Bored Ape Yacht Club’s White Supremacist Origins

Bored Ape Yacht Club, a white supremacist NFT series has collected over $2 billion by selling to celebrities, its Jewish and African American Hate art.

Purpose of Art

There are five purposes to visual Art: Ceremonial, Artistic Expression, Narrative, Functional and Persuasive. Persuasive Art are ideals, philosophy or products. Its use can be found in advertising, marketing, and propaganda.

In the 1915 film Birth of a Nation, it depictes Northern abolitionists, carpetbaggers and freed slaves, many of whom were elected as state legislators, as being perilous to the antebellum South.

Whites in black face, depicted African Americans as extras in a minstrel show. Drinking whiskey, sitting barefoot, and gorging on meat, as they take their seats as new South Carolinian legislators. Suddenly, the words on the screen flash, “The helpless white minority!”

In another scene, a White actor in black face chases a White woman. This scene symbolizes the rape of the South. Instead of succumbing to the will of the savage, she throws herself from a cliff. This film, acting as a persuasive work of visual art, reinvigorated a defunct Ku Klux Klan, swelling its ranks from a few thousands to over 5 million by the 1930s.

According to Tracey Martin in his January 2020, California State University, San Bernardino abstract, “Propaganda: How Germany Convinced the Masses,” she notes, “film is one of the best instruments to convince the masses.”

Joseph Goebbels who was in charge of the Nazi’s Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda believed feature films were an extremely important propaganda tool. One such film is Der Ewige Jude (The Eternal Jew). The Eternal Jew is perhaps the most reviling propagandistic piece of film in Nazi Germany and presents the Jewish people as a plague. They are compared to rats that spread disease and contagion and flood the nation while devouring the resources of the area. A film review from 1940 in Unser Wille und Weg (The Nazi Party “monthly for propagandists) claimed the film provided “a broad treatment of the life and effects of this parasitic race using genuine material taken from real life.”

Within the sub-genre of Persuasive art are Subliminal messages. Subliminal Messages are visual stimuli that are not perceived by the conscious mind. They are often put into adverts, to enhance or convey a hidden meaning. One of the visual tools to carry out this subliminal messaging are memes.

A meme is a cultural gene. Culture is a vital mechanism of survival for those species who have organized themselves into groups. In his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins defined memes as cultural units of information. Neuropsychologist Nicholas Keynes Humphrey called memes living structures, not just metaphorically, but residing physically in the brain.

Founding executive editor of Wired Magazine, Kevin Kelly, in his 1992 book Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World further espouses upon the living organism of the meme, “Memes that replicate most effectively enjoy more success, and some may replicate effectively even when they prove to be detrimental to the welfare of their hosts.”

Professor Limor Shifman of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in her 2014 book Memes in Digital Culture contends digital memes are unique. In her focus of their use in politics, she notes, “Because many regimes monitor or censor the internet in general and social media in particular, activists use code words to obscure their discussions and intentions.”

White Supremacy in the Age of Social Media

Social media, or as scholars might put it, “long-distance social networking,” dates back millennia. Early sprawling civilizations relied heavily on long-distance communications. According to Britannica and other sources, the first documented state-sponsored Postal Service was in the land of the Pharaohs, Egypt, around 2400 BC. The invention of the telegraph in 1792, allowed messages to be delivered over a long distance faster than a Horse and Rider.

The 1890s saw the invention of the telephone and radio. These inventions instantaneously allowed long-distance communication, a first in human history. Consensus says, the first recognizable social media site was Six Degrees in 1997.

In 2010, American neo-Nazi Richard Bertrand Spencer started the online publication Alternative Right. The term “Alt right” is short for alternative right, a repackaging of white supremacy palatable for mainstream audiences.

Alt-righters use terms like “culture” as substitutes for more divisive terms such as “race,” and promote “Western Civilization” as a code word for white culture or identity. They mask their ideology by conjuring up images of rebellion or anti-establishment to appeal to young minds. One such cohort to this covert appeal to young White minds was Dylan Roof.

In 2015, 21-year-old Roof murdered nine African American parishioners at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. On his website The Last Rhodesian, Roof was seen posing with White supremacist and neo-Nazi symbols. There he wrote his manifesto which stated, “I chose Charleston because it is most historic city in my state, and at one time had the highest ratio of blacks to Whites in the country.” Charleston, South Carolina, is also the location of the first shot to launch the American Civil War. 

According to the Anti-Defamation League, in 2016, the term Alt-right began to gain traction. Their antisemitism blame Jews for promoting anti-white policies such as immigration and diversity. Many young Alt-righters are active in the Chan world, including 4Chan, 8Chan (now defunct) and Reddit. These message boards, where most people post anonymously, are a key source of internet memes and trolling efforts which often target women and minorities. 

It is common to find memes that belittle the Holocaust and depict well-known Jewish figures being gassed. The creators of these memes have espoused that bigoted humor and irony help attract new followers to the alt right. They are also hostile towards women.

In the 2014 Gamergate, males in the gaming community expressed hostility and resentment toward certain female gamers. These women were attacked and threatened online. This pushed a number of women to leave the gaming community, and pointed the way to alt-right cohorts to the effectiveness of online harassment campaigns against their enemies.

Bored Ape Yacht Club’s White Supremacy Origins

The Bored Ape Yacht Club consists of 10,000 Non-fungible Tokens (NFT). NFTs are non-interchangeable units of data stored on a blockchain. A blockchain is an encrypted ledger.

On May 3, 2014, Kevin McCoy, a digital artist, minted the first-known NFT “Quantum.” Quantum is a pixelated octagon filled with different shapes that pulse in a quite hypnotic way. In 2021, the auction house Sotheby sold Quantum for over $1.4 million.

The Ethereum blockchain has become the ledger of choice for digital art, and amongst them is the Bored Ape Yacht Club which was launched in April of 2021. By January of 2022, the Bored Ape Yacht Club had sold more than a Billion dollars worth of apes.

The fall of 2021 saw the publication of, “These adorable baby ape NFTs? They’re racist — and stolen,” in the digital publication of Input Magazine. The article makes reference to Jungle Freaks, a collection of artwork by former Hustler artist George Trosley. It’s a fictional NFT world in which zombie generals wearing Nazi-esque outfits shoot gorillas. It now seems less innocuous than first thought.

