kind of vulnerability and insecurity that defines some of Charlis best work, thanks to pointed verses from her guests (and previous collaborators), the sad girl supergroup of Christine and the Queens and Caroline Polachek. The whole thing doesnt quite measure up to the irresistible drama of the beloved 2019 anthem Gone, but hey, the girls will take it. ISABELIA HERRERA

The polymathic musician and producer Terrace Martin is widely known for helping Kendrick Lamar sculpt his jazz-tinted masterpiece, To Pimp a Butterfly, but hed been an asset in Los Angeles studios since the mid-2000s, when he first fell in with Snoop Dogg. The title track from Martins new solo album, Drones, is something like a reading of his rsum, with features from four resounding names in L.A. hip-hop. The dapper, G-funk beat is a braid of plunky guitar, pulsing electric piano and 808 percussion; the lyrics sung partly by Lamar, in a sly shrug describe a booty-call relationship thats exactly as shallow as it looks to the outside world, and maybe not much more satisfying. GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO

Following her eclectic album The Second Line, released earlier this year, Dawn Richards new track for the Adult Swim Singles series is all bass-heavy, aqueous funk. Her voice shape-shifts throughout Loose Your Mind, so at times it almost feels like shes duetting with different sides of her prismatic personality. Aint really nothing wrong when the feeling is golden, she spits at the beginning, before a melodic chorus of Dawns responds in agreement: Solid gold. LINDSAY ZOLADZ

Few songs defined the hypermaximalist sound of the 2010s as succinctly as the electronic duo TNGHTs Higher Ground, that brassy, ever-escalating EDM anthem that was sampled by Kanye West on Yeezus and I will die on this hill has to be the inspiration behind the Arbys: We Have the Meats jingle, right? After a long hiatus, the producers Hudson Mohawke and Lunice reunited as TNGHT in 2019, and have now released a new track called Tums, which Lunice says was created according to the duos guiding principles: Keep it really fun. Dumb. Hard-hitting. Dont overwork it. Sampled giggles and slide whistles keep things fizzy on the surface, while the tracks booming low end guides it through a series of roller-coaster drops. Tums might not be as innovative as the pairs earlier work, but maybe thats because everything else has been sounding like them for years now. ZOLADZ

With Woman, the Nigerian singer and songwriter Simi offers a tribute, corrective and update to Fela Anikalupo Kuti, who invented Afrobeat in the 1970s in songs including Lady, which scoffed at European feminism. Woman mixes current electronic Afrobeats with the funk of Kutis 1970s Afrobeat, while quoting Kuti songs between her own assertions about womens strengths: She wont pay attention to the intimidation. The rhetoric is tricky; the beat is unstoppable. PARELES

The standard elements of Gregory Porters style run through Love Runs Deeper: lyrics that linger on the difficulties and the bounties of care and connection; twinkling orchestral strings; a gradual build that allows his burly, baritone voice to unfurl itself with just enough tension and release. But this is more of a direct-delivery power ballad than most of Porters tunes: The melody wouldnt feel out of place on an Adele or Halsey record, and its liable to get lodged in your head quickly and stay there. With supporting vocals from the young British singer Cherise, Love Runs Deeper serves as the soundtrack to Disneys annual holiday-season advertisement, which this year is a short film (full of self-referential touches, like a Buzz Lightyear cameo) titled The Stepdad. The song is also included on a new Porter compilation, Still Rising, which features a mix of his greatest hits, B-sides and new songs. RUSSONELLO

Jenny Lewis, Puppy and a Truck

My 40s are kicking my ass, and handing them to me in a margarita glass hows that for an opening line? Something about the gentle country strum and laid-back croon of Jenny Lewiss new stand-alone single recalls her old band Rilo Kileys great 2004 album More Adventurous, though her perspective has been updated with the unglamorous realities and hard-won wisdom of middle age. After chronicling the wreckage of a few recent relationships, the eternally witty Lewis arrives at a mantra of tough-talking self-reliance: If you feel like giving up, shut up get a puppy and a truck. ZOLADZ

