Some choice quotes:
[7:26, from an ex-NSN neo-Nazi in the March for Australia recap voice chat] “What surprised me is like, how handsy people got. I had someone pushing me in the back. I had another guy […] threatening to punch my friend’s teeth in.”
Anecdotally, some had veterans grabbing their mouths to shut them up. Many people completely unfamiliar with the group reported that it was obvious they’d divided into tiny clusters of 4 spread in the crowd to avoid being shut down easily.
[9:00, same chatroom] “The lesson I’ve taken is we gotta enforce the 1-metre rule very heavily next time” [a self-defense guidance of keeping 1 metre distance from opponents in a fight, in this context their opponents are the crowd of ANZAC veterans and commemorators]
They seem surprised that doing this stunt is alienating them from many nationalists and might push the Overton window away from them.
We also get some prime crying from a Perth idiot pretending they didn’t come in a co-ordinated group to desecrate a commemoration day, ranting to their phone about being moved along by cops. The booing at Perth ended up being clearly only one or two quiet Nazis as a result.
For one who live under rock, what is that about?
Last year, there were a few rallies under the banner of March for Australia, attracting a few thousands including some mainstream right-wing politicians (including PHON, Katter, Libertarian). While it was obvious to anyone paying attention that this was being organised by white supremacists (primarily Hugo ‘auspill’ Lennon, who is the son of a huge property investor, and ‘Bec Freedom’, a white supremacist who poorly tries to downplay it as ‘Aussie values’, both affiliated with the former NSN), it was only after the first rally that most attendees realised it was, in fact, being run to platform self-declared neo-Nazis. The following MFA rallies dropped attendance by 85% - it is now unambiguously a white supremacist organisation with the NSN at its core.
Last year, the NSN pulled a media stunt where they booed at ANZAC dawn services during the Welcome to Country, which as shown by chat logs in the video, is done by the group for explicitly white-supremacist reasons. However, due to recent laws, the NSN have officially disbanded to avoid prosecution, but are obviously still an organised group.
This year, the Fight for Australia (Lennon wouldn’t let Bec Freedom have the March for Australia accounts, so they rebranded) tried to create a campaign to do this stunt again.
That should give you enough context to watch the video.
pack of dickheads booed the welcome to country at a couple of ANZAC dawn services.
I feel like all the reporting on this is just giving them the publicity they want. We should let their silly actions die in obscurity.
I feel like all the reporting on this is just giving them the publicity they want.
Speaking generally about the mainstream reporting, sure. These stunts, as per their own manuals, are done to use the mainstream media to advertise and legitimise themselves.
But that doesn’t apply to the attached video. I mean no disrespect with this question, but did you watch it? And if so, how do you think it affects these groups?
There are important reasons to report on these groups and their stunts, and there are ethical ways to do it considerately and constructively: https://thewhiterosesociety.writeas.com/9-principles-for-journalists-reporting-on-neo-nazis
You’re right. I didn’t watch the video. It’s just my general stance on these people.