Kristina Flynn, an NFT collector, consultant, and community leader spearheading diversity in the NFT world states, “The space is dominated by white, cis, straight men. Many underrepresented communities — women, nonbinary, Black, brown, indigenous, LGBTQ2IA, neurodiverse, and folks with disabilities — don’t feel safe and welcomed within the broader ecosystem and micro-communities that exist.”

THE 18TH TEETH

Any graphic designer can see the graphic resemblance of the Bored Ape Yacht Club’s logo, to the Nazi’s Waffen Totenkopf. But beyond those obvious similarities, to wittingly design the number of teeth of the Ape skull to match the number of teeth in the Human skull is subliminal messaging par excellence!

Messaging through Art is nothing new. According to 2006 numbers, the film The DaVinci Code earned $767 million worldwide; and the tattoos on the Michael Scofield character in the television series Prison Break are nothing more than decoys to an escape plan.

Here, the 18th teeth are not a subliminal message at all, but an actual message to members of the Alt-right, White Supremacist community. As Professor Shifman of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem notes, in a political context, in which White Supremacy is, obscurity is used for direct messaging.

The primary purchasers of the Bored Ape Yacht Club derive from the Sports and Entertainment Complex out of the United States. When we live in a world where every individual is a Brand, why would these savvy individuals hitch their Brands to this:

The obvious Nazi Germany insignia on the head of this Bored Ape is too incredulous to think celebrity Brands would even come near it. But what is not so obvious, is the number 019807 on the Bored Ape’s prison jumpsuit. Take out the 0s and the number becomes 1987, the death year of Deputy Führer to Adolf Hitler, Nazi Rudolf Hess.

APES AND AFRICAN AMERICANS 

Stanford University psychologists Aneeta Rattan and Jennifer Eberhardt report in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, “White Americans who are primed to think about black people are more likely to spot a gorilla in a short video clip.” 

Daniels J. Simons and Christopher F. Chabris in their 1 Sept. 1999 article, “Gorillas in our midst: sustained inattentional blindness for dynamic events,” published in the National Library of Medicine, write, “It is as though the African-American-ape association provided the study participants with a type of visual fluency, increasing their capacity to extract more from the visual world.”

“This is the first study to suggest this sort of unconscious association can substantially reduce inattentional blindness. As such, it’s hardly encouraging: It implies that if a bit of visual information [Meme] is compatible with our prejudices (even ones we don’t know we have), we’re more likely to notice it. In this way, our biases can get ‘confirmed,’ and presumably locked more securely in our minds.” [Emphasis Added] 

African American author Venise T. Berry in her 2020 book Racialism and the Media Black Jesus, Black Twitter, and the First Black American President writes, “This was the April 2008 cover of Vogue Magazine. It perpetuated a number of issues concerning normalized stereotypes, biased racial framing, and problematic historical myths concerning African American culture. For example: the comparison of black men to apes, the notion that black men are obsessed with white women, and the historical myth that black people coming out of Africa are like apes and have an animalistic or violent nature. This cover fueled a significant amount of controversy concerning racists and racism. The design of the cover is too close to the King Kong poster to argue that it was not the inspiration. So, why would photographer Annie Leibovitz create it? Is she a racist? Why would Lebron James agree to pose like King Kong? Is he okay with racism? Why would Vogue Magazine use this image on their cover? Are they comfortable perpetuating racism?”

POOR AFRICAN AMERICANS VERSUS RICH

During the December Holiday season of 2014, at a private residence, the Clemson University chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon held a Cripmas party. Photos of the Cripmas party posted on social media showed Clemson University students covering their faces with bandanas and wearing t-shirts with images of handcuffs and the deceased rapper Tupac Shakur.

Black students took to Twitter and Facebook to voice anger over what they described as a climate of racial insensitivity and hostility. After calling it, “an inappropriate theme party organized by several members,” the fraternity suspended all activities.

Multiple media outlets reported that most of the chapter’s officers resigned after the incident. While Clemson University President Jim Clements stated, “any member of the fraternity who attended the party could be suspended.”

African Americans made up one-in-16 students at the state-supported South Carolina university, and felt helpless. Contrast these students’ response to the African American celebrity class when being mocked. You hear crickets.

 Fine Art and Real Estate Broker Anna D. Smith, who advocates for California prison artist C-Note, was asked by the artist to research Jim Crow art and Neo Jim Crow art. She discovered several of her artist’s Works side-by-side with the best-selling contemporary artist in the world, Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960 – 1988). But those discoveries came at the cost of being overly exposed to some of the most racist art imaginable. Unfortunately, these works were similar to the media buzz that was surrounding the Bored Ape Yacht Club, and she began documenting the comparisons.

Another person keen on noting the subliminal hate speech towards Jews in these Bored Apes was Jewish Conceptual artist Ryder Ripps. One of the many problems with the Bored Ape Yacht Club is the pseudonym used by one of its anonymous founders, who calls himself “Gargamel.”

Gargamel is a fictional character from The Smurfs. He is a wizard, the sworn enemy of the Smurfs, and the main antagonist in the show and comic books. His main goals are to destroy, eat and transform the Smurfs into gold.

In 2010, French sociologist Antoine Buéno published Le Petit Livre Bleu: Analyse critique et politique de la société des Schtroumpfs (The Little Blue Book: A Critical and Political Analysis of the Smurf Society). He notes that Gargamel is of a Jewish stereotype, a big nose, magic powers, love of gold, and balding looks. Azrael, the name of Gargamel’s cat, means “God is my helper” in Hebrew; and in Jewish and Muslim traditions, Azrael is the name of the angel of death.

Bored Ape Yacht Club’s Affluenza Problem

Affluenza (affluence + influenza) is a psychological malaise affecting wealthy people. It is not a medically recognized disease, but is referred to as, “the inability to understand the consequences of one’s actions because of financial privilege.”

What could have happened to suddenly cause so many celebrity African Americans to become desensitized to Simianization? The online website Dictionary defines simianization as the disparaging comparison or likening of a member of a racial or ethnic minority group to an ape or monkey. It references in its definition, “simianization of Black celebrities in cartoons and caricature art.”

In “Apes and anticitizens: simianization and U.S. national identity discourse,” by Ioana G. Panaitiu, published in the Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture, Volume 26, 2020, she notes, “scholars have concluded that the United States subscribes to a cultural, color-blind racism. This has replaced biological racism. To explain the reemergence of white supremacy as a viable political force in American politics, this paper argues that notions of biological racism remain potent and underlies cultural racism. This paper focuses on a form of dehumanization-simianization, or the depiction of racial groups (in this case African-Americans) as apes. Moreover, this paper presents evidence of simianization in contemporary political discourse surrounding African-Americans in the United States. 

