Russian deep state operatives
In the aftermath of the disclosure of Russian disinformation agents sponsoring right-wing YouTube, I kept seeing this name, Lauren Chen, that sounded vaguely familiar. She’s the person behind Tenet Media, and was also attached to Blaze TV, and then I remembered…oh yeah, she was also a player behind the right-wing takeover of a big chunk of internet atheism. Yuck. I detested her before it was popular to dislike her!
She was associated with MythCon and that horrible collection of regressive assholes, and spoke at various right-wing atheist conventions, despite the fact that she is openly a Christian nationalist. She was sorta big on YouTube, although now her channel has been taken down. She spoke at a MythCon adjacent event in 2019. Look at this lineup of dreadful people:
The Great Migration: A discussion on digital and physical immigration
Moderated by: Stephen KnightPanelists include:
Lauren Chen, aka Roaming Millennial
Claire Lehmann
Daisy Cousens
Tara Devlin12:25 PM – 1:25 PM
NSFW: How Prohibition Amplifies Problems
Moderated by: Melissa ChenPanelists include:
Aydin Paladin
Karen Straughan
Brittany Simon
Meghan Murphy1:30 PM – 2:30 PM
Demonetized: What Role Should Corporate America Play in Activism?
Moderated by: Bill OttmanPanelists include:
Rucka Rucka Ali
Josephine Mathias
Jeff Waldorf
Graham Elwood3:20 PM – 4:20 PM
Nuance, Context and the Future of Comedy Online
Moderated by: Stephen KnightPanelists include:
Gregory Fluhrer, aka Armoured Skeptic
Mark Meechan, aka Count Dankula
Blaire White
Hunter Avallone4:25 PM – 5:25 PM
Changing Minds: How to Admit When You’re Wrong
Moderated by: Lauren Chen, aka Roaming MillennialPanelists include:
Tim Pool
Melissa Chen
Carl Benjamin, aka Sargon of Akkad
June aka Shoe0nHead5:30 PM – 6:00 PM
Ending Racism, Violence and Authoritarianism
Moderated by: Bill OttmanPanelists include:
David Pakman (via Minds Gatherings)
Tim Pool
Stephen Knight, aka Godless Spellchecker; Claire Lehmann, chief Nazi at Quillette; Karen Straughan, denizen of the Manosphere; Armoured Skeptic, major asshole; Count Dankula, training dogs to give Nazi salutes; Blaire White, evidence that being trans does not make one smart and pleasant; Carl Benjamin, dear-god-who-gave-that-jerk-a-platform; and of course Tim Pool. There also all those other lesser jerks and bigots I struggle to remember, and don’t want to remember. Internet atheism was (and still is) infested with these nasties back in 2019.
Since the Justice Department has started striking down a few of the big grifters, may I suggest that that list is a pretty good hint at who else needs to be investigated? So many useless, horrible people with surprising popularity and an overblown income stream…
Pro-Trump Media Firm Abruptly Folds After Russia Scheme Exposed
Wow! Seems there is such a mash-up of various ‘ideologies’. Rtwingnut atheists, Xtian nationalist ‘rocket sckentists’, Russian Bots for Atheism, what next, The FSM Space Exploration Consortium? (I presume everyone here knows FSM means the Flying Spaghetti Monster.) Things are getting quite (to use the trending term) WEIRD.
@2:
If it the Flying Spaghetti Monster you seek, search downward, not out into space.
Oceanographers discover 2-mile-high underwater mountain, new species — and rare “flying spaghetti monsters”
Shermanj @ 2
If the Axis was an alliance of predators, the current anti- woke/anti-enlightenment mob is an alliance of weird.
I wonder how long before we learn that higher-ups at major U.S. media entities (newspapers, cable news) were taking russian money along with trump & putin youtube mouthpieces and GOP lawmakers? Seems probable with all that’s coming out.
Would explain a lot of the both-sidesing and insanity/hate laundering the media does for trump.
The New York Times can always be counted on to scurry along behind trump, cleaning up his droppings like some underpaid nanny. They’ve been laundering his words for ten years now, trying to make incoherence and hate sound normal, even respectable.
Hmm…one oddball out in that list would be David Pakman. At least as far as I know. I have him on my Youtube feed and haven’t found him to be a right wing jackass, but haven’t done a deep dive. Ben Burgis (not named above) shows up on some regressive panels from time to time because he likes to mix it up, but he’s further left than me. Pakman is probably more center than him, yet I’m getting a strong Sesame Street “One of These Things (Is Not Like the Others)” feeling on this one???
