In part 1 of this XYZ vs AGE series, we enjoyed poking a little fun at the author of “Keyboard warriors of the alt-right have Australia in their sights”, as well as several of the so-called “experts” who gave their skewed opinion of The XYZ and our ilk. In part 2, we decided to ask the same questions of our fellow travellers in the alternative media that Daniel Flitton asked us, only better. Furthermore, to demonstrate to the so-called “professional journalists” at Fairfax how to do their job, we are presenting the answers of representatives of alternative media in Australia in full, and unedited, because we are actually interested in what they have to say.
THE UNSHACKLED
Firstly, we have a co-founder of The Unshackled, Tim Wilms. Daniel Flitton appears to have put only slightly more research into The Unshackled than he did for The XYZ, proving that he can read, cut and paste, and looking at pictures on their Twitter feed:
“In Australia, The Unshackled was founded a few months ago by Tim Wilms and Sukith Fernando as ‘the new battle front against the progressive left, social justice warriors and political correctness’, releasing regular podcasts and articles with an aim to increase appeal by introducing videos.
“It’s Twitter feed features photos of Pauline Hanson alongside Trump, France’s Marine Le Pen, Britain’s Nigel Farage and local right-wing favourite Cory Bernardi.
“There is quite a large market on Facebook for people who enjoy our content,” Fernando said recently in a podcast with another similar website. “We’ve been pleased with the progress so far.”
You can read an excellent article by Sam Oldfield for The Unshackled here, in which he dissects Hillary Clinton’s delusional determination not to take responsibility for her electoral defeat to Donald Trump in the US Presidential Election, and instead blames it all on fake news. For a detailed understanding of The Unshackled’s principles and motivations, read on:
What are your motivations for founding The Unshackled, and what objectives do you hope to achieve?
We founded The Unshackled mainly out of a frustration in how the progressive left and some elements of conservatism and libertarianism were increasingly threatening the freedoms of ordinary people through the spread of ideologies such as social justice, political correctness and identity politics.
Rather than just venting on social media we decided we should actually try and make a difference. We want to get the word out to as many people as possible about the threats that are occurring to our freedoms and also let other people know they are not alone in their opposition to them.
Do you think there is a market for site, and do you have commercial aims for the site? Considering the tone of the article “Keyboard warriors of the alt-right have Australia in their sights,” published in The Age on 26/11/2016, do you think the way you were asked these questions was a set-up?
We know that the silent majority are on our side, as evidence by the Brexit vote, the return of Pauline Hanson and election of Donald Trump. Most people want to be left alone to live their lives as they see fit and not be ordered around by people who think they know better. There is certainly a market for a site such as ours, especially given that people on the right aren’t catered to by other traditional media organisations.
We would certainly like to make it a commercial operation because we love what we do and have seen the success of overseas sites such as Breitbart and Infowars using the digital media platforms now available and so we do believe it is an achievable goal to turn it into a successful business venture.
The tone of the article didn’t surprise me, but it just demonstrated the mainstream media still don’t get it. Giving us coverage only helps us grow, our site traffic went through the roof as a result. I think the aim of the questions were to set us up but we don’t fear what the mainstream media says about us, ordinary people can make up their own minds.
What is your definition of “alt-right”? Do you consider yourselves, The Unshackled, or the work you do, to fall under that definition?
Alt-right is a very elusive term and hard to define because it has largely emerged online, it is mainly a reactionary movement built from a frustration with the failures of the mainstream political philosophies. It doesn’t have any prominent leaders or organisations which makes its beliefs hard to pin down.
We don’t consider ourselves alt-right for the very reason that they don’t have a firm set of beliefs. Most of our editorial team is either from a conservative or libertarian background but we certainly share the frustrations with the current state of politics that people from the alt-right do.
What do you think about the way the term “alt-right,” and those defined (fairly or unfairly) as “alt-right” are portrayed in the alternative media, and in the mainstream media?
The mainstream media with their leftist bias of course highlight the more extreme elements in the alt-right and hold them up as representative of the entire movement. But this doesn’t work the other way around in that nobody claims that Socialist Alternative are representative of the entire left.
The truth is most of the people who supported these new movements this year are not racists or bigots, they are just people sick of the current leaders and elites looking down on them, telling them what to think and do and have just had enough. It is because of slurs such as “racist” or “bigot” being thrown around all the time that has led to this movement against the current political establishment, cultural leaders, academia and the mainstream media.
