CovOps
 Location : Ether-Sphere
Job/hobbies : Irrationality Exterminator
Humor : Über Serious
 |  Subject: Homo-impositionists: Why The Twitter Hijacking Of #ProudBoys Isn’t Quite The Victory It Seems  Mon Oct 05, 2020 11:55 pm | |
| Philadelphians Rally Strong Against Far Right Extremists Groups Rallying on November 17, 2018. ... [+] Philadelphians Rallied at the Constitution Center to counter-protest Far-Right extremist groups the Proud Boys. Anti-Fascist/Anti-Racist Counter protesters outnumbered Far-Right protesters by ten to one.
A turf war is being fought on Twitter right now, as the hashtag #ProudBoys was hijacked yesterday by gay Twitter users, who used the hashtag to post thousands of LGBT-friendly images, in an act of defiance against the Proud Boys.
The Proud Boys, a far-right group who the Anti-Defamation League describes as “violent, nationalistic, Islamophobic, transphobic and misogynistic,” were recently given a friendly shout-out by President Trump, who refused to condemn them while standing on the debate stage, instead telling them to “stand back and stand by.”
The sudden flood of media attention on the violent, hateful gang prompted the reclamation of the hashtag, seemingly sparked by actor George Takei, who tweeted:
The massive follower count and reach of Takei quickly enabled the hijacked hashtag to take on a life of its own, as countless members of the LGBT community shared photographs and uplifting anecdotes, celebrating their love and sense of community.
The hijacking of the hashtag is an interesting example of using the alt-right’s tactics against them, as the alt-right are known to adopt harmless gestures and phrases, warping them into subtle indications of shared bigotry, a way to signal their twisted ideology while maintaining plausible deniability.
Turning the hashtag into a symbol of LGBT pride is certainly better than allowing it to remain in the hands of a hate group. However, it also shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how the Proud Boys market themselves - they have never been afraid of homoerotic displays of affection. That’s a bit of an outdated attitude, even for the alt-right.
Indeed, founder of the Proud Boys, Gavin McInnes, once passionately kissed Milo Yiannopoulos as a publicity stunt, which McInnes later claimed was to “offend Muslims.”
Not to mention, the name of the group is stolen from the Broadway musical version of Aladdin, specifically from the song, “Proud of your Boy,” written by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, the latter of whom was a gay man.
Famously, during yet another publicity stunt, McInnes once sodomized himself with a dildo, live on The Gavin McInnes Show. Seeing a pattern here?
That’s not to say that the Proud Boys are particularly tolerant of homosexuality; the group has beaten up gay men before, and its members casually use homophobic slurs. Rather, their aim is to project an image of detached irony, to market themselves as a group of mischievous pranksters and trolls, whose words and actions cannot be taken seriously - a tactic perfected by McInnes.
McInnes has since distanced himself from the group, having stated:
"I am officially disassociating myself from the Proud Boys in all capacities, forever. I quit. I was never the leader, only the founder … I do all of this reluctantly because I see it as the greatest fraternal organization in the world."
But McInnes’ trollish legacy lives on. Enrique Tarrio, current leader of the Proud Boys, claims that he doesn't see what the reclaimed hashtag is trying to accomplish:
"I think it's hysterical," Tarrio told CNN. "This isn't something that's offensive to us. It's not an insult. We aren't homophobic. We don't care who people sleep with."
Perhaps it’s not quite the victory it seems. Not yet.
But if the hijacked hashtag sticks (and it's hard to make even earth-shattering news stick around nowadays), and the public starts to associate the name “Proud Boys” with LGBT pride, rather than a violent group of bigots, then I think we can unanimously declare that a win.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/danidiplacido/2020/10/05/why-the-twitter-hijacking-of-proudboys-isnt-quite-the-victory-it-seems/
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