#all and any type of misinformation is harmful especially in todays political hellscape

[elio-monroe]

i don't want to reblog the post because im not really in the mood for dealing with tumblr activist. but i want to just put this information out there and hope this helps clear up some weird info thats going on re: steamboat willie

talking about nazis, dog whistles, and anti-nazism work

for those not following because they don't give a shit about the mouse, there is a horror video game coming out about willie currently titled "infestation: origin". it use to be called "infestation 88". a lot of people, including me, upon seeing the original name of the game got a bit of the heebie jeebies (along with some other information about the game i'll discuss at the end). this is because 88 is often times a code number used by neo-nazis. 88 or 8-8 stands for "hail hitler" as h is the 8th letter of the alphabet. the reason why neo-nazis do this is because by itself 8 or 88 is just another innocuous number. if some person points at something that has 88 in it and says "thats nazi bait" a lot of people will say "what the hell are you talking about?". this is on purpose, this is how dog whistles work. they turn something rather innocent or without context into something heavy because it gives them plausible deniability when they get called out for it. and its important to remember they nazis will use that plausible deniability ALWAYS. lots of people were quick to question the developers and pretty immediately the developers changed the name and explained why it was called that. they've disavowed nazis as well. this is not something proud and out neo-nazis would do. their most common tactic is to make out like the people criticizing them are nuts. usually they mock the idea of some silly number holding any meaning. they wouldn't speak down about nazism instead theyd try and turn the moral question onto the asker or they skirt around it in some way. nazis rarely ever risk actually talking down about their ideology because that would make them a target for other nazis or possibly loose support from their peers. nazism is both a dangerous and fragile mindset. (is it possible for the developers to still be nazis and they are just trying to cover their asses? yes. but due to how nazis operate this is very very unlikely to happen. the only people who can do this successfully are usually people with a bigger reach.) i am not at all here to defend the game or tell you to support it. i really do not give a shit about it. i'm here to help people get better at doing anti-nazi work. being anti-nazi doesn't mean just seeing dog whistles and pointing them out. you have dig deeper, you have to get to the truth. you cannot put people on blast because they accidentally used a dog whistle they weren't aware of, if you do that you are doing the heavy lifting of the nazis. you are shunning and isolating someone or some people because your activism stopped at making a quick "heads up" post.

this is all coming from someone who has called out nazis irl and helped deradaclized some folks. i've been mocked by nazis for pointing out their dog whistles and lost friends (liberals.... sigh) for it. it does not help if you call everyone ever who used numbers like 8, 88, 18, 14, 12 and so on (there are A LOT bc nazis try to claim everthing) a nazi. by doing this and going no further into figuring out if someone is actually a nazi you are giving the nazi's power. because if it turns out the person wasn't a nazi but you went on a tirade against them anyways, you are watering down the work of people trying to weed actual nazis out! now of course with this game it wasn't only the title that made people question it. it was the game play of gassing rodents (nazi gas chambers, calling jewish people rats). which is why people went up and questioned the developers. there were some concerning overlaps. but with the name change and the public disavowing of nazism it does really seem these developers were simply ignorant. also using pesticide (either in gas or spray form) is pretty normal when dealing with, well a rodent infestation. to end this off i'll leave an article on what the developers have said about this

as well as a note that if you want to stop nazis or nazism from spreading you have to do more than memorizing dog whistles. you have to learn how they operate, you have to listen to the words of ex-nazis, listen to victims of nazis crimes but also beaware that sometimes seeing through a lens of pain cab lead to false accusations or quick leaps of judgement. in other words, always do your research first. and at the end of the day, if your gut still tells you something is fishy then hold onto that fishy feeling and don't support that person. distance yourself from them. sometimes thats the best you can do.

#sorry no reblogs bc again dont really feel like dealing with internet liberals #they often get way to upset when you try to help them expand their activism and im too tired for that nonsense #all i want this post to do is just remind people they need to do more checking before spreading information #all and any type of misinformation is harmful especially in todays political hellscape #like when i heard the name of the game and the gameplay i was like #huh sounds nazish but i also didnt really care enough to dig too deep into it so ignored it and didnt say a word about it #well i did talk to my bf about it irl but thats different and he actually was the one to go digging for more info bc he was curious #and good on him for doing so! #im still never going to actually give a shit about this game and this is the last time im ever going to even bring it up probably #this was a lot of talking i think im done for today #oh also no reblogs bc unfortunately i dont have access to site my sources on a lot of this but i promise there are #articles and even books written on this stuff but my harddrive with all that stuff died years ago #and i do not want this spreading around as if im like source trust me bro #thats just irresponsible