#christian picciolini

[wyrmguardsecrets]

"Once a Nazi, always a Nazi" is a bullshit heuristic, actually. People who are raised in toxic environments often don't have the opportunity to challenge those beliefs until adulthood. Your unempathetic ignorant regressive bullshit is exactly what's wrong with the online left, especially when the person you're calling out appears to now be a civil rights lawyer if they're telling the truth about it. You people sound sick in the head. Look up Christian Picciolini.

.

[goingrampant]

The Boys #2 notes, pages 10-11, 15-17, 22-23

Okay, so, the main Butcher and Wee Hughie dialog following the godawful rape joke has the two go on a stroll through the park, (cute?) Terror at their heels, while Butcher gives his recruitment spiel. Butcher first acknowledges Wee Hughie's emotional pain in the loss of his girlfriend, calling it "diabolical". Interestingly, the show portrays Butcher's use of that word (almost?) solely in a hyperbolic meaning of "really cool", but this usage seems fairly literal, that a Supe killing an innocent human woman and getting away with it is literally an act associated with the devil; it's evil. Butcher explains that he used to run a team to keep Supes in check so they wouldn't do things like that--or that Butcher's team would seek vengeance afterward--and says that he's been reassembling this team. All the interspersed segments of him recruiting Frenchy, the FFFemale, and Mother's Milk are flashbacks of him doing so the previous weekend.

There's an interesting distancing between the two men and America. They're both European, and they don't like America and its government even though the Boys are funded by the CIA. Wee Hughie calls Americans "cunts," and Butcher agrees. There's an extent to which American patriots are willing to accept anti-American humor, and I imagine the general toxic masculine atmosphere and likable American side characters being enough to secure the comic series' target demographic. With that in position, the anti-American humor does allow for a critical look at the American culture and authority structure that nationalistic propaganda was aggrandizing at the time in 2006.

Wee Hughie asserts a belief in wild conspiracy theories about what the powers that be are really up to: It's aliens. Aliens are behind everything; the government is covering up aliens, and all the weird little things unfair about the world or that make him nervous can be attributed to aliens.

Butcher shuts this down. It's not aliens; it's the Supes. It's capitalism run by and for Supes.

I think this is an extremely flawed attempt to shut down antisemitic conspiracy theories and put forward a simplistic leftist message. There's no Elders of Zion secretly operating from the shadows and all that's wrong with the world can be attributed to capitalism functioning as normal. Given that everything else in the comic looks like Nazi propaganda, though, I'm going to say you need to be explicit and not play games with metaphor. Have Wee Hughie say he wastes time on chans, reads Nazi propaganda, now thinks the Jews are behind everything, and have Butcher shut this down and say there's no Jewish conspiracy, just capitalism working normally and corrupting people the way it's been doing since its inception. Without being explicit, it opens the door for edgelord readers to view the comics as dog-whistling Nazi propaganda. Sure, it's not aliens; it's the diabolical capitalistic upper class (wink, wink).

Also, this means that prior to The Boys #2, page 16, Wee Hughie was a metaphorical neo-Nazi. And it's portrayed as silly and harmless, with Wee Hughie as a deeply sympathetic figure. Basically, even with the charitable reading of the alien stuff as a way for the comic to oppose Nazism, it's still not very good at opposing Nazism.

Butcher redirects Wee Hughie's energies to anger at the Supes, who Butcher wants to "stamp on" and "stop 'em fuckin' things up for everyone." Supes are singled out as a group of people representing the oppressive system, who are okay to fight, maim, and kill, because they are fundamentally bad guys. It still plays in the same sandbox as antisemitic propaganda. The scene actually reminds me of Christian Picciolini's description of being recruited by a neo-Nazi skinhead gang (see his TED Talk).

The TV show does it better by portraying everyone with realistic human nuance, dropping the alien thing, and making it clear that Vought and Supes represent specific ideas of capitalism, police, and fascism. Also, by virtue of it being an audiovisual medium, they play a clip of A-Train laughing off his accidental killing of Robin instead of Wee Hughie just taking Butcher at his word that he bugged the Seven's HQ and has tapes of A-Train doing so. It's good storytelling and uses good writing and portrayal of the different characters to make it read less like a retelling of the Turner Diaries and more as an antifascist revolution text.

