Some readers in Ireland will be aware of theliberal.ie, an unashamedly populist “infotainment” website with ambitions of becoming a sort of Hibernian Breitbart. However, I suspect many people will be unaware of a number of recent far-right sites or portals aimed at Irish internet users, with quasi-plausible names like irishnews.net, itv.ie and thetricolour.com. Not to mention various YouTube channels offering up some pretty obnoxious views on political, social and cultural matters.
Chief among the latter is Computing Forever, which is popular with the alt-right crowd in Britain as a sort of Paddywhack adjunct to the Brexit movement. Hot on its heels comes a number of domestic reactionaries like OrlaRed, Grand Torino, Big Taboo, Irish News and several others. What is remarkable – or worrying – about all these content providers is the manner in which the Google platform automatically links them to other channels in its viewing suggestions, some of which are explicitly fascistic in nature. Creating what could be best described as a form of ideological networking by algorithm.
AN SIONNACH FIONN 
The Bannon-Bots are present throughout the continent and are actively working on the EU Parliamentary elections, as well as Ire / Brexit.
Kudos for wading through the shite listed in the article. Exposure of this network is one way to counter it.
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Yeah. I looked at the ICANN records of eight websites with an Irish-focus or acting as an “Irish version” of a Pan-European site and they were fairly unremarkable. Locations in Bulgaria, Finland and the UK, but nothing to link them together. There were a couple of odd things that I might post later after some more research. At the same time, it’s not a rabbit hole that one exactly wants to go down into. Very unpleasant stuff awaits one in the warren beneath.
YouTube was far more interesting with the same users, names and faces, popping up in each others channels and suggested viewing lists. Some might be described as alt-right-lite, populist nationalists, while others are pretty open in their racism and White Power insanity.
Interestingly, all these groups and individuals laud European civilisation and a pan-European identity while decrying the European Union. They can’t even work out their own ideology.
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Have the Incels/Pedophile White Supremacists joined the fray yet? What about the manosphere and the extreme misogynists who want to return to a system of women as property-without even the theoretical rights found under coverture?
I can’t imagine that there isn’t a crop of young (or mature) men in Ireland, the UK, and Europe who would be susceptible to this stuff……even if it might go under a different name.
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On yeah, there is a whole gamut of anti-feminist or misogynistic crap on the YouTube channels I referred to and several others. Women are the bête noire of the alt-right types. Or at least, the “wrong type” of women. The Aryan chicks on Fox News and Rebel Media they love.
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Interesting point re the contradiction re European civilisation, a pan-European identity and the hatred of the EU. It’s like James Goddard, who has been harassing pro-remain politicians outside Westminster and is fervently pro-Brexit and anti-EU and yet who said in September: “I just don’t think that Islam is compatible with the west. I just don’t think that people who believe in child marriage and terrorism should be in the United Kingdom, or Europe for that matter.” Good of him to speak for others. What does he care about Europe?
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One other huge irony is when you see Russian nationalists being pro-Hitler.
That’s just………stupid.
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The Polish and Czechs too. Although fascism was quite healthy in Poland before the German occupation and the country would have been a natural ally of the Third Reich if not for the Nazi vilification of the “Slavic” peoples.
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LOL! Exactly. All those Defend Europa types who simultaneously want to see the breakup of the EU instead of its reform. And replace it with what? Dozens of squabbling European polities trying to outdo each other?
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You really don’t get it do you.
Of course people want to protect and preserve European cultures, the very thing the e.u. is trying to destroy.
The e.u. is an organisation, not a continent, Europe is the continent, the e.u. is the tool of unilected dictators.
Why would Irish people want to be told what to do by a Group of people in Brussels?
The British people had enough of it and voted to get out. Plain and simple.
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One disturbing dynamic I see is this. A lot of the guys running the websites and the groups are frightening, manipulative, and even sociopathic misogynists.
And one thing some of them really excel at is manipulating young men and even boys. Basically they can convince these young guys “Because you are still a virgin at the ripe old age of 15-21, {I’ve seen as young as 14 or 13 even!!} your fat is pretty much sealed. No woman is going to willingly have you, under the current regime. You are doomed to be an incel.” or it’s “Yep if you were attracted to a 15 year old girl while you were 17, you are one of us pedos.” Some of these guys have had issues like depression or problems with school or family or whatever, that put them out of step. Some are just shy, late-bloomers, or just suffering from normal growing pains.
So what happens is that they get sort of roped in by these very manipulative and scary older misogynists, who end up getting them deeper into the ideology and more alienated from society. And of course, because of thing they are told about women, it starts scaring the girls and young women their age away!!!!