Lydia Lund spends much of the Washington indie-rock band Chastity Belts new song Fear hollering until shes hoarse, Its just the fear, its just the fear. Apparently she recorded the vocals while she was staying at her parents house, and her commitment to the song was so intense that her mother knocked on the door to make sure she was OK because she thought I was doing some kind of primal scream therapy, Lund said. And I guess in a way I am. Lunds impassioned delivery and the songs soaring guitars turn Fear into a cathartic response to overwhelming anxiety, and provide a powerful soundtrack for slaying that dreaded mind killer. ZOLADZ

Kid A Mnesia, the new, expansive compilation of Radiohead songs from their paradigm-shifting sessions in 1999-2000, has unearthed studio versions of songs that the band performed but never committed to albums, notably Follow Me Around, a guitar-strumming crescendo of paranoia. The video, apparently made with a small but persistent camera drone, nicely multiplies the dread. PARELES

Lorde, Hold No Grudge

Lorde whisper-sings through the first half of Hold No Grudge, a bonus track added to her album Solar Power. Its a memory of an early love that ended without a resolution; later messages went unanswered. Midway through, shes still bouncing syllables off guitar strums, but the sound of the song comes into focus and Lorde realizes, We both might have done some growing up. Shes ready to let the passage of time offer solace. PARELES

Omar Apollo is known for combining cool funk grooves, slick charisma and sensual falsettos. But on Bad Life, his new single featuring Kali Uchis, the young singer-songwriter peels back the layers and puts his armor aside for a bare-bones exercise in vulnerability. Bad Life revels in contempt, burning slow and low alongside a soft-focus electric guitar. Apollo opens the track with a heart-piercer: You give me nothing/But I still change it to something. Ouch. The singers voice curls into anguished melismas, and when the orchestral strings soar in halfway through, the resentment cuts crystal clear. HERRERA

Alt-J created a serene and almost unbearably mournful song with Get Better, a fingerpicked chronicle about the profundity and mundanity of a loved ones slow death like Paul Simons Darling Lorraine and Mount Eeries Real Death. Its profoundly self-conscious, citing the similarly acoustic arrangement of Elliott Smith; it offers personal moments, stray events, reminiscences, belongings, thoughts of front line workers, admissions that I still pretend youre only out of sight in another room/smiling at your phone. The loss is only personal, but shattering. PARELES

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Post Malone and the Weeknds Emo Synth-Pop, and 12 More New Songs - The New York Times

All the signage and branding is forest green, decorated with a leaf emblem, for the Heartland Institutes International Conference on Climate Change. Its being held in an event room at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, and attendees most of them white-haired, older gentlemen chat animatedly as they saunter past the Roman columns and statues at the famed hotel, talking about science and climate and energy.

There are retired teachers, scientists, engineers, members of ultra-conservative think tanks and lobby groups. The books being handed out for free look a little fringe or inflammatory with covers featuring war scenes and explosions but its not until the speeches begin at the opening dinner that it becomes abundantly clear that science and climate are not the primary focus of this conference.

Within about an hour, booming, charismatic speakers both at the podium and through video rope in rants about everything from critical race theory and the media to mask mandates and Marxism.

It feels like a low-level, alt-right rally which reaches its peak with a video appearance by Naomi Seibt, the young, blonde, German rock star of the climate-denial movement. Shes often referred to as the anti-Greta, as she is known for pushing views diametrically opposed to those of Swedish teen climate activist Greta Thunberg.

Research published last week revealed that 99.9 per cent of studies now show that the climate crisis is human-driven, on a par with scientific certainty about evolution. The world is on track for temperature rises in excess of 3C this century despite a safe limit of 1.5C set by the Paris Agreement. At 3C, the world will see more hurricanes, fires, ice-cap melting and other extreme weather conditions.

This years UN climate summit, Cop26, is widely seen as the moment when countries must raise their ambitions and goals to avert climate disaster by reducing global carbon emission by roughly half by 2030.