After walking into the dark of night, Butcher stops on a bridge in an overt metaphor for transition and gives Wee Hughie a gift of several thousand dollars before inviting him to New York to join the Boys. He does so in the next issue, which has, of course, another big rape scene. *sigh*

[driftycities]

Nine people you want to get to know better ✨

Thank you for tagging me @0shewrites0 & @alsworld-litg 🥰

Last song: YSL by June Freedom & Elji Beatzkilla

Currently watching: Love Island (please someone talk to me about it I have thoughts) & The Americans

Currently reading: Breaking Hate by Christian Picciolini (I’m a grad student researching white supremacists I know it’s not the most exciting thing)

Current obsession: Lewie (obvs), any and all Arsenal players

I have no idea who has done this already and who hasn’t, so if you’re seeing this and you haven’t done it yet I’m tagging you 💕

[jessikayost]

"Hatred is born of ignorance. Fear is its father, and isolation is its mother." - Christian Picciolini "Be truly happy with daily free stuff In my Bio"

[disillusioned41]

Bad Faith Sep 28, 2021

Ex-Skinhead Explains: "Happy People Don't Become Extremists" w/ Christian Picciolini

This week, Briahna Joy Gray speaks to Christian Picciolini, a former white supremacist leader who went on to renounce hate and found the counter-extremism organizations Life After Hate and Free Radicals Project. They get into the pathways radicalized people take into the hate movement, the efficacy of disengagement work, how we should judge redemption, and more, in the context of Christian's latest book Breaking Hate: Confronting the New Culture of Extremism.

A stunning exploration of how to heal a nation reeling from extremist violence from a viral TED speaker and onetime white-supremacist leader who now work as a peace activist disengaging hateful radicals.

At fourteen, Christian Picciolini was recruited by a now notorious skinhead leader and encouraged to fight with the movement to ""protect the white race from extinction."" Soon, he had become an expert in racist ideology, a neo-Nazi terror who roamed the neighborhood, quick to throw fists. By the time he left the movement years later and was able to see clearly for the first time, Picciolini found that his life was in shambles and the nation around him was coming apart. Told with startling intimacy and compassion, BREAKING HATE is the inside story of how extremists have taken the reins of our political discourse and a guide to how everyday Americans can win it back. The forces pushing to polarize and radicalize us are many--from fake news to coded language to Russian trolls to a White House that often aims to inflame rather than to heal. Increasingly, the information with which we construct our world views is segregated by social media stars and advertisers with murky motives to validate our worst impulses. As Picciolini demonstrates, our modern world systematically normalizes extremism in such a way that we grow blind to it, only recognizing it in the wake of tragedy. Drawing on profiles of extremists that he works to free from violent ideology and on his own painful history leading and then escaping from an infamous neo-Nazi group, BREAKING HATE explains why terrorism and violence have come to characterize our daily lives and why that doesn't need to be the case.

[midnightfunk]

Bayoumy: How do they raise money?

Picciolini: Thirty years ago, music was the vehicle for that; you’d have touring white-supremacist metal bands, and groups would raise money off ticket sales. Nowadays, there’s a lot of crowdsourcing. These groups are generating revenue, for instance, through serving ads on some of their propaganda videos. If ads are being served on their videos, chances are good, depending on how many views, they’re making ad revenue based on Google, Facebook, YouTube, serving ads against their content. So, in that sense, de-platforming is good. It does slow them down quite a bit. From my perspective, it also makes people harder to reach. And a lot of times, it also emboldens them to get even more vile and vitriolic about what they’re doing, because they feel kind of like a caged animal. They play the victim narrative.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/08/white-house-says-trump-has-secret-plan-to-control-social-media-executive-order

[anaja-theratbird]

Memoir of former white supremacist leader Christian Picciolini, who is now a member of Life After Hate.

Three things to know about this book:

The group would engage outsiders civilly, explaining in casual conversation that their movement was dedicated to protecting and preserving the white race. In reality, “We just fucking hated anyone who was different than us.”

Women in the movement were often treated worse than the enemy

The group was so paranoid, they took the lack of evidence for their beliefs about Jews as absolute proof that the Jews were that good at hiding their evil.

(Image: https://www.christianpicciolini.com/book)

[ask-jumblr]

I feel like a massive hypocrite, because I'm very anti-death penalty, but in my mind there's always an exception for Nazis. Like I think the Nuremberg sentences were just, and I can't help feeling after Squirrel Hill a feeling of wanting the Earth to be scoured of Nazis. And I know that some can get out of it, like Christian Picciolini, but I still have this rage and all these other conflicting feelings of guilt.

[ayatar]

I ❤️ You America with Sarah Silverman

Sarah sits down with former white power leader Christian Picciolini to talk about his moment of change and his current work as a peace advocate.