Affluenza theorist British psychologist Oliver James defined affluenza as “placing a high value on money, possessions, appearances (physical and social) and fame.” While others argue, affluenza causes overconsumption, and luxury fever.

On the Bored Ape Yacht Club website, they’ll tell you, “When you buy a Bored Ape, you’re not simply buying an avatar or a provably-rare piece of art. You are gaining membership access to a club whose benefits and offerings will increase over time. Your Bored Ape can serve as your digital identity, and open digital doors for you.”

According to the website Celebrity Net Worth, here are the Networth of five U.S. celebrities who are members of the Bored Ape Yacht Club: Stephen Curry $160M; Shaquille O’Neal $400M; Jimmy Fallon $60M; Snoop Dog $150M; and Mark Cuban $4.5B. What possibly, could four White Supremacists provide in a digital or non digital setting that these five men couldn’t acquire on their own?

Berkeley psychologists Paul Piff and Dacher Keltner ran several studies looking at whether social class influences how much we care about the feelings of others. Piff and his colleagues discreetly observed the behavior of drivers at a busy four-way intersection. They found that luxury car drivers were more likely to cut off other motorists instead of waiting for their turn at the intersection. This was true for both men and women. In a different study, they found that luxury car drivers were also more likely to speed past a pedestrian trying to use a crosswalk, even after making eye contact with the pedestrian.

Why would wealth and status decrease our feelings of compassion for others? Piff and his colleagues suspect that the answer may have something to do with how wealth and abundance give us a sense of freedom and independence from others. The less we have to rely on others, the less we may care about their feelings.

Conclusion

In the 21st century, white supremacy is not a politically spent force. It thrived during the 20th century in the United State’s Jim Crow South, Nazi Germany, and apartheid South Africa.

Funding is the lifeblood to the success of a political campaign. That also includes the politics of Hate. In the winter of 2021, Hate generously received a $2 billion stimulus, courtesy of the celebrity class. 

A Ripple in Time

Quite often in fiction, stories are written of returning to the past to change the present. When a person tosses a pebble in still water, they can visually observe a rippling effect. In other words, affecting the water far beyond the pebbles initial contact point. 

Why ‘Birth of a Nation’ is still the most racist movie ever is the 2015 headline to a New York Post article. Novelist Thomas Dixon Jr. wanted  $10,000 in order for D.W. Griffith to turn his story into a movie. Griffith, who had run out of money, only had $2,500. They worked out a deal for Dixon to be paid in the future.

What if Dixon would only accept being paid upfront, and Griffith could not find funding to make up the difference, how many African Americans would not have been hanging from trees for having not been lynched?

What if The Eternal Jew was not funded, how many Jews would not have died?

Here has been laid out, the visual arts are to serve one of five Masters, and that persuasion is one of those Masters. Persuasive art will use visual devices to conceal meanings, known as subliminal messages, and that memes are visual bits of information living inside a host brain.

Now, white supremacists have $2 billion in Bored Ape Yacht Club sales to unleash Hateful memes, subliminal messages, and other forms of persuasive art on to an unsuspecting public. In effect, a twenty-first-century Birth of a Nation stimulus package, whose effect won’t be observed until 2032. 

Racist slurs shouted at player during basketball game at Laguna Hills High School is the title of a KTLA online article. In late January 2022, at a high school basketball game between Portola and Laguna Hills in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, Makai Brown was shooting free throws.

Sitting in the stands, a Laguna Hills student began hurling racial slurs at Brown. The incident was caught on video. The Laguna Hills student was yelling “Chain him up! Don’t let him out of his cage!”; and “He’s a monkey!” Brown was the only African American player on  Portola. Cheerleaders and others also reported receiving disparaging remarks from the Laguna Hills student.

In 2022, how is it possible that such sentiments could even exist, in a racially progressive place like Los Angeles?

What if that same student was playing across a child of Bored Ape Yacht Club owner Dj Steve Aoki, would he be sportsmanlike against an Aoki offspring? Or, what if he had to approve who gets on a list for something that is desired by an offspring of Bored Ape Yacht Club owner Dj Khaled, is that the kind of person he would want to make that decision?

Many of these Bored Ape Yacht Club owners have been impacted by Hip Hop. Hip Hop is a $50B+ industry. Two of its elements, Rap and Graffiti, owe their origins from prison settings, before being unleashed into the community. See “Spoken Floz,” Prisoners Retake Over of Hip Hop | darealprisonart

What kind of rippling effect would occur if Bored Ape Yacht Club owners sold their Apes, and instead bought Prison Art?

In a 2020 interview with Ink From The Pen founder Pamela Delgado, Delgado tells Darealprisonart the following, “I have lots of feedback from both the inmates and from their families as well… The most touching that is fresh in my mind is a Texas inmate that sent me several pieces of his art.. I recently found a collector to buy them and sent the money to his wife… unbeknownst to me she had lost her job due to covid, and had no way of providing any type of xmas for their children… the money that I sent made that possible for them.”

This same article “How Covid Impacts Prison Art Exhibits,” featured Buck Adams, founder of the website Art for Redemption. The website provides prisoners with the opportunity to sell their artwork with 60% of the proceeds going to prisoners. This money allows prisoners to meet financial obligations, such as child support, and fees or fines associated with their convictions. Adams upon his reentry, experienced firsthand, conviction related debt obligations, and saw Art for Redemption as a means to lessen these reentry debt burdens.

These reentry court ordered financial obligations are very serious. In 2018, voters in Florida voted to restore the voting rights of ex-prisoners. However, Florida legislatures passed a law barring this right if the prisoner still owes fees or fines associated with their convictions. This law has been upheld in court.

Adams told Darealprisonart, “Getting prison systems to open up to the idea that inmates making money to help pay their socialtial debts, take some of the financial burden off of their families through the use of creativity and art should be something looked at as positive.  Doing the time is the punishment. To not allow one to share creativity and talent is beyond the scope of punishment I believe.”