ZERO FILTER
If you cast your mind back to the beginning of this article, you will remember that Flitton lazily referred to “a podcast with another similar website,” almost as though he was aware he was already giving the alternative media competition too much of a free plug. That another similar website (do we even do phrasing, any more?) is Zero Filter. You can read their analysis here of the soon-to-be-former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s bizarre fixation with returning to the policy which cost him his role as leader of the Liberal Party back in 2009; the Carbon Tax. Below are Zero Filter’s responses to The XYZ’s queries in full.
What are your motivations for founding Zero Filter and what objectives do you hope to achieve?
Zero Filter was created as a direct response to the radical, neo-Marxist left that has infected the West and Australian culture in particular. In recent years, and especially in 2016, the Australian mainstream media has proven their inability to provide an unbiased view on political and cultural issues. Australians are sick of the narrative that they are fed everyday through mainstream media and are dying for the unfiltered Truth on these issues. This is where Zero Filter comes in.
Zero Filter hopes to provide an alternative perspective on news by looking at including both side of issues and providing truthful opinion on the current state of culture in Australia without being politically correct.
Do you think there is a market for site, and do you have commercial aims for the site? Considering the tone of the article “Keyboard warriors of the alt-right have Australia in their sights,” published in The Age on 26/11/2016, do you think the way you were asked these questions was a set-up?
The rejection of the mainstream media and political establishment has exploded in 2016 all over the Western world. Australians are rejecting the poltically correct narrative that has run our media and instituions for decades. Trust in the media is plummeting, and Australians are searching for alternative sources for their information. Conservatives have been completely left behind and are vastly under-represented in mainstream media. There is definitely a market for news from a conservative perspective, rather than the biased left’s perspective.
I currently run Zero Filter part time and a few contributors who write articles and other content. I look to take it full-time in the future and think it is definitely possible given the massive amount of attention it has already received. Our message is resonating.
“Keyboard warriors” is a laughable attempt by the mainstream media to paint any outlet who supports Donald Trump, supports Brexit or any conservative who may share the same views as groups such as One Nation, as an underground, basement-dwelling, neo-nazi internet troll.
News outlets such as the Age are scrambling to try and define those who support these movements as racist, homophobic, islamophobic, sexist etc, before Australians actually look into the reality of these movements which are about preserving traditional Australian values, restoring national pride and rejecting poltical correctness.
What is your definition of “alt-right”? Do you consider yourselves, The Unshackled, or the work you do, to fall under that definition?
There are two ‘Alt-Rights’. One is more accurately described as the New Right. Prominent figures in the New Right include fun people like Milo Yiannopoulos, Gavin McInnes, Steven Crowder, Stefan Molyneux, Lauren Southern and Mike Cernovich. They include whites, blacks, Asians, latinos, gays and everyone else. These are the people who helped Trump win the election.
The other faction likes to fester in dark corners of sub-reddits and obsess about Jews, racial superiority and Adolf Hitler. This is a tiny fringe minority led by a man called Richard Spencer who allegedly coined the term alt-right, but has an extremely small following compared to the real alternative right.
I identify myself as part of the first, which is the true break-away alternative from the establishment right which has employed leftist, politically correct tactics and left real conservative Australians behind. The alternative right in Australia could be best described as people such as Pauline Hanson, Corey Bernardi, Andrew Bolt, Mark Latham, David Leyonhjelm and others.
What do you think about the way the term “alt-right,” and those defined (fairly or unfairly) as “alt-right” are portrayed in the alternative media, and in the mainstream media?
Fortunately, the mainstream media has proven to be incompetent when it comes to their analysis of any issue, so their portrayal of the alt-right as being neo-nazi ‘throw em in the gas chamber’ racists is totally irrelevant and I dont think anyone takes them seriously when the mainstream media say this.
They were wrong on in their predictions on Brexit, they were wrong in their polls on Trump, and they were absolutely wrong on their predictions of how Pauline Hanson’s One Nation would finish up at the last election.
What sticks out for me is that the mainstream media consider ‘patriotism’ and ‘nationalism’ to be dirty words. They have worked hard to try and condition Aussies into thinking that being patriotic and being proud of your country means you’re a racist bogan and you must be an intolerant racist.
The alt-right, above all, is a direct reaction to political correctness gone too far. On one hand, the radical left has enabled terrorists to enter Western countries by “welcoming all refugees” and has resulted in thousands of people being killed. On the other, the most radical part of the right is a tiny fringe minority within the alt-right who post Hitler memes on 4chan and reddit.
And who does the media portray as the bad guys?
