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Mar 18, 19

This Week in Fascism #1: Yang Will Tear Us Apart

Greetings, fellow anti-fascists! This is the premier of The Week in Fascism, a weekly roundup of the latest and greatest happenings in the anti-fascist world. Each column will feature an “Explainer,” delineating some new fascist trend, a roundup of the doxxes and the deplatformings, and feature the calls to action, ways that you can help your local anti-fascist crews beat back the rising tide of fascism worldwide. Excelsior!

Explainer of the Week: #YangGang

Longshot 2020 progressive Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang has attracted a small following of internet nazis and Alt-Right trolls with his promise of a universal basic income of $1,000 a month for every US citizen over the age of 18. Disillusioned with both Trump and his followers, these nihilistic irony bros have embraced a Democratic candidate as a double fuck-you to their old comrades and to the libs. Their trolling campaign has been successful enough that Infowars put out a video warning about the dangers of Yang’s platform.

This facebook post sums up the #YangGang ideology pretty succinctly:

This tweet goes deeper:

Some memes connected with #YangGang are rainbow wig clown avatars, “Secure the Bag,” pink fashwave YANG2020 hat, pink pilling, and horned groypthing. Here’s an example including most of the above:

#YangGang folks, being internet nazis, were quick to recognize a fellow traveller in the Christchurch shooter. This was one #YangGang member’s response immediately after the shooting:

It stands to be seen whether a bunch of post-Trump internet nazi memelords can unite the US far-right over Yang the way they did Trump, but I’m not going to hold my breath. Honestly, how Yang handles the fascists who are ironically backing him could be a good indicator of how he’ll handle fascists as president. Because a thousand a month sounds pretty fucking good to me too, but first we need to figure out what to do with all these damn nazis. Probably not this:

Doxxes

Monday, March 11, 2019

-Based on the Discord chats leaked by Unicorn Riot, @anonymouscommie identified Discord user OMGDwayne as 63-year-old Mitchell Craig Brooks of Monroe, Georgia, a member of Identity Evropa, recently rebranded as the American Identity Movement.

-Colorado Springs Anti-Fascists identified Identity Evropa member Envian as Brandon Fulmer of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Fulmer works as a Technology Support Analyst for Optum Technology, which can be reached via their contact page.

-Patriot Front member Anthony Paul Chandler, of Saranac Lake, New York, was exposed by @AntiFashGordon in response to Patriot Front’s flyering of the Jewish community of Brookline, Massachusetts.

-@discord__panic identified Identity Evropa member NITRODUBS as Jaclyn Grace Thomas of Tipp City, Ohio, where her family runs “Native American Jewelry” shop Kokopelli Gift House.

-@discord__panic also revealed Identity Evropa member Procella Eques as James Meyer, a software engineer for Seven Tablets Inc., in Dallas, Texas. You can contact Seven Tablets Inc. via Twitter, @seventablets, through their online contact form, or by calling (214) 299-5100.

-Rounding out Monday’s hat-trick, @discord__panic positively identified Bentley Hatchett II of Texas as Identity Evropa member Rosenkranz based on him using his real name in the group’s Slack chats.

Tuesday, March 12, 2019

-Puget Sound Anarchists revealed the identities of white nationalist organizers Spencer Sturdevant and Cyan Rose Quinn of Seattle, Washington. As Discord user Niko WA, Sturdevant served as the Washington state coordinator for Identity Evropa. Quinn uses the pseudonym “Samantha Hilton” to author articles for Counter Currents Publishing, a white nationalist imprint founded by Greg Johnson in 2010, and to organize its annual Northwest Forum conference. As a member of Identity Evropa, she uses the handle kibbles to chat with other white nationalists. Her employer, State Farm in Seattle, Washington, has been made aware of her hate group ties, but has not yet issued a public statement regarding her continued employment. You can contact them via Twitter at @StateFarm, via their website, or by calling Quinn’s local branch at (206) 331-4864.

-@discord__panic exposed Identity Evropa member Piet Dietzel as Peter Earl Diezel, a license EMT and firefighter in Indiana. He works for Seals Ambulance Service, which can be reached at 317-541-1200, or via their online contact form.

Wednesday, March 13, 2019

-@discord__panic revealed Identity Evropa member Clark to be Clark Canepa, formerly of St. Louis, now living in Sarasota, Florida, who attended the first Unite the Right rally in 2017.

Thursday, March 14, 2019

–Colorado Springs Anti-Fascists identified Heath Butzer, of Cleveland, Ohio, as hbutzer0511, a member of Identity Evropa. How? His third message to the Discord chat was “Hi my name is Heath Butzer.” As of 10 months ago, his Facebook page indicated that he was a cook at Landmark Cleveland. They can be reached via email at [email protected], or by
calling (216) 230-4040.

