Timeline of the Online Culture War 2017

Trump takes office, the alt-right crumbles, feminism gets a second wind with #MeToo

2011-2013 2014 2015 2016

1/3/17: White teenager tortured and racially abused in Chicago. A white teenager was kidnapped and tortured by four black teenagers, as they yelled “Fuck white people” and “Fuck Trump.” The teens gagged him, bound him, beat him, cut off a part of his scalp and livestreamed the whole ordeal on Facebook. NPR described people asking whether or not this was racism as a discomfiting question.

1/11/17: Trump calls CNN fake news. After months of the mainstream media claiming that Trump won due to “fake news” on social media, Trump turned the tables around and referred to CNN as fake news during a press conference. This would become a meme.

1/14/17: Mike Enoch doxxed, revealed to have a partially Jewish wife. The identity of popular white nationalist podcaster was revealed to be Michael Peinovich, who was married to a half Jewish woman. He initially quit, but eventually rejoined the podcast and divorced his wife. The popularity and mainstream relevance of Enoch and his podcasting network would peak in 2017 with the New Yorker writing an article about him, and slowly wane after that.

1/19/17: Deploraball. As a play on Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” comment, Trump supporters decided to hold a “Deploraball” to celebrate Trump’s victory. The party included Cassandra Fairbanks, Gavin McInnes, Jack Posobiec, Mike Cernovich, Jeff Gisea, James O’Keefe, Jim Hoft, Martin Shkreli and Lauren Southern. There were protests outside the event and YouTube personality James Allsup was punched in the back of the head.

1/20/17: Trump Inaugurated. Donald Trump becomes the 45th president. Liberals reacted as one would expect. There were violent protests and a limo was set on fire.

1/20/17: Richard Spencer punched. White nationalist Richard Spencer was punched in the face while giving an interview. Many on the left claimed it was acceptable to “punch a nazi.”

1/21/17: Women’s march. To counter Trump, women marched around with knitted genitalia on their head. The march featured Donna Hylton, a woman convicted of second degree murder and first degree kidnapping for her role in the kidnapping, rape, torture and murder of New York business man Thomas Vigliarolo in 1985. Vigliarolo had his testicles crushed and was sodomized with a three foot pipe before he died of asphyxiation.

1/29/17: Protests at airports across America. After Trump’s so called “Muslim ban” liberals staged mass protests at major airports across America to counter this action.

1/29/17: Quebec City Mosque shooting. Canadian Alexandre Bissonnette shot up a Mosque in Quebec City killing 6 people. Bissonette followed many right wing accounts on Twitter, and he had checked Ben Shapiro’s account 93 times the month before the shooting, leading to concerns that social media was radicalizing people on the right to commit violence.

1/30/17: Sargon of Akkad posts about Kekistan. YouTuber Sargon of Akkad posted that he wished to identify as a shitposter on the British census. He decided to identify as a Kekistani, a meme that had been floating around for a couple of years describing the fictional country of Kekistan. Sargon helped to spread the meme, and many posted to free Kekistan, and invite in Kekistani refugees, mocking leftwing views on refugees.

2/6/17: iDubbz releases Tana Mongeau Content Cop. Ian Washburn commonly referred to as iDubbz is YouTuber whose channel contained a lot of edgy humor, referring to his fans as N*gger-f@ggots. Tana Mongeau is an influencer who took issue with this and tweeted for Ian to kill himself, despite her own history of using the n-word. Ian decided to come to her meet and greet and take a picture with her saying “say n*gger” as the camera flashed. Tana put out a video lamenting how offensive this was considering there were people who were victims of slavery still alive at the time. This incident wasn’t explicitly political but was emblematic of the edgy video game culture that many young men occupied at the time, that many would later call the alt-right rabbit hole.

2/6/17: Dave Rubin makes “Why I Left the Left” video. Dave Rubin is an inane commentator who was formerly part of The Young Turks, but decided to leave the left and became something of a meme as someone who just rides the prevailing winds and doesn’t have much interesting to say, spouting platitudes about free speech. On this day he explained to PragerU why he left the left.

