This is the fifth part of my discussion with Bill Mitchell. The first, second, and third, and fourth segments are available on-line. Quoted text below appeared in previous articles, offering background on our conversation.
Story by Joseph Ford CottoJoseph Ford Cotto: The neo-Nazi movement has a contingency of keyboard warriors who not only delight in sharing their views, but making life hellish for certain individuals – yourself now notoriously being one of them. Why are American neo-Nazis so aggressive in using Internet memes and the Internet more generally to spread their political ideas?
There are a great many talk radio hosts, and all of them are clamoring to be heard. Just how many, though, really offer something which deserves your time and consideration?
While the number is far too small for my liking, Bill Mitchell certainly makes the cut.
He has not been a force in the chattering class for long. Before Donald Trump's candidacy took off, Mitchell could best be described as a talent recruiter for various businesses who just happened to dabble in politics via the Internet. Today, he is a bona fide on-line celebrity. Last year, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology named him the foremost average fellow impacting election season.
Among all those influencing the race -- including Barack Obama, CNN, and Harry Reid -- Mitchell came up twenty-sixth. He beat Paul Ryan, The Associated Press, and Michael Moore, to mention a few.
What makes Mitchell so popular is not strategic positioning in FM markets -- his program is Internet-only -- or access to the most powerful names on the District of Columbia-New York City-Boston/Los Angeles-San Francisco-Seattle culture corridors -- he lives in Charlotte. Rather, Mitchell knows how to handle Twitter, focus on pertinent data, and explain complex, contentious matters in a down-to-earth yet coherent fashion.
Despite being in his late fifties, Mitchell is one of American conservatism's rising stars. His star is powered at a time when 'conservatism' is in rapid flux; changing from its family values, pro-free trade, immigration-friendly Reagan-Bush incarnation to a model built around national sovereignty, economic protectionism, and cultural cohesion.
Essentially, 'American' conservatism is becoming Europeanized.
Mitchell and I had a candid discussion regarding right-leaning politics and their relation to American life. Some if it is included below.
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I look at comments
under stuff that has absolutely nothing to do with politics and there are
people who make certain anti-Semitic caricatures. It seems like they’re out in
force – and I would say that they look like they’re out more than they actually
are, but they are certainly there.
Bill Mitchell: Some
people who have very little power in their real lives like to feel like they’ve
got power on the Internet. I call it, “Twitter brave.” They’re sitting in their
parents’ basement 2000 miles away and they can say anything they want to me,
but I can’t come punch them in the nose. So, you can be real Twitter brave to
me; say things you would never say to my face. A lot of these guys that have
little, insignificant, crappy lives, feel empowered by that.
Some people just
like being anarchists – they like raising hell and causing trouble. They like
hurting people, upsetting people; it gives them a sense of power. I think that amongst
these white supremacists – or black supremacists; I don’t want to limit this.
BLM – Black Lives Matter – is a black supremacist group. That’s every bit as
bad as the KKK, and we just had this white disabled guy tortured for four or
five days …. Racism really is an overused term. It’s been overused so much it’s
lost it’s meaning.
What it really
comes down to is that people call these “hate crimes.” I call them “blame
crimes.” These are crimes that have people blaming someone of a different group
than themselves for their own misfortune and their own failings. They’re blame
crimes. People who commit them are acting out; they are unhappy with themselves
and unhappy with their lives and they strike out rather than looking inward and
looking in the mirror. They strike out at someone else and say, “It’s their
fault!”
I think, also, a lot
of these white supremacists are psychotic a little bit. They’re nuts.
Cotto: I saw on
Twitter, in a cursory sense, and on political websites people creating memes
about you. This is more recent, but in the past, it’s been other people, and
these memes pertain to Jewishness, homosexuality, and it’s all so insane. I
agree that a lot of those who view this stuff are psychotic. Some are, as you
mentioned, probably anarchists who just like to fan the flames, but others
really are insane. They’re very dangerous people.
Mitchell: They are,
and I’m doing my best to marginalize them. You've got to stand up against them,
but then you’ve got to know when to walk away from it, because these people –
trolls – they live off of your anger. It reminds me of an old Star Trek
episode where there was an alien presence and it got power from people’s anger,
so it wanted everyone on the ship to fight.
That’s kind of the
way these people are; they’re empowered by your anger and I found – because I’ve
dealt with these people before and this is how you deal with them – you throw
the gauntlet down, you fight hard for about a week, and just when they think
they’ve got you, you walk away. It drives them insane. They’re sending out the
memes, they’re sending out the hate tweets, and stuff like that, and you’re
just not responding to anything.
Everyone starts to
shoot them down because they’re saying all this stuff, you’re not saying
anything, and they’re annoying everybody. They are annoying everybody with
their crap, and I’m not responding to it. This is how you do it, folks: If you
want to be a leader on Twitter, you’re having some real difficulties with
people, you fight hard for a week and walk away. You’ll drive them crazy and
you’ll win.
Cotto: It works, I
imagine, every time.
Mitchell: Every
time. Oh yeah; you fight hard and they feel like they’re getting empowered, and
you just walk away. It drives them completely nuts. They can’t stand it.
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