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kath

(10,565 posts)
Sat Aug 8, 2015, 10:25 PM Aug 2015

Best job of internet trolling ever!- "How I Infiltrated a White Pride Facebook Group..."

"How I Infiltrated a White Pride Facebook Group and Turned It into 'LGBT Southerners for Michelle Obama'"
http://www.vice.com/read/virgil-texas-white-power-facebook-group-troll?utm_source=vicefbus

It's easy to get into Confederate Facebook. Just go to a news article about a police shooting and scroll down to the comments. Most comment sections are linked to people's Facebook accounts, so you just have to find someone with a Confederate flag avatar expressing a racist opinion, click through to his or her profile, and select "Add Friend."

Everyone in Confederate Facebook seems to accept friend requests from strangers, which I guess can be chalked up to Southern hospitality. Facebook's friend recommendations will quickly turn into an endless, mesmerizing stream of folks with names like Prepper Jeff and Amanda Rebel. Just keep clicking "Add Friend" over and over, and before you know it your Timeline is full of racist Minions memes and pictures of Looney Toons who are somehow mad at Al Sharpton.

Predictably, many Confederate Facebook posts consist of proud displays of the Confederate flag—on tattoos, in wedding photos, flanked by flaming blue skulls, airbrushed onto truck windows, whatever. But then you can find people freaking out at the possibility that Obama might arrest them for posting racist stuff on Facebook, or getting mad that people are calling them racist.

I was beginning to feel stupefied and distressed, and my friends were complaining that all their recommended friends now had Confederate flag avatars as well. While some of the Confederate Facebookers were plum happy to have me on board—check out this weirdly adorable picture of a bowing horse someone sent me!—others, like the guy who told me to "run off and join ISIS," were not.

Just when I was about to unfriend them all and start drinking, I was invited to a private group of about 2,500 called "confederate pride, heritage not hate."


Much more at link. You will laugh your ass off!
18 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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bbgrunt

(5,281 posts)
2. A deserving target but a disturbing illustration of just how easy
Sat Aug 8, 2015, 10:36 PM
Aug 2015

it is to disrupt and dismantle any fb group or political forum.

herding cats

(19,568 posts)
3. This thread needs pictures!
Sun Aug 9, 2015, 12:09 AM
Aug 2015

Here's a few from the article.

Once I was in charge of the group I decided to take it in a new direction. The Confederate flag, I felt, had become a toxic brand. And all this South-rising-again business was a sure loser with swing voters. A top-down rebranding was in order. After rigorous focus-group testing, I decided to align the group with LGBT rights, Michelle Obama, Judaism, miscegenation, and the victorious Juche ideology. And that is how "confederate pride, heritage not hate" became "LGBT Southerners for Michelle Obama and Judaism."


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kath

(10,565 posts)
4. Thanks! I posted as much as I thought I could in terms of copyright issues, but the pictures are da
Sun Aug 9, 2015, 12:40 AM
Aug 2015

Bomb.

Plus, I'm pretty technologically incompetent and not good at posting pics.
Thanks much!

kath

(10,565 posts)
5. The part were the one "Southern pride" guy says "I'M OUT" and one of the infiltrators replies "Glad
Sun Aug 9, 2015, 12:46 AM
Aug 2015

to hear it, Dane. It takes a while to come to terms with your sexuality..." Just about had me peeing my pants!

So much hilarity ensued! The banner pic with Michelle and those two flags is just priceless.

herding cats

(19,568 posts)
6. The infiltrator and his friends had way too much fun trolling that group!
Sun Aug 9, 2015, 01:00 AM
Aug 2015

It literally made me laugh at my tablet!

Thank you for sharing it here!

inanna

(3,547 posts)
11. My gut HURTS from laughing so hard after reading that link.
Sun Aug 9, 2015, 08:42 PM
Aug 2015

Wow....I even had tears streaming down my face.

Bookmarked!

Sunlei

(22,651 posts)
16. fun read! I wish more of these stories were done for all the 'hate' groups, & even political groups
Mon Aug 10, 2015, 03:49 AM
Aug 2015

So quickly, with the confederate flag, and from their own statements & actions- it was shown that flag is a symbol of racism not 'Proud' 'southern pride.

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