Because that’s how they bankroll hate speech. The cries of “Free Speech!” have devolved into whining about “no-platforming” because it was never about expressing their ideas — they can still do that all they want — it was about getting paid. What really has them upset that the money train is being derailed.
“I wouldn’t say they’re faring very well,” Keegan Hankes, a senior research analyst with the Southern Poverty Law Center, told Splinter of the “alt-right’s” financial status. “The vast majority of outspoken white supremacists or otherwise extremist groups have lost access to fundraising platforms like PayPal, Google Pay, and others like [them] have started enforcing their longstanding terms of services.” The white nationalist movement has by no means been entirely taken out by these efforts, but they’re not exactly rolling in dough right now.
One largely under-reported contributor to these circumstances is the meticulous, ongoing work of anti-racist and anti-fascist activists and civil rights groups. Using a common anti-fascist tactic called “no platform” which denies a person or group a platform to speak or organize (it’s sometimes called “de-platforming”), activists have helped make it difficult for white nationalists to fundraise online, stymying fascist activism by cutting off their income and fundraising capabilities. In a financial context, no platform means cutting the far right off from fundraising—both from crowdsourced fundraising platforms such as Patreon, and from collecting money directly via their own websites.
It’s all part of an anti-fascist strategy — yeah, paranoid far right goons, they are coming to get you. This is even better and more effective than punching them in the face.
Identifying which platforms continue to enable the far right fundraising is tedious and constant work, but restricting their fundraising capabilities is of the utmost importance. “Like with anything, if you take money out of the equation, it’s going to fold, or at least not flourish,” Daryle Lamont Jenkins, founder and executive director of the anti-fascist organization One People’s Project, told Splinter. “The best way to cure fascism is to starve it to death, and that’s exactly what people are trying to do,” he said.
No one should be profiting from hate. Shut ’em all down.
By the way, Twitter is still a festering shithole of misogyny. When will that be fixed?
Of course this tactic might be turned on us at some point in the future. And it won’t be long before somebody scenting money will provide a financial platform exclusively for right wing groups.
But for now, huzzah!
@mikehuben:
There already is a crowdfunding setup for right-wing. Look up ‘FreeStartr’. Officially it’s not exclusively for right-wing groups, but considering their mission statement has ‘Free speech crowdfunding. No bans. No censorship. One-time and monthly fundraising with an absolute free speech guarantee.’ and they have an account on Gab, which is the Alt-right version of Twitter.
That said, they’ve been having trouble getting the actual payment processors like Stripe to accept them.
bryanfeir wrote:
There was also Hatreon, which I believe is also shut down for the same reasons — no one wants to do business with them to process credit cards. Still plenty of people -ing about that.
Aaah …..the tears of nazis taste sweeter than ambrosia.
Another fun news item about asshole not getting his way:
MBS (Mr. Bone Saw) has been forced to admit that the journalist was killed. Their version is that he was accidentally killed in self-defence as he viciously attacked fifteen innocent assassins.
A general has been fired as scapegoat, and a leading member of the team has had a tragic “accident”.
When Jack Dorsey starts losing money because it’s a festering shithole.
Misogyny still has this air of plausible deniability for shmucks, despite the way organized misogyny has directly fueled the resurgence of nazism. So yeah, I don’t expect, say, thunderf00l’s money making endeavors to get shut down.
When misogynist snowflakes* have to work to find safe spaces. That’s when they’ll be in a similar position to fascists now and the tactics above will work. I’m honestly not sure if they’ll work before then. I think they might need more pushback before financial attacks and deplatforming will have the desired effect.
Seriously, these guys are snowflakes. When you have to remove half of the population from the equation just to prop up your fragile ego? Yeah, you’re a fragile snowflake.
mikehuben, #1
Yes, and that would be a bad thing.
This isn’t a bad thing.