OSR ACKS 2

[Micah Sweet]

This sort of dismissive naughty word fundamentally misunderstands the nature of the disagreement. Macris is and has actively called for the murder of people he does not like. That's not a "hot button topic." It's a threat.

I have never heard any of that. Do you have a link?

 

[Gradine]

I see this is a hot button topic for you, but perhaps it would be better to discuss it elsewhere. In the meantime, I have asked if I can repost the author's explanation of the situation, so we'll just have to see.

Look, I'll happily take this up with the people responsible. Do you know who the CEO of Milo Yiannopolous' self-titled company was around the time all this was starting to develop?

 

[CandyLaser]

I have never heard any of that. Do you have a link?

It's from a blog post he wrote entitled "Trump at the Rubicon" archived here: Archiving: Trump at the Rubicon

I don't know if the original is still available. Some relevant bits:

Trump is in a much better position than Caesar was. Unlike Caesar, Trump can cross the Rubicon legally. He need violate no sacred law. He has all of the legal power he needs to act and win. Congress has given it to him. All he needs to do is invoke the Insurrection Act...

In blunt terms, Congress has given the power to President Trump to proclaim: "I, President Trump, have determined that a conspiracy has deprived 70 million Americans of their right to vote and that the other authorities are refusing to protect this right. I therefore order the suppression of this conspiracy by any means necessary.” And with that, Trump will cross the Rubicon...

Now, I don’t expect beheadings (just helicopters) but I do expect that the US Armed Forces would obey Trump’s orders. Although he is not popular with the Pentagon, Trump remains popular with actual soldiers, especially with white middle-class men who make up a disproportionate number of the infantry, armor, pilots, special forces, and other combat arms. (His support among law enforcement personnel is even higher. The men with guns love Trump.)

The post goes on to describe, in lots of detail, how he should call up the militias including groups like the Oath Keepers, the group founded by Stewart Rhodes, recently convicted of seditious conspiracy in the attempt to overthrow the US Government. The reference to "helicopters" in the original was also a link to the Wikipedia article for "death flights" in case it the dog whistle went unheard.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Here is what he wrote in the Discord:

"I am happy to speak to this.

In 2012, I sold my company The Escapist to Defy Media. Like many entrpreneurs I came to regret this as they slowly sucked all of the life out of what had once been a flourishing start-up. Then GamerGate happened, and the joy I once had in running The Escapist evaporated entirely. Shortly thereafter, Defy Media decided gamers were too toxic to deal with and shut down the unit entirely. At that point they "promoted" me to a position in LA, which forced me to commute every other week back and forth, as my wife was having medical treatment in Raleigh-Durham.

After about a year of that, I was spiritually and physically exhausted. At that time, a wealthy financier approached me and said that they were launching a new business with $12M in funding that was designed to create a right-wing Bill Maher or Howard Stern type -- outrageous but funny. They asked me if I would run its business operations. They offered me a huge raise (2x what I was making at the time) as well as the ability to work from home. That meant I'd be able to spendtime helping my wife, and get her better medical care for her ME. So I said yes.

The 'star" was of course Milo Yiannopoulos. A number of top people from Salem Media, leading hedge funds, and so on, all told me he was the hope of the next generation of conservatives, that his mistake on Joe Rogan joking about pedophilia had been a one-time oversight, and that he had been vetted and was ready for prime time.

This turned out to be catastrophically untrue. As it turned out, Milo had a falling out with his old CTO, who sent his entire 10-year gmail archive to Buzzfeed. Buzzfeed then proceeded to systematically go through hsi email and reveal many terrible things. As that happened, Milo began to drop his "mask" as it were and I saw awful things in the workplace too.

I offered my resignation to the financiers but they refused to accept it and instead warned me that if I didn't finish my contract they'd enforce my non-compete and I'd never work in media again. So I worked until the very last day of my contract and resigned. As it happened, it didn't matter, because the investors converted their funding into debt and bankrupted the company, and then enforced the NDA on me anyway.

I remain under long-term NDA and non-disparagement. The above is essentially public record so I feel comfortable sharing that.

The non-compete, NDA, and non-disparagement end when the company pays back its $12M in debt.

Since that will never happen, they will never end. I could liltigate but the opposition are billionaires who have no desire for further dirt to appear, so I'd just be killed in court by high powered attorneys.

So that's the story. But the notion that I teamed up with Milo to promote white supremacy or whatever is nonsense. The only event I did while I was there was Free Speech Week with the UC Berkeley Republican Student Union. Which is a bunch of bowtied right-of-center Californians, not exactly the Fourth Reich.

Anyway, if anyone has questions about my ACTUAL political beliefs, they are welcome to DM me. I don't hide them, because there is nothing to hide."

This is what he posted a couple days ago, in response to questions from Kickstarter backers new to the Discord.

 

[CandyLaser]

Worth noting is that he makes it explicit here that his association with Milo Yiannopoulos was his decision, and he knew who Milo was when he decided to join up to promote him. This was after Milo had, for instance, gone on the record saying that he wanted vigilantes to gun down journalists on sight AND after he'd gone on the pro-pedophilia spree that led to him getting shunned by even other conservatives in the first place. Macris knew who Milo was going in and didn't have a problem with it.

 

[CleverNickName]

Nope. I won't be backing this project.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Worth noting is that he makes it explicit here that his association with Milo Yiannopoulos was his decision, and he knew who Milo was when he decided to join up to promote him. This was after Milo had, for instance, gone on the record saying that he wanted vigilantes to gun down journalists on sight AND after he'd gone on the pro-pedophilia spree that led to him getting shunned by even other conservatives in the first place. Macris knew who Milo was going in and didn't have a problem with it.

Ok, I'll admit that's disquieting. Does any of the rest of it make a difference, or the fact that all this happened over a decade ago?

 

[CandyLaser]

Ok, I'll admit that's disquieting. Does any of the rest of it make a difference, or the fact that all this happened over a decade ago?

Don't see why it should. He's never apologized or sought to make amends. It's worth nothing that only the Milo stuff happened a decade ago. The parts about him referencing liberals getting thrown from helicopters was less than three years ago. He's stopped posting his politics online, as far as I know, but I've never seen evidence that he's changed his mind on anything.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

He's stopped posting his politics online, as far as I know

I would assume he's moved it onto Gab or Parler or Rumble and posting under a pseudonym.

 

[overgeeked]

Worth noting is that he makes it explicit here that his association with Milo Yiannopoulos was his decision, and he knew who Milo was when he decided to join up to promote him. This was after Milo had, for instance, gone on the record saying that he wanted vigilantes to gun down journalists on sight AND after he'd gone on the pro-pedophilia spree that led to him getting shunned by even other conservatives in the first place. Macris knew who Milo was going in and didn't have a problem with it.

Wow. So he's even worse than I already thought. I didn't think that was possible.