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Comment by trafficante | Hacker News Reader

Are we really this easily duped?

The entire EXPLICITLY STATED point of these /pol/ campaigns is to manipulate the media into acting as an engine of radicalization.

“It’s okay to be white” would have died on the vine right next to “Islam is right about women” if the media didn’t go into an amplification feeding frenzy.

Edit: and sure, the cat’s out of the bag and actual racists are probably using the phrase now. But clearly no lesson has been learned - ditching Scott Adams for supposedly making reprehensible racist remarks is going to absolutely set more than a few people down the path of radicalization when they look up what he said and see “it’s okay to be white”. I can only imagine the glee over on 4chan right now.

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This is not the media going on a frenzy. This is Scott Adams knowingly misrepresenting a poll result as “see, black people are the real racists!” rather than “many black people have correctly learned who uses this slogan and why”. The only reason anyone is talking about it is because he’s trying to use it as a cover story, and the correct response is to recognize his true motives and ignore him.

> The only reason anyone is talking about it is because he’s trying to use it as a cover story

Why are people trying to make this guy sound clever and self aware? He sounds unhinged

I have complicated feelings about alt-right trolling. Here's the problem: alt-right trolling tactics usually act against a marginalized group. People often react very reasonably against someone acting to marginalize an already vulnerable group. But even the act of trying to defend against said trolling is now itself "taking the bait", so the only things allies "should" do to "not take the bait" is to allow trolling people to continue punching down on minorities. There's no winning here.

For example: It was common for alt-right speakers to find and doxx trans people at universities they would be invited to. Of course, allies would try to protest these speakers coming to universities because they would doxx trans people at them. But trying to keep them off campus plays right into the "we're being oppressed, academia is a leftist hivemind hellscape" narrative that the very same doxxers try to spin. So the only option is to let them come on and doxx trans people? I don't really know. It's nasty.

A lot of this comes back to money. There’s a propaganda network measured in billions of dollars annually which reliably amplifies these messages, and I think that’s probably the angle to pursue. A lot of this stuff would stay on 4chan if people weren’t pouring money into broadcasting it, and many advertisers will cave if asked why they’re funding white nationalists.

actual racists are probably using the phrase now

They've been doing it the entire time. There was no amplification feeding frenzy, but the racists have been patently forcing hte meme for something like 18 months with stickering, banner drops, coordinated shitposts etc.

going to absolutely set more than a few people down the path of radicalization

Who, the ultra-late adopters? Dilbert went on an anti-woke trajectory a few years ago.

You are literally the amplifier. This obliviousness drives me nuts. Stop feeding the trolls.

You mean calling out bad behavior? This is how we make society a better place.

> when they look up what he said and see “it’s okay to be white”

But that's not all he said at all...

He said:

"Black America is a hate group"

"the best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from Black people. Just get the fuck away. Wherever you have to go, just get away. Because there’s no fixing this. This can’t be fixed."

"So that's what'd I did. I went to a neighborhood with a very low black population."

"I don’t think it makes any sense as a white citizen of America to try to help Black citizens anymore"

...pretending all he said was "It's ok to be white" is completely disingenuous.

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