UPDATE: Will Sommer replied with this: “Hey Robert, gonna have to take a pass on this, although rest assured I know you’re not the same person as Richard Spencer.” He left all the other questions unanswered. Leftist “journalists” don’t have to answer to their targets!
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Virtually nothing in this Daily Beast celebratory piece over Patreon dropping me is accurate, starting with the opening claim that I found out about the ban when I logged into Patreon “to see how much money [I] had raised.” In reality, I found out about the ban in an email from Patreon.
Remember: the Nazis operated in exactly this way, first barring those they hated from holding various professions and making it impossible for them to make a living. Sommer and his ilk are quintessential neo-fascists.
A little while ago I sent far-Left “journalist” Will Sommer these questions. I’ll let you know if he answers!
Hi Will. I’m doing a story about far-Left propagandists masquerading as “journalists,” and I have a few questions for you. Thanks in advance for your answers!
1. On what basis did you label me “far right” in your Daily Beast article? My work is dedicated to defending the freedom of speech, the freedom of conscience, and the equality of rights of all people before the law. Do you regard defense of those principles to be “far-right”? Or do you regard opposition to jihad mass murder of innocent civilians and Sharia oppression of women, gays and others to be “far right”?
2. You quote Beirich of the SPLC rejoicing that money is not going to “neo-Nazis and white supremacists,” and in this incoherent sentence, you strongly imply that I myself am a white supremacist: “White supremacist groups have been financially under pressure online since the fatal 2017 rally in Charlottesville, Virginia Spencer’s views, on the other hand, are relatively mainstream within the Republican Party and right-wing media, suggesting that a broader enforcement from the credit card companies could be ahead.” Certainly readers of your article will get the impression that I am indeed a neo-Nazi and white supremacist, especially since you have Beirich claiming that Color for Change pressured MasterCard to drop me, and that Color For Change works against white supremacists. On what aspects of my work do you base this false and libelous implication? Can you produce even one statement from me, from 18 books, thousands of articles, and 50,000 blog posts, that gives even a hint of support for white supremacy? Or are you just taking the SPLC’s word for it? Are you aware of the Maajid Nawaz case and of how thoroughly the SPLC has been discredited as an authority on what constitutes a “hate group”?
3. Are you aware that I am not Richard Spencer and had nothing to do with the Charlottesville rally? Or do you know that I am not Richard Spencer but don’t care, as you believe that wanting to establish a white ethnostate is the same thing as opposing jihad mass murder and wanting to defend free societies, and so are happy to mention Charlottesville so as to confuse people about who I actually am and what I stand for? Did you fill your article with references to alleged white supremacist groups because you actually believe that I am a white supremacist, or because you wanted to manipulate your readers into thinking so?
4. You claim I have made a number of “anti-Muslim statements.” Do you really think opposing jihad terror and Sharia oppression is “anti-Muslim”? Do you believe opposition to Nazism during World War II was “anti-German”?
5. You claim that in my “2017 memoir that [I’m] fine with being ‘the right kind of Islamophobe.’” Are you aware that the book in question was not actually a memoir? Are you aware of the context of the statement, which was that I noted that any opposition to jihad terror and Sharia oppression was labeled “Islamophobic,” and stated that everyone should actually oppose jihad terror, Islamic anti-Semitism, stonings, amputations, the brutalization of women, etc., and thus become that kind of “Islamophobe”? Surely you oppose such things yourself, don’t you? Have you actually read the book? Did you make any attempt to ascertain the context of my statement, or did you include it as you did only because you knew that it would make your readers regard me with distaste? Since the answer to the last question is obvious, it leads to a further question: do you really regard this kind of manipulation of your readers as “journalism,” or should it more properly be termed “propaganda”?
Thanks again. I look forward to seeing your “answers’!
Regards
Robert
“Far Right Fuming After Big Finance Chokes Off Money Flow,” by Will Sommer, Daily Beast, August 21, 2018:
Far-right blogger Robert Spencer logged into fundraising site Patreon last week expecting to see how much money he had raised in a new bid to build a studio for his YouTube videos. Instead, Spencer found out his nascent funding campaign was over about as soon as it had started: at Mastercard’s request, Patreon was kicking him off the platform.