ALTRIGHT AUSTRALIA
Bruce Wayne from AltRight Australia must be commended for being the only representative of either The XYZ, The Unshackled or Zero Filter to actually respond to Fairfax’s queries. He gave an excellent account of himself in the Age article, and his responses to The XYZ reveal even-handedness and graciousness. AltRight Australia’s carefully worded headlines are hilarious and worthy of an article themselves. A great example can be read here, in a succinct report on Fremantle Council’s backflip over its plans to destroy Australia Day. Below are Bruce Wayne’s thoughts on The Age, the near political future, and the mainstream media.
What are your motivations for founding AltRight Australia, and what objectives do you hope to achieve?
After closely following the recent U.S election through both the eyes of the mainstream & alternative online media, it was clear where the majority of the fake news was coming from. Revelations made public through the Wikileaks dump of John Podesta’s email destroyed any last shred of credibility the MSM had left. With a lack of faith in the media this side of the Pacific, I hope www.altrightaustralia.com can grow to a team of like-minded journalists reporting on events in Australia & abroad from a perspective of common sense instead of pushing the same old regressive, politically correct narrative.
Do you think there is a market for site, and do you have commercial aims for the site? Considering the tone of the article “Keyboard warriors of the alt-right have Australia in their sights,” published in The Age on 26/11/2016, do you think the way you were asked these questions was a set-up?
It’s The Age, I was envisioning “Literally Hitler” as a possible headline. I was very conscious of my words & how they were going to be portrayed, but overall I was surprised by the article. Where it may of been slightly condescending it didn’t carry nearly as much vitriol as I had expected.
The page is just a hobby at the moment but if growth continues at a similar rate, I could see this becoming my full time job within the year or two. I think if the U.S election is any indicator the AltRight, at least in a media sense, has massive growth potential leading up to our State & Federal elections.
What is your definition of “alt-right”? Do you consider yourselves, AltRight Australia, or the work you do, to fall under that definition?
There’s Richard Spencer’s definition & then there’s the media’s. I think both groups are rowing in the same direction, which is away from the failing conservative governments & radical left wing.
While I’m not a hardcore White Nationalist, I do share a lot of the same sentiments regarding Islam in Australia & putting National interests first.
What do you think about the way the term “alt-right,” and those defined (fairly or unfairly) as “alt-right” are portrayed in the alternative media, and in the mainstream media?
It’s just another #buzzword they use to bunch together anyone who leans slightly to the right. It’s definitely a derogatory term when used by the likes of Slate, Vice, Buzzfeed etc. But who really cares what they think?
CONCLUSION
An extract from The XYZ’s page Why we deserve $500M is very revealing:
“We are proud to present the Australian public with The XYZ, a news organisation dedicated to the principles of Classical Liberalism. We aim to present the facts, both historical and contemporary, in a clear and rigorous manner, all the while openly acknowledging our bias. In this, we aim to distinguish ourselves from, and directly compete with, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
“The ABC is currently failing the Australian Public in two key ways. Firstly, it is presenting material which serves a progressive agenda.. Secondly, it presents this biased news as though it is well-informed and unbiased, thus compounding one lie with another.”
Written a year and a half ago, we articulated the same issues the representatives of The Unshackled, Zero Filter and AltRight Australia have all highlighted: There is (or at least there was until very recently) a dearth of news media in Australia which presents conservative or libertarian values as natural and normal, free market economics as sensible, and nationalism and patriotism as not just perfectly reasonable, but good; furthermore, the regressive-left mainstream media presents its own propaganda as being from the political centre, and of being fair and balanced.
The political revolution which has swept Great Britain, Australia and the USA in 2016, and will likely sweep continental Europe in 2017, is evidence that a strong proportion of people in Western countries understand these issues, are concerned about them, and prepared to act on them.
A year and a half ago when The XYZ was founded, we were labelled by leftists as “far-right”, lackies of Rupert Murdoch, and our personal favourite, “Young Liberals.” Today we are labelled with another meaningless moniker, “Alt-Right”. Tomorrow, it will be something different, but it will mean exactly the same thing: “Four legs good, two legs baaaaaaad.”
What is interesting is the way the regressive left has altered its approach, since its loss in the US Presidential Election, to the news being presented by conservative and alternative media. In the past, they argued very strongly and vociferously that information coming from tabloid or conservative media, or those nasty far-right internet trolls, was not to be trusted. This was meant in the same spirit as the now hilariously hypocritical label of “fake news” which is now sweeping the internet, but at least before they tried to rely on sleight of hand and misdirection, rather than outright insult and blatant libel.
This is a sign of increasing desperation. The world has changed. The left know they are losing.
And those of us opposed to the regressive left are winning. We cannot lose our focus, but if we keep fighting smart and fighting hard, we will win.
It’s your XYZ.