The Harbinger of Ferocity

Frokane's Mildly Politcal Hangout Thread

They are best understood and perceived as concentric circles working out toward the average, uninformed, uninvolved person. The effects of what goes on with them do have legitimate impact that cannot be ignored; it is no secret these places have garned enough attention to be subject to shilling, bot armies, investigation by federal agencies, and the source of safe haven for drops of information. The same could be said about how Wikileaks "Is greatly overestimated.", but it was places as 4chan and parts of Reddit that made them impactful, especially the Silent Majority or the MAGA movement.

They are the reason people still talk about GamerGate, Seth Rich, the JFK files, PizzaGate, the Trump dossier, Uranium One, the DWS scandal, Awan Brothers, BernieBros, all of the Hollywood sexual assault and pedophilia, and so forth. They are agitators and aggregators of information and action, especially the aforementioned social engineering - "It's okay to be white." the best current example.

They are a means of leverage that was gravely underestimated before.

Frokane's Mildly Politcal Hangout Thread

I need admit, I am surprised to some extent the topic of Reddit has only just now been addressed directly. That entire portion of the online world had a tremendous impact on the outcome of more recent political action, activism and information, at least enough to stimulate some social engineering and data manipulation. Regardless, just the communities there pose an interesting take on it all, even more so with the recent forms of victory and defeat for their respective factions.

D&D 5e - The Lost Lands

The Vale

The Crypt,
Currently

"About time you got here, I was starting to wonder if the darkness swallowed you up." An all too familiar voice to the reborn sage came, that of one of her compatriots she had not heard in... months? Years perhaps now? Decades even? Time for her was a complex enough matter as it was, to say nothing of their fall into the abyss and however long that was or how time here at all flowed.

The doorway parted now revealed the last little shrine in this sharing of words, accompanied by two figures. The first of which was a younger man with dark, sleek hair that ran down his back and dressed in an open robe with light armor beneath, a single, ever so slightly curved sword in hand. Ruron, beyond a doubt was it, the child-sorcerer who the ancient wizard had taken as one of his few students.

The other figure, far more imposing in stature, peered not only at the masked templar and his aasimar accomplice from under the head of a lion who crested his head, but wore the professed dress of dull, engraved plate and wreathed in a beaten forest lord's cloak. The Green Man indeed, whose hand bore a sword of his own within a armored gauntlet.

"You... you know them...?" Came a heavier voice, one out of breath and nearly pained, but snarly and clearly simmering with underlying anger.

Despite the less than subtle, less than restrained anger, Ruron turned to look back at the seemingly wounded man, "Know them? Of course I do. They are the reason I am here."

The sword-bearing mage lifted his hands and turned to gesture to the entire room, speaking some as he walked further​ into it and away from the doors, almost within reach of the battered man that stood before the shrine, of which a gleaming, sourceless firelight poured from. Clearly Ruron avoided coming too close, lest the seemingly defeated opponent lash out.

"See all of this, Wick? Like one giant light in the darkness, drawing all the things lurking outside it right to it." He motioned with the arcane blade to the rest of the entourage that had arrived, direction its tapered point at them.

"Sort of like the entirety of you..."

Effects

The party before the door discovers Ruron, one of Wick's old acquaintances, and the Green Man, of whom seems to be protecting a large mythic fire upon a shrine. The room is a mirror to the room they are in it seems, minus the slabs, spirits, arms and armor scattered all over.

Score
One Last Way

Map
Tomb of Honor

Tentative Initiative

• Cesar (19)
• Theodore (18)
• Valmjr (18)
• Thea (18)
• Birbin (15)
• Wick (10)
• Katia (9)
• Haemar (8)

@Cu Chulainn, @Gordian Nought, @Hekazu, @JBRam2002, @Rig

D&D 5e - The Lost Lands

The Vale

The Crypt,
Currently

"I am aware your arcane shenanigans differ from our divine benefits. As long as they serve a noble purpose, does it really matter?"

"But... magic is magic?" The small fellow responded with apparently no idea as to what the templar had truly meant. The concept of nobility and divinity seemed to escape him, to which the mighty Ysgardian shrugged at the gnome's confusion; the man wasn't about to argue the oddness of the outsiders or their ways - they had been much needed allies in this time.

It was then they followed the, at times, incomprehensible scholar but trusted her odd mysticism all the same. Stepping quietly from there, the entourage went about their path, keen to follow down the way of the unseen servant. Theodore however, with his sight augmented beyond just eyes, bore witness to all the ghosts here - the many lingering, drifting spirits. He knew right where they were all along but they seemed not to react to any of them in the slightest, as though the battle won before by someone else had sapped them of their energy.