2/14/17: WSJ puts out article about PewDiePie. The Wall Street Journal wrote an article about PewDiePie, the most popular YouTuber at the time and his edgy humor which included paying two Indian men on Fiverr to unfurl a banner with “Death to All Jews.” This led to Disney ending their relationship with PewDiePie. This, combined with an article a month later lamenting mainstream ads on videos titled “Black people in their natural habitat” and “Chief Keef dancing to Alabama n*gger” helped launch the “adpocalypse,” a period where advertisers were much more concerned with the content they were advertising in front of on YouTube.

2/21/17: Milo Yiannopoulos falls from grace. Gay Trump supporter Milo Yiannopoulos had made comments on the Drunk Peasants podcast (created by the Amazing Atheist mentioned previously in this series) supporting abolishing age of consent laws. This led to him losing his book deal and resigning as the editor of Breitbart. This was pretty much the end of Milo as a major figure in the discourse.

2/24/17: Get Out released. Jordan Peele movie Get Out released. To many this movie was cringeworthy because it represented the idea that black people need to be terrified of white people, even, or especially “nice” white people.

2/27/17: Operation O-KKK. 4Chan launches a movement to try to associate the OK sign with “white power.” This would go on to claim many scalps in the years to come.

3/1/17: This the future that liberals want. A Twitter account posted a picture of a Muslim in a Hijab and a drag queen saying it was the future that liberals want. It became a meme.

3/2/17: Charles Murray shouted down at Middlebury college. Social scientist Charles Murray tried to give a speech at Middlebury college and was shouted down as a “racist” and a “eugenist.”

3/9/17: He will not divide us flag captured. In the aftermath of Trump winning, actor Shia LaBeouf created a public art project where he set up a camera to have people chant “he will not divide us” over and over again live on camera. The stream was trolled a lot, and LaBeouf was arrested after he assaulted someone who said “Hitler did nothing wrong.” Eventually the livestream got to be too much in NYC so it was moved to Albequerque, and that too was shut down. LaBeouf decided to create a livestream of the flag below in an undisclosed location. 4Channers figured out where this was by tracking the flight patterns, and once they narrowed it down, having someone drive around the area honking. They captured the flag in rural Tennessee on March 9th, and replaced it with a MAGA hat and a pepe shirt.

3/13/17: Destiny Debates JonTron about immigration. Streamer Destiny debated video game YouTuber JonTron about immigration and Islam in the West. I watched this recently and JonTron did decently for someone not super well versed in politics. JonTron infamously made the claim that richer black people are as criminal as poorer white people, which seems to be somehwhat true. This was another example of people associated with video game culture getting more edgy.

3/25/17: Virgin Walk meme posted on 4Chan. This meme was the precursor to the virgin vs Chad meme which used incel terminology to contrast two different things, one being good and one being bad.

4/1/17: #BlackLivesMatter Essay. High school senior Ziad Ahmed revealed his acceptance letter to Stanford, and that for his “what matters to you?” essay he simply wrote #BlackLivesMatter repeatedly.

4/6/17: Heather MacDonald shut down at Claremont university. Conservative political commentator tried to give a speech at Claremont university about her book “The War on Cops” and was shouted down.

4/15/17: Battle for Berkeley. Riots broke out at Berkeley in anticipation of a right wing rally where Lauren Southern and Britney Pettibone were scheduled to speak. This came after a series of riots had occurred at Berkley over the past couple of months. This event, and the previous ones produced many notable characters including:

• Bike lock man Eric Clanton, a philosophy professor at a local community college who beat someone over the head with a bike lock.

• Based Stickman Kyle Chapman (he appeared at March 4th rally)

• Moldy Locks a left wing activist was punched by Nathan Damigo (founder of Identity Evropa mentioned in previous article)

4/18/17: Richard Spencer and Mike Enoch speak at Auburn University. At this point, the culture was still permissive enough for people like this on a major college campus.