“Mastercard has a stricter set of rules and regulations than Patreon, and they reserve the right to not offer their services to accounts of their choosing,” Patreon wrote in an email to Spencer, a leader in the “counter-jihad” movement. “This is in line with their terms of service, which means it’s something we have to comply by.”
Mastercard doesn’t own Patreon, and both companies were vague about what had prompted Mastercard to flag Patreon payments to Spencer.
In a statement on Spencer’s Patreon ban, Mastercard said it sometimes flags “questionable or illegal content.” Patreon, in a series of tweets, wrote that Mastercard “required us” to take down Spencer’s account.
That leaves Spencer, who received the couple of hundred dollars he had already raised on Patreon and said he doesn’t have a Mastercard himself, mulling a lawsuit.
Most of the conservative conversation about tech bias has focused on social media companies, with congressional Republicans holding hearings over what they say are unfair punishments from YouTube and purported “shadow-banning” on Twitter. But the next front in the clash between with Silicon Valley looks set to center instead on right-wing personalities’ pocketbooks, as fundraising platforms and payment processors crack down on the right.
White supremacist groups have been financially under pressure online since the fatal 2017 rally in Charlottesville, Virginia Spencer’s views, on the other hand, are relatively mainstream within the Republican Party and right-wing media, suggesting that a broader enforcement from the credit card companies could be ahead.
While he’s made a number of anti-Muslim statements, including writing in his 2017 memoir that he’s fine with being “the right kind of Islamophobe,” he’s also regularly appeared on Fox News. Spencer told The Daily Beast that his ouster from Patreon is “obviously” the latest example of tech giants’ bias against conservatives.
Spencer blamed the Mastercard response on the Southern Poverty Law Center, the anti-racist group that has dubbed him an “extremist.” SPLC spokeswoman Heidi Beirich told The Daily Beast that Mastercard contacted the organization ahead of warning Patreon about Spencer’s account, although Beirich said the Mastercard response was prompted by a separate campaign from Color for Change, a group that has pressured financial companies to ban extremist figures.
In a press release last week, Color of Change said its members had pressed Mastercard to “take proactive steps to stop processing payments for white supremacist groups.”
“We want PayPal, we want Mastercard, we want all of them to stop servicing hate groups,” Beirich said….
Both Spencer and Johnson say they’re planning legal action over their payment issues. Like Spencer, Johnson blames the SPLC, claiming his site was targeted “because we allowed others to use our platforms to defend themselves against their lawfare.”
Asked about Johnson’s claim that the SPLC is behind Freestartr’s payment issue, Beirich said that much of the money that went through the site was sent to “bad guys.”
“We’re glad that money isn’t getting the hands of neo-Nazis and white supremacists,” Beirich said….
Mac-101 says
Not only the NAZIs operated this way but the Communist. And we are dealin with Neo Bolsheviks who will be even more ruthless than the original ones. THEY will murder Millions I the USA and Billions around da world once THEY gain total power of the NWO!
Andy says
Robert Spencer (along with some other voices) is the Churchill of our times, Mr. Spencer has been a voice in a wilderness, warning the world of the coming storm.
Churchill’s Spencer Ancestry
https://winstonchurchill.org/resources/genealogy/churchills-spencer-ancestry/
What Did Churchill Mean by “Unnecessary War”?
https://scottmanning.com/content/what-did-churchill-mean-by-unnecessary-war/
Mac-101 says
U know what Obama did with the Churchill Bust! However Churchill was wrong about the “Unnecessary War” Same thing could be said about the Soviets and the Cold War and our dirty Crony Kapitalist Scum makin Red China what it is today and makin so that we will LOSE that war!
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Churchill was dead wrong about the League of Nations if stronger would have prevented WWII. Just as the UN is worst than useless today.
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Git the US out of da UN and da UN out of the US!
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Andy says
I agree Mac-101
Get the US out of the UN.
