Amerika

If you’re like most normies you probably live a safe sanitary life. You pay your taxes on time, make sure the lawn is mowed, and worry about how your kids are doing in school. If you’re young you probably enjoy going out to the bar, chasing girls, and having fun. Maybe you consider yourself politically active. If you do you’ve probably heard the term Alt-Right.

This isn’t going to be a post about politics though. It’s not yet another attempt to dissect the most powerful movement you probably don’t understand. (Hint: it’s about ethnonationalism and white identity). And it’s okay not to understand it. It’s a strange beast. It’s leaderless and kind of defies definition because it is a conglomerate of many different forces.

But if you’ve heard the term Alt-Right you’ve probably also seen it associated with white supremacy and neo-Nazism. That’s for good reason. They are there. There isn’t that many of them, but people looking for Nazis in the closet will find them. In fact most real neo-Nazis don’t much like the Alt-Right. They think it’s stealing their thunder and is controlled opposition.

Perhaps the best known neo-Nazi in the Alt-Right is a man named Andrew Anglin. He is the publisher and chief writer of the website The Daily Stormer.

Anglin exists on a spectrum somewhere between HitLARPer (as I call them) and comedian. His site is usually funny and always offensive. That’s what makes him such a thorn in the side of his enemies. Anglin is effective in a way the Stormfront crowd will never be.

Now Anglin’s freedom of speech is being threatened by the forces of political correctness. The Southern Poverty Law Center, that bastion of censorship and hand-wringing, has teamed up with a Montana law firm to sue Anglin and try to shut down the Stormer.

Why?

Have you heard of Richard Spencer? Spencer is probably most famous as the guy who got every fedora wearing neckbeard who looks like a lumberjack yet manages to wear skinny jeans and drink StarBucks lattes while working on his novel about #BlackLivesMatter, to put “I punch Nazis” on his Facebook page.

I’ll make the story as short and concise as I can.

Late last year Spencer (whose website altright.com I contribute to, for full disclosure) delivered a rather heated talk at Texas A&M. Shortly after this his mother who lives in Whitefish, Montana was contacted by a realtor named Tanya Gersh. It’s been alleged that Gersh, who is Jewish, tried to bully Spencer’s mother into selling some of her property. She is alleged to have threatened Spencer’s mother with economic disaster if she didn’t sell.

In response Anglin and some of his readers began a harassment campaign against Gersh. She allegedly received dozens upon dozens of harassing phone calls and emails. She claims the trauma of the IRL troll campaign left her emotionally traumatized. Anglin also planned a march on Whitefish that was supposed to culminate at Gersh’s house. The march never materialized.

Fast forward a few months and Anglin is being sued by the SPLC on behalf of Gersh. He is facing a huge legal battle. A WeSearcher campaign was set up by the hacker weev to help fund Anglin’s legal fees.

I know all this because I spend time in those parts of the internet the normies never encounter.

Anglin’s free speech is under attack. You don’t have to agree with him or like him, but you do have to defend him. If freedom of speech means anything it means the right to say and publish hurtful and dangerous things. Indeed the only speech that needs protection is the speech that is dangerous.

The Uprising Review is a free speech platform. We’re apolitical. We do not endorse Anglin’s views, but we will defend his right to hold them. We defend his right to use his website to incite his followers to act like assholes to other people.

If Anglin fails and the SPLC wins it will be a dark day for free speech.

If Anglin loses this battle there will be a precedent for advocacy groups and activists to go after people using the court system.

If Anglin does not win there will be more of these lawsuits. One day you’ll have to tell your kids and grandkids about the times when people were free to speak their minds on the internet. And in real life.

If Anglin is forced to take down his website because he was broken by those with superior financial power we will all find ourselves in the crosshairs of the speech police.

It’s not inconceivable to think that companies such as Amazon, which many independent authors rely on to make a living, will be dropping unpopular, subversive or dangerous books from their lists. After all Bezos recently delisted three books questioning the Holocaust narrative of the Second World War after coming under pressure from Jewish groups.

I’m sure this will be difficult for some of you to stomach. The Daily Stormer isn’t my personal cup of tea either. But that’s the beauty of free speech. It doesn’t have to be. But Andrew Anglin has every right in the world to act like a troll, to be dissident, to be dangerous, to mobilize his readers and fans for what he sees fit.

Remember this, Anglin has broken no law. He never issued a threat against Gersh. He simply said mean things to her, and encouraged his readers to do the same.

If we do not stand up for Anglin now who will stand up for us when we are under attack?

It is for this reason that the editors and publishers of The Uprising Review are asking our readers to consider giving to Anglin’s legal defense fund. Thank you for taking the time to read to this. If free speech means to you what it means to us, consider clicking here to help Anglin in his battle.

Tags: andrew anglin, free speech, HitLARPing, op-ed, splc, the daily stormer, wesearchr