Live data from Hacker News

Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

bbc.com

251–260 of 389 posts

Re: Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

#251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason there's a white supremecist in the white house is precisely that people silenced white people on places like Twitter when they complained about institutional social injustices against them. So the white people got together and voted as a minority bloc for a member of their minority that would favor their interests over all others. Your solution of trying harder to supress them will only get more Donald Tru…

Not really. We are going to wipe out that tendency by educating people better. Educated people, on the whole, tend not to be racist, bigoted fascists.

That's a lot of people to educate. And where? Some sort of infrastructure would be necessary to educate so many. But it probably wouldn't need to be permanent, just temporary until the masses are educated. You know, a sort of camp for education.

Re: Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

#252
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"A cartoon of Pepe the Frog is a commonly used symbol of the alt-right" is the subtitle of the image in the BBC article. Look at it, the drawing innocence is really staggering: I'm wondering what is the link, whether the link is warranted, and whether Twitter used posts of Pepe the Frog to recognize alt-right people. Sounds like a badly AI-generated inference to me.

As someone with a fairly large rare Pepe collection, and who has been responsible for illustrating some extremely rare Pepes, but is in no way sympathetic to the notion of white supremacy, I find this whole Pepe controversy quite annoying. I've even removed the Pepe patch I had on my backpack in fear that someone would misinterpret my politics. The clearest indiction I had that the media and the Clinton campaign were…

Wow, thanks for posting this. I'm not a US citizen so I had not reviewed the candidate sites but I started to suspect things like this had to come from the democratic campaign. I figured soundbites though, not a page on the website. Unbelievable.

Re: Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

#253
post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/racism https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/racism > a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race Nothing in there about privilege. You can't just redefine a word because you say thats what it should mean. Every race can be racist.

The current axiom is that yes, anybody can have prejudiced views about anybody else. Sure, and it's perfectly fine and normal to feel hurt when you are getting the hit from it. But the way progressives talk about racism today is that racism is prejudice + power structures. You can be hated all day long for being a white person, but until people of color are pulling all the invisible power structures, it doesn't reall…

Then pick a different word. That one already has a meaning and it is not what you just described.

What you just described is actual racism. It's determining what someone may or may not have experienced based on their race. No matter their economical situation, family situation, etc. That line of thinking needs to die off.

Re: Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

#254
post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A black president does not absolve the racist elements of America. Full stop. Do you think having a black president suddenly stops racist governors, judges, or prosecutors from existing?

Do you think having black governors, judges, or prosecutors will suddenly stop racism? I'll remind you that black people can be racist too (indeed, the New Black Panther Party is incredibly antisemitic) I'll repeat a few sentences from my above comment: > And many other people of color in power everywhere else? Your claim reads as if every white person oppresses every black person, all the time. And that's just offen…

And I just don't think you have read up or understand the vastness of privilige and power structures in the country that perpetuate racism every day. Just because black people can be racist doesn't mean they have the institutional power to oppress others with it. It's often kept in these fringe extremist groups.

Combatting racism is a huge task. The first, most effective, and most difficult order has been in the front of progressive's agendas for a while now is actually in line with what a lot of HN is into. Deeply reforming the prison system. Walking back on the drug war. other items include more minority voices in the national conversation. White people dominate media, and this sends a message that the national narrative is white. It's very disheartening to turn on the tv everday and only see yourself as a token character on a show written completely without your cultural perspective. 5his is the unpopular one around here, start taking hate speech seriously. On all sides, regardless of race. Finally, many intellectuals argue that a firm financial base for all and ensuring that every citizen has social mobility will assuage most racial tension. Giving everybody equal chances at training, education, income, and housing. I.e. if a coal worker is offered state retraining to a new career when their plant shuts down and they are still able to put food on the table, they are less likely to lash out against a perceived other. This view is a little too reductionist and patronizing for my tastes, but it's a start.

