Are Things Still Extremely Bad?
The Answer is Oddly Hopeful!
If you’re reading this let me start by saying: thank you so much for having never marked these e-mails as spam. You may have noticed I took a little over a year off from the newsletter, and you may have asked yourself “what happened?” Or more likely you didn’t give it a second thought, or maybe you’re one of the many bots who hit that subscribe button after I stopped posting. Regardless of how you got here, thank you for your patience. Since my last post I’ve finished my Masters Program and started a new job. I gave myself some time to adjust to the new role and now with my feet under me I’m ready to get back to doing what I do best: posting.
During my break, a single question loomed in my mind: are things still Extremely Bad™?
The answer is a definitive…kinda.
There has been a continued rise in hateful content online, particularly following Elon Musk taking over Twitter/X and removing any semblance of what might be considered reasonable content moderation. In addition to this, AI has been making it easier for propagandists to spread hateful messages online, and some far right organizations have become more active in real life. To do my best to close any loops from previous newsletter entries, and to get you caught up to where we are now, here’s a quick run down of some of the stories I covered previously and where they are now.
The Rundown
Sarah Clendaniel, who had previously been arrested after conspiring with a former member of Atomwaffen to destroy the Baltimore power grid, pled guilty to the aforementioned crime. Clendaniel and her counterpart, Brandon Russell, are what is known as Accelerationists. Their goal was to destroy the power grid to “accelerate” Baltimore and/or the country towards societal collapse, resulting in a race war. The tactics they use and their philosophy does not match up with any of the reality of how people behave in times of disaster, which you can read more about in Rebecca Solnits beautiful book “A Paradise Built In Hell.”
Antisemitism is Still Bad: Previously I wrote about the Goyim Defense League (GDL) along with other trends in antisemitism. Over the last year there’s been a spike in antisemitic activity, with one of the more notable events being the “March of the Red Shirts” in Orlando, Florida in September of 2023. Members of the GDL joined up with the Blood Tribe, another group of racist and antisemitic nerds led by Christopher Polhaus, to screech and complain outside of the Disney Springs shopping center, and downtown Orlando.
Image: Christopher Polhaus having a very bad time at Disney World. Speaking of the Goyim Defense League, they’ve been more active this year: The GDL converged on Nashville in July of this year to stomp their feet, wave some flags, and complain about how immigrants are “replacing” white people. One of their members, who had flown all the way down from Ontario for the occasion, was arrested on charges of aggravated assault. According to reporter Phil Williams, Ryan has been left in jail by his GDL buddies and likely wont be able to leave the country even if he posts bond. The good news is, people in Nashville aren’t suckers. The community came together to show solidarity with the Jewish Community and reject antisemitism in the wake of these events.
Andrew Tate got arrested again. You might remember him from my previous posts about male supremacy and misogyny. Tate was previously arrested for allegedly being a human trafficker. His latest case in Romania specifically involves trafficking minors and sex with a minor, and names his brother Tristan as being involved as well. Tate has been making money for years off pyramid schemes designed to give young men a blueprint for masculinity, often using the control of women’s bodies as a central pillar of that blueprint. His ideas have fed the male supremacist movement, which uses quasi-scientific arguments to explain why Men deserve to dominate society and in many cases why they should receive preferential treatment.
A Qanon believer murdered his dad, but Qanon itself is changing as a phenomenon. It is less popular than it used to be largely because the things predicted by the anonymous “Q” account have not come to pass. From the initial “Q Drops” back in 2017 on 4chan, believers in the “Qanon” conspiracy theory believed that a satanic cabal held power throughout the world and that Donald Trump was going to uproot that cabal during an event they called “The Storm.” Some believers rose to national prominence, and ultimately Qanon flags were flown during the storming of the Capital Building on January 6th, 2021. However, the movement itself has dissipated and fractured, with many of the pieces of the conspiracy theory (such as the belief in a satanic cabal) being flung out into the wider far right and conspiratorial milieu.
Someone tried to assassinate President Trump: Almost immediately after the attempt on Trumps life in July, people began attempting to assign blame to their political enemies. The Right blamed the Left, the Left blamed the Right, everyone yelled, and then a week later we all just kind of…forgot. This is in large part because the reality of the would-be assassins motivations have proven difficult to pin down. Like other failed assassins before him such as John Hinkley, Thomas Crooks was not necessarily politically motivated (or at least not in a way that is easily discernable). He had looked at a number of different targets across the ideological spectrum in the lead up to the event, and Trump was likely a “target of opportunity,” not an ideological target. Because of this, Crooks may have been more akin to a school shooter than a political assassin. He wanted to carry out an act of violence that would bring him a level of infamy and recognition. Ultimately, he was unsuccessful in this attempt to the point of being ridiculed in threads on 4chan.
And Now Some Brief Thoughts on The Election
As the election looms closer, there is a great deal of anxiety throughout the country. The events that surrounded the election in 2020 have left us all with a bizarre case of population-wide post traumatic stress, constantly checking our phones to see what new horror awaits us on our slow march to the polls. The assassination attempt on Trump did not help in assuaging any of these concerns, even if it has largely faded from public consciousness.
The good news is, things are actually a lot more calm this time around. In 2020, anti-COVID protests had been going on for months and were merging with anti-BLM rallies and marches by the end of the summer. These activities in the streets often clashed with the ongoing George Floyd Uprisings throughout the country, creating an incredibly volatile situation. As the fall approached, Proud Boys and others took to the streets of DC for regular “Stop the Steal” marches which ultimately became the preceding events to January 6th.
This year, none of that momentum is there. Sure, there are protests on college campuses against the ongoing war in Gaza, and some of those have become violent. But overwhelmingly across the country, there hasn’t been much in the way of counter protests leading to street violence. In far right forums online, almost anyone proposing an action or protest at a state capital or DC is immediately shouted down and labeled a “fed” or an “op.”
This is not to say that there aren’t things to be concerned about. There are bills and proposals and mis/dis-information campaigns all being cooked up to make it harder to vote, or more confusing, or to dissuade people from voting all together. With that said, in terms of the momentum on the far right that we saw in the build up to 2020, it is almost non-existent.
I hope this can offer you some comfort as we get closer to election day. With that said, a lot can change between now and November, so keep an eye on your inbox for more updates!