Internet

The war in Ukraine has given new prominence to Russia’s neo-Nazis, as official media echo their xenophobic claims. No longer afraid of repression, such groups circulate videos of spectacular street violence among hundreds of thousands of followers. The neo-Nazi subculture first emerged in Russia in the mid-1990s but remained marginal until the early 2000s. At the time, more traditional forms of neo-Nazi organization had gained greater popularity, mimicking the structures of fascist movements from the first half of the twentieth century: political parties with hierarchical structures and paramilitary units. The most successful among them was Russian National Unity (RNU). At its peak in the mid-1990s, the organization had up to 15,000 active members, with chapters operating in major cities. In some areas, fascists managed to establish connections with local authorities. However, due to internal splits, conflicts with official structures, and changes in Russia’s political system, the organization disintegrated by the early 2000s. The decline of organized fascist movements coincided with the rise of the neo-Nazi skinhead subculture. Like most youth subcultures in the post-Soviet space, Russian neo-Nazi skinheads imitated the style and ideology of Western neo-Nazi skins, obtaining information about them from foreign media. The use of Nazi symbols and terminology from German Nazism provoked outrage among ordinary Russians, as almost every family had lost relatives during the Great Patriotic War, as World War II is known in Russia. (…) Currently, the number of attacks has stabilized at around seventy to eighty per month. Despite the alarming increase in the frequency and brutality of videos in the spring of 2024, an unexpected decline occurred over the summer. Unfortunately, it’s unclear whether this was due to police efforts, as several prolific contributors were apprehended, or if neo-Nazis became more cautious and stopped posting every video online. Shortly before this publication, in late October 2024, the administrator of Project Mayhem, the second-largest Telegram channel regularly sharing attack videos, was arrested (the administrator of third-largest “Archive of good deeds” was arrested in summer). During its operation, the channel posted 157 videos documenting 241 attacks, and its audience had grown to nearly 20,000 followers.

via jacobin: How Violent Neo-Nazis Resurfaced in Wartime Russia

Elon Musk is just the latest billionaire to exert tremendous influence over U.S. politics. When he says he supports Neo-Nazis, take him at his word. If there was any doubt about the power and influence of Elon Musk as we head into Trump’s second term, it was decisively erased this past week. The world’s richest man singlehandedly hijacked the negotiations for the spending bill that Congress passed last week in order to narrowly avoid a government shutdown. He used his wealth and his vast digital influence as a bludgeon against an entire political party and did so successfully. He threatened to use his immense wealth to fund primary challengers against anyone who voted to pass a bipartisan funding bill that wasn’t to his liking. In doing so, Musk successfully coerced them into removing a heap of important medical-related funding and other provisions.  The version of the bill endorsed by Musk excised more than $190 million worth of funding for childhood cancer research, as well funding for research into premature labor, treatments for sickle cell anemia, and early detection of breast and cervical cancers. It also eliminated provisions allowing for low-income kids who receive funds through the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to access complex care across state lines. Beyond that, Sam Stein of the Bulwark reports: “The initial compromise bill included language to ensure that providers of internet service to rural areas weren’t ripping off customers, to protect consumers from hidden hotel fees, to secure semiconductor supply chains, to restrict U.S. outbound investment in China, even to prohibit deepfake pornography. All those were all gone in the successor bill.” With a few tweets, many of which contained outright false information about what was in the bipartisan bill, Musk was able to bend America’s lawmakers to his will. By spending more than $250 million to help Donald Trump win the 2024 election, he had already managed to purchase for himself an advisory role in the incoming administration as a leader of the newly christened “Department of Government Efficiency” (aka DOGE). By virtue of Musk’s unprecedented ability and willingness to spend money to influence the political landscape, he is now arguably more powerful than any single person in government, potentially including the incoming president himself.  With this in mind, we should probably talk about the fact that the most powerful man in the world is also an overt Nazi sympathizer. On Dec. 20, Musk posted that “Only the AfD can save Germany,” referencing the neo-Nazi Alternative for Germany party that has been inching upwards in the polls in recent months.

via currentaffairs: The Most Powerful Man in America is a Nazi Sympathizer