NBC News’ Brandy Zadrozny has a piece Wednesday about “the boogaloo,” a group that says it wants a second Civil War against liberals, particularly the gun-grabbing types, we’d imagine. Zadrozny bases much of her research on a new report by the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), “an independent nonprofit of scientists and engineers that tracks and reports on misinformation and hate speech across social media.”
The NCRI says the boogaloo movement has moved onto social media spaces such as Facebook and Twitter, “as well as fringe websites including 4chan.”
Wait … did this whole thing start on 4chan? In any case, the weapon of choice to spark the next Civil War seems to be memes.
New: The Boogaloo, an anti-government movement that advocates for a second “Civil War” against political opponents and law enforcement is openly organizing and recruiting on Facebook and Instagram. https://t.co/K14kG9uiOp
— Brandy Zadrozny (@BrandyZadrozny) February 19, 2020
Hate-trackers at @ncri_io analyzed > 100 million social media posts and comments and found that memes—inside jokes using violent text and images—are being weaponized to spread messages and share instructions to for weapons like explosives and 3-D guns. https://t.co/bbsTbZdeg0 pic.twitter.com/dcE1KCgTF5
— Brandy Zadrozny (@BrandyZadrozny) February 19, 2020
The name boogaloo is silly, obviously. These far-right sedition-happy folks hide behind that, much like the OK symbol was coopted by white nationalists who later denied the association. This quote from the report describes it well. And see this dismissal of the threat from RT! pic.twitter.com/uoAjg2lUJd
— Brandy Zadrozny (@BrandyZadrozny) February 19, 2020
But they're moving IRL. One group with 14,000 followers was kicked off Facebook this week. They showed up at the gun protests in Virginia in January wearing Pepe the Frog patches emblazoned with “Boogaloo Boys.” One man carried a sign that read, “I have a dream of a Boogaloo.” pic.twitter.com/evbwtmljHC
— Brandy Zadrozny (@BrandyZadrozny) February 19, 2020
Recommended
@ncri_io traced the boogaloo on 4chan's /pol/ board, one of the internets most racist and vulgar places. Boogaloo was often associated with apocalyptic and racist terms like “racewar” and “dotr,” a white power fantasy that imagines a time when “race traitors” will be murdered.
— Brandy Zadrozny (@BrandyZadrozny) February 19, 2020
So … 4chan.
Also talked to several law enforcement sources who are taking this report very seriously, even if platforms hadn't yet. One source on the Homeland Security Advisory Council told me it was a "wake-up call." pic.twitter.com/XA0NPfhgAA
— Brandy Zadrozny (@BrandyZadrozny) February 19, 2020
Zadrozny didn’t talk to “dirt farmer,” though, and now he’s yelling at her about it.
someone named "dirt farmer" is yelling at me for not interviewing the gun-wielding civil war inciters, how's everybody's day?
— Brandy Zadrozny (@BrandyZadrozny) February 19, 2020
We certainly wouldn’t yell, but we don’t think it would have hurt the story to include one of those gun-wielding civil war inciters. Disgraced fact-checker Talia Lavin would have — the far-right is her specialty, even if she occasionally mistakes a military tattoo for a Nazi symbol.
Yes, because god forbid you cover both sides of a story and discover just how horrendously off base your take is.
— Rhamanhamer (@rhamanhamer) February 19, 2020
I mean, you’re reading terroristic threats into a bunch of trolls posting memes like this for kicks? They’re advocating for riding around in tanks while on cocaine! Lol I showed your original post to my 15 year old daughter and her eyes rolled. pic.twitter.com/dWTictw7XC
— Rhamanhamer (@rhamanhamer) February 19, 2020
Oh no, a meme!
— Guy Faux (@Faux_Guy_) February 19, 2020
— GFY Industries CEO (@RebYell00) February 19, 2020
— Nip Coyote (@CoyoteNip) February 19, 2020
— MSM Is Cancer (@spazzTeeBee) February 19, 2020
— Eli Levine, already knows how to code (@Eli_A_Levine) February 19, 2020
— Whiskey Silver (@WhiskeySilver) February 19, 2020
I don't think any boogboi could've made a better boogaloo meme thread than this.
— GFY Holdings LLC (@gfyFEMAr1) February 19, 2020
It's Electric Boogaloo and it's not advocacy it's accepting the inevitable. pic.twitter.com/2yvs2FNPGq
— ?the HDP? (@amountainman69) February 19, 2020
I have difficulty believing it would be possible to misunderstand anything this horribly without some sort of nefarious intent. No one could be naturally as stupid as Brandy appears to be.
