Dissident Politics: Jews, atheists and how Gab sees the world

Etiquette

DP Etiquette

First rule: Don't be a jackass.

Other rules: Do not attack or insult people you disagree with. Engage with facts, logic and beliefs. Out of respect for others, please provide some sources for the facts and truths you rely on if you are asked for that. If emotion is getting out of hand, get it back in hand. To limit dehumanizing people, don't call people or whole groups of people disrespectful names, e.g., stupid, dumb or liar. Insulting people is counterproductive to rational discussion. Insult makes people angry and defensive. All points of view are welcome, right, center, left and elsewhere. Just disagree, but don't be belligerent or reject inconvenient facts, truths or defensible reasoning.

Monday, August 1, 2022

Jews, atheists and how Gab sees the world

The Jerusalem Post writes:

Jews and other non-Christians are "not conservative" because it is "an explicitly Christian movement" and because the US "is an explicitly Christian country," said Andrew Torba, the CEO of Gab and reportedly a consultant for state senator Doug Mastriano, the Republican candidate for governor of Pennsylvania, in a livestream responding to recent condemnations of Mastriano and Gab.

Mastriano has come into the public eye in recent weeks after US media outlets reported that he had spent $5,000 on advertising on Gab, a social media network favored by the far-right. The candidate has also reportedly paid for "campaign consulting" from the platform, with reports that new Gab users are set to automatically follow him.

What is Gab?

Gab is a radical right Republican hate, lies and crackpottery site. It is unusual in that it allows people like me to actually see what folks there are saying. Here's a couple of screenshots to help us understand just how fracking** demented the far right really is. These are from this morning's crop of wonderful information and thoughts that users there generously share with the world.

** Not referring to hydraulic fracturing, a technique to get oil out of rocks and rock formations by injecting specialized (toxic, trade secret) fluid into cracks to force them to open further so the oil can be recovered and overcharged for. Fracking here refers to the slang term first used in the 1978 Battlestar Galactica television series. It continues to be used throughout different versions of the Battlestar Galactica franchise and, more generally, as a profanity in science fiction. I'll let readers here figure out which profanity.