In 2016, Hollywood film producer and founder of the Anti-Recidivism Coalition Scott Budnick is quoted as saying, “This will not be your traditional art auction, this would be at a major museum, with celebrity art auctioneers, and the ability to raise tremendous awareness, bring in massive press, and a considerable amount of funding, all to benefit a nonprofit organization and also the artist inside (50/50). We have many board members with powerful connections in the art world, and believe art from inside could sell for 5x or 10x what it traditionally would get,” What Financially Minded Blacks Should Know About Art | Artist Social Network.

Here, Budnick has chosen to use his celebrity to promote a positive rippling effect, both in rehabilitation of prisoners and restitution to crime victims, child support, the courts, and to ease the burden of incarceration on families with incarcerated family members. 

Here is one way to use the rippling effect of Art to effect a broad range of societal interests, rather than the single-minded focus of white superiority. When you know better, you are supposed to do better, and hopefully Bored Ape Yacht Club owners will follow Elijah Wood’s example of selling off their ownership interest in this offensive NFT series.

APPENDIX

This Appendix represents a short list of 50 Apes from the Bored Ape Yacht Club. 10 Bored Apes that would be offensive to Jews; 10 Bored Apes that would be offensive to African Americans; and 30 celebrity Bored Ape Yacht Club owners.

1.

This Bored Ape’s Neo Nazi dog-whistle, it is the first Bored Ape, Bored Ape #0. According to The New Yorker in a July 30, 2021, article, Why Bored Ape Avatars Are Taking Over Twitter, “the avatars came from a Web site called Bored Ape Yacht Club, which had officially launched on April 30th.”

April 30th is the death day of German Führer Adolf Hitler. This Bored Ape #0 is offensive because it represents the first evil. Without Bored Ape #0 you could never have the Bored Ape Yacht Club series, 0-9999.

2.

This Bored Ape’s Neo Nazi dog-whistle, is the number 019807 on the Bored Ape’s prison jumpsuit. Take out the 0s and the number becomes 1987, the death year of Deputy Führer to Adolf Hitler, Nazi Rudolf Hess.

In cryptography, it’s called null padding. Adding useless information to conceal a message. Cryptography is the study of secure communication techniques that allow only the sender and intended recipient of a message to view its contents. Most encryption is based heavily on number theory, most of it being abstract algebra. Zero is a favorite number in cryptography padding.

According to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Hess introduced the concept of Lebensraum to the Third Reich. Lebensraum—or “living space”—served as a critical component in the Nazi worldview that drove both its military conquests and racial policy.

Pointing to the British and French Empires and to American “Manifest Destiny,” Germany required overseas colonies to relieve German over-population. Eastern Europe presented a logical outlet for this growth, a region whose vast natural resources were wasted on racially “inferior” peoples like Slavs and Jews.

This is the sentiment of White Supremacist ideology in the United States. According to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Lebensraum was not solely responsible for the Holocaust, but powerfully connected a variety of imperialist, nationalist, and racist currents that would contribute to the murder of the Jews of Europe.

Like the Führer, Hess committed suicide. His grave in Wunsiedel became a destination for neo-Nazi pilgrimage each August on the anniversary of his death.

3.

This Bored Ape’s Neo Nazi dog-whistle is the Joker card on the side of his helmet. During the five-year German occupation of the Channel Islands (30 June 1940 to 9 May 1945) Channel Islanders had to live under and obey the laws of Nazi Germany and work with their occupiers in order to survive. One such survival tactic was playing Euchre with their occupiers.

Euchre is responsible for introducing the joker into the modern deck of cards. The Joker Deck was introduced to Euchre in the 1860s with the joker acting as a top trump or best Bower (from the German word Bauer)

4.

This Bored Ape’s Neo Nazi dog-whistle is the sporting of the Prussian-German spiked helmet, known as the Pickelhaube. It has long been an adopted Neo-Nazi symbol. Here is an image of an Ayran Cowboy emblem on the back of a jacket with the spiked helmet as it’s insignia.

Another image shows a racist tactic, walk up to the line, but don’t cross it. But these Reddit users weren’t having it.

bourbon4breakfast said, “He knew what he was doing. Imperial flags and uniforms are commonly worn by neo-Nazis (or at least far right groups) to say they aren’t technically wearing anything from the Third Reich. Intent is what matters.”

MatthiasBold stated “Helmet is definitely WWI German. They dropped the spike by WWII.”

“The flag, on the other hand, is the German Imperial War Ensign, used (with minor variations) from 1892-1919. The problem here is that Hitler also revived the use of this flag for the Nazis (as well as using the Iron Cross in a LOT of Nazi iconography) and THAT is where the average person would know it from. Just like a swastika was originally (and still is) a symbol of divinity and good luck in various eastern religions, the average person is going to see one and think Nazi.

This is a favorite troll arguement. “It’s not racist, it’s a symbol of good luck. And the flag is from the 1800’s, duh.” or “Gamergate is about ethics in journalism, not harassing women.” While that may have been the original intent, there is such a thing as cultural consciousness. If the symbol (whatever the symbol) has a larger cultural significance than the original meaning, the larger significance BECOMES the primary meaning.

In conclusion, this dude is a troll and is being a complete douchebag about it. He’s also (given the specific icons and items involved) very likely a racist douchebag. And if nothing else, who the fuck brings a spike helmet and a FLAG to school?”

5.

This Bored Ape’s Neo Nazi dog-whistle is the covert use of sporting a Hawaiian shirt. In “Hawaiian Shirts Have Become an Unlikely Symbol of White Supremacy,” journalist Samantha Sutton, writing for InStyle Magazine informs us:

We’ve known for a while that clothes can be used to send a message, sometimes overtly (we’re looking at you, Melania’s Zara coat), and other times as a kind of subtle nod (like when Kate Middleton channels Princess Diana). We’ve mined celebrity outfits for clues about their personal lives, and have come to spot rainbows as a proud representation of the LGBTQ community. Sometimes, a symbolic bit of style could be marching right in front of you, speaking a sinister meaning you’d never expect.

Take Hawaiian shirts, for instance. Did you know that they’re being used as a dog whistle for the white supremacist movement?

Reece Jones, PhD, a political geography professor at the University of Hawaii who is currently writing a book on anti-immigrant groups, exposed this culture clash in a now-viral Twitter thread, which explains how the typically happy, casual, ‘dad-shirt’ of the Polynesian islands has become associated with the alt-right. Unfortunately, the shirt style, along with other “far right iconography” you’d glance right past if you didn’t know (such as igloos), keep popping up at protests, and it’s important to be aware of what it’s being used to represent. Especially if you, like us, had just become convinced Aloha shirts were the laidback style to live in for Summer 2020. (Our bad.)