Still Mr. Spencer is a voice in a wilderness (surrounded by Leftie/Liberal bias) who has been warning about the coming storm to our world which is intensifying now.
Mac-101 says
Andy, and he is extremely brave to tackle the Obama and Brennan connection in the previous article.
CogitoErgoSum says
Unless you don’t believe the Washington Post here’s the real story regarding the bust of Winston Churchill (and also the one of Martin Luther King, Jr.).
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/01/23/heres-the-real-story-about-the-churchill-bust-in-the-oval-office/?utm_term=.c5b00622283e
Mac101, this is another example of why I have a hard time taking seriously the things you say.
Mac-101 says
One, I don’t believe the Washington Post at all. However, If I recall the story he moved it from a place of prominence to a place that was hard for the people to figure out where it went to. Of course it is a LIE that Obama gave the Queen autographed CD of his speeches. LOL!
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As for you believe anything I post I really don’t care. Just put your faith in Scopes. The Internet is full of lies and half truths. One can use a search engine or not and make up your own mind!
CogitoErgoSum says
Mac-101, nope, I don’t put my faith in one single source of information. That’s why I am skeptical of what YOU say until I’ve checked elsewhere and, yep, in this instance I’m going with the Washington Post … maybe I won’t do that every time, but this time I am.
Mac-101 says
I don’t expect you to believe what I say without backin it up. The thing is it is impossible to back up anything since most article are lies. I stand by my statement:
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“U know what Obama did with the Churchill Bust!”
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You can look up the below and see that 3 different creditable news sources said different things on this subject. LOL!
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Obama Winston Churchill bust
gravenimage says
Obama did say he removed the bust of Churchill from the Oval Office so that the could put one of MLK in instead.
But he also claimed he “loved the guy” (Churchill) and had the bust somewhere where he could see it frequently.
Trump returned it to the Oval Office:
“Winston Churchill bust back in Oval Office”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/2017/live-updates/politics/live-coverage-of-trumps-inauguration/trump-returns-winston-churchill-bust-to-oval-office/?utm_term=.89fc56bc9988
Of course, it is hard to know if this was a big story or not. In any case, I’m glad the bust is back in the Oval Office.
Mac-101 says
Graven. I spent an hour lookin it ALL up. I’d say from ALL the sources it appeared that their were TWO Churchill Busts in the Whitehouse. So the White house Oval Office bust was supposedly given back to the British Consulate.. Obama said he moved it inside his residence so he could see it more often. Most likely due to ALL the flack he got.
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Trump moved the other one that was in the workin part of the Whitehouse and put it back into the Oval Office. It would be nice to know if the Brits leant the one that they supposedly took back after Bush left or did one Trump git the other one that was in the Whitehouse. I do NOT know! I do know it doesn’t really matter. Kinda a fun question though since the Brits hate Trump now, would they give back Winston. The Brits hate Winston NOW too. LOL!
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It just shows that there are many stories from the MSM that DO NOT jive.
Anton Filipenkov says
This is a little bit opaque to call someone a NAZI or a Communist. Every time I hear this I want to ask: what exactly do you mean? Unfortunately, there are numerous answers but no substantial one. As for me? living in the society of like a constant left pressure I find it quite simple: NAZIs were for private property for the means of production, Socialists mostly were against, Communists (rare thing like Cambodia) even dictated what you buy “exempting money”.
gravenimage says
Fascists may have technically been for individuals maintaining the means of production, but there were no protections for those individuals. People were arrested and murdered all the time, and their property distributed to cronies. This was especially notable during the Holocaust.
Nazi Germany was *hardly* the bastion of property rights you appear to believe.
Emilie Green says
“I’ll let you know if he answers!”
When the phone don’t ring, you’ll know it’s Will.
Norger says
Will Sommer is smug, arrogant, cowardly, and utterly lacking in substance. Oh and he is a fascist to boot. Other than that, he’s great,
tedh754 says
Sommer should read “Icon of Evil” by John Rothmann before he calls Spencer a Nazi.
Rev. G says
The reality is that any group attempting to get another group denied funding ought to have their own funding system shut down for being hateful.