Further and further they drew in, none of the invisible spectres offering reaction or rebuttal...

Effects

Theodore detects several wandering ghosts but they seem to shy and drift away from his perception. It seems that they cannot manifest, having already been defeated, but an air of danger is still clear.

Score
One Last Way

Map
Tomb of Honor

Tentative Initiative

• Cesar (19)
• Theodore (18)
• Valmjr (18)
• Thea (18)
• Birbin (15)
• Wick (10)
• Katia (9)
• Haemar (8)

@Cu Chulainn, @Gordian Nought, @Hekazu, @JBRam2002, @Rig

Frokane's Mildly Politcal Hangout Thread

@The Harbinger of Ferocity You are correct that classically white nationalist gangs have not used these recruiting tools in the past, but the modern day alt right is something of a different animal. I dont nessecarily disagree that people who become White nationalists might have been going down that road anyway, but the same can bes said about any fringe group, thats a nature vs nurture argument that im not sure either of us are qualified to have.

@Dynamo Frokane

I believe, beyond what I know as fact, that with examples such as Charlottesville which included agitators in both factions there is a solid claim in knowing who and what the Alt-Right is, at least with the actual Far Right. This is throwing out the crisis actors, the shills, the Antifa jackboots, the Nazi larpers, and focusing on who made up the event at their core on the right. As we start to strip away these elements, we begin to notice an emergent pattern of who the groups are - I have spoken at extensive length on them here in this very topic twice before - but in this case it bears address again because of the distribution of how they formed.

The Neo-Nazi and white nationalist factions are not technically savvy, skilled or competent by and large. They lay claim to minimum influence and stay mostly within their confines on the internet, at times drifting out as anyone does and interacting elsewhere; there is no coordinated effort to infiltrate, twist, or indoctrinate new members. It goes against their method of operation and from what has been observed and what I can speak to on it, they have still changed very little and are slow to adapt. Next we have the nebulous Far Right or those who typically call themselves the Alt-Right unironically and cling to its tenants, but have less an extremist nature. This group, from numbers along, was indeed larger and more influential - speaking from what was noted about Charlottesville - namely from that aforementioned larger, younger crowd associated with the internet. Still not a significant number by themselves, they were visibly comfortable interacting with the more extreme factions because they had a common enemy and shared most of their values.

Now comes the largest component that is new to the image, the "Alt-Light", these are your internet subcultures that have tendrils in some of the above, yet are by and large distinct in that they are extremely organized and savvy in technology, proficient in organization, by the numbers younger members, and very active in their communities. These are your internet trolls incarnate, be them Kekistanis or Alt-Knights, either way, this was of the first times we saw them in person in any sort of number. This group is where you start seeing the recruitment and memetic action, especially the tenants of psychological operations. This is the realm that helped spawn Pepe and used him as a weapon against the Far Left and Left as a whole. Unquestionably these are your subtle instigators and doormen who can lead further to the right, the Far Right, but realistically most people never arrive here to begin with; they just see the results of their action.

The outliers from here were the MAGA members, the III%'ers, and the Oathkeepers. In order, the first group dispersed when they saw the mobilization of the Neo-Nazi and white nationalist, largely because their organization is exceptional for them being not being an organization. This was done mostly through forums, Twitter, Discord and a few other means, but they large withdrew that morning before the events escalated. The other two factions are unassociated with the rest, again each member having tangential ties to others, but their apparent objective in these environments is to maintain order and dissuade use of deadly force.

What does this all mean?

The current cultural and political dynamic has brought more attention to the Far Right because of the execution of the term "Alt-Right" and how it has been made into the Left's boogeyman. Those who already had those biases were there to begin with, as they had a reason to seek them out, but some new members might have influxed from the other end's pressure acting on them as a motivating force. They became more "unified" in appearance because related groups, which were much more palatable, emerged around them and shared overlap with them as outside motivations pushed in. These groups regained breathing room after the fall of the Left and only reappear around one another when their opposition does.

There is little intelligence otherwise to suggest outside this.

What Roleplay section do you mostly post in?

I act almost exclusively in the capacity of what is considered "casual" now, given the general advanced section as a whole as what I have come to experience as a relatively unrealistic set of expectations. I fall into that unofficial limbo of "high casual", largely because I write at an advanced level, or so I prefer to think, but haven't the patience, time, or really the interest. I do not enjoy sitting down and feeling obligated to write extensively just for the sake of doing it, as I either channel the emotion and moment or I do not. Feigning it results in a degradation of quality, which feels almost demoralizing at times due to the depths it can drag one's artistic muse. This is to ignore the general "expectations" of the advanced section of course.

