Donald Trump seems to think–once again–that there are two sides to the horrific events in Charlottesville, Virginia last weekend. In a sane world, any debate about whether both the left and the right were to blame should have ended when white supremacist James Fields drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters. Fields is currently in jail without bond after injuring 19 people and killing 32-year-old paralegal and activist Heather Heyer. Even before then, as conservative columnist and never-Trumper John Podhoertz points out, there was no defensible reason to blame both sides when one side is made up almost entirely of neo-Nazis and white supremacists.
If there was still any doubt that there is no other side in this tragedy, it should have been erased long before Trump took the podium. Daily Stormer, one of the most–if not the most–noxiously racist sites on the Internet, has spent most of the time since Heyer’s death trashing her for not having children and for daring to stand against the hate they represent. Now, to pile obscenity on top of insult and injury, Daily Stormer is planning to crash Heyer’s funeral.
Daily Stormer lost its domain registrar and its email server after calling Heyer “an overweight slob with no children.” But has that slowed them down? Not by a longshot. On Monday morning, right-wing blogger Laura Loomer discovered that Daily Stormer sysop Andrew “Weev” Aurenheimer was recruiting an unwelcoming committee for Heyer’s funeral, which is set for Wednesday morning.
SCOOP: "Weev", the system administrator for The Daily Stormer is planning on sending Nazis to #HeatherHeyer funeral. #Charlottesville pic.twitter.com/opXP1WvPV1
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) August 14, 2017
Loomer got a screenshot from Daily Stormer’s private chatroom in which Weev, a notorious black hat hacker, wanted to sleuth out where Heyer–whom he, in accordance with the current Daily Stormer line, called a “fat skank”–was being laid to rest. He asked Daily Stormer’s “e-sleuths” to find out where the funeral was taking place so they could get “people on the ground.”
Loomer managed to get several more screenshots of the chat session.
SCOOP: Notorious hacker & Daily Stormer system admin "Weev":
"What I'd like to do is #DailyStormer branded guns." pic.twitter.com/3oq75qkc8X
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) August 14, 2017
SCOOP: member of #DailyStormer "Your Personal Army" vetted chat group:
"I will bring weapons to (Heather Heyer's) funeral."
Cc: @FBI pic.twitter.com/ajnBidt9Pk
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) August 14, 2017
Horrifying, to say the least. This sort of garbage sounds like something Westboro Baptist Church would pull in its heyday. Surprisingly, though, it looks like Fred Phelps’ former clan is staying away from this one. It’s not out of decency; the church has dwindled to a grand total of 45 members at last report.
But then again, we should have seen this was coming. After all, Daily Stormer declared that Heyer was not really worth mourning because she hadn’t done her duty to produce children. For those who don’t remember, Nazis believe that women’s primary purpose is to churn out as many babies as possible.
Loomer promptly reported this to Discord, which ran Daily Stormer’s chat room.
Cc: @discordapp
Daily Stormer posting about bringing weapons to #Charlottesville victim's funeral.
Are you aware of this? https://t.co/Yt0Kf97cDk
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) August 14, 2017
ID # : 216305203035635715
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) August 14, 2017
Discord apparently thought there was a there there, because it launched an investigation.
Thanks for providing the specific information. We're conducting an investigation.
— Discord (@discordapp) August 14, 2017
Apparently that investigation didn’t take long, because within minutes, Loomer reported that Discord had pulled the plug on Daily Stormer’s chatroom.
Source: @discordapp has suspended #DailyStormer chat after threats to bring Nazis, white supremacists, & weapons to #HeatherHeyer's funeral
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) August 14, 2017
Apparently Daily Stormer’s chat room was one of several Discord alt-right/neo-Nazi/white supremacist chatrooms that got nuked on Monday. It was not without some prodding; Discord, like several other Web companies, has come under fire for not dropping the hammer on sites that solely exist to traffic in hate.
You may know Loomer as the woman who rushed the stage during The Public Theater’s modern take on Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar.” It featured a Caesar who bore an unmistakable resemblance to Trump. Loomer, along with a number of pro-Trump diehards, believed the scene in which Caesar was stabbed to death was a call for Trump to be assassinated–conveniently forgetting that the play actually condemned violence as a political tactic.
But let’s give credit where credit is due. Loomer has also strongly opposed the increasingly vulgar anti-Semitism on the alt-right, as evidenced by several of her tweets about Charlottesville last weekend.
White supremacists and Neo-Nazis chanting "gas the k*kes now" in #Charlottesville
Absolutely vile. pic.twitter.com/rCtC77sKp4
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) August 12, 2017
This is the quickest way to end a conversation before it even begins. Waving a Nazi flag is just as bad as waving an ISIS flag. #Disavow pic.twitter.com/s1ZccQB9C6
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) August 12, 2017
Echoing her colleagues at Rebel Media, Faith Goldy and Stefan Molyneux, Loomer also saw the car attack for what it was–an act of terrorism.
https://twitter.com/LauraLoomer/status/896449830427525121
Doesn't matter who slams a car into ppl they disagree w/. Car plowing is a terror tactic. Let's be consistent & call terror when we see it. https://t.co/P82a71GnyY
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) August 12, 2017
I don't care if #HeatherHeyer was a leftist. She didn't deserve to die.
Left or Right, everyone should be outraged over #Charlottesville ! pic.twitter.com/pNx6XRZKQf
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) August 13, 2017
Unfortunately, Loomer doesn’t completely get it. In a discussion with fellow Rebel reporter Gavin McInnes, she repeatedly claimed that Daily Stormer and other neo-Nazis were actually left-wing. No, this isn’t snark–see for yourself.
Loomer claimed that the likes of Daily Stormer, as well as the thugs and racists who descended on Charlottesville, were “national socialists”–and therefore, they were actually preaching “a left-wing ideology.” No, Laura. They’re fascists–and fascists, by definition, are right-wing.
The saying “a stopped clock is right twice a day” definitely applies. While Loomer is dead wrong in suggesting Andrew Anglin and his thugs are actually left-wing, she is absolutely right in blowing the whistle on their attempts to cause Heyer’s family even more pain. These racist bastards have a lot of nerve setting foot in Charlottesville after bringing their hate and bigotry there this weekend–especially when it led to an innocent woman being murdered. Picketing a funeral is bad enough. But picketing a funeral for which one of your own is responsible is absolutely heinous.
Fortunately, it looks like their plans to crash that funeral may have hit a number of snags. After being bounced from a third domain registrar, Tucows-owned Contact Privacy, Daily Stormer has moved to the dark web. The site’s connectivity has been rather shaky; it went offline several times on Tuesday.
It serves them right. When your hate causes an innocent woman to die and you even think about reveling in that death, you deserve everything you get.
(featured image courtesy BBC World’s Twitter)