Facebook Has Been Profiting from Boogaloo Ads Promoting Civil War and Unrest | Hacker News Reader

Facebook Has Been Profiting from Boogaloo Ads Promoting Civil War and Unrest

buzzfeednews.com

57 pointslaurex30 comments

Is it me or does the design for the "Hoplite Armor"[1] look like the hong kong flag[2]? I did some digging and it looks even closer to the variant that the hong kong protesters are using[3]. Why would "anti-government extremists" (as described by the article) in America use this design?

[1] https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2020-06/30/2...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Hong_Kong

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Bauhinia_flag

A lot of boogaloo boys have a hardon for the hong kong protests, viewing it as a right wing militia standing up to a communist government.

>right wing "militia"

>no weapons

???

I didn't say they were correct in their assessment.

but the problem with that statement is that a lot of boogaloo boys don't think the same way because that's the idea of the movement, freethinking

The 'bloodstained' variant the company used is associated with the Hong Kong protests; not hard to see why the symbolism might appeal to people who style themselves as anti-government extremists. I'm sure the design's resemblance to the Hawaiian shirts already used by the Booglaoos helps it sell too. The vendor's website acknowledges both forms of symbolism.

because why wouldn't we, Hong Kong is a movement that most boogaloo bois would support including me

Buzfeednews.com has been profiting from Boogaloo articles promoting Boogaloo.

Isn't this whole boogaloo thing some 4chan meme?

Yes, it's just a series of memes between a lot of people who don't share any other specific political beliefs, except maybe 2A support.

Same could be said of Antifa, though instead of being 2a that unites, it's just hatred of fascism.

Yes, and like the OK hand thing it started as trolling and became both semi-serious and still very much trolling.

The thing about communication, whether in speech, written word, or symbols, is that there is no practical difference between pretending to be hateful and actually being hateful. Using a common gesture to communicate white supremacy as a form of trolling and doing it sincerely both have the same effect. In fact, I think the people "trolling" understand this to some degree (it would require some intense self-deception to not understand this), which blurs the line between "trolling" and sincerity on these kinds of topics into perhaps non-existence.

the vast majority of boogaloo boys are not white supremacists and show no support or sympathy to the idea of white supremacy,there was an organized group that formed under the idea of the boogaloo movement, our first rule was that you must disavow prejudices.

I think we've breached second-order simulacra at this point https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second-order_simulacra

It seems to be more than that.

Here's a good overview:

https://www.wired.com/story/boogaloo-movement-protests/

Nobody's actually surprised, are they?

Maybe nobody who is an HN reader, but plenty of people are surprised that organizations like boogaloo actually exist. And by targeting ads, the people who are surprised are the people who never see the ads.

"organizations like boogaloo" from my general experience they're no more an "organization" than Antifa? Just like minded people, on the internet who latched onto a name.

They're much less of an organization than Antifa, who has city chapters, training sessions, meetings, and recruitment.

At this point, it's more about the extent to which Facebook is all in for the militant extreme right.

I thought Facebook was all in for the militant extreme left that controlled all social media. Which is it? Which conspiracy do I believe? Help me, Hacker News!

Facebook is behind all extremists, wake up, sheeple.

in recent days facebook has banned many boogaloo accounts and groups, it is true that facebook lets hate grow but the boogaloo boys are not it, far from it

I see this too in Facebook's moderation of groups. I've seen gayrights groups get shut down for a discussion of homophobia among lgbt people, meanwhile far right groups have posts like "so when are we going to put nword in camps?" and are uploading just outright full hardcore pornography and are fine.

at this point being surprised would be like touching exposed wires on a rainy day after escaping from an electric chair execution.

Interesting. So some people in Hawaiian shirts are fomenting unrest and trying to bring about a second civil war, whilst some other people in much more sober clothing are fighting for righteousness and justice by smashing up neighbourhoods and businesses and forcibly occupying parts of a major city.

Interesting that your only takeway from the protest movement is "smashing up neighborhoods and businesses"

Hmm, well that's not what I said at all.

> Interesting. So some people in Hawaiian shirts are fomenting unrest and trying to bring about a second civil war, whilst some other people in much more sober clothing are fighting for righteousness and justice by smashing up neighbourhoods and businesses and forcibly occupying parts of a major city.

That's about the gist of it, yes.

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