Short of relegating myself to "casual" status, I spend a great amount of time in the tabletop section because I find that so many roleplays are... well, rather lacking. My particular tastes in genre are anything but fandoms, anime, or schools, not just because I relate nothing at all to any of these, but because they are so prevalent. People are free to enjoy them, but they rub the fur the wrong way. Call me an elitist if you will, as it would not be the first or even the last. I digress too much, thus my real point is that the tabletop section fills a void I find myself in and a continued, perpetual cycle of personal disappointment. As example, I might see a topic that is potentially intriguing, but some half way in, if not at times the first sentence itself, am struck with the core sensation my take and persona would not meld well with it; a portion of this having to do with the fact everyone seems to be obsessing over the epic or exceptional, where whole worlds are always in chaos or where, in science fiction notably, the suspension of disbelief is absolutely derailed by outright impossibility.

I myself write from a lineage of "savage fantasy", having started in science fiction though later abandoning it because it became so cluttered with cliche and obsessed over the technological and mechanical aspects. That and the whole general escalation of stories to the grand rather than the heroic.

Frokane's Mildly Politcal Hangout Thread

Perhaps, but how many people are they realistically fooling? They are not, like their opposition, able to leverage the victim mentality, that perspective of being owed anything or, more importantly, in modern times the claim that anything tangentially related to the actual Alt-Right can be of benefit to the people. This movement and concept is not populist, not even close to the social justice front or the backers of the President. The argument of subversive, quiet manipulation does not work well for a system that has ties contrary to that.

People by and large have not and will not, as a mainstream, legitimately fall for it. It sounds too risque by nature to their ears, especially with how the media has made the Far Right some unified front. In all honesty, I believe anyone liable to be swayed to that side at this point, or prior in recent times, was already headed down that way regardless. The "Trump movement" is only tangentially related, the same with the internet communities responsible for memetic warfare that helped seing the election. Their only real commonality is their enemy in socialist, communist and authoritarian leanings; the "Alt-Right" and the Alt-Right are still very much at odds.

Speaking from a threat assessment perspective, white nationalists and radical right-wing extrememists do not classically or currently recruit using these methods. They have a target audience and the little overlap they do have with other groups was only magnified by the spread of their common threat. Realistically, you are more under threat of radical Islam, even without the Islamic State, and the Alt-Left. That is the most I can say to those.

As for what you had to say about Stormfront, I do not recall; I might well have ignored that page between all the bickering, @Dynamo Frokane.

Frokane's Mildly Politcal Hangout Thread

I appreciate the commentary, @Dynamo Frokane. The only counterargument I should note about the Alt-Right being subtle is that they are anything but that historically. There is a reason they are "proud white nationalists", but I can offer that the anons are indeed an open door that way. However, most normies, sheep, useful idiots, however you phrase them, by the numbers are not going to know or understand what a "4chan" is, and those who do in the coming population of Generation Z matured in the belly of the beast; they are her offspring, they know the world of the internet better than any of us likely.

This means several things, of which I note because they need be said. First, the way the Meme Wars operate is by agitating a small cluster of highly energized, motivated, skilled members and getting their increasing lessers to pass it on. By this ripple effect, by the time these "Alt-Right" concepts hit the regular person's radar, they have lost the kinetic energy, so to speak. The first exposure the layman will get is a news bit on how these "racist flyers" and "racist frog" are cropping up, or how the President of the United States is a bad person for retweeting a meme. This is why certain memes fly and others do not.

Second, the actual Far Right community does not have the understanding or foothold to accomplish this mission of being manipulative and subtle. The anons are a very different breed, in that they have become wielders of psychology and social dynamics better than multiple government agencies and programs dedicated to this. Mind you these are the group of people who "do it for the lulz" and to watch people flail, fail, and fall on their swords. The right-wing extremes? They haven't that broadness or channel to call on, in that their motives are set and defined, difficult to reword and rebuild as palatable or rational.

Third, I do not believe the Far Right to be significantly more populous so much as I believe the world and society took an incredibly powerful candle to those dark recesses. The same can be said from the other perspective, in that there are plenty of Alt-Left members, but they were dormant and in hiding for quite some time. When the attention, especially their martyring, they became slightly more powerful​ and obvious, at minimum more active. The Alt-Right camp I can safely say mirrored this reaction to a far, far more weak note; they had no foil, no enemy to vanquish, not like their ideological mirror did in Donald Trump.