Books, pamphlets and other literature at the Heartland Institutes October climate-change conference in Las Vegas sought to deconstruct mainstream arguments and established research

(Sheila Flynn)

It is a goal that the oil and gas industry is not taking lying down, despite its overtures to transitioning to a greener future. Since the Paris Agreement, the five largest publicly traded oil and gas majors ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron, BP and Total have invested more than $1bn of shareholder funds on misleading climate-related branding and lobbying, according to InfluenceMap.

And then theres Vegas.

The Heartland Institute was traditionally funded by fossil fuels but says most financing now comes from private donations.

Dr John Cook, professor at the Centre for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University and founder of the Skeptical Science website, told The Independent last year that Heartland was one of the particularly prolific producers of climate science misinformation, whereas a lot of others tend to focus on policy.

The Chicago-based right-wing think tank bills itself as playing an essential role in the national (and increasingly international) movement for personal liberty and limited government, saying it has been the subject of unfair criticism and even libel by various liberal advocacy groups, elected officials and even Wikipedia.

At the keynote breakfast speech on the closing morning of the three-day conference, Ms Seibt, a Heartland favourite, echoes this position.

The climate debate has been driving a narrative of fear and delusion for years but now we find ourselves in a cluster of fear porn, not only from a climate crisis but also from a global health apocalypse, allegedly, Ms Seibt tells the conference, her long hair flowing over a silver jacket, her glamorous eye make-up flawless.

I find myself in a community of heroes who will not succumb to the pressures of defamation, because they know how important the truth is, she continues. We dont believe in instant gratification. We know that we need to go through a dark and dangerous tunnel to get our true freedoms back, because whats the alternative? Lying to ourselves? Putting on a mask and living the same meaningless matrix, pretentious, Marxist lives like everybody else?

The tone of Heartland literature and many presentations is persecuted but defiant and provocative. The Vegas weekend involves the presentation of the combatively-named Dauntless Purveyor of Climate Truth award, for example.

Try as they might, governments couldnt keep us locked down forever, Heartland president James Taylor proclaims in the institutes quarterly performance report being distributed at the conference.

The branding at the Heartland Institutes International Climate on Conference Change gave no hint as to the events diametrically-opposed views to mainstream climate science

(Sheila Flynn)

Now that we are regaining some of our freedoms, Heartland is sticking it to the environmental left ... The worst of the lockdowns are over, and freedom is rising again.

With Heartlands powerful impact on the global warming debate, its no wonder the Big Government left fears returning to a free and open society!

The overarching messages during the conference at least the ones related to climate posit that the Earth has always undergone extreme weather cycles. Speakers claim that climate changes are happening so gradually that a catastrophe lies only far in the future and shouldnt be cause for alarmism right now.

They argue that the cause has been hijacked by the media and the left, among other influences, to enforce an agenda of misinformation that will lead to worldwide tyranny.

I spent the past 18 months compiling iron-clad evidence about the Great Reset and about those behind it, says Justin Haskins, Heartlands editorial director, in a recorded video message.

Leaning into the camera, the bookcase behind him featuring items including an American flag, a Glenn Beck book, and a black-and-white pendant proclaiming Liberty or Death (both the colours and the phrase are associated with the alt-right movement), Mr Haskins looks every inch the zealot.

Is it a conspiracy theory? he asks of the climate crisis and left ideology. Well, there is a conspiracy. At this point, I dont think its a conspiracy theory; I think its a conspiracy fact.

Ms Seibt builds upon these ideas, proclaiming in her recorded message that social justice is a euphemism.

We believe in true, individual social connections hugging each other, being there for each other, not this cold-blooded second-hand welfare slave system, she says.

Eco-fascism is a prime example of that. We win, because we are greater than our grudges, more adamant than our adversaries, more truthful than our tormentors, and more compassionate than the cowards who want to control us with their ... censorship.

Truth is uncontrollable. The scientific method will prevail, because politicised science is not science at all. It is stagnation, and stagnation is the death of science.

Ms Seibt and other speakers call for open scientific discourse and demand their voices be heard while slamming the media repeatedly. One panellist shows to applause a photo of himself throwing a journalist out of an event. Another exhibits a political cartoon declaring the death of capitalism.

