Neo-Nazi leaders attended an anti-lockdown rally in Melbourne last week to recruit new members. Neo-Nazis are targeting anti-lockdown rallies and using covert tactics to indoctrinate frustrated Australians into their hate-filled and violent ideology. At least two leaders of the far-right National Socialist Network were at Melbourne’s anti-lockdown protest on the weekend, trying to recruit new members to their group, The New Daily can reveal. It comes as Anti Defamation Commission chairman Dvir Abramovich, warned extremist groups are using the COVID crisis to “fan the flames” of hatred, resulting in increased anger towards the Jewish community. Before the weekend rally, the two neo-Nazi leaders, who TND has chosen not to name, appeared on a far-right anti-semitic YouTube show watched by almost 1000 people. They discussed tactics neo-Nazis attending the anti-lockdown rally should use to recruit members.
“Breadcrumbs is the way to go guys,” one of the men said. “If you go about, like, just openly, y’know, ‘it’s the penguins [code for Jews], it’s the Jews’, you kind of come across as loony to these people.” Using lockdown protests to spread hate
The neo-Nazi leader told followers to use ambiguous messaging, specifically ‘Qui?’, which means ‘who?’ in French, which has emerged as the far-right’s latest anti-semitic slogan of choice, and is used to engage people in conversation. Then he instructed members to push people they conversed with at anti-lockdown rallies towards anti-semitic conspiracy theories with a link to more information. “Get inventive, be creative. Yeah you want to entice people, maybe not necessarily give them the answer outright,” he said. Both neo-Nazi leaders were seen at Melbourne’s anti-lockdown rally holding a “‘Qui?” sign. Extremism expert Tom Tanuki said the National Socialist Network had been using the anti-lockdown movement to spread their beliefs and recruit members for months. Conspiracy theories and ‘red-pilling’ “Neo-Nazis’ have been trying to ‘red pill’ people in anti-lockdown groups since the start of the pandemic,” Mr Tanuki said. Among neo-Nazi and fascist activists ‘red-pilling’ means indoctrinating someone to their extreme beliefs. “The anti-lockdown movement is fundamentally an umbrella conspiracy melting pot,” Mr Tanuki said. “Once you’re in the melting pot, you are more predisposed to hearing different conspiracies and the greatest one of all time is that the people who are in control are the Jewish elite.” The anti-lockdown movement is made up of a huge cross section of political ideologies coupled with conspiracy theories – from anti-vaxxers to sovereign citizens and people who believe in QAnon. Neo-Nazis employ techniques to win over these people, and will often work one on one to build rapport, gently question their beliefs, and point them towards neo-Nazi ideology. “It’s about taking everyone else’s idea, and responding to it,” Mr Tanuki said. “One person might go, ‘yeah Bill Gates’ [wants to microchip people with the vaccine], and they’ll go, ‘but you know who is really responsible?’ “They’ll ‘reason’ with them, ‘educate’ them and spend time with them.” Neo-Nazis are “dosing” their anti-lockdown protest marks “little by little”, Mr Tanuki explained. “If someone spends that time on you, if you’re in a vulnerable and anxious space, which we are in a pandemic, they may well overcome your discomfort with their ideas about race,” he said. A recent investigation by Nine Entertainment revealed the identities of the National Socialist Network’s senior members, and their strong anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine beliefs.
via thedailynews: How neo-Nazis are using anti-lockdown protests to recruit new members
