Watching The Right Wing Media
October 26, 2019 10:48 AM Subscribe
2 Proud Boys Sentenced To 4 Years In Prison Over Gang Assault In New York (HuffPost) YouTube removed one of the most prominent video news outlets for white nationalists, Red Ice, from its platform. (SPLC) “ News of Jarrett Smith’s arrest rattled the far-right ecosphere on the encrypted messaging app Telegram. Smith, an American soldier, was known in those circles as Anti-Kosmik 2182. One day before his arrest, he’d unwittingly shared his bomb-making expertise with an FBI agent on the app undercover.” How Telegram Became White Nationalists' Go-To Messaging Platform (Vice) I watched Fox News every day for 44 months – here's what I learned (Guardian) 8chan Is Trying To Come Back As ‘8kun.’ Its Founder Is Trying To Stop It. (HuffPost) Meanwhile the current owner of 8chan is posting ...handwritten notes online (Twitter)
I Don't Speak German is a podcast by Daniel Harper and Jack Graham, in which Daniel (who spends a horrifying amount of time immersed in fascist media) explains the horrible world of far-right podcasts, streams, and organizations to Jack. It's informative, disturbing, and at times surprisingly funny in a look-how-pathetic-these-assholes-are sort of way.
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:24 PM on October 26, 2019 [20 favorites]
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:24 PM on October 26, 2019 [20 favorites]
Just goes to show how stupid these folks are, obviously the successor to 8chan would be 16chan, not 8kun.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 12:51 PM on October 26, 2019 [8 favorites]
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 12:51 PM on October 26, 2019 [8 favorites]
That hand-written note on "vintage" looking paper ("looks like 18th century parchment paper"), the top has something like this:
XXΔ ΓIIII, Δ, ΔΔΓ
But those Γ are written more like a backwards seven (more slant to the upright, and a down-stroke at the end).
Is this a date? Or some other code? I saw some replies in that tweet, but no conclusion other than "it's something goofy that QAnoners like to do."
And is using a more varied paper and cursive an effort to bypass auto-recognition of text? Wouldn't you want to save that fancy paper for your super-secret messages?
posted by filthy light thief at 12:56 PM on October 26, 2019 [2 favorites]
XXΔ ΓIIII, Δ, ΔΔΓ
But those Γ are written more like a backwards seven (more slant to the upright, and a down-stroke at the end).
Is this a date? Or some other code? I saw some replies in that tweet, but no conclusion other than "it's something goofy that QAnoners like to do."
And is using a more varied paper and cursive an effort to bypass auto-recognition of text? Wouldn't you want to save that fancy paper for your super-secret messages?
posted by filthy light thief at 12:56 PM on October 26, 2019 [2 favorites]
Somewhere in the replies someone figures it for greek letters indicating the date.
posted by vrakatar at 1:03 PM on October 26, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by vrakatar at 1:03 PM on October 26, 2019 [1 favorite]
And remember: "Facebook is 4chan for boomers"
posted by gwint at 2:09 PM on October 26, 2019 [16 favorites]
posted by gwint at 2:09 PM on October 26, 2019 [16 favorites]
Quick Japanese note about 8kun - the "chan" is short for channel, but an unrelated -chan suffix is used on childrens' names by friends and family, more for girls, but sometimes boys. -kun is a similar suffix, but used only for boys. So I read an implication of going from chan to kun to mean "girls not welcome."
posted by p3t3 at 3:55 PM on October 26, 2019 [15 favorites]
posted by p3t3 at 3:55 PM on October 26, 2019 [15 favorites]
You also frequently use -chan regardless of gender for young children, so if you were presuming the group was all young men to start with, it could denote "8chan, but now more 'grown up'". I honestly don't think 8chan thought of themselves as being particularly welcoming to women in the first place. It was already far more extremist than 4chan ever was.
posted by Sequence at 4:50 PM on October 26, 2019 [9 favorites]
posted by Sequence at 4:50 PM on October 26, 2019 [9 favorites]
Looks like a very simple substitution system:
XXΔ ΓIIII, Δ, ΔΔΓ
1000 1000 10 5 1 1 1 1, 10, 10 10 5
2019 10 25
Don't know when the letter was written but the date of the tweet is 25 October 2019.
