Alt-right trolls shutting down Trump/Turning Point USA events now.
Why the Trolls Booed at Don Jr.’s Event
Yet Don Jr. should have anticipated that he would hear from some aggrieved rightists, as well.
When Turning Point USA began its multi-college, cross-country
Culture War Tour this autumn, Kirk concluded the events with the usual question-and-answer sessions, in which he reiterated his call to hear dissenting views first. Suddenly, however, the dissenters stepping up to the mic weren’t centrists or leftists.
They were the sort of Trump supporters who post Pepe the Frog memes in web forums, spread anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about Jews, and believe that mainstream conservatives are excessively fond of immigrants and gay people. Most conservatives don’t like to acknowledge those Trump supporters. In turn, those Trump supporters complain that more mainstream conservatives benefited from their memes and votes in 2016, only to undermine Trump’s true agenda.
This alt-right faction saw an opportunity in Turning Point USA events, and in Kirk’s supposed openness to dissent. The 22-year-old YouTube personality Nick Fuentes, described by Vox’s Jane Coaston, who
delved into his past, as a “white nationalist and an avowed anti-Semite,” urged supporters to show up to Turning Point USA events early, sit respectfully through the live-streamed presentation, line up as early as possible when it comes time for the question-and-answer session at the end, and then use the spotlight to advance suppressed views.
“We want them to fear the Q&A,” he said.
At recent Turning Point USA events, some hostile questioners have tried to retain a degree of respectability by remaining a quarter step removed from anti-Semitism (if not implied white supremacy). “Why would white Americans send their taxpayer dollars to fund Israel’s health care while our mothers fight cancer, our brothers die of opioid overdoses, and the news of a coming baby brings not joy and happiness, but grave concern over thousands in future medical bills?” one questioner asked at an event held October 29. “How is that ‘America first’?”
At that same event, another questioner tried to troll Kirk. “You have multiple times advocated on behalf of accepting homosexuality, accepting homosexual acts, as normative in the conservative movement,” an anti-gay questioner declared. “How does anal sex help us win the culture wars?”
A more complicated troll also unfolded at the October 29 event.
Questioner: I have a quick and fun, lighthearted question for you, Charlie. So, you gave a speech in Jerusalem earlier this year? Were there any awesome fun dancing parties that you guys hit afterwards? I heard that Israelis are some of the best dancers in the world. I mean, if you don’t believe me, Google ‘dancing Israelis.’ It is insane how good their dancing is. Would you agree or disagree with that?
Kirk: Israel is a beautiful country, a great country too.
Questioner: It is our greatest ally.
Kirk: Correct.
Ico Maly, a professor at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, provided
a nuanced analysis of the odd exchange:
This Q&A-troll’s offline intervention was set up, stylized, and formatted as a digital practice … he intervened as a
troll using irony to mock the adversary and to make him look like an idiot. Even without taking into account the
digital culture of trolling, the offline intervention cannot fully be understood from an offline perspective. The troll’s performance was clearly produced for digital uptake and addresses not only Charlie Kirk and the audience in the room but all the viewers of the live stream and the multiple re-mediations of that stream.
His suggestion to ‘Google dancing Israelis’ directs the online audience towards a data void filled with extreme right anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. This 18-year-old anti-Semitic conspiracy theory is built around the idea that ‘4,000 Israelis’ were absent on 9/11 and 5 were spotted dancing. The Groyper troll here reintroduces this conspiracy theory in the context of a culture war to highlight that Charlie Kirk’s pro-Israel stance is against the American interests.
This type of message-politics can only be understood and work in the online/offline nexus.
Maly calculated that 11 of the 14 people in the audience who asked questions on October 29 were trolls intending to undermine Turning Point USA and its founder.