“Part of the strategy of white supremacists is to disguise themselves behind new names and seemingly innocent symbols,” Jones explains to InStyle via email. “No one identifies as KKK or a Nazi. Instead, they use terms like alt right, groyper, or boogaloo, that mean the same thing but do not yet have the same negative connotations. Similarly, everyone recognizes a swastika, so modern day racists co-opt other symbols like the OK sign, Pepe the Frog, and now, unfortunately, aloha shirts.”

6.

This Bored Ape’s Neo Nazi dog-whistle, it’s the Bored Ape Avatar of one of its anonymous founders. This founder calls himself Gargamel.

His Twitter handle is Garga.eth, @CryptoGarga. He states on the site to be the BAYC Co-Founder. http://linktr.ee/boredapeyc. This Twitter account was started in the month and year of the Bored Ape Yacht Club creation, Joined April 2021.

Gargamel is a fictional character from the world of the Smurfs. Long before the creation of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, members of the Jewish community had voiced concerns and outrage, that the Smurfs’ Gargamel character was a node at their community as a racist trope.

With a Bored Ape Yacht Club founder taking on a pseudonym offensive to Jewish sentiments, and a Bored Ape Yacht Club logo that gives a node to the Nazi’s Waffen Totenkopf, these are excellent examples of White Supremacist virtue signaling.

7.

For commentary on this image, see #8 below. They include a highlighted portion of images that are in this Ape’s background.

8.

The images #7 and #8 Bored Ape’s Neo Nazi dog-whistle, it’s the front page of the Rolling Stone x Bored Apes special-edition zine. This is a special, special, edition created by Yuga Labs just for Rolling Stones Magazine.

The cover features an ape in a Hawaiian shirt, a white supremacist dog-whistle. The admiral hat has a skull, reminiscent of the Nazi’s Waffen Totenkopf.

Highlighted, is the intentional use to draw rats huddled around gold. A favorite Nazi racist trope was to compare Jews to rats. Further more, Nazi propaganda associated Jews with the love of money.

Here is an image from the Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide in London, UK, from a Nazi propaganda book for children. It begins, “Money is the god of the Jew. He commits the greatest crimes to earn money. He won’t rest until he can sit on a great sack of money.”

The most perplexing story, why would a 50+ year old journalistic institution of cool, like Rolling Stones Magazine be willing to accept a gifted special edition work of art that was so racy and racist? How is that the epitome of cool?

9.

This Bored Ape’s Neo Nazi dog-whistle is based on the Bored Ape Yacht Club logo, a logo fashioned after the Nazi’s Waffen Totenkopf. According to Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, “The Skull is the reminder that you shall always be willing to put your self at stake for the life of the whole.”

Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the Schutzstaffel, and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of the Holocaust.

On the website of the Anti-Defamation League, it notes, “following the war, neo-Nazis and other white supremacists resurrected the Totenkopf as a hate symbol because of its importance to the SS and it has been a common hate symbol since.”

10.

This Bored Ape’s Neo Nazi dog-whistle is based on it being currently the one of the most expensive of the Bored Ape Yacht Club’s Apes.

In 2022, who wouldn’t want to own this cool Trippy Ape with a King’s crown and heart-shaped sunglasses! Anybody who can’t afford $2.68M, it seems. With this whopping price tag, #8585 has broken records to be one of the most expensive BAYC NFTs.

The Sound of Music is a 1965 American musical drama film produced and directed by Robert Wise. The film is an adaptation of the 1959 stage musical of the same name, composed by Richard Rodgers with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. The film’s screenplay was written by Ernest Lehman, adapted from the stage musical’s book by Lindsay and Crouse. Based on the 1949 memoir The Story of the Trapp Family Singers by Maria von Trapp, the film is about a young Austrian postulant in Salzburg, Austria, in 1938 who is sent to the villa of a retired naval officer and widower to be governess to his seven children After bringing love and music into the lives of the family, she marries the officer and, together with the children, finds a way to survive the loss of their homeland to the Nazis.

According to The World of the Habsburgs, “Money Does (Not) Matter.” The members of the imperial family had no need to worry about money, at least if they kept to certain rules – those who broke the rules had their own methods of obtaining money. The Habsburg fortune did not become a matter of real controversy and conflict until the establishment of the Austrian Republic in 1918.

11.

This Bored Ape’s Neo Nazi dog-whistle, like all Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs is playing into the African-American-ape association racist trope.

This young man’s story was published on YouTube in 2020, and seen by millions. It has had multiple follow ups prior to the release of the Bored Ape Yacht Club. It is why, playing around with Simianization through ones Art, will run the risk of a heap of criticism. In this instance, dropping Memes to reinforce conscious or unconscious bias, is being called out.

12.

This Bored Ape’s Neo Nazi dog-whistle is in the not so subtle color selection of Red and Green beads on the necklace.

In the 21st century, Africans living on the continent of Africa are quite upset at those outside the continent in the Western world’s continue use in literature to represent them as tribes people. Therefore, there is a movement in Africa to have literary works about Africa by Africans.

The tribes people racist trope is clearly present here. But the dog-whistle is the use of Green and Red beads on the necklace. Green, Red, and Black are the flag colors of Africa’s slave trade diaspora. The image of the solid colors of Red, Black, and Green is of the Pan-African flag. The other image of the African-American Flag is by visual artist David Hammons.

While the color Black is missing, it is from the Neo Nazi playbook, walk up to the line, but don’t cross it. Similar to the 18th teeth, where evidence of one of the 18 are so scant to go unnoticed. Here, the color Green is scantily hinted at.

13.

This Bored Ape’s Neo Nazi dog-whistle shows the criminalization of the Black Man. This image of a Brute is a racist troupe according to the Jim Crow Museum. The brute caricature portrays black men as innately savage, animalistic, destructive, and criminal — deserving punishment, maybe death. This brute is a fiend, a sociopath, an anti-social menace. Black brutes are depicted as hideous, terrifying predators who target helpless victims, especially white women. contemporary of Smith’s, said of the black race, when it produces a brute, he is the worst and most insatiate brute that exists in human form” The criminal justice system sanctioned a double standard of justice, including its tacit approval of mob violence against blacks.

14.