— Tech-FAQ (@tech_faq) February 19, 2020
Wow, there’s some impartial journalism. Way to be objective. Maybe if you interviewed some of “those” people, you’d find that you’re mischaracterizing them.
But that wouldn’t further your agenda, would it?
— Antivist (@antivistsdemand) February 19, 2020
Well, you basically lied and made up a bunch of bullshit about “Boogaloo”… so there’s that. The left has groups like antifa actually causing harm and inciting violence. Everywhere you look the left is talking about wanting a civil war. The boogaloo is just a response.
— Dick Izinya (@Jimmeh328) February 19, 2020
Wha? We don't want to go Boogaloo. That's a contingency for when government goes Nazi on us….which they seem to be doing more by the day.
— Eric (@erock23175) February 19, 2020
This is impressively misleading, even for NBC.
— Taylor Svehlak (@TaylorSvehlak) February 19, 2020
Editor’s note: they are not “hitting the mainstream.” Like, at all. We regret the error.
Funny that even the patch shown in the article says “memetic warfare,” which is speech, not actual violence.
— Püdge ?? (@pudgenet) February 19, 2020
If you're not willing to get their side you shouldn't post yours. Otherwise you're not a reporter, you're a glorified gossip column author.
— Matt Richards (@SexyMatt00) February 19, 2020
You may find this shocking, but there's 2 sides to every story…. ?
— Jeff Cruce (@cruce_jeff) February 19, 2020
We just want our freedoms left alone.
— local gunsmith??⚒?? (@nighttimesmith) February 19, 2020
She could have worked that quote into the piece.
Everybody is super complex and it’s worth remembering their humanity unless it’s someone you politically disagree with or believe is beneath you, eh Brandy? https://t.co/v4heVaYrBD https://t.co/RmT76o5rpo
— Sugarcane (@5ugarcane) February 19, 2020
I’m sorry, but most people that are down with the boogaloo aren’t racist. I know a lot of people of color that are all about it. This is so much bigger than some kind of “far right hate group”. All government has failed us… right/left they all suck.
— Dick Izinya (@Jimmeh328) February 19, 2020
Also, you call them “gun wielding civil war inciters” yet in Virginia there was zero violence with 20+ thousand men and women of ALL COLORS and they cleaned up when they left. What left wing rally does that? None, they have zero respect and leave a trash heap behind. Fuck off.
— Dick Izinya (@Jimmeh328) February 19, 2020
Brandy is a totally objective journalist and you should take her seriously…. https://t.co/JPl4sk3tgZ
— EducatëdHillbilly™ (@RobProvince) February 19, 2020
Press kit: assume everyone is a khaki-shorts wearing, "Hörst Wessel" whisteling, Zyklon-b shaking NAZI until you can vet them. Even still, you can tell real Nazis because they often DENY being Nazis.
— System D (@DanielJeyn) February 19, 2020
Now do Antifa!
— ClayMore (@frontfacesenemy) February 19, 2020
Have you heard about #ANTIFA?? Its a real movement that has created victims & destroyed property. Should check them out! 🙂
— Dr Strangelove (@DoctorStrangel3) February 19, 2020
Imagine believing this is a right vs left issue rather than the freedom vs tyranny issue that it actually is. ?♂️
— Bruce "Brill" Holzrichter (@b_holzrichter) February 19, 2020
There is a HUGE difference between advocating violent self-defense if attacked, and advocating an unprovoked attack. There's a huge difference between kindly pointing out the LEFT will start a Civil War, and starting a Civil War. But never let the truth interefere w/the agenda.
— Joey B (@snarkVol) February 19, 2020
Be sure to check under your bed for the spooky boogaloo before you go to sleep at night
— lvl 4 producer-san (@SearsRowbuck) February 19, 2020
Anyways, read the whole piece and decide for yourself if you should be concerned. And remember that the Virginia Second Amendment rally was free of violence, and a bunch of lefties called the participants white supremacists and Nazis. And note how NBC News slipped in a photo from the peaceful Virginia rally for its piece on boogaloo, to sort of conflate the two.
Also, 4chan.
Related:
VIP » Another hot take: Just because violence did not ensue doesn’t mean the #VirginiaRally was peaceful https://t.co/jafqDTzEsg
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) January 21, 2020
Join the conversation as a VIP Member