{"id":117876,"date":"2017-10-07T19:42:41","date_gmt":"2017-10-08T03:42:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=117876"},"modified":"2017-10-07T19:42:41","modified_gmt":"2017-10-08T03:42:41","slug":"buzzfeed-heres-how-breitbart-and-milo-smuggled-nazi-and-white-nationalist-ideas-into-the-mainstream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=117876","title":{"rendered":"Buzzfeed: Here’s How Breitbart And Milo Smuggled Nazi and White Nationalist Ideas Into The Mainstream"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Buzzfeed<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The Breitbart employee closest to the alt-right was Milo Yiannopoulos, the site\u2019s former tech editor known best for his outrageous public provocations, such as last year\u2019s Dangerous Faggot speaking tour and September\u2019s canceled Free Speech Week in Berkeley. For more than a year, Yiannopoulos led the site in a coy dance around the movement\u2019s nastier edges, writing stories that minimized the role of neo-Nazis and white nationalists while giving its politer voices \u201ca fair hearing.\u201d In March, Breitbart editor Alex Marlow insisted \u201cwe\u2019re not a hate site.\u201d Breitbart\u2019s media relations staff repeatedly threatened to sue outlets that described Yiannopoulos as racist. And after the violent white supremacist protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August, Breitbart published an article explaining that when Bannon said the site welcomed the alt-right, he was merely referring to \u201ccomputer gamers and blue-collar voters who hated the GOP brand.\u201d<\/p>\n

These new emails and documents, however, clearly show that Breitbart does more than tolerate the most hate-filled, racist voices of the alt-right. It thrives on them, fueling and being fueled by some of the most toxic beliefs on the political spectrum \u2014 and clearing the way for them to enter the American mainstream.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a relationship illustrated most starkly by a previously unreleased April 2016 video in which Yiannopoulos sings \u201cAmerica the Beautiful\u201d in a Dallas karaoke bar as admirers, including the white nationalist Richard Spencer, raise their arms in Nazi salutes.<\/p>\n

These documents chart the Breitbart alt-right universe. They reveal how the website \u2014 and, in particular, Yiannopoulos \u2014 links the Mercer family, the billionaires who fund Breitbart, to underpaid trolls who fill it with provocative content, and to extremists striving to create a white ethnostate.<\/p>\n

They capture what Bannon calls his \u201ckilling machine\u201d in action, as it dredges up the resentments of people around the world, sifts through these grievances for ideas and content, and propels them from the unsavory parts of the internet up to TrumpWorld, collecting advertisers\u2019 checks all along the way.<\/p>\n

And the cache of emails \u2014 some of the most newsworthy of which BuzzFeed News is now making public \u2014 expose the extent to which this machine depended on Yiannopoulos, who channeled voices both inside and outside the establishment into a clear narrative about the threat liberal discourse posed to America. The emails tell the story of Steve Bannon\u2019s grand plan for Yiannopoulos, whom the Breitbart executive chairman transformed from a charismatic young editor into a conservative media star capable of magnetizing a new generation of reactionary anger. Often, the documents reveal, this anger came from a legion of secret sympathizers in Silicon Valley, Hollywood, academia, suburbia, and everywhere in between.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Buzzfeed: The Breitbart employee closest to the alt-right was Milo Yiannopoulos, the site\u2019s former tech editor known best for his outrageous public provocations, such as last year\u2019s Dangerous Faggot speaking tour and September\u2019s canceled Free Speech Week in Berkeley. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42720,42819],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alt-right","category-breitbart"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t