Heartland Institutes Justin Haskins delivered an impassioned video message that spoke less about climate than it did about combatting socialism, Marxism and misinformation from the left'

(Sheila Flynn)

On Saturday, one speaker and filmmaker showcasing his own documentary Climate Hustle 2 doesnt help the causes arguments for open discourse as he lambasts a reporter in the hallway outside the booked conference rooms.

Youre just an uneducated reporter, he shouts at a British television journalist querying him on scientific points, his voice rising.

Mr Morano runs a climate-change denial website in addition to directing and starring in Climate Hustle 2, narrated by Hercules: The Legendary Journeys actor Kevin Sorbo, which mocks celebrities who speak about climate.

The filmmaker himself has no scientific credentials. He does, however, have a demeanour reminiscent of Anthony Scaramucci.

Now whos the one spreading misinformation? he shouts at the journalist when she tries to delve into statistics from research. He drowns her out: You obviously have no source. Youre just repeating [yourself].

Heartland Institutes vice-president and director of communications, Jim Lakely, looks vaguely stricken by the exchange as it escalates though he later tries damage control by telling The Independent that he kind of likes a bit of argey-bargey, and the more animation the better.

Not everyone at the conference is antagonistic, though. One attendee is an investment manager from Connecticut who, while sceptical of certain climate-crisis claims, says he came to the event because climate and energy are so intertwined with financial markets.

Another, George Taylor, tells The Independent he has PhDs in both mathematics and computer science and is more interested in exploring energy sources than listening to diatribes unsupported by facts.

The whole point is to get your message to the other person and have them actually understand something they could walk away with, Mr Taylor, based in Reno, tells The Independent describing the previous nights volatile scene between filmmaker Mr Morano and the journalist as unproductive.

Rather than yelling and screaming and making it political, lets get down to some numbers and some facts, he tells The Independent, after detailing how a Nevada friend gave him grief about attending the conference. (She only reads liberal sources like The Washington Post, he adds.)

There may be a significant amount that we dont know, so were actually taking a guess and deciding to what degree are we going to take preventative action to ward off what may be a problem ... sometimes, you have to act in the absence of perfect knowledge.

Amidst that uncertainty, however, Mr Taylor concedes that it would be more beneficial to impart the facts without yelling and screaming and ranting.

The Heartland Institutes October Climate Conference in Las Vegas seemed more focused on political aims than environmental concerns

(Sheila Flynn)

Regardless of what some consider the fringe element of climate science, however, many of the attendees the ones less concerned with politics and more interested in research do seem to have their hearts in the right place. They feel they genuinely are environmental activists but on a whole different plane from the mainstream.

Everyone here is smart and everyone is sincere, the wife of one panellist tells The Independent.

What that sincerity might lead to, however after the weekends near-palpable undercurrent of right-wing ideology remains in doubt.

Heartlands Mr Haskins says: Beneath the glowing stars-and-stripes veneer is a terminally ill superpower teetering on the edge and the worst part is our most disruptive, dangerous days still lie ahead.

At lavish cocktail parties in European resort towns and in the boardrooms of the worlds largest corporations, powerful and influential leaders are putting the finishing touches on the vast infrastructure need to alter our communities forever.

The calls to action over the weekend are repeatedly spelled out: Run for office. Push back.

Resist.

Our open, free minds are untouchable in the end therefore panic will persist until we resist, Ms Seibt tells rapt listeners.

And we resist now.

Continued here:

Welcome to anti-Cop26: The climate-change denial expo in Vegas where attendees talk anything but science - The Independent

A federal judge on Monday sentenced 40-year-old Cody Melby to five years of probation for firing a gun at the faade of the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse in downtown Portland on Jan. 8.

The reason he fired the weapon: He wanted to get in front of the court for political and patriotic reasons, said Melbys attorney, public defender Bryan Francesconi, in a Monday hearing. He is an intensely patriotic person.

As WW reported in January, federal prosecutors alleged Melby fired several rounds from a 9 mm handgun into the courthouses exterior on the evening of Jan. 8. Two days prior, on Jan. 6, police cited Melby for criminal trespass while in possession of a firearm after he allegedly sought entry into the Oregon State Capitol during a far-right rally and refused to leave after police in Salem asked him to do so.

