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[yeuxinsolents]

Non-representative minorities

I never thought I'd have to explain the phenomenon of alt-right furries for a college Classics class.

Nor did I think I'd be relating it to Cicero's Catilinarians or Minucius Felix on Christianity. But bear with me here ― they all have something in common.

Furries are people who have an interest in anthropomorphic animals. They usually have one particular animal they feel a strong connection to, which they may adopt as their online persona (called a fursona) and even spend large quantities of money on mascot-style suits to look like (called fursuits). Studies show that furries tend to be more liberal, but around 2018, a fast-growing and vocal group of right-wing furries popped up, including a particular neo-Nazi furry group. These right-wingers made their presence known on social media using hashtags like #altfurries. Since then, much of the furry community has publicly rejected them, insisting that such bigotry doesn't belong in the furry community and that alt-right furries aren't real furries.

In Cicero's Catilinarians, in Minucius Felix's dialogue Octavius, in Juvenal's Satire 2, and beyond, the authors insist that the minorities they're describing are non-representative of their country as a whole. Cicero bashes Catiline and his co-conspirators, asserting that Rome would be better off without the likes of them; Minucius Felix's pagan conversationalist describes Christians as "the dregs of society"; Juvenal laments the "degradation to which we [that is, Roman society] have come" because of effeminate men. Though Juvenal does it to a lesser degree, each of these authors dissociate the populations they deem distasteful from their society as a whole.

Whenever a group of people within a larger group to whom one belongs display negative characteristics, one wants to immediately discount them as not being a "real" member of their group. Furries insist that racist furries aren't real furries or don't belong at furry conventions; ancient Roman pagans insisted that Christians or worshippers of Bacchus didn't belong within Roman society. The concept of societal rejects endures...and yes, when I said "bear with me" earlier, I did intend it as a furry pun.

[yeuxinsolents]

Would the Handbook of Electioneering still make a good handbook of electioneering?

Quintus Cicero's "Commentariolum Petitionis" of ~64 BCE provides his brother, the more famous Cicero, with advice and instructions on how to get elected to the consulship. Evidently its content was of some use, since Cicero did win the consulship for the year 63 BCE ― though the date, authorship, and authenticity of the "Handbook" are all debated, so perhaps he won without its help. Whether or not the guide played a significant role in Cicero's election, it contains advice that today's politicians still use, though they probably don't know it exists.

The most important requirement to win an election, according to "little Cicero" (did I just come up with the name of a new pizza chain?), is gaining the favor of anyone and everyone you possibly can. In order to gain favor, you can do people favors, give them hope, or rely on personal attachments to them. Try your best to curry influence with powerful people; if you have to feed people lines, insinuate that you support causes that you don't actually support, or suck up to them to get them to support you, that's all fine and not morally reprehensible. The Handbook goes on like this, excusing small lies, pandering, and other similar behaviors as long as they help the electioneer get elected.

Any of this sound familiar? Hell yes! All it's missing is mentions of PACs, large monetary bribes, and maybe blackmail, and we would have ourselves a neat little summary of modern political strategies. Name any politician and chances are they will have lied, pretended to support certain causes but never followed through (see: Joe Biden's absolute guarantee of $2000 stimulus checks or promises to limit ICE), or supplied flattery to achieve their goals. Quintus may have been the younger and lesser-known Cicero brother, but he knew what he was talking about.

[yeuxinsolents]

Catullus and the endurance of misogyny

Catullus' writings, namely XLII/42, LVIII/58, and LIX/59 (though there are obviously more examples), often use slut-shaming in their mockery of women. 42 calls its target a "dirty little slut," a "hooker," a "lousy whore," and a "brazen bitch," among other such names ― none of these names would be out of place in a Reddit comment on a post about a celebrity who happened to wear a revealing outfit.

Some translations of 42 use "drab" or "adulteress" in place of "slut," but mocking the woman for her alleged sexual escapades remains one of the poem's central points. Though Catullus doesn't refrain from also lambasting men for similar reasons, when he directs his invective toward women, he overwhelmingly uses women's sexual pursuits and activities derogatorily.

In 58, he sets up a "before and after" opposition between Lesbia's life as his lover (before) and her new routine of sexual activity with "Remus' progeny." Although Catullus himself probably got up to plenty of sexual hijinks with Lesbia, the moment they separate, anything she does with anyone is framed as sketchy ("on street corners, in the alleys") and promiscuous (the phrase "Remus' progeny" probably means "all of Rome"). Untold legions of men echo this trope all over the internet, slut-shaming their exes for daring to hook up with anyone besides themselves. Seemingly ignoring the love poems and adoration he furnished on Lesbia not too long ago, in this poem, Catullus completely dismisses her through his allegations of her promiscuity. Misogyny, it seems, has added no creativity in the millennia since Catullus' time.

[yeuxinsolents]

Weird things that racist Twitter users are often fans of: Anime!

A lot of Twitter (and other social media) users who post extremely hateful content condemning and disparaging such marginalized groups as people of color and Jews also post a lot about anime. Find a Twitter account that posts a lot of hate speech, a lot of the time you'll also find an anime profile picture. Many accounts retweet anime-style art alongside swastikas and antisemitic caricatures. Why?

4chan, a website absolutely inundated with hate speech and neo-Nazi sympathy, was originally founded as a forum for users to discuss anime. Anime profile pictures are an easy way for people to conceal their identities and preserve their anonymity. Anime watching is associated with the kind of anti-social behavior that many members of the alt-right exhibit. Japan and South Korea are seen as examples of "ethnostates" due to their racial homogeneity, and some neo-Nazis have gone so far as to say that Japanese people are "honorary Aryans"; Japan doesn't have nationally enforced hate speech laws. The overwhelming majority of anime content is devoid of black characters, and its female characters fit the submissive-woman type that many alt-right men idealize.

It must be noted that confirmation bias exaggerates the perceived proportion of accounts fitting that category ― there are thousands upon thousands of social media accounts that regularly post hate speech with no connections or references whatsoever to anime. Anime posting or profile pictures therefore can't be considered a dogwhistle, since unlike triple parentheses or "1488," anime doesn't inherently signify racism or antisemitism. An interesting phenomenon nonetheless.