posted by senor biggles at 5:08 PM on October 26, 2019 [3 favorites]
XXΔ ΓIIII, Δ, ΔΔΓ
1000 1000 10 5 1 1 1 1, 10, 10 10 5
2019 10 25
Don't know when the letter was written but the date of the tweet is 25 October 2019.
posted by senor biggles at 5:08 PM on October 26, 2019 [3 favorites]
So apparently shaving off your beard doesn't impress a judge. Who would've thought?
posted by farlukar at 3:52 AM on October 27, 2019
posted by farlukar at 3:52 AM on October 27, 2019
seems to be enough to impress an NY Post reporter, tho.
posted by Reyturner at 8:20 AM on October 27, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by Reyturner at 8:20 AM on October 27, 2019 [3 favorites]
Well, it's the Post, so you expect lunatic right wing positions.
I'm definitely glad some of the Proud Boys seem to be getting criminal charges, but I'm distressed that the Proud Boys aren't being identified as a gang or subject to any sanctions provided for by anti-gang laws in various states and cities.
posted by sotonohito at 6:44 AM on October 28, 2019 [2 favorites]
I'm definitely glad some of the Proud Boys seem to be getting criminal charges, but I'm distressed that the Proud Boys aren't being identified as a gang or subject to any sanctions provided for by anti-gang laws in various states and cities.
posted by sotonohito at 6:44 AM on October 28, 2019 [2 favorites]
Who Makes Money When a Bunch of Conspiracy Theorists Throw a Party at Trump’s Hotel? (ProPublica)
posted by The Whelk at 7:45 AM on October 30, 2019
posted by The Whelk at 7:45 AM on October 30, 2019
“ 8kun, the rebranded version of 8chan -- the site that multiple alleged shooters posted their manifestos on & the center for the QAnon conspiracy theory -- has been launched & is live right now.”
posted by The Whelk at 11:02 AM on November 2, 2019
posted by The Whelk at 11:02 AM on November 2, 2019
There was a good segment about the evolution of 8chan/8kun on the last episode of On the Media.
They also talk briefly about the meaning of the name change 8chan -> 8kun, mentioning that it was intended to read as Sequence guessed above, referring to young children "growing up." The radio piece made no mention, though, of the gendered nature of the suffix, which is fairly significant since -kun is the only strictly male gendered suffix in Japanese. -chan, -san, -sama, etc. are all unisex.
Also funny that they imply it means "growing up," since in practice, I usually hear kids change from -chan to -kun at around age 6-10, and usually drop the first-name suffixes altogether after high school or college outside of family and close friends. -kun sounds less grown up and more teenager, adolescent, or man-boy ish to me. A bit like an adult calling a friend "my boy;" endearing, but definitely doesn't convey a grown-up image. Then again maybe befitting of people calling themselves "Proud Boys."
posted by p3t3 at 3:14 PM on November 3, 2019
They also talk briefly about the meaning of the name change 8chan -> 8kun, mentioning that it was intended to read as Sequence guessed above, referring to young children "growing up." The radio piece made no mention, though, of the gendered nature of the suffix, which is fairly significant since -kun is the only strictly male gendered suffix in Japanese. -chan, -san, -sama, etc. are all unisex.
Also funny that they imply it means "growing up," since in practice, I usually hear kids change from -chan to -kun at around age 6-10, and usually drop the first-name suffixes altogether after high school or college outside of family and close friends. -kun sounds less grown up and more teenager, adolescent, or man-boy ish to me. A bit like an adult calling a friend "my boy;" endearing, but definitely doesn't convey a grown-up image. Then again maybe befitting of people calling themselves "Proud Boys."
posted by p3t3 at 3:14 PM on November 3, 2019
« Older The Politics of Pockets | Dear Europe Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
It's great that these fuckers are going to jail, but it's also pretty ridiculous that because they're white dudes they still get the kid gloves treatment when it comes to describing them. If these hateful bigots were literally any other color, they would have been labeled a terrorist group years ago.
posted by tocts at 10:53 AM on October 26, 2019 [56 favorites]