And because they get more isolated from peers, and in some cases lose jobs, lose friends, and even quit school, it becomes almost like that Japanese shut-in/hermit thing. Where they miss out on socialization, especially if they are dragged in young enough. They become more and more out of step with the others. It becomes harder to leave that fold. And once they find out how much of society looks upon the ideology they’ve joined it becomes harder and harder to find somebody to go to, even if they want out.
While the guys in change include some seriously scary men such as Paul Elam being probably the single worst in the US.
But I think some of the young boys are just being taken advantage of. Even if they wrest free of that ideology, I suspect many will have a hard row to hoe in terms of putting that past behind them and sort of “catching up” in normal society.
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Interestingly, all these groups and individuals laud European civilisation and a pan-European identity while decrying the European Union. They can’t even work out their own ideology.
No, all these groups don’t. At most you’ll get an acceptance of the idea of Europe as having a shared history. You are having difficulty separating the right wing in Europe vs that in America, and again with that of local nationalists in Ireland, Italy and so forth who do not buy into this pan-European identity. In fact, as you well know you are far more likely to get that on the left in Ireland, Solidarity and co, PBP, who support a pan European system of governance. This alligns with anti-nationalist elements in the media and the state. I know you would like to associate the right as one big hive mind, but its nothing more than for instance, assuming UKs Labour and the left in general all rally in support of Irish unity just because Corbyn has been open to dealing with Irish nationalists. You are simply identifying some intersectionality, but so what?
Also, it is not in any way incongruent to decry the EU while still admiring European culture, due to the fact the EU represents itself these days as a super state whose future with Africa is inextricably linked. Ideologies are not these simple things, and the rights core tenants are just as diffuse as the left’s. Is this a Marxist site so? If not, are you going to work out your ideology anytime soon?
How are you not surpised that nationalists would support nationalism in other countries, even in Britain. You realise no matter the motives for Brexit, and I do think you are happy to refer constantly to the impact of Ukip and this idea of empire whiles constantly minimising the changes made to local communities, and outright coverups of the failures of multi-culturalism in places like Rotherham. You this result as somehow a symptom mainly of Britains love of Empire rather than the rampant failures of the EU which has led to the rise of the far right all over the region.
but again, no matter the motives, britain leaving the EU, and also developements like Scottish independents that would undoubtedly follow, are welcome to nationalists, and symptomatic of the arrogance of a cultural left that has alligned itself with globalisation for years.
As for Ireland, we don’t need the Brits to tell us we don’t have an authentic culture or nation anymore, because we have the so called progessive Irish media telling us that non stop now. The fact you are more concerned about the oposition to that than the slow boiling of the frog that is nationalism all around Europe by an elite that sees sovereignty as retrograde, speaks more to your own phobias than any hyphened phobia we could label the right with. Look at what the cultural left is doing, in alliance with incredibly powerful ngos and the state itself, then sit and pretend to be appalled that there will be ugly reactions.
I imagine in the future, the idea that Irish is our first language will be viewed as supremacey. And somehow people here on the so-called left will agree with it. People like Computing forever are not nais trying to trick you, your just pulling the wool over your own eyes and are begging not to be told that all is not rosey in this new intersectional culturally left/progressive golden age.
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Solidarity and People Before Profit are AGAINST the EU Superstate – always have been, always will be.
#BasicFact
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Since this is an Irish Republican site, I have one Bannon fact. Bannon’s big hero and the person he wanted to emulate in the Trump White House? Thomas Cromwell. He said he wanted to be to Trump what Thomas Cromwell was to Henry VIII.
OK. Maybe that’s not as bad as Oliver, but it’s pretty bad. The joke was when he first started working at The White House, “Hopefully he’s gets the same sticky end as Thomas Cromwell……..his severed head displayed on a spike!!”
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Ach Micky for you ze var is over!
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I’m wondering if there might be some group of people in Ireland who:
a) Might not be immune to the ideological “crazy” that seems to be hitting a lot of countries….whatever is causing it.
b) Might find it “cutting edge” at one level, to emulate the Right-Wing in France, The US, Britain, etc. Although you also find strains of “crazy” in Russia and Brazil (That Bolsonaro guy they elected in Brazil, is a maniac. Worse than Trump, Putin, Berlusconi, 5 Ian Paisleys, and Curtis Le May put together.) and other nations that even shallow/aspirational Irishmen wouldn’t see as so cutting edge to emulate.
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I think the “cutting-edge” or being “edgy” thing might have something to do with it. Like a form of rebelliousness or nonconformity manifested in “radical” politics.
However, in Ireland the alt-right/neo-right/far-right conglomerate very much leans towards the UK and what is happening there. Hence all the Irexit nonsense. Though a lot of that is being fuelled by UKIP-types in Britain who think that stirring up trouble in Ireland will help their cause. As well as “British Isles” revanchists and Anglosphere daydreamers.
