ADL Forced to Recognize the Power of “With Open Gates” Video
EDITOR’S NOTE: The truth is a powerful weapon — and when it is coupled with compelling images and excellent production values it is almost impossible to stop. The article below, authored by the ADL itself, evidences a feeling of powerlessness: The initial effort to suppress the video, based on a bogus copyright claim, has failed. The video is so powerful that — even though they hate the section showing Jewish responsibility for the “refugee” invasion — kosher conservative sites have been forced to feature it or lose audience to sites that will.
“WITH Open Gates: The Forced Collective Suicide of European Nations,” a virulently anti-refugee propaganda video widely circulated on the Internet has received over four million views on YouTube over the last two weeks. The video uses selective footage of African and Muslim refugees and immigrants to depict them as creating mayhem and destruction throughout Europe.
The video ends with a clip of the founder of a Jewish cultural institute in Sweden, who claims that Jews support efforts to promote multiculturalism in Europe. This segment of the video gives fuel to anti-Semites who blame Jews for non-white immigration to Europe. The statement that accompanied the posting of the video on YouTube blames “Zionist interest” for destroying Europe “from the inside.”
The racist video originated on 8chan, a controversial Internet discussion forum whose “Politically Incorrect” subforum is notorious for racist and anti-Semitic language. A user with the screen name of Gex appears to have created the video, with some assistance from other users. The same person created an earlier video called “End Times Europe,” which uses some of the same footage.
In its first days of release, it was mostly white supremacists in Europe and North America who were extolling the video. Racists on 8chan and elsewhere worked to promote the video and gain more viewers for it. Andrew Anglin, who runs the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer site, asked his readers to make the video go viral. Jared Taylor, who runs the white supremacist website American Renaissance, also supported the video, as did two popular white supremacist forums, Vanguard News Network and Stormfront. InfoWars, an anti-government conspiracy-oriented site, also highlighted the video.
The Right Stuff, a web site that posts articles and Internet radio interviews by white supremacists, claimed that hundreds of thousands of people had viewed the video in the first 3 days after it was posted. They wrote, “If half of the people who watched this video collectively were as triggered as we were.….Thats [sic] like the largest standing army in europe.”
The video picked up steam in mainstream conservative circles after Breitbart in London featured it in a November 11 column. Breitbart reported that the video was being rapidly shared on social media including YouTube and Facebook and online message boards. The video had over a million views by the time YouTube took it down for copyright violations. However, mirror versions of the video soon appeared on social media sites in the U.S. and Europe. YouTube eventually allowed the video to be viewed again once the copyrighted music had been removed.
In the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks, the video received even more attention, particularly in more mainstream circles. Former Representative Michele Bachman encouraged people to view it, urging, “After 100 killed by Muslims, watch this video on migrants.” In addition, Washington Times contributor and radio show host Steve Deace devoted an entire column to the video. He writes disparagingly of the refugees going to Europe and says that the video shows what could be at stake in America, “if we continue to let our own cultural heritage bleed out.”
“With Open Gates” demonstrates graphically how the ideas of extremists and white supremacists can resonate with a wide audience. It also illustrates just how receptive so many people in North America and Europe are to anti-immigrant and anti-refugee fear and loathing.
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Source: Read the full article at the ADL Blog
A broader question we might ask is why do we waste our time writing articles, when making videos is the most powerful way to reach the masses?
“A broader question we might ask is why do we waste our time writing articles, when making videos is the most powerful way to reach the masses?” This is a bad question for several reasons. First, this question flatly dismisses writing articles as a waste of time. Writing articles may be a waste of time if this work is badly done, but this is true of any media. Production values are very important with any media. I’ve learned a great deal from the articles on this and other websites. I mightn’t read everything on this website from beginning to end, but I don’t regard this website as a waste of my time. Second, this question expresses a “monomediac” perspective. This perspective is comparable to believing that one type of weapon… Read more »