As for the anons in this, the best way to perceive them is that they are the human subconscious allowed to run rampant without any real consequence or demerit. They will be as edgy as they like, as vile and violent as they please, and as nasty as desired. Much of this is just a conduit for what people contain in themselves daily, the neurosis, the same energy an artist can draw on creatively or a thinking mind to scheme. Their strong reaction to the social justice movement and their "playing" into the Alt-Right is more just matter of circumstance. For many, many years before the "Rise of the Right", anons were legendary for their Nazi roleplay, obscenity and hatred for just about anything mainstream.

At best you can view them as overlapping circles in a diagram, in that they share a pool of people, but not many. More than before because of how things were mechanized by the political climate, but what else could one expect? When you wish to turn an entire nation into a light authoritarian state backed by social progressivism, the other extreme will gain ground and mobilize.

Frokane's Mildly Politcal Hangout Thread

If you wish to focus only on the Twitter poll, then there is little more I can offer to it in context other than it is the result of something else that had been building for a while. Granted as you said the data is very limited and subject to the whims of people trolling it for results because of the current situation of "It's okay to be white." and that the person posing it this time might make for an easy or desirable target. Regardless, what I am getting to is this Twitter poll by itself is rather boring and is only a piece of the far, far larger image critical to understanding why it manifest at all, @Dynamo Frokane. The context of the environment and the overall tale being weaved is far more pressing and important; harping on this one note is not going to legitimately reveal anything to us we cannot already derive from conjecture, or better without hypothesizing, at its purest face value.

If we took it as an honest representation, it really displays to us nothing as it shows us neither the realistic demographics of who it is intended for in the United States' populace and its root purpose. As a statement, most distilled and purest, there is absolutely nothing wrong with saying "It's okay to be white." or phrasing that same statement as an inquiry. Even in contrast to other racial rallying cries as the oft stereotyped "Black Power" or "Mexican Pride", it is a very inane, meek thing to say. So uncontroversial is it that it is a laughable remark, as it was partially intended to be, but since we are forced to stick to the poll we will continue. As a representation of the population, we are all aware there are pools of personalities who take these things seriously, but the proportions they are blown up to varies.

Sure there is an expectation a person in the white nationalist community is going to be saying "It's okay to be white.", but that is not where this content has spread to, again why it is utterly imperative to understand where this originated from and how it has spread. Regardless, this is not controversial in itself either, being that this is not even a matter of supposed superiority; you are legitimately in receipt of a statement that, for lack of better words, really means nothing. You could cite that the person saying it means other things, but why would they just not say those things instead? They make for a very, very poor white nationalist if the best they can do is say "It's okay to be white.".

Proceeding, an interesting point you make is people purposefully voting "No." to spite the person in question unwittingly add more fuel to the fire of the opposition's argument in this case. By not agreeing to it, they have only proven at large - this was notable in the media I referred to when this picked up some weeks ago - they are making fools of themselves. The only credible answer is "Yes." regardless of personal bias, but being likely incomplete people, their hatred for someone is so strong that they are willing to ignore what is an acceptable statement. Now of course trolling might make this worse, to help further their goals of spreading this message and creating more controversy, but even then, what of it? In this vacuum we find ourselves in, that really would mean nothing in of itself, especially in this day and age where data like this is constantly and readily manipulated, especially when motives are in mind.

I suppose the last of my points about it without deviating from just the poll, is that it has no effect. The person in question hasn't the reach or power to be that influential or important, a piece of the puzzle undoubtedly, but this is not on the level of other actions - some even official - we have seen in the past few years.

Frokane's Mildly Politcal Hangout Thread

There is a stark contrast in what is or is not taken seriously, @Dynamo Frokane. When you start speaking about ethno-states, most tend to shut themselves down. The extremists will of course adhere to it as gospel no matter what, but how often do you hear them making the news as the major focus of the media? Why is "It's okay to be white." a controversial statement at all? If it is perfectly acceptable to be any other race, as it should be, why is one of these permitted to suffer under "actual", a term I use very loosely, critique? There is a distinct contrast in what passes for acceptable identity politics, because it is palatable, exploitable and in the minds of some, legitimately credible, and then there are the sorts people will immediately react to with a sense of discomfort.

I am less legitimately worried about the actual Alt-Right white nationalist sensationalists than I am any number of mainstream figures who are pandering based on race. One of those two groups is taken seriously and I am sure beyond a doubt you can decipher which under your own accord and volition. There is no shortage of cringe-worthy pandering to race, gender, or class by at least half of the current political battlefield of the United States, one of whom was almost elect of their party and another was a presidential candidate.

As for "millennial woes" I am unfamiliar to them personally.