If you look at some of those channels, some of the contributors can be safely labelled as “West Brits”. Or “East Yanks” 😉
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Is that “Irexit” or “I wrecks it.”?
An Irishman always wanting to follow Britain? Almost seems like a woman or a Mexican American voting for Trump……..Oh darn!!!! There are some women and Mexican Americans who support Trump!!!
I definitely see that with the extreme right in the US. There’s a notion of “It’s rebellious and thus ‘cool’, because it’s so shocking to polite society.” I also see a sort of extreme nihilism in a lot of people where they support stuff precisely because they know it’s destructive and horrifically reactionary. And I feel that the “economic distress vs. racism” debate really isn’t picking up on this “nihilistic glee” you see in a lot of people.
While nobody in their right mind would doubt that bonafide racist, misogynists and anti-semites are drawn into this because they’ve held those views for many years, I think there’s another subset where it’s the other way around. Basically this sort of dark nihilism means they get sucked in to this because they are mad at the world (possibly at an ex-girlfriend or ex-wife, or coworker who won’t date them). They start gradually buying into the misogyny first, then the anti-semitism, and then finally the racism, because they are just so angry they want to embrace the most shocking thing possible. As they start to believe more of this stuff, their alienation from society deepens. As they become more alienated they become prepared to buy into progressively more extreme views.
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You do realise that a lot of these groups are orientated, financed and trained by Israel, don’t you?
Tommy Robinsons visit to the Zionist Hate-State and your anti-Muslim posturing didn’t fall out of a clear blue sky.
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Not *your, *their.
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So what do Alasdair Darling, Jim Murphy, Lord Murohy, Michael Gove, Ruth Davidson, Arlene Foster have in common
Well they all attended a major Policy Exchange conference in May where the topic was ‘ unionism, past present and future ‘
Seems that the UK hadn’t given up its desires to bring back in the ROI and no doubt they see Brexit as the opportunity to let the ROI learn the mistakes of its past.
Yes, the UK Labour Party is every bit as unionist as the UK Tory Party.
And we in Scotland know that now – only too well as these two UK parties work in common cause against the Scottish Parliament.
Mirror image of NI but without the legacy of trouble, the plantation of Scotland continues.
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The ‘left-right’ political spectrum narrative was somewhat useful for describing political ideologies pre-20th century. The new power structures are global, and the state as was, is obsolete. Now grassroots political energy is being funneled into the ‘left-right’ spectrum in an effort to control it. So someone who wanted to take issues with immigration policy, may find themselves a supporter of Tommy Robinson, because Tommy is ‘fairly sound’ and is a ‘being victimised’ by a corrupt government.
In the same sense angry nationalists in northern Ireland could find a lot of solace in Marxist ideology, because at that point in time it answers a lot of questions.
The more interesting point than the supposed ‘rise of the alt right/far right/whatever you’re having yourself right’ is who is funding, controlling and manipulating, or indeed creating this grass roots energy?
My prediction is that some of these organisations will eventually blacken and destroy the same movements they purport to represent. Otherwise these movements can be used to control the political discourse; and create a clever act of theatre between left and right; all the while though, the money controls everything. Show me the money.
Everything’s about money. Or is it?
Dr. E Michael Jones who I came across on ‘Grand Torino’s’ youtube channel spoke a lot about a return to Catholic values. The thought of it, going back to mass and all that old carry on that we have happily escaped from. I thought he made some compelling points though, that in a society where the moral fabric is slowly being ‘altered’ to what google’s Jen Jennai termed ‘our definition of fairness’, things become, rather subjective.
Things are not always about money if there is a value system which underpins behaviour. I think Skinner would agree.
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PS: So much alarm about the ‘right/left’ whirlpool; is any one worried about China’s HNA group spending $40 billion in acquisitions over six continents since 2016? Bannon is talking about clamping down on China to halt thier ‘unrestricted warfare’. This is AFTER the means of production was shipped out to China and they had their money made. Its a free market after all, so why complain. Bannon, interestingly, is very good friends with Guo Wengui who is a Chinese businesman/spy/double agent/god knows. They hang out at Trumps Mar A Lago and discuss how Beijing is controlled by ‘radicals’. Not much chat from Bannon about who runs the show on the hill though.
Of interest there is Donald’s relationship with Ike Perlmutter, and the latter’s involvement in the Veteran Affairs Committee. Also there was that Epstein guy. All of these dudes hang out at Trumps Mar A Lago resort in Florida. I want to go for a few pints there and rub shoulders. Maybe Trump’s place in Doonbeg would be good for a jar?
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