Last month, Melby pleaded guilty to one count of possession of a firearm in a federal facility for the Jan. 8 incident. As federal prosecutor Paul Maloney noted Monday, that felony conviction typically carries a prison sentence.

However, Maloney said, given his lack of criminal history, and the totality of the facts and circumstances of this case, we believe that a sentence of probation is warranted.

Federal prosecutors and Melbys attorney asked U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut to instead sentence Melby to eight months of community confinement, which would be credited with time served for Melbys stay in pretrial custody, and five years of federal probation.

During sentencing, Immergut told the attorneys she had concerns about what I perceive to be the leniency of this sentence. But both the prosecution and the defense rationalized Melbys actions, explaining that the Army veteran fired at the federal courthouse because he was influenced by the 2020 election, wildfires and the political landscape in Portland, and felt an urgency to express those views to a federal judge.

During this time, he became fixated on the civil discourse surrounding the 2020 protests, as well as the presidential election, Maloney said at sentencing. As the court notes, there [were] publicly posted YouTube videos of the defendant advocating for violence in support of his views.Mr. Melby was determined to get himself in front of a federal judge to express those views. He determined that he needed to fire a weapon at the structure of the Hatfield courthouse.

He did not aim inside the building, Maloney continued. He aimed at a part of the building that was unable to hold people. He aimed at one of the columns that was wrapped in plywood. Effectively, judge, this defendant used a firearm to commit an act of misdemeanor vandalism.

Leading up to Jan. 6, when rioters attempted an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Melby had posted videos onto his YouTube channel that included statements that subscribe to the Alt-Right ideology of Stop the Steal and QAnon conspiracy theories, federal prosecutors wrote in their initial criminal complaint against Melby.

For example, in a YouTube video posted Jan. 5, federal prosecutors allege, Melby called on former President Donald Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act and claimed that Portland city officials had allowed antifa to grow into a terrorist organization. In the video, Melby also called for the arrest of elected officials, including Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, as well as media figures like Anderson Cooper and Mark Zuckerberg, prosecutors said.

He describes the events around the 2020 presidential election as an attack on the very foundation of our republic and a theft of votes, federal prosecutors wrote in a January criminal complaint. Melby states, multiple state governments and federal agencies have committed treason against the United States. Melby asserts that multiple politicians have committed treason, rebellion, insurrection, sedition, advocated the overthrow of the government and have established unconstitutional mask mandates.

But on Monday, the governments tone shifted. Prosecutors highlighted in their sentencing memo that Melby, who lives in Beavercreek, Ore., served in the U.S. Army in Kosovo in 2001, followed by three tours in Iraq. During his final tour, prosecutors noted, he was injured during rocket fire, effectively earning a Bronze Star. Melby retired from the Army in 2017.

The unquestionable reality is, hes an incredibly patriotic person who did what he believed was necessary as part of his duties to this country based off his years of service, Francesconi told the judge Monday.

Melby explained at sentencing what, exactly, he wanted to communicate to a federal judge.

I looked around first to make sure no one was around, he said about the Jan. 8 shooting. Because this was my intent right here, was to just be able to talk to you and kind of come forward with some stuff.

Melby claimed that he held a secret security clearance while in the Army, which allowed him to work in top-secret environments, and that he had been granted a courier card which enabled him to transport confidential and classified materials.

Our government had extremely high trust in me throughout my career, Melby told the judge at sentencing. My statement before you today is simple: Im here to state that, under penalty of perjury since my permanent retirement from the Army, Ive been involved in a series of military operations on American soil for the Trump administration. It is important that I come forward as a whistleblower, because our Constitution has possibly been subverted due to loopholes and inadequate government.

Melby told the judge that he wanted to be released from custody so that he could bring forth sensitive information to Congress.

That caught the judges attention.

With respect to your desire to be in touch with Congress, Judge Immergut asked, what medium do you expect to use to engage in that sort of discussion?

Email, your honor, Melby responded.