This Bored Ape’s Neo Nazi dog-whistle shows a Sterotype of the Black Man. This image of a Tom is a racist troupe according to the Jim Crow Museum. In the 1930s and 1940s black male actors were limited to two stereotypical roles: Coons the most notable were Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Clarence Muse, and Eddie “Rochester” Anderson. Robinson is best known as child star Shirley Temple’s dance partner. They appeared in four films together, including The Littlest Rebel (DeSylva & Butler, 1935). Robinson plays the role of Uncle Billy, a good-natured, well-mannered Tom. Temple plays Virginia Houston Cary, the feisty young daughter of Captain Cary of the Confederate Army. 

15.

This Bored Ape’s Neo Nazi dog-whistle shows a “Nigger.” This image of a Nigger is a racist troupe according to the Jim Crow Museum.

Nigger is the ultimate American insult.

Americans created a racial hierarchy with whites at the top and blacks at the bottom. The hierarchy was undergirded by an ideology which justified the use of deceit, manipulation, and coercion to keep blacks “in their place.” Every major societal institution offered legitimacy to the racial hierarchy. Ministers preached that God had condemned blacks to be servants. Scientists measured black heads, brains, faces, and genitalia, seeking to prove that whites were genetically superior to blacks. White teachers, teaching only white students, taught that blacks were less evolved cognitively, psychologically, and socially.

16.

This Bored Ape’s Neo Nazi dog-whistle shows a Coon. This image of a Coon is a racist troupe according to the Jim Crow Museum. The coon developed into the most blatantly degrading of all black stereotypes. The pure coons emerged as no-account niggers, those unreliable, crazy, lazy, subhuman creatures good for nothing more than eating watermelons.

The coon caricature was born during American slavery. Slave masters and overseers often described slaves as “slow,” “lazy,” “wants pushing,” “an eye servant,” and “trifling.” The master and the slave operated with different motives: the master desired to obtain from the slave the greatest labor, by any means; the slave desired to do the least labor while avoiding punishment. The slave registered his protest against slavery by running away, and, when that was not possible, by slowing work, doing shoddy work, destroying work tools, and faking illness. Slave masters attributed the slaves’ poor work performance to shiftlessness, stupidity, desire for freedom, and genetic deficiencies.

17.

This Bored Ape’s Neo Nazi dog-whistle shows a Jezebel. This image of a Jezebel is a racist troupe according to the Jim Crow Museum.

Historically, white women, as a category, were portrayed as models of self-respect, self-control, and modesty – even sexual purity, but black women were often portrayed as innately promiscuous, even predatory. This depiction of black women is signified by the name Jezebel.

The portrayal of black women as lascivious by nature is an enduring stereotype. The descriptive words associated with this stereotype are singular in their focus: seductive, alluring, worldly, beguiling, tempting, and lewd. Historically, white women, as a category, were portrayed as models of self-respect, self-control, and modesty – even sexual purity, but black women were often portrayed as innately promiscuous, even predatory. This depiction of black women is signified by the name Jezebel. Black American women of all shades have been portrayed as hypersexual “bad-black-girls.”

18.

This Bored Ape’s Neo Nazi dog-whistle shows a Mammie. This image of a Mammie is a racist troupe according to the Jim Crow Museum.

From slavery through the Jim Crow era, the mammy image served the political, social, and economic interests of mainstream white America. During slavery, the mammy caricature was posited as proof that blacks — in this case, black women — were contented, even happy, as slaves. Her wide grin, hearty laugher, and loyal servitude were offered as evidence of the supposed humanity of the institution of slavery.This was the mammy caricature, and, like all caricatures, it contained a little truth surrounded by a larger lie. The caricature portrayed an obese, coarse, maternal figure. She had great love for her white “family,” but often treated her own family with disdain. Although she had children, sometimes many, she was completely desexualized. She “belonged” to the white family, though it was rarely stated. Unlike Sambo, she was a faithful worker. She had no black friends; the white family was her entire world. Obviously, the mammy caricature was more myth than accurate portrayal.

19.

This Bored Ape’s Neo Nazi dog-whistle shows the Mulatto . This image of a Mulatto is a racist troupe according to the Jim Crow Museum.

The mulatto was made tragic in the minds of whites who reasoned that the greatest tragedy was to be near-white: so close, yet a racial gulf away. There were undoubtedly light skinned blacks, male and female, who felt marginalized in this race conscious culture. This was true for many people of color, including dark skinned blacks. Self-hatred and intraracial hatred are not limited to light skinned blacks. There is evidence that all racial minorities in the United States have battled feelings of inferiority and in-group animosity; those are, unfortunately, the costs of being a minority.

The tragic mulatto stereotype claims that mulattoes occupy the margins of two worlds, fitting into neither, accepted by neither. This is not true of real-life mulattoes. Historically, mulattoes were not only accepted into the black community, but were often its leaders and spokespersons, both nationally and at neighborhood levels. Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. DuBois, Booker T. Washington, Elizabeth Ross Hayes, Mary Church Terrell, Thurgood Marshall, Malcolm X, and Louis Farrakhan were all mulattoes. Walter White, the former head of the NAACP, and Adam Clayton Powell, an outspoken Congressman, were both light enough to pass for white.

20.

This Bored Ape’s Neo Nazi dog-whistle shows The Sapphire. This image of a Sapphire is a racist troupe according to the Jim Crow Museum.

The Sapphire Caricature portrays black women as rude, loud, malicious, stubborn, and overbearing Sociologists often speak of how dominant groups praise a behavior when done by its members, but criticize a minority group for demonstrating that behavior. To use sociological jargon, this is an example of an in-group virtue becoming an out-group vice. Where white women are said to be ‘independent,’ black women are said to be ’emasculating,’ robbing their men of their sense of manhood. Where white women are said to be standing up for themselves, black women are seen as wanting a fight

Celebrities who own them Bored Ape Yacht Club:

What’s so special about them?

As the name suggests, the Bored Ape Yacht Club is billed as an exclusive society or social organization, and owning one of the coveted NFTs unlocks that membership. It earns users access to an exclusive Discord server, for example, where fellow owners—including celebrities—hang out and chat. And Apes tend to flock together on social media, where the increasingly familiar avatars have united a digital brotherhood of sorts.

21.

Drake Bell, from the T.V show Drake and Josh, owns a Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFT. He also owns the ENS domain name DrakeBell.eth, and his Twitter profile handle displays his ENS Domain name.

22.