Re: Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

#256
post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a simple test. Take someone's rhetoric, like "killallmen". And replace the target with "Jews". If the updated statement feels racist and evil, then the original is also racist and evil. There's an entire subreddit devoted to this idea: https://www.reddit.com/r/menkampf/ It's eye-opening just how racist many "mainstream" comments are.

Not to detract from your main message, but much of #killallmen was actually males from 4Chan during "Operation Lollipop" (source is a quick Google away off the quoted words). They also had #BanFathersDay trending

There are many people who seriously advocate for this:

Links:

http://www.dailywire.com/news/8386/feminist-journalist-all-m...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCUM_Manifesto

http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/is-reducing-the-male-populati...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Daly

Quotes:

“I feel that ‘man-hating’ is an honourable and viable political act, that the oppressed have a right to class-hatred against the class that is oppressing them.” – Robin Morgan, Ms. Magazine Editor

“I want to see a man beaten to a bloody pulp with a high-heel shoved in his mouth, like an apple in the mouth of a pig.” — Andrea Dworkin

“The proportion of men must be reduced to and maintained at approximately 10% of the human race.” — Sally Miller Gearhart

Or Marilyn French, who believes that all men are rapists, and that in private, they boast to each other about how many women they've raped. And that the population of men should be reduced.

Re: Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

#257

Did you even read the words you quoted? Please do so again, try to not skip any.

I think you're missing the point. I'm trying to say that that from this side of the aisle, it certainly seems that the prevailing opinion amongst Democrats is that the Republican Party is full of terrible people.

half There is not more to say than that. Pretty sad that a foreigner needs to teach you English.

Re: Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

#258
post #233
post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can you be racist against the ruling, privileged class? Sure, white people can have it bad too, but we still have all the privilige and automatic perks. It isn't bigotry as much as self defense against how many white people are still deeply entrenched in racism. As a whole, white people are still oppressors.

It's extremely convenient when the major labels that you use to demonize your political opponents cannot apply to you, even when you do the exact same behavior, based on definitions that your side made up. Extremely convenient.

Who said they don't apply to everyone?

Re: Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

#259
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"A cartoon of Pepe the Frog is a commonly used symbol of the alt-right" is the subtitle of the image in the BBC article. Look at it, the drawing innocence is really staggering: I'm wondering what is the link, whether the link is warranted, and whether Twitter used posts of Pepe the Frog to recognize alt-right people. Sounds like a badly AI-generated inference to me.

The particular situation with pepe the frog is a bit more nuanced than news sources let on. He went from "Feels Bad, Man" comics to being very frequently photoshopped with 3rd reich / swastikas / other neo-nazi logos. Pepe is an interesting case because it brings up the discrepancy between trolling (messing with others in "bad fun") and actual people who vehemently support and push aggressively hateful messages.

> being very frequently photoshopped with 3rd reich / swastikas / other neo-nazi logos.

Your samples are biased there. If you are already looking at alt-right tweets then obviously you will see more trump- and nazi-related pepes.

If you look anywhere else then pepe is just another highly versatile meme.

/pol/ also shopped MAGA cap onto various anime characters. Momiji inubashiri being particularly popular, probably because she already wears a red hat in her canonical design. Does that mean those anime characters themselves symbolize hate or even conservatism? I think not.

It just means that outside observers are not familiar with memetic mutation.

Re: Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

#260
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

alt-right by definition is racist and sexist. that is the definition of the alt-right platform.

Citation? From Wikipedia: "The alt-right has no formal ideology... 'Alt-right' is a recently coined umbrella term, with no clear criteria of membership yet agreed upon." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alt-right Would each of the people being banned agree that they've signed on to an admittedly racist and sexist platform? I doubt it. EDIT: Let me amend "I doubt it" to "I am not sure and haven't done enough research to…

The funny thing is that the alt right (at least from the Trump campaign onwards) is based on the idea that if you're not an extremist, you're a "cuck". So, while it isn't a clearly defined ideology, it is a group seeking increasingly more extreme ideologies as time passes.

Twitter's move reduces their platform and reach but increases their cultural cachet — they're becoming the Certified Opposition to all of society's ills.

Post reply on HN