4/22/17: March for Science. Leftists hold a March for Science. Unfortunately, in many cases it wasn’t very heavy on the science.

4/26/17: Handmaid’s Tale released on Hulu. Hulu decided to make a television version of Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel that depicted a dystopian world where were women forced to breed like cattle. Feminists began to dress like handmaids at protests to show their displeasure with the Trump administration.

5/10/17: Vice piece on Tanya Gersch suing Richard Spencer’s mom. Jewish real estate agent Tanya Gersch tried to get Richard Spencer’s mother to sell her home. She eventually backed out. This led to harassment of Gersch by people who claimed that she was trying to extort Spencer. One of those who was heavily involved in the harassment was Andrew Anglin who was sued by Gersch.

5/12/17: Lauren and the Boats. Lauren Southern worked with European group Generation Identity to repel a refugee rescue boat from leaving the coast of Italy. This helped give Southern a negative reputation among many leftists.

5/22/17: Manchester Bombing at Arianna Grande Concert. British born Libyan Salman Abedi set off a bomb at Arianna Grande’s Manchester concert killing himself and 22 innocent people. It later came out that security did not approach the bomber over fears of being perceived as racist.

5/23/17: Evergreen college meltdown. Evergreen college, 93% acceptance rate, held a day of absence for white students. Professor of biology Bret Weinstein expressed his displeasure with this. Chaos ensued.

Evergreen, looking back five years later

6/17/17: Jack Posobiec and Laura Loomer disrupt play. During a NY performance of Julius Ceaser as Caeser was stabbed, Laura Loomer and Jack Posobiec shouted “stop the normalization of violence against the right” and “Goebbels would be proud” as they were escorted out.

6/22/17: Definition of “Soyboy” posted on urban dictionary. This definition of “Soy Boy” a rapidly spreading meme on the right was posted on this day.

7/2/17: Trump posts video of CNN getting bodyslammed. Trump posted the tweet below. CNN tracked down Redditor who made it, u/hanasshole solo. He had posted some colorful memes. CNN said he had taken down the offending posts and apologized for them so they would’t reveal his name, but that CNN “reserves the right to publish his identity should any of that change.”

7/3/17: Lauren Southern Posts Great Replacement Video. Southern posted a video describing the ongoing demographic shift occurring in the West. She tried to claim that this was just about culture and religion, but that did nothing to appease those on the left who were critical of this content. The video was eventually taken down, I believe in the aftermath of the Christchurch shooting. An archived version can be viewed here.

7/18/17: Stonetoss first published. The infamous right-wing cartoonist StoneToss made his debut on this day.

7/16/17: BG Kumbi Fox News. Provocateur BG Kumbi convinced FOX he was a member of Antifa and is able to get an interview on FOX news with Jesse Waters. When it was brought up that Antifa had stabbed a horse, Waters asked if the horse was racist to which Kumbi replied that it was.

8/7/17: James Damore Fired from Google. Google engineer James Damore wrote a memo saying that one reason don’t do well in tech is that they are neurotic, in addition to other biological differences and suggestions for helping them succeed at Google. A bunch of neurotic women succeeded at getting him fired.

8/11/17: Tiki Torch March. This was the night of the infamous Tiki Torch march that took place before the rally in Charlottesville, where men with torches chanted “Jews will not replace us” and “blood and soil.”

8/12/17: Charlottesville Rally. I think people know what happened for the most part, here is my thread, on various aspects and legal cases that happened afterwards. Coincidentally, this rally took place on the 87th birthday of George Soros. This event is largely marked as the end of the alt-right.

8/15/17: Very fine people comment made. Trump makes his infamous comment that you had very fine people on both sides of the Charlottesville rally.

8/17/17: Student who attended Charlottesville rally interviewed by the Associated Press. A campus conservative who had attended Boston University at the time described why he attended the Charlottesville rally to the Associated Press.