-The Coordinating Committee of Concerned Vandals identified Michael Britt Williams, a PhD candidate in Biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, as Discord user micbwilli in the Identity Evropa chats. You can contact the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Biology Department via Twitter @UABBiology.

-@discord__panic identified 23-year-old Peter Machinis of Arlington Heights, Illinois, who posted photos of himself who posted photos of himself with Donald Trump, Jr., to his Instagram account.

Friday, March 15, 2019

-@discord__panic identified Identity Evropa member Singleton Mosby WV, as Howard J. Fezell, a practicing attorney in Maryland, and a former member of the National Rifle Association’s Board of Directors. Instructions for filing a complaint with the Maryland Attorney Grievance Commission and Office of Bar Counsel can be found here.

Saturday, March 16, 2019

-@TheQueerCrimer, in collaboration with Antifa Seven Hills, identified Michael David Morsette, a healthcare provider for HCA Virginia, as a member of the Identity Evropa. In the Discord chats leaked by Unicorn Riot, Morsette also identifies himself as an attendee of the first Unite the
Right rally in August 2017. You can contact HCA Virginia on Twitter at @hcavirginia, via their Facebook page, or by emailing their Equity Compliance Officer at [email protected].

Sunday, March 17, 2019

-@discord__panic identified Identity Evropa member Grossly Incadescent as Patrick J. McNally, a Certified Nursing Assistant in Spring Hill, Florida. McNally works for Right at Home, a company specializing in home aides for senior citizens. You can contact them via Twitter @rightathomeUS, via their online contact form, or by calling (727) 844-3570. Praise the sun!

–Long Beach Antifa identified Patrick Kevin Kelly, a student at Long Beach City College, as a member of Identity Evropa. You can contact Long Beach City College @LBCityCollege, or via (562) 938-4023.

Deplatforms

-After announcing “Operation: Righteous Deportation,” Proud Boys Chairman Enrique Tarrio told group members to begin gathering intelligence on undocumented immigrants. “FROM NOW ON EVERY DOX, LYING ARTICLE, AND FAKE HATE CRIME WE GET BLAMED FOR HAS A CONSEQUENCE. WE WILL NAME AN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT THAT WE PERSONALLY REPORT TO ICE AND TRACK HIS STATUS FOR EVERY INCIDENT,” Tarrio posted in a graphic.

Shortly after, Tarrio (formerly @HonoredChair) was banned from Twitter after a Daily Beast expose by Kelly Weill revealed that he was using a secret Telegram chat to encourage mass reporting of anti-fascist accounts that did not violate Twitter’s terms of service. He attempted to evade the ban by creating a new account – first known as @RiseOfNoble, then @Anewnoble – but that was also banned.

-After independent media outlet Unicorn Riot exposed that Identity Evropa had been using the Slack service to organize their members, IE, recently rebranded as the American Identity Movement, renamed the Slack work spaces, but continued with the same members in the same chats. After a short online campaign pressuring Slack to deplatform the group, Slack issued a statement saying that they had “removed 28 accounts because of their clear affiliation with known hate groups.” Though their terms of service had not previously banned hate groups, the company stated that “[w]hen we are made aware of an organization using Slack for illegal, harmful, or other prohibited purposes, we will investigate and take appropriate action and we are updating our terms of service to make that more explicit.”

-Following the Friday attack on a Christchurch, New Zealand mosque where a white nationalist gunman killed 49 people, Milo Yiannopoulos was denied a visa to enter Australia for an upcoming speaking tour. After being successfully deplatformed from Twitter by anti-fascist activists, Milo is currently on Instagram, where he is auctioning his possessions to pay off his debts, which total more than $2 million.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BuzP19BlOX-/

Calls to Action

Issue: Though Identity Evropa, recently rebranded as the American Identity Movement, has been successfully deplatformed from both Discord and Slack – even causing Slack to consider new policies regarding hate groups using its service – it is still using Zelle to process payments, via the email [email protected]. For more information on the finances of Identity Evropa/American Identity Movement, see this article on their accountant, Benjamin Maas of Dayton, Ohio.

Action: Tweet @Zelle and @ZelleSupport and ask them to follow the lead of other tech companies like Discord and Slack, and to disallow the use of their services by hate groups.

Sample Tweet: Hey, @Zelle and @ZelleSupport! Identity Evropa is still using your service to process their membership fees. Why don’t you follow the example of @discordapp and @SlackHQ and ban hate groups from platform?

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A weekly roundup of the latest and greatest happenings in the anti-fascist world. Each column features a roundup of news, actions, doxxes and current calls to action.

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