Immergut agreed with the attorneys recommendation of a five-year probation sentence, on the condition that Melby enter treatment in a mental health facility upon his release from custody while he awaits a bed in the Veterans Administration-run mental health facility. She also granted the governments recommended condition that Melby cannot frequent websites containing content related to conspiring with or inciting others to commit acts of violence.

I will ask you to have a discussion with probation before you start sending emails to folks, because Im concerned that you could find yourself going down a path that would not be helpful to you, Immergut told Melby at sentencing. So to the extent that there is anything thats perceived as threatening, for examplethat would not be good for you.

The judge also approved the prosecutions request to bar Melby from entering the three-block radius surrounding the downtown federal courthouse.

The area around the Hatfield courthouse, as the court is aware, became a locus for protests and protest-related criminal activity, Maloney said Monday. Barring the defendant from being within that zone is calculated to prohibit the likelihood of him engaging in future conflicts.

Immergut expressed concerns that Melby could have been killed by courthouse security officers on Jan. 8 or could have injured one of them when he fired his weapon. She questioned Melbys ability to scale the tall black fencing that has surrounded the federal courthouse since Black Lives Matter protests began in the summer of 2020.

Honestly, I hope that the government is looking into how it is you got over the fence in the first place and had the opportunity just to walk around in the enclosed, protected area because that was, frankly, pretty shocking to me, Immergut said. I do have that concern that when you do something like that, that you could have put an officer in the position of shooting you down, or you could have shot them because they came out with guns ablazing, which in that security areaIm surprised they didnt, honestly.

Melby still faces charges in Marion County for the Jan. 6 incident, as well as in Multnomah County for the federal courthouse shooting. He is currently being held in the Multnomah County Inverness Jail, according to jail records.

Following Melbys sentencing yesterday, acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon Scott Erik Asphaug issued the following statement.

Cody Melby is a disabled combat veteran who, after becoming detached from his mental health support system, made an extraordinarily poor and dangerous decision to fire a gun at the Hatfield Courthouse, Asphaug said. Fortunately, nobody was injured during this incident. The sentence imposed today will ensure Mr. Melby receives the treatment he needs while also protecting the community.

More:

Prosecutors Say Man With QAnon Ties Fired Gun at Portland Courthouse to Get Himself in Front of a Federal Judge to Express Political Views -...

It turns out that alleging the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol was a hoax doesnt sit well with a lot of people.

Tucker Carlson this week debuted a trailer for his fantastical upcoming documentary that claims the insurrection was a false flag operation. The trailer has drawn the ire of politicians and media figures from both sides of the aisle. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) bashed Carlson after the trailer was released. So too did fellow Fox News personality Geraldo Rivera, who called the false flag claim bullshit.

He elaborated in an interview with The New York Times. There are some things that you say that are more inflammatory and outrageous and uncorroborated, he said. And I worry that and Im probably going to get in trouble for this but Im wondering how much is done to provoke, rather than illuminate, he said.

The Anti-Defamation League is also dismayed by the forthcoming film. The group wrote a letter to Fox News on Thursday expressing deep alarm at the film. Lets call this what it is: an abject, indisputable lie and a blatant attempt to rewrite history, Jonathan Greenblatt, the leagues CEO and national director, wrote. As an organization committed to fighting antisemitism and all forms of hate, we remain deeply concerned that the false narrative and wild conspiracy theories presented by Carlson will sow further division and has the potential to animate violence.

Making matters worse is that the films co-writer, Scooter Downey, has ties to Pizzagate and other unfounded conspiracy theories, The Daily Beast reported on Friday.

Downey and Carlson both have a writing credit on Patriot Purge, the three-part documentary series set to air on Fox News streaming service Fox Nation, according to a screenshot the director tweeted on Wednesday. In a trailer for the film, which is set to premiere Monday with a week-long promotion on the network, a woman is shown saying that false flags have happened in this country, one of which may have been January 6th.

Before his latest project, Downey directed Hoaxed: Everything They Told You Is a Lie, a 2019 documentary produced by Michael Cernovich, an alt-right extremist who pushed the 2016 conspiracy theory that Hillary Clinton and other Democratic politicians were running a child sex trafficking ring out of the basement of a D.C. pizzeria. That anti-Clinton fervor culminated in a man firing an assault weapon in the restaurant.

