Tuesday, January 12, 2021

CNN's trailer for Impeachment 2; Meemaw wasn't at the insurrection, and neither was Chuck Norris; Trump as Agammenon


A reporter describes being falsely identified as the "Q Shaman":

So how did I come to be the face—or, rather, the name behind somebody else’s face—of a right-wing campaign to deny crimes committed by other right-wingers? What unfolds is a decade-long tale of an ever-morphing conspiracy theory about me, originally forged in the crucible of neo-Nazi anti-Semitism and developed by a variety of small-time far-right figures before a Trumpist grifter injected it onto a national stage. And it’s also a story about how purely anti-Semitic conspiracies get toned down and then circulated more broadly, while retaining the same storyline and targeting the same individuals.

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It was a little ridiculous, but nothing compared to what was to come.

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It was sort of funny, except it wasn’t.

Vice looks at why Why So Many White Supremacists Are into Veganism:

While this may seem contradictory—how can one support animal rights but deny the rights of other people?—there is a long history of animal welfare and environmentalism in white nationalist communities. The Nazi Party, for example, had a "green wing" that pushed for environmental reform, including organic farming and reforestation programs, and protections for certain species of plants and animals. Along with Hitler, Heinrich Himmler was a vegetarian who opposed vivisection and cruelty toward animals. Far-right organic farming movements emerged in postwar Australia, connecting notions of race, nation, land, and nature.

For this niche dietary group, then, the notion of "blood and soil" lends itself to an idealized vision of Aryan ethical veganism as part of white people's racial purity and heritage. Romanticized veganism can serve as an entry point to white nationalism, or reinforces other white nationalist beliefs.

Buzzfeed on "Meemaw's" viral popularity:

Many rioters who appeared in viral photos have since been named and charged, but one woman captured in a photograph from Jan. 6 has instead become a meme: meemaw at the Capitol.

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People immediately began wondering about the so-called meemaw (an affectionate term for a grandmother) and how she had somehow helped storm the Capitol despite her age, diminutive size, and seemingly pleasant but confused demeanor.

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There's just one big problem with the meme: The woman was not actually at the Capitol in DC on Jan. 6.

Instead, she was participating in another protest halfway across the country in Topeka, Kansas.

LAMag says the guy posing in photos at the insurrection was not Chuck Norris:

“This is not Chuck Norris and is a wannabe look-alike–although Chuck is much more handsome,” a representative for the actor confirms.