Venture Capitalist and Managing Director of Boost VC Adam Draper purchased Bored Ape #9132 and uses it as his Twitter profile picture. He recently tweeted that he wants to fund founders that own Bored Apes, showing his support for the community. Draper’s Ape was purchased for 54 Ethereum, which is over $200,000 in USD.

23.

NBA Star of The Golden State Warriors Stephen Curry has aped into the Bored Ape Yacht Club with Ape #7990. He purchased his Ape for 55 ETH. Notable traits include blue fur, zombie eyes and a tweed suit. Curry currently used his Bored Ape as his Twitter profile picture.

24.

Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr., known professionally as Snoop Dogg, is an American rapper, songwriter, media personality, actor, and entrepreneur. His fame dates to 1992 when he featured on Dr. Dre’s debut solo single, “Deep Cover”, and then on Dre’s debut solo album, The Chronic.

25.

Owner of the Dallas Mavericks and esteemed billionaire Mark Cuban has voiced his support for cryptocurrencies, and he’s recently gotten into NFTs, too. Cuban owns Bored Ape Yacht Club #1597 which was given to him as a gift. The estimated value of Cuban’s ape is $250,000 at the time of writing. Some notable traits of Cuban’s Ape include Cheetah fur, BAYC flipped brin hat and a Hawaiian shirt.

The boogaloo community includes far-right, pro-gun, anti-government libertarians spanning a wide spectrum of ideologies including white supremacy, anarchy and a range of conspiracy theories. The boogaloo are, however, unified by violent militant attitudes and terrorist tendencies. They are also savvy when it comes to managing their public image and hiding their actions.

Adidas sold around $22 million in NFTs in a single afternoon on Friday by releasing over 29 thousand NFTs. The NFTs were minted in a partnership with the Bored Ape Yacht Club, Punks Comics and Gmoney. Now, there were a few hiccups along the way, but Adidas promised to reimburse people who lost gas fees. Adidas said that this is just the beginning on its website, as it looks to get deeper in the metaverse

26.

The Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon recently joined the Bored Ape Yacht Club. If true, Fallon would not be the first high-profile celeb to accidentally purchase a racist NFT.

27.

Singer and song writer Post Malone recently acquired 2 Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs for over $700,000. His purchase is featured in his recent music video with The Weeknd. Post Malone currently uses his Bored Ape #961 as his profile picture on Twitter. Some notable traits of Post’s ape include zombie fur and a cowboy hat.

28.

Von MillerLos Angeles Rams Linebacker Von Miller bought Bored Ape #4733 for 25 Ethereum. Some notable traits of Miller’s Ape include white fur, robot eyes and a cowboy hat. Miller also owns Ape #1432 which was transferred, presumably as a gift, from NFL athlete Dez Bryant.

29.

American Rapper Dominique Armani Jones, known by most as Lil Baby, owns both a Mutant Ape and Bored Ape in his NFT collection. He shared his purchases with his 5.8 million Twitter followers, and he currently uses his Mutant Ape as his profile picture on Twitter. Lil Baby purchased his Bored Ape for 38 Ethereum, and it is now estimated to be worth around 70 Ethereum, or $300,000 at the time of writing.

30.

The Chainsmokers

BAYC #7691

Production American DJ duo The Chainsmokers were among the earliest celebrities to add a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT to their collection. This Cheetah Fur Bored Ape was purchased for 55 Ether, and the Duo uses it as their profile picture on Twitter. The artists bought their Bored Ape for 55 Ethereum, or about $225,000 at the time of writing.

31.

Steve Aoki

YC #8716

BA EDM artist Steve Aoki owns several NFTs, including a CryptoPunk and Bored Ape Yacht Club. He’s also released his own NFT collection and has been involved in the NFT community longer than most celebrity Ape owners. Aoki purchased BAYC #8716 for 49 Ethereum. Notable traits on Aoki’s ape include said eyes, lumberjack shirt

32.

Danny (@Seedphrase)

BAYC #9867 Danny, also known as @seedphrase on Twitter, recently purchased his 1st Bored Ape. Danny is an avid NFT collector, and his collection is worth millions of dollars. Danny’s claim to fame is his CryptoPunk, which is the rarest Punk in the entire collection. As the only Punk to have 7 traits, Danny has been offered $20 million for his NFT, but declined the offer. Being that he purchased an Ape with 7 attributes, he paid a premium. Danny paid 100 Ethereum ($420,000) for his Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT.

33.

Timbaland

BAYC #590

Timothy Zachery Mosley, also known as Timbaland, has joined the Bored Ape Yacht Club with Ape #590. The artists is an American musician, producer and songwriter. He recently partnered with BAYC to create a metaverse production company, “Ape In Productions.” Timbaland bought his Ape for 74.69 Ethereum, which is over $300,000 at the time of writing.

34.

Shaquille O’Neal

MAYC #14452

Shaquille Rashaun O’Neal, better known as Shaq, is a retired NBA star and celebrity influencer. Shaq has also purchased “Creatures” NFT which he’s shown off to his 15+ million Twitter followers. O’Neal has aped into the Mutant Ape Yacht Club, which is Bored Ape Yacht Club’s 3rd collection, after the Bored Ape Kennel Club. He purchased his Ape for 4.8 ETH, which equates roughly to $20,000.

35.

Dez Bryant

 NFL star and Denver Broncos Wide receiver Dez Bryant aped into the Bored Ape Yacht Club with Bored Ape #2902 which was transferred to him, presumably as a gift. This transaction occurred 5 months ago – at the time, Apes were selling for around 10 ETH. Today, Bryant’s ape is worth around 60 Ether, which is around $250,000. Notable traits on Ape #2902 include cheetah fur, sunglasses and king crown.

36.

Rich The Kid

BAYC #9719

Dimitri Leslie Roger, better known as Rich the Kid, is an American rapper with over 8 million followers on Instagram. He flexes his Ape as both his instagram and twitter profile pictures. Roger also owns a Mutant Ape, which he previously used as his profile picture on social media. Notable traits on Roger’s Ape include black fur, crazy eyes and a black holes tee.

37.

Logan Paul

BAYC #1442

Influencer and YouTuber Logan Paul has been vocal about his NFT collection on Twitter. He owns multiple CryptoPunks, and he’s aped into multiple Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, too. Paul bought his Ape for 34 Ether, and it’s estimated to be worth more than double this amount in Ether tokens today. Notable traits of Paul’s Ape include DMT fur, 3D glasses and a captain hat.