@1 It’s a sad day for America and democracy. This media frenzy will no doubt cast a chill on those thinking of shilling for a genocidal dictator.
FWIW here’s Pakman himself commenting on this very issue:
@6: David Pakman is definitely a progressive. He tends not to be too strident in his rhetoric and typically doesn’t burn bridges with conservatives in the same way that other left-of-center outlets do, which is probably why he tends to be the progressive outlet of choice for conservatives who want to debate issues with a left-winger. So I can see his appeal to moderates, but he’s not a centrist.
He recently hosted the My Pillow guy and it was every bit the shitshow everyone thought it was going to be. I don’t see the utility, but I guess if it draws some more reachable conservatives out of their bubble, it’s worth doing?
The Majority Report also covered this issue in depth today, which is no surprise since they’ve long lambasted Tim Pool and Dave Rubin for their cynical right-wing grifting.
tacitus @9
Yeah, I’m not super familiar with Pakman, but the wikipedia on his show indicates a tendency to have platformed some pretty horrific guests:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_David_Pakman_Show
I think Pakman was one of the shows I listened to that platformed Boghossian, but before the grievance study stuff came to light and he went way off the rails from his apparently benign street epistemology shtick.
I could kinda tell from what I’ve seen of him more recently Pakman’s even keeled. I did say he was more center than Burgis, which isn’t calling him a centrist per se.
There are other channels I gravitate more toward, like Majority Report and Secular Talk until I get burnt out on that sort of political content. I catch Burgis once in a while. I’ve liked when Matt McManus ( the anti-Lindsay) appears on Burgis or Pill Pods.
Oh. Lauren Chen is a…Canadian!
After she is arrested, tried, convicted, and sent to prison, can’t we just deport her back to Canada as an undesirable migrant?
We’ve deported millions of Latino migrants for a lot less than that.
The US seems to attract some of the worst that the world produces.
The founder and former head of the Proud Boys militia group is Gavin McInnes, who is also a Canadian.
Elon Musk is from South Africa.
We don’t need these people.
The USA produces enough right wing lunatic fringers to supply the whole world.
The cognitive dissonance, it burns!
Not to mention two of them being on an “anti-racism” panel.
Selkirk@3:
Lessee here … entire mountain formerly unknown; critters never before known; and some with tentacles?
This wouldn’t happen to have been north of Inganok, perchance, or maybe somewhere near Antarctica or around Innsmouth, Semura, or some such place?
Keep your eyes peeled for news that they’ve found signs of an underwater city near there. If so, maybe we’ll be spared the worst of climate change and nuclear war, and have the satisfaction of knowing that what’s coming instead will eat us and Trump and the superyacht set equally. :)
raven@12:
Why do you think we’d want her? I suggest you drop her off at … hey, Reginald, where did you say that mountain was again? Kadath? Or was it Yuggoth?
Shoe0nHead was a slimepitter if I recall correctly. *holds nose*
Meghan Murphy is a notorious Canadian transphobic activist.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meghan_Murphy#Opposition_to_transgender_activism
I appreciate the comments about Pakman. I was wondering after YouTube thought I needed to see a video of his with Dennis Prager and someone on the rational side. He seemed moderate in his moderation, though he did not question some obviously questionable ideas that Prager presented.
When listening to conservative radio, I change the station after I hear three lies, logical fallacies, or sexist/racist slurs (which usually takes less than five minutes). I didn’t hit that limit with Pakman’s video.
I wonder how long before we learn that higher-ups at major U.S. media entities (newspapers, cable news) were taking Russian money along with Trump & Putin Youtube mouthpieces and GOP lawmakers? Seems probable with all that’s coming out.
That’s certainly possible, but would the MSM higher-ups really need to be bribed? Most of that lot have, for a long time, been either utterly spineless, eager to repeat and amplify loony-right nonsense just to get more views, or flat-out in the tank for Trump because they need him.
“Moderated” seems like the wrong word for MythCon.
Not totally relevant but I ended up looking into the community of people watching sovereing citizens fails. Got same feels like in atheist circles before elevatorgate and startet getting woman hating, alt right content recommended by youtube. Ended up getting out even if the actual soc cit folk are even weirder than creationist