The online angst among white nationalists and other far-right extremists was neck-deep Tuesday following Derek Chauvin’s conviction for the murder of George Floyd.
“God help you if you’re a white male in this anti-white country,” wrote Andrew Torba, founder of the white nationalist-friendly chat site Gab, to his 3.2 million followers.
Many of the reactions were collected by Chuck Tanner at the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, who noted that “the response across the far right and white nationalist movement demonstrated its base lack of compassion and lack of mooring in reality.”
“Does anyone really see a way out except Civil War/secession?” asked Peter Brimelow, founder/publisher of the white-nationalist site VDare, on Twitter. Brimelow quote-tweeted an article he wrote in 2017 predicting that “it will come to blood.”
Michelle Malkin, the so-called “Groyper mommy,” wrote on Telegram: “Chauvin was sacrificed.” Another Groyper figure, America First students head Jaden McNeil, chimed in: “He never stood a chance.”
Scott Greer, a speaker at the recent white-nationalist America First PAC convention and a former writer for the Daily Caller, tweeted earlier in the day that “White boy summer starts with Derek Chauvin's acquittal,” but then updated that: “Uhhh... it appears white boy summer has been postponed.”
“Why even remain a cop?” Greer added. “This system hates you and only needs you to enforce mask regulations. Get a job that won’t send you to jail for doing your job.”
“If you’re a white police officer you should quit or move to a rural district. You could be next,” tweeted far-right maven Cassandra Fairbanks.
At the Klan-boosting League of the South account on Telegram, the messages were even more explicit. “America is suffering from a bad case of N****r Fatigue. And for that, you can thank the jews (sic).”
“The US is a failed state with an organized communist criminal cabal for a government,” they added. “If you’re White middle-or working-class, you have not good future in this system. The late Dr. Samuel Frances predicted this state of affairs and called it Anarcho-Tyranny. He was right on the money. What indeed is the meaning these days of a ‘jury of your peers?’ ”
“Why don’t whites riot?” wondered a white-nationalist “Groyper” fan at the message board 4chan. “Blacks rioted their way into forcing the state to pander to them, so why not whites? I just feel so angry right now.”
“Now twitter leftists are gonna go on /pol/ [a 4chan section dominated by white nationalists] to take screencaps and make fun of us,” complained another.
A Proud Boys group based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, posted a meme to Telegram reading: “Derek Chauvin Did Nothing Wrong” (a play on previous Proud Boys memes, the original version of which read “Pinochet Did Nothing Wrong”). At the Boogaloo Intel Drop channel on Telegram, the racism was more explicit: “Derek Chauvin, the cop that legally restrained a feral ni****, George Floyd, was found guilty on all counts. This is not ni**** vs pig, this is being white in America… The system is rigged by the international jew (sic) for the subhuman hordes. THERE IS NO POLITICAL SOLUTION.”
And on the far-right My Militia website, the conclusions were similar, if less hysterical: “Yep, the left are emboldened over this,” wrote the user “Wolfenstein.” “They will not quit until they achieve what they describe as justice which is the death and destruction of the United States (its rebuilding in their image), the death and destruction of the culture and people that created it all while giving the world over to Communism. The chaos is just getting warmed up.
Far-right conspiracy theorists, particularly those from the authoritarian QAnon cult, were frothing similarly, primarily on Telegram. John Sabal, a popular influencer who uses the nom de plume “QAnon John,” claimed the whole Chauvin trial was merely a “movie.”
“The silver lining in what’s going to come out of another series or riots, and looting is that EVERYONE, regardless of which side of the aisle will KNOW that this NEVER had anything to do with ‘Justice for George Floyd,’” wrote Sabal, who is organizing a large QAnon conference in Dallas next month.
That followed the line of thinking among other QAnon believers writing on Telegram, Gab, and elsewhere—namely, that Chauvin’s trial was a media-produced sham and the defendant himself merely a “crisis actor” playing a role as part of a massive plot to spark a race war.
“I’m just going to go all out and say there is no Derek Chauvin,” wrote Tiffany, a QAnon fan on Telegram. “It's just another show; this actor is a fall guy. Agenda to stage race war or civil unrest. Take your pick.”
Another user called Christine said that “nothing is a coincidence. They are trying to start a race war.”
Tucker Carlson’s rant on Fox News on Tuesday—in which he claimed that Chauvin couldn’t receive a fair trial—was echoed widely on far-right channels.
“Everyone understood perfectly well the consequences of an acquittal in this case,” Carlson said. “After nearly a year of burning and looting and murder by BLM, that was never in doubt.”
Blaming Democrats for the verdict, Carlson echoed white nationalist themes as well: “No mob has the right to destroy our cities,” he said. “No politician or media figure has the right to intimidate a jury. It’s an attack on civilization.”
The far-right We The Media channel on Telegram agreed. “I don't think any police officer can have a fair trial due to them by our Constitution,” wrote one member. “I don't think the public should be jury, because of situations like this. I'm just saying he didn't get a fair trial. He was already tried by the judges/juries of the media and politicians.”
Published with permission from Daily Kos.