8/19/17: Boston Free Speech Rally. Right wingers tried to hold a rally in Boston featuring Kyle Chapman, Joe Biggs, Shiva Ayyadurai (inventor of Email), Gavin McInnes, Cassandra Fairbanks, and Augustus Invictus. Most of the rally didn't take place and it drew few attendees who were drowned out by 30 to 40 thousand counter protestors. To many on the right, the fact that that many people showed up to oppose free speech showed how bleak the situation was.

8/21/17: Desus and Mero discuss all white people are racist. On this day, this infamous image which has frequently been used to symbolize the “woke” era, was discussed on the Desus and Mero show.

8/23/17: ACLU Tweets a white baby, soon regrets it. 11 days after Charlottesville, the ACLU posted the tweet below. Many on the left saw the combination of a white baby, and support for free speech as simply too much to bare. The ACLU responded by tweeting, “When your Twitter followers keep you in check and remind you that white supremacy is everywhere.”

8/30/17: The conversation declares milk a symbol of Nazi Hate. Given that people of European descent are more likely to be lactose tolerant, many white nationalists made drinking milk a source of pride. On this day, The Conversation declared milk a symbol of Neo-Nazi hate.

9/22/17: Trump says get that son of a bitch off the field. After players kneeling spread across the league since it was started by Colin Kaepernick last Summer, Trump stated in a speech that he wished one of the owners would say “get that son of a bitch off the field.” One analysis found that the protests caused white NFL fans to like white players more and black players less.

10/15/17: #MeToo movement begins on twitter. Harvey Weinstein was accused of sexual harassment and which prompted this tweet by Alyssa Milano. The heightened concern around sexual harassment caused a series of high profile men to lose their careers. I could probably make 50 more entries for the rest of 2017 for all of the high profile scandals that broke, but I won’t go into every story. This movement revitalized the feminist movement.

10/16/17: Gigachad spreads on \Pol\. Gigachad would become a popular meme, even among relatively apolitical people.

10/19/17: Richard Spencer speaks at University of Florida. After the debacle at Charlottesville over the Summer, Spencer decided to return to speaking at college campuses. He went to the University of Florida where he was met by violent mobs. Three of Spencer’s supporters were arrested for discharging a weapon.

10/24/17: First Soyjack posted on 4Chan. A 4Chan anon theorized why so called nu-males took pictures of things with their mouth opened. This observation would later evolve into the popular “soyjack” meme.

10/28/17: Qanon first posted on 4Chan. This began the years long QANON conspiracy theory.

10/30/17: Contrapoints profiled in NY Magazine. Contrapoints is a popular trans YouTuber who was propped up by many as a counter to the alt-right rabbithole. In late 2017 as they were gaining popularity, they were profiled by NY magazine.

10/31/17: It is okay to be white campaign. For Halloween 4Chan decided to create a campaign where people would hang up signs saying, “Its okay to be white” knowing that it was edgy enough to get a reaction yet innocuous enough for people to mock the reaction that it would get. One scholarly paper written years later described the campaign as “laundering White supremacy through a colorblind victimized White race-consciousness raising campaign”

11/17/17: Incels subreddit banned. Reddit removed the community dedicated to people who were involuntarily celibate on this day. A snapshot of what it was like prior to being banned can be found here.

11/25/17: NYC profiles a white nationalist. The New York Times wrote a profile of white nationalist Tony Hovater. To describe the aftermath, the Times wrote, “This article has drawn significant feedback, most of it sharply critical.”

12/3/17: Tara McCarthy complains misogyny in the Alt-Right. Tara McCarthy was a popular female commentator who would talk about race science and white nationalism. She went on a tweet storm complaining about men in the alt-right treating her badly. Lauren Southern had made a video a few weeks prior talking about why she wasn’t married and lamenting those saying that she needed to be. Left-wing media gloated that anti-feminist women were having problems with men.