James Lincoln says
The only reason that I can think of as to why a journalist would take a “pass” on answering questions would be this:
They cannot answer the questions and provide evidence-based answers.
CogitoErgoSum says
Sommer says he’s going to have to take a pass on this. No, I think he’s going to have to take one great big FAIL on this. He should seriously consider leaving journalism and becoming a fiction writer … once he learns how to write.
Walter Sieruk says
First and foremost, of course those left ,such as Will Sommers will speak and write libelous things about Robert Spencer that’s just how they are. To accuse Roberts Spencer of writing “anti-Muslim statements” only make “sense” only when the statements by Mr .Spencer when taken out of context. For a clear understanding it should me made clear that Muslims are not Islam. Ironically many times Muslims are victims of Islam as when Muslim girls and cruel and ruthless murdered by Islam’s “honor killing.” Likewise the brutal and deadly jihad entity of Islam , ISIS , has murdered and oppresses many Muslims. In addition that specific e-mail ” ban” set up against Mr. .Spencer is very much a reminder that just yesterday I likewise had been banned from the left wing internet organization FACEBOOK because of a short essay I posted strongly condemning the July 14 brutal murderous Islamic terror attack in the city of Paris only two years ago. FACEBOOK actually had the gall to label my essay as “hate speech” The real person who were full of hate were those Islamic terrorists who murdered all those people on July 14 .
By the way here is the essay the FACEBOOK banned by for my posting it.
Just last month was the second anniversary of those vicious and murderous Islamic terror attacks in the city of Paris, on July 14, 2016, is because of those jihad-minded Muslim males who are so extremely deluded and irrational because they really believed in the nonsensical , strange and far –fetched doctrine contained in the Koran, of sex-filled paradise with black eye- houris, virgins, in it for the male Muslim who dies as a “martyr” for the cause of Islam fighting in the jihad. As, this bizarre Islamic doctrine of a houris -filled place is found in the Koran in, for example, 4:54. 55:56. 78:31. So this odd and outlandish Koranic doctrine inspired many young Muslims males to commit many horrendous, ruthless, heartless and murderous actions of jihad violence. Those vicious jihadists’ massacres that occurred in Paris was most wicked and hideous. That extreme deadly evil caused by those jihadist/Muslims with their firm but blind unquestioning belief in the weird and false doctrine from the Koran of such a houris, filled paradise that had the outcome of mass murder and chaos in the city of Paris. This is a strong reminder of the wise statement written by the French philosopher, Voltaire, who wrote “As long as men continue to believe in absurdities they will continue to commit atrocities.”
Wellington says
It is a tactic increasingly used by the Left to lump mainstream conservatives with Far Right people. I myself am a conservative and want nothing to do with the Far Right (Neo-Nazis, the KKK, et al.) and yet I have on many occasions in conversations or communications with those on the Left been implicitly or sometimes even explicitly joined with Far Right nut jobs. This is deceitful and despicable (stupid too) and indicative of the dearth of morality on the Left, let alone a lack of substance and accurate knowledge.
That an intrepid fighter for freedom like Robert Spencer should continually be ostracized one way or another on the basis that he is some kind of bigot and Far Right individual is disgusting in the extreme. But this is the age we live in and this pernicious nonsense is entirely the fault of the Left, Will Sommer serving as fine example of this rot, which is moving American society (and other Western societies) inexorably closer by the year to an Orwellian world.
gravenimage says
Grimly true, Wellington.
Lydia Church says
If they can’t silence us, then it’s libel…
gravenimage says
Daily Beast’s Will Sommer libels Robert Spencer and does victory dance over Patreon dropping him
…………………..
Just disgusting.
Allan W. Fike says
I have followed Mr. Spencer for years and I know he’s been a tireless worker against the failings of Islam. A beacon in the sea of leftist vermin lies and Muslim bullshit. Sue the bastards asses off. And a word to mastercard …..say goodbye to my account with you , Visa is now my only credit carrier, goodbye.
MFritz says
Well, let’s see who will have the last laugh.
Besides, who is Will Sommer? And who really cares about the Daily Beast?