In 2020, Downey created a documentary with Lauren Southern, a Canadian alt-right activist. That film gave an alt-right interpretation of Black Lives Matter protests and violence in the wake of George Floyds murder by police.

Patriot Purge isnt the first time Carlson has surfaced the Jan. 6 false flag theory. In June, he suggested that the FBI was not charging some Capitol rioters because he claimed, without evidence, that they were almost certainly working for the FBI. The Fox host doubled down on the conspiracy theory days later when he wrote an op-ed that month with the headline Tucker Carlson: FBI has a history of creating crimes.

Rivera has had enough. Messing around with Jan. 6 stuff he added in his interview with the Times. The record to me is pretty damn clear, that there was a riot that was incited and encouraged and unleashed by Donald Trump.

Carlson hasnt gone after the Fox News commentator, but he has attacked Cheney after she called out Carlson and the network for using their platform to spread the same type of lies that provoked violence on Jan. 6. Carlson said on Thursday that his show called Cheneys office to ask her to make an appearance Thursday, and that she was a coward for declining.

An email screenshot tweeted by Cheneys communications director, Jeremy Adler, showed the show only emailed the office, and that the office gave them a scathing reply. Tucker has had countless opportunities to explain to his viewers that the election was not stolen, he wrote. Instead, he continues to promote dangerous conspiracy theories using the language that provoked violence against law enforcement and our Capitol on Jan. 6. Liz will not participate in that.

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Even Geraldo Is Pissed About Tucker Carlsons Unhinged Jan. 6 Movie, Which Has Ties to Pizzagate - Rolling Stone

Pepe the Frog is a cartoon character that has become a popular Internet meme (often referred to as the "sad frog meme" by people unfamiliar with the name of the character). The character first appeared in 2005 in the on-line cartoon Boy's Club. In that appearance, the character also first used its catchphrase, "feels good, man."

The Pepe the Frog character did not originally have racist or anti-Semitic connotations. Internet users appropriated the character and turned him into a meme, placing the frog in a variety of circumstances and saying many different things. Many variations of the meme became rather esoteric, resulting in the phenomenon of so-called "rare Pepes."

The majority of uses of Pepe the Frog have been, and continue to be, non-bigoted. However, it was inevitable that, as the meme proliferated in on-line venues such as 4chan, 8chan, and Reddit, which have many users who delight in creating racist memes and imagery, a subset of Pepe memes would come into existence that centered on racist, anti-Semitic or other bigoted themes.

In recent years, with the growth of the "alt right" segment of the white supremacist movement, a segment that draws some of its support from some of the above-mentioned Internet sites, the number of "alt right" Pepe memes has grown, a tendency exacerbated by the controversial and contentious 2016 presidential election. Though Pepe memes have many defenders, the use of racist and bigoted versions of Pepe memes seems to be increasing, not decreasing.

However, because so many Pepe the Frog memes are not bigoted in nature, it is important to examine use of the meme only in context. The mere fact of posting a Pepe meme does not mean that someone is racist or white supremacist. However, if the meme itself is racist or anti-Semitic in nature, or if it appears in a context containing bigoted or offensive language or symbols, then it may have been used for hateful purposes.

In the fall of 2016, the ADL teamed with Pepe creator Matt Furie to form a #SavePepe campaign to reclaim the symbol from those who use it with hateful intentions.

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Pepe the Frog

AMMAN, JordanTwo opposing internet counter-cultures defined by their unswerving allegiance to tradition, misogyny, bigotry, and homophobia have converged around an unlikely allying force: the Taliban.

The alt-right and akh-rightan alt-right inspired Islamist movementhave united around the Talibans owning of America. Spread across platforms, these two movements are no longer regulated to the Chan Cultures they were birthed on but are now mainstreaming their discourse on platforms such as Twitter and Instagram, influencing debate in both political and religious circles.

