Conservatives building alternate social media sites where they can be openly anti-Semitic without being kicked off are all the rage at the moment, and CNN's Jake Tapper recently dipped his toe into this line of work by signing up for Gab. He noticed, like we have on multiple occasions, that "among the conservative memes was embedded some Nazism. I didn’t hunt for it, it was unrepentantly there."
Going to the site's "explore" page to see the top posts, and yes, they are absolutely filled with open antisemitism, Christian nationalism, hate speech and other profoundly objectionable content, like saying Kyle Rittenhouse's 3 shots were good, but vaccine shots are bad — right next to a "climate change is a hoax" meme and fake news articles.
Fortunately, these conservative echo chambers are much less harmful than the same users polluting mainstream platforms, and using them as recruiting funnels to build their audience. But that doesn't mean they're harmless. As we saw through decades of rightwing talk radio and Rush Limbaugh, a steady drumbeat of propaganda on the fringe influences the wider conversation.
Take this op-ed by Danielle Butcher of the American Conservation Coalition in the Washington Examiner, headlined "Environmentalists are living in a clown world." As is the ACC's wont as a fake coalition, Butcher doesn't actually present anything resembling an argument for Republican policy that would address climate change because they don't have any real solutions, so instead spends the entire piece criticizing everyone else.
The central point, the reason for the "clown world" metaphor, is that Politico Europe cheekily published an inane story suggesting Putin's war is turbocharging the transition away from fossil fuels. "Either the writers at Politico are truly living in a clown world in which they see Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a net positive for the environment and thus worthy of recognition or they are itching for clicks and shock value."
Given Politico's rightwing ownership, using their clickbait as an example of environmentalists run amok is hardly a credible comparison. Then again, the ACC is hardly a credible organization, given they exist to greenwash the GOP for suburban women voters who are turned off by overt climate denial — but not enough to actually vote for the party doing something about climate change. Apparently "there are countless examples of climate activists being deliberately nonsensical for the sake of making a point," of which Butcher provides a very countable 3: A paper about nuclear power and gender dynamics, traffic-jamming protests, and California's EV mandate.
Those quickly mentioned examples, and the very-much-not-environmentalists-at-Politico are apparently what justify the "clown world" headline.
If you've spent any time in far-right digital spaces, like Jake Tapper and ourselves, you'd immediately recognize the phrase. If you're Jewish, you may have gotten hatemail with it, as according to RationalWiki "clown world" is "an alt-right, neo-Nazi propaganda meme and dog whistle" that "first appeared on 4chan" (but also on reddit and elsewhere) and is "utilized by the alt-right effort to obfuscate racism and hate with seemingly innocuous memes in the form of mockery toward postmodernism."
Per RightWingWatch, "the phrase 'clown world' and accompanying emojis unify far-right social media users in their exasperation over an imagined state of collapse in the Western hemisphere that they largely blame on immigrants and minority groups."
Is Danielle Butcher a neo-Nazi? Or is she just using one of their favorite phrases and emoji combos? Either way, we can see here how the far-right alternative media harms even those rightwingers attempting to appeal to more centrist audiences.
In an attempt to appear like the smart and common-sense speaker, juxtaposing herself with the supposedly radical environmental activists, Butcher uses a neo-Nazi catchprase. Normal stuff!