[farsj]

Sarah Silverman Interviews Christian Picciolini - 'I Love You, America'

“[…] I challenge you, too, find somebody that’s undeserving of your compassion & give it to them, because I guarantee you that they’re the ones that need it the most.” - Christian Picciolini.

[ammg-old]

I do think that there were a lot of concerted strategies in the '80s and '90s that we're seeing take hold today. We recognized in the mid-'80s that our edginess, our look, even our language, was turning away the average American white racist — people we wanted to recruit. So we decided then to grow our hair out, to stop getting tattoos that would identify us, to trade in our boots for suits and to go to college campuses and recruit there and enroll, to get jobs in law enforcement, to go to the military and get training and to even run for office. And here we are, 30 years later, and we're using terms like 'white nationalist' and 'alt-right' — terms that [the white supremacists] came up with, by the way. They sat around and said, 'How can we identify ourselves to make us seem less hateful?'... Here we are in 2018 and we have a lot of hallmarks coming from political figures, the administration and policies that are very similar to what we espoused 30 years ago. The language may be a little bit more palatable. Dog whistles may be used, but it is still the same underlying theme. It is a white supremacist culture that is being pushed.

A Former Neo-Nazi Explains Why Hate Drew Him In — And How He Got Out

[plainblackguy]

This guy’s story really moved me.  He lost his way, and pulled himself back. Then helped over 100 other people do the same.

[tenitchyfingers]

My descent into America's neo-Nazi movement — and how I got out

[jewish-privilege]

What makes [Christian] Picciolini’s insight into these individuals so compelling is that he used to be one.

When he was only 14, Picciolini was recruited by Clark Martell, a prominent neo-Nazi skinhead leader. By age 18, Picciolini was leading America’s first neo-Nazi skinhead gang and helping to recruit and organize cells across the country.

Picciolini worked to soften the neo-Nazis’ external image and political language to attract individuals who would otherwise not have been willing to join the movement.

“We hear terms like ‘liberal media,’ when in fact what they are talking about is Jewish media,” Picciolini told me. “We used to say that the Jews controlled the media. And now they’ve just massaged the phrase to call it ‘liberal media.’”

...“White violence and white extremism often goes underreported. One incident in particular was in Las Vegas, where two police officers were executed and then draped with the flag that represented their militia group.

"Sometimes we blame it on mental illness or the work of a lone wolf. But this is an ideological threat that runs deep within these groups in our country. And if we don’t start calling it terrorism like it is, it won’t get the attention that it needs to be combated.

..."The imagery of white supremacy has changed over the last three decades. It’s gone from what you would consider your normal racist, who might be a skinhead with tattoos or a Klansman wearing a robe and a hood, to something that’s more mainstream: suits and ties, fashionable haircuts, and clothes that would never identify them as neo-Nazis until they open their mouths.

That was a concerted effort because we knew that we were turning people away who we could eventually have on our side. And now we’re seeing the suits and the ties. And we’re seeing people go to universities and spread their messages on campuses. And we’re seeing people join law enforcement and run for office.

They know, if they take away the edge, if they take away the things that turn most people off, even if they’re racist, they can attract more people. Because now they’re appealing to the grievance the people have and they’re using us against them narrative to really spread racism. And most people that fall into this camp don’t even know that.

...These days with our political climate, we see a lot of coded language or dog whistles, the use of star of David, when talking about politicians. We hear terms like “liberal media,” when in fact what they are talking about is Jewish media. We used to say that the Jews controlled the media, and now they’ve just massaged the phrase to call it “liberal media.”

"Make America great again?” Well, to them, it means make America white again. And I’m not ready to let that happen, because America is for everybody.

...The problem is that nobody is trying to take that away from you. The promise they make you is false because there is no “us against them.” We’re here on this world together to work together. And in fact, America was based with its greatest import being immigrants. So there is no problem.

The only problems they have are the ones that they inflate with propaganda, with fake news. Where they teach you that blacks commit more crimes against white people or that Jews control the media and the finance system.

These are all conspiracy theories; there’s no basis in truth. I know this because I helped create those lies from the beginning. I helped spread them, and ultimately I believed them myself. And I infected that lie to other people that were innocent, and even 20 years later, after I left the movement, I’m still pulling up the weeds from all those seeds of hate that I planted. That’s why I have dedicated the last 20 years of my life to help eradicate racism [through "Life After Hate" a not-for-profit organization dedicating to fighting racism and violent extremism].

There’s a video at the link and also a transcript of Vox’s full interview with Christian Picciolini that I recommend everyone watch and read.

[stuffandwonder]

Find someone who is undeserving of your compassion, and give it to them. Because I guarantee they are the ones that need it most.

Christian Picciolini