Desperate alt right: How white nationalists are trying to co-opt Black Panther

[mfcorey1]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/how-white-nationalists-are-trying-to-co-opt-%e2%80%98black-panther%e2%80%99/ar-BBKdpIv?li=BBnb7Kz



White nationalists have embraced "Black Panther," Marvel Comics' blockbuster, to push their argument online that nation-states should be organized by ethnic groups, according to new research published Wednesday, an unlikely convolution of the ground-breaking African superhero movie.

One popular image circulating on far-right corners of the Internet shows the title character — the superhero king of the fictional, secluded and wealthy African nation of Wakanda — wearing a red “Make Wakanda Great Again” hat. This is an explicit homage to President Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign gear.

The image, first posted online in June, months before the Disney/Marvel film's February release, carried a headline of “BLACK PANTHER IS ALT-RIGHT,” referring to the movement that espouses racist, anti-Semitic and sexist views and seeks a whites-only state. It claimed the superhero opposed immigration, diversity and democracy while favoring “ethno-nationalism” — a profound mischaracterization of the movie’s main themes, according to researchers at Data & Society, a New York-based think tank that studied far-right online conversation about the film. They said the film uses science fiction and "Afro-futurism," a thematic exploration of African and African American history, to explore real-life questions of culture, race and politics.

Similar misleading messages, the researchers said, are being delivered over YouTube, Twitter and 4chan, an anonymous online message board where far-right political activists often exchange views and plan disinformation campaigns, such as the recent effort to portray last month’s high school shooting in Parkland, Fla., as a hoax. The researchers noted efforts by white nationalists to "downvote" "Black Panther" on the popular movie-rating site Rotten Tomatoes.

“They're very savvy about social media use. They know if they can cover 'Black Panther,' it'll show up in search results for people looking to learn more about the movie,” said Becca Lewis, one of the Data & Society researchers. “They try to phrase white nationalism as identity politics for white people. … They’re essentially trying to co-opt its identity politics."

Researchers said the episode seemed to mark a turn for white nationalists online. Instead of avoiding a cultural phenomenon that conflicts with their ideology, they have sought to subvert and transform it in hopes of recruiting followers and normalizing their views on white supremacy. The misinformation campaign also shows how such groups are increasingly propagating disinformation, by morphing breaking news and cultural touchstones into staging grounds for hateful ideologies and racist ideas.

[poboy2]

1. Because they are fucking 'deplorable' pieces of shit.

This is corrosive and an enemy of truth. They do this. This is definitely the strategy as the article outlines.

[PatrickforO]

2. Disgusting. Just when our earth is in such environmental danger that

we need to begin thinking and planning as a species, and organizing our societies around human need!

Then we have these clowns wanting to split us apart even further and spice it up with hatred and xenophobia.

My father fought in the Second World War, and if these nazi assholes think they are going to march in our streets with their filthy, racist brown shirts and swastikas unchallenged, they can think again. Nothing but a bunch of violent, murdering, hate-filled criminals.

We need to sweep the upcoming elections so we can send these people back under their rocks and out of our sight. And certainly as FAR AWAY AS POSSIBLE from any positions where they can affect policy.

[Act_of_Reparation]

3. That's odd.

The movie I saw ended with T'Challa ending Wakanda's policy of isolation.

[Igel]

5. It goes both ways.

As do most political arguments.

Wakanda was great and got that way being isolationist.

At the same time, it was going to become more open and spread Wakandaism, or whatever you want to call it. There's a difference between ending isolationism Iraq-style and ending it PEPFAR style. Remember PEPFAR? (Although as those two examples show, non-isolationism can take both forms.)

Of course, as it reached out it would be spreading its own ideals. Which is a third kind of ending isolationism and for most of my life called "cultural imperialism", with movements to protect local cultures from outside contamination.

[malaise]

4. I thought they were busy imploding

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210359800