Forums / Discussion / Meme Research

This was recently brought to my attention, and it might be relevant to the whole alt-right thing. Anti-Semitic internet users have been highlighting names with three pairs of parentheses: ((())). The practice appears to have originated on the blog The Right Stuff, where it is placed around a Jewish person's name. It is a textual adaptation of a practice from a segment in their podcast where they would add an echo to Jewish names.

The practice has recently surfaced on Twitter. People who write articles about Donald Trump who have Jewish-sounding names can expect a wave of trolls adding the "echo" to their name, usually accompanied by textual and visual references to Nazis and/or the Holocaust.

I'm not sure just how popular it is on social media just yet, but it's an interesting look into how Neo-Nazis communicate. I'll keep my eye on it and see if any more articles on the subject pop up.

Mein Gott. If this is indeed a thing, I hope it'll stay relegated to the Usual Suspects.

This isn't really something that can be googled, though. Would you mind providing a few specific examples? Same goes for anyone who may have seen this meme in the wild.

EDIT: looks like The Right Stuff's twitter provides a convenient lead

https://mic.com/articles/144228/echoes-exposed-the-secret-symbol-neo-nazis-use-to-target-jews-online#.4RAI3YowQ

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/29/opinion/sunday/the-nazi-tweets-of-trump-god-emperor.html?_r=0

That's the article I got it from, so yeah. I debated blockquoting Right Stuff's email to Mic explaining it, but decided my post was long enough as it is, AND knowing the alt-right recently got upset with Mic makes it hard to tell if said explanation was itself trolling.

All right, so that's two concrete example: trolls targeting the NYT and Mic. It's a good start, but we will probably need more for a proper entry.

The jackpot would be tracing this technique back to some (relatively) popular forum or other hub for people with alt-right and antisemitic persuasions.

As I said, I shall keep my eye out for more. Might have to hold my nose and wade into some choice subreddits.

Here is a Vice article about it. Some Jews on Twitter are beginning to incorporate the "echoes" in their account handles to raise awareness of the practice. This article also claims it's being used on Reddit, but doesn't mention any specific subreddits by name or post screens.

Uh-oh

It's spreading.

Seriously though – the fact that they highlight people's surnames to somehow undermine their claims is grade-A antisemitism. Sure, they are of jewish descent, clearly, but to specify it as an claim that it's always bad is just fueling the antisemitic wet fantasies.

Can we like, not let that cancer spread to our site to keep at least minimum level of decency in the comments?

also, i see a lot of good friggin comments incoming

Can we like, not let that cancer spread to our site to keep at least minimum level of decency in the comments?

Pretty sure it's too late. The /pol/-types took over the comments sections of articles on their pet topics ages ago.

I'm not sure if this is relevant, but I've also noticed the new usage of "goyim" and "goyim posting" (aka posting like what I assume is the stereotype of a Jew) pop up in the last month, roughly speaking.

I feel 90% sure Morty is a troll at this point. The actual /pol/ morons are at least consistent in their opinions, but this guy seems to randomly flip-flop between acting like a Jewish stereotype and acting like a neo-Nazi.

(((Donald Trump)))
I'm not sure if anyone mentioned it here, but even attempting to search ((())) on Twitter is next to impossible due to the way twitter searches.

Yeah, Particle Mare mentioned that. It's also mentioned in the articles that it makes the practice far harder to detect unless you are either a participant or a target.

What scares me is not that Morty made that troll comment, but that it's been upvoted. Seemingly at least four times.

It seems to have been mostly taken over by people making fun of it. Case in point.

And the comment section of the article makes me worry for the future of this site as well.
"Geez, guys, it's just far-right antisemitism! Stop getting all #triggered about it!"

The future is now, my friend. The future is now.

Since when were you under the impression the comments didn't get occupied by /pol/?

I don't like this future… Can we do the Star Trek one instead?

There's been a somewhat noticeable alt-right presence on KnowYourMeme ever since Gamergate. Not to defend the alt-right, but they're the the principal movement opposing SJWs and you can expect them to congregate anywhere where that sentiment is widely expressed, including KYM's own comment section.

So basically its another worthless alt right in joke for them to circle jerk each other over?

(((Danny Sex Bang)))

That guy is the fucking worst. I liked him better when he stayed in the worthless Facebook comments.

Unfunny /pol/ retard whos an over the top cartoon character that makes Republicans look bad.

you mean TheRightStuff.biz?

You're on the forum of an Internet meme database. Is the obvious (and successful) troll here really that hard to spot?