The rapid takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban over the past few weeks, culminating in the sacking of Kabul and a shoddy withdrawal of U.S. forces, has brought together these movements, which see eye-to-eye on the interventionist nature of the two-decade-long war in Afghanistan. While on the surface this may seem odd, its in many ways the culmination of years of convergence between the alt-right, the far right, incel communities, and Islamist messaging around the U.S. government, the LGBTQ+ community, liberals, and democracy.

The result of this convergence is a one struggle campaign characterized by shitposting. That includes sharing images comparing the Taliban to the Civil War confederacy, crusaders, and Islamic fighters. Another popular image features the notoriously iconic photograph of a Stop the Steal supporter with his feet up on a desk in Nancy Pelosis office, next to a photograph of the Taliban in a provincial governors office.

The akh-right has been celebrating the wins of the CHADLIBANa combination of the alpha male ethos Chad and the Taliban. The Chadliban memes often feature images of Taliban fighters next to men in U.S. military uniforms wearing womens shoes, underneath the line barefoot mountain-[n----r] vs strongest most advanced army in the world in high heels. A defining feature of both the alt-right and akh-right is overt racism, and the use of the n-word to describe allies, enemies, and the use of it in posts, memes, and comments.

Death is what passes for lulz in these circles.

The convergence of these online sub-cultures signals a need for understanding the evolution of extremism in the post-9/11 world. What is abundantly clear is the ideological fluidity of Gen Z communities online. Even within groups such as the Groypersalt-right white supremacists with a hard-on for Nick Fuentesthey sway between degrees of racism, but always seem to land on the central precepts of white supremacy.

It is the concept of tradition that underpins both Islamist and alt-right support for the Taliban on Twitter. Like alt-Islamists who celebrate the Talibans traditions, including shariah, the alt-right is also drawn to the group because of its stances on women. The support for a diminished role of women in public similarly bleeds over into Incel circles on Twitter, who then take it even further to an outright hatred of women.

While the Groypers adopt much of the Talibans ethos, other alt-right movements such as the American Populist Uniona Gen Z splinter group of the America First movementwas dealing with its own splinter faction: the American Populist Union Chads. That faction is responsible for setting up a fake news outlet on Twitter dubbed Real Taliban News, which used the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan as an opportunity to target the U.S. government, Joe Biden, top military brass, and the LBGTQ+ community.

The account went one step further than others thoughtweeting in broken Pashto.

One of its posts featured side-by-side portraits of a skinny white kid taking a selfie next to a pair of Taliban members laughing at a question about womens rights (lifted from a recent Vice documentary) with the phrase American men and Afghan men. We are not the same. It denigrated Joe Biden in Pashto as not a leader, but a dreaded dog.

It also declared, again in what seems to be Google Translate Pashto, that Antifa [is] the eternal enemy of justice, order and God and claiming that the Taliban would hunt down and destroy communist infiltrators. The account reached more than 3,800 followers before it was taken down by the platform.

The APU Chad represented a faction within a faction of a wider America First movement supporting the Taliban. It seemed to take off around the same time both congressman Matt Gaetz and former President Donald Trump had praised the Taliban.

Across Instagram, an ahk-right movement of Taliban supporters reveled in the return of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Accounts dedicated to being cringe versions of a popular Islamic State media outfit churned out sarcastic memes of the Taliban being scared of Change.org petitions to stop the Taliban.

Videos shared in these circles featured Eminems Without Meand the lyric Guess whos backover a Wikipedia change to the description of Afghanistan, where the national flag morphs into the flag for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Others used popular alt-right tropes to refer to the Taliban as TALIBASED.

In order to stave off takedowns by technology companies who had banned the Taliban from their platforms, akh-righters flagged their posts and videos with words like irony, but the comments would ultimately give it away.

One video was of Tom Cruise attached to a plane as it took off, overlaid with on-screen text that read, MFs trying to escape Kabul be like...

The corresponding caption? Munafiqeen [n----r] be like, implying the Afghans who died attempting to escape Kabul were religious hypocrites.

Users cackled at the loss of life in the comments. Apparently, death is what passes for lulz in these circles.

Original post:

Generation Zs Alt-Right Declares New Hero: the Taliban