A quick post on something that very recently came up, and ties is with my latest article in the series ‘The War for our Minds’ on memetic warfare.
Dark MAGA.
MAGA, but with a side order of revenge.
Take this Newsweek article from 2 days ago, for example, titled ‘What Is Dark MAGA? Trump Supporters Attempt Rebrand for 2024’.
It paints a very insightful picture, but likely not the picture the author wanted to convey:
“A small fringe of Donald Trump's supporters is calling for the former president to get back on the highest stage of U.S. politics with a vengeance with the motto: #DarkMAGA.
More of a meme than a political slogan, Dark MAGA is a post-alt-right aesthetic that promotes an authoritarian version of Trump in dystopian, Terminator-like images. In some, the Trump Tower is painted entirely in black and the former president is seen piercing through the screen with blue laser eyes.
The hashtag first appeared on Twitter on January 21, and it had become increasingly popular by March. It can now be found in thousands of memes on Telegram and TikTok as well.”
What do we see?
This is coming from a small fringe.
It is based on revenge. Dark. Authoritarian.
Labeled ‘post-alt-right’ (got to love all those terms and labels).
The hashtag appeared first on Twitter.
More a meme than a slogan, it is said.
Started end of January, it became increasingly popular by March.
Color me skeptical.
My hunch? This is astroturfing. The same methodology I described in my previous article, citing from Mr. Giesea.
“‘The best way to counter ISIS is to unleash an army of trolls on them’, Charles C. Johnson joked over beers last spring. ‘I could totally mess with their recruiting and propaganda.
[…]
One could even play on Daesh’s prejudices, fears, and hypocrisies, enlisting gay activists worldwide to start and spread an #ISISisgay hashtag, the idea being to denigrate and ridicule Daesh in a way that weakens its appeal to recruits.”
This was actually attempted, and it makes for hilarious optics:
Notice also how Twitter was the vehicle.
Now, remember the sudden appearance of these memes:
It cause pepe the frog to become officially listed as a ‘hate symbol’ by the ever watchful Ani Defamation League, after the Clinton campaign complained that pepe was a new symbol for white supremacy.
But pepe the nazi was a creation of an openly and self-identified internet parody account by someone named ‘Jared Taylor Swift’, who wanted to ‘stop SJWs from using pepe’. Basically the same thing 4Chan did with the diver finger symbol of ‘all ok’, getting a complete rise out of the people who took it serious and ran with it. And serious articles very seriously warned that this Jared Taylor Swift character ‘was a white supremacist’. Of course!
Of course, this was very quickly taken over by people who made the link with the Trump – pepe memes, as if there is a direct link between Trump and this troll attempt about pepe. Pepe has been used in just about any context thinkable, even Barbie.
Does that make Barbie now a proponent of lurking neo-Nazism as well, by that same standard of guilt by association, where she is promoting the ideal white skinned, blond haired beauty ideal among young impressionable girls? Gasp! Tell it ain’t so!
(Luckily, it ain’t.)
Yet we also read how pepe can be ‘reclaimed’, as the same ADLl is now working with the creator of pepe to rehabilitate pepe.
This simply proves how memes can go any way, how you can have original memes, claimed memes, reclaimed memes, in a constant tug of war. And it proves how incredibly hasty the ADLs classification of pepe, wholesale, as a hate symbol, actually was. The timing, mere months before the 2016 election, was obviously only coincidental.
Now we see #DarkMAGA appear. First tweeted, they say, January 21st, and increasingly popular by March. Why did Twitter not stop it? If it is really dark and evil, and supporting Trump? Would be easy to suppress a hashtag, we’ve seen them do it all the time.
And why would a MAGA group first start trending some new idea on Twitter, of all places? Who is left there that is true MAGA? What target audience do you have, there? No, I smell a new Pepe the Nazi campaign, a new gay ISIS attempt, but this time aimed at MAGA.
MAGA, Make America Great Again.
It is, as that first article I quoted said, also much more than a slogan. It is a meme, in it’s own right.
A very effective one, too.
So, with an increasing panic among the left in this country (they see the telltale signs of the impending tsunami, as well!), so they attempt, among other things, to counter Trump’s reappearing, by taking a page from the Cognitive Warfare, Memetic War division: use a meme from the enemy, and subvert it.
So, take MAGA, and turn it into DarkMAGA. Clearly vengeful, dark, authoritarian, dystopian, linked to Nazism, even (recognize the sun symbol behind Trump in the first meme in this article? We’ve seen it several times, lately, in Ukraine. There they are, again… Not by coincidence!)
There are some sporadic mentions of ‘Dark MAGA’ prior to that January 21st date, but none with that new specific connotation of revenge.
I see no signs of a real grassroots movement or subgroup that started this. It went straight to Twitter, who did not suppress it. It tries to counter the appeal of MAGA.
But it DOES appeal to existing feelings of anger and demands for justice. Especially now that Durham seems to be accelerating immensely, and dropping ever clearer information bombs, closer and closer to Hillary herself (and lately, even she has been implicated!), and with the pending release of 2000 Mules.
The injustice perpetrated on the American people is IMMENSE, and there are, of course, a lot of feelings of anger and rage swirling around, but under the surface. The MAGA people are waiting, are cautious, and controlling themselves. But are some real MAGA people jumping on that hashtag? No doubt. The feelings it taps into are real, and powerful.
However, as a caution to all MAGA people: I would bet that this is a strategy aimed at laying a foundation for whipping up those feelings, and forcing the MAGA crowd into errors, that the State can then mercilessly pounce on (think January 6 like scenarios).
Do NOT spread DarkMAGA.
MAGA.
Make America GREAT again.
With Trump’s incessant attempts to pull in EVERYONE, not just ‘the right’ or ‘conservatives’, around our shared American ideal and dream, there is only LIGHT, no DARKNESS.
Actual justice, as well, NOT mob justice. And justice, while blind, works by bringing wrongs into the LIGHT, it doesn’t operate under cover of darkness, out of spite or revenge or hatred, either.
Remember what the goal is, and what the American ideals are. Make them great, bring everything into the light.
Hold the line!
MAGA.
________________________________________________
Addendum:
This does not mean that those who committed crimes would not or should not be held to account.
On the contrary!
It just means that we have to keep in mind that Justice is not dark, but is about bringing things to light. That justice is NOT mob justice. That justice is NOT revenge.
That we MUST remain calm and composed, lest we turn into rioting Antifa, as well. Let that be like burning coals on their heads, that even after suffering such injustices, we, the American people, remained steadfast in the rule of law and the Constitution. That we did NOT lash out, out of spite. That we DID follow what was true and good. That we are NOT violent people. That we are nothing alike the caricature they painted of us.
Justice is coming.
A reckoning is coming.
Let’s not get in the way by acting up emotionally.
Great read and I agree with your premise of this coordinated "branding" attack. I believe MAGA people are not stupid BUT, they are people who are pissed off AND busy.
MAGA people work, they have families and have continued to have a normal life throughout these hellish last three years. Every sense of decency they hold dear has been attacked mercilessly. Justifiably many are pissed off, and worse only informed at a surface level.
I believe the average person who supports the things you reference, the rule of law etc. have no idea who Sussman is, or Joffe. In their world they see no justice. Due to this I think many would be susceptible to the dark maga campaign.
People like us are used to getting things done, squash the bug per se. In this case that is not possible, it will take long measured mini-bites to solve the problem. It remains to be seen if our MAGA crowd can hold it together until some level of normalcy returns. Your article is a great tool to make people aware of what is being projected on them, I will share it everywhere.
This is a typical leftist ploy, projection