38.

Future

BAYC #4672

Future is widely regarded as one of the founding fathers of the “trap” genre dominating the music industry today. The mega-influencer aped in on November 28, 2021 with BAYC#4672. Future also picked up a Doodle and a Meta Birkin. Future is no stranger to spending large sums of money on luxury items. On Future’s episode of Sneaker Shopping with Complex, the father of 6 spent over $38,000 on a single trip to Barney’s. Future has been flexing his NFTs all over Twitter, and it seems like he’s really excited about what’s to come.

39.

DJ Khaled

BAYC #7380

DJ Khaled is a pop sensation know for bringing together some of the biggest celebrities in the industry on his records. Khaled is an iconic figure known for his love of saying things like “we tha best” and “anotha one”. Khaled’s Ape was purchased by MoonPay and gifted to him in December 2021. Now that he’s into NFTs, he’s gonna want…

40.

Eminem

BAYC #9055

Detroit-native rapper Marshall Mathers is the first rapper to go platinum in 4 separate decades. It’s hard to understate his influence, but even Em’ couldn’t resist picking up a Bored Ape. Eminem purchased the Ape from Twitter user @Gee__Gazza, who had been publicly hoping that Marshall would one day be the owner. At the very start of 2022, his dream became a reality when Em scooped it up from him for a measly 123.45 ETH, worth over $400,000 at the time of purchase.

41.

Meek Mill

BAYC #6877

Grammy nominated Philly-native rapper Meek Mill has been excited about web3 lately. Meek started off his 2022 with a brand new Bored Ape. He also teased that his next album might be available only as an NFT.

42.

Taylor Gerring (tgerring.eth)

MAYC #30004

What do you get when you combine a Bored Ape and a Mega Mutant Serum? Ethereum co-founder Taylor Gerring decided to find out. For only $3.5 million, tgerring.eth purchased one of the four remaining Mega Mutant Serums. These Serums were airdropped to Bored Ape holders for free and can be used to create a brand new Mutant Ape. Most of the Serums were “M1” and “M2” which produced the vast majority of Mutants on the market. However, there were 12 legendary “Mega Mutant” Serums that spawned Mega Mutants. These Mega Mutant Serums are the highest sales of any item in the Bored Ape Yacht Club ecosystem, and they are generating a lot of hype for the Mutants.

43.

Alexis Ohanian

BAYC #882

Alexis Ohanian is the co-founder of Reddit and husband of Tennis legend Serena Williams. Ohanian has been busy with Web3 and founding a new Web3-focused venture capital fund, seven seven six, to help develop the exploding industry. Alexis joined the Bored Ape Yacht Club back in June of 2021 with BAYC#8121. As an avid collector of trading cards, Ohanian has been obsessed with NFTs lately, adding BAYC#882 to his portfolio recently.

44.

Marshmello

BAYC #4808

EDM artist and DJ Marshmello was an earlier adopter of NFTs. Not only does he own both a CryptoPunk and Bored Ape, but he has released several NFT collections for his fans. Marshmello bought a rare ape, which cost him about 75 Ether. Notable traits on his Ape include 3D glasses, a multicolor grin and bones tee.

45.

Owned by Paris Hilton.

46.

Gwyneth Paltrow abruptly changed her Twitter profile picture to an illustration of an ape wearing a striped t-shirt, helmet, and blindfold. What at first seemed like proof that she’d been hacked turned out to be the news we’d expect to have heard ages ago: Mother Goophas started sipping the cryptocurrency Kool-Aid known as NFTs. “Joined @BoredApeYC,” she wrote in her first tweet of 2022. “Ready for the reveal?” In the accompanying nine-second video, the illustrated ape removes its helmet and blindfold to reveal that it has blonde hair and blue eyes. You would most definitely have to have delved into the world of NFT giant Bored Ape Yacht Club to realize as much, but the primate in question is evidently supposed to be her.

47.

Arguably the greatest women’s tennis player of all time, Serena Williams, tweeted a picture of her first Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT with the simple message “GM” — a common expression among crypto enthusiasts for “good morning.”

48.

Eminem and the Bored Ape he bought on December 30.

49.

Kevin Hart Comedian purchased BAYC in January.

50.

The star of the Paris Saint-Germain soccer team, Neymar Jr officially announced on his social networks that he had acquired a particularly hot property in the world of NFTs, that of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, for a little over 1.1 million dollars. Presnel Kimpembe, Marco Verratti and Leandro Paredes have also promoted Bored Ape.

51.

French Soccer player Presnel Kimpembe scored an angel ape earlier today. Kimpembe purchased Bored Ape #5498 from BAYC member Otter. Eth for 138 Eth or $386,000 USD. “Big up to my man @otter_eth,” Kimpembe tweeted after the sale.Bored Ape #5498 is a five-trait dark brown fur ape with a halo and a multicolored grin. Based on these traits, Bored Ape #5498 is the 6115th most rare ape, according to Rarity Tools.

52.

Justin Bieber paid $1.31 million for Bored Ape Yacht Club #3001. It is the second time since first being minted that Bored Ape Yacht Club #3001 has changed owners. The previous owner prior to Bieber paid $620.00, or 0.24 ETH.

2 Comments

  1. Marcus Macdonald says:

    This is a very weird conspiracy theory . Like many conspiracies it attemps to connect frivolous details to salient historical events. The conections are tenuous at best, and mainly absurd. If there is any truth to the allegations, making such weak statements and arguments is counterproductive to the cause of antisemitism. The writer is reaching beyond probable plausibility. There is not one single concrete and irrefutable piece of evidence to associate BAYC to Nazi ideology. Furthermore, if the four founding members of BAYC were actually true White Supremicists, there would be much more convincing evidence available, and other visible activities. An orchestrated propaganda attack, such as is described by the author, is of great sophistication, and would not have been an isolated creation… There is nothing here, so one asks the question: Why waste valuable ink to build a tower that will crumble so easily? The author is not addressing the mainstream, indeed; the article is aimed at an echochamber, which thrives on decrying antisemetism (real and imagined). The point of this type of article is to increase awareness about innocuous-appearing media, which actually is the vehicle of hate messages. However, in its desperate attempt to prove its hypothesis, it pulls disconnected events together in a way no rational thinker could accept. The article will not convince anyone who is not already convinced, and those who are (convinced) will simply find fuel to fire their agreement. This is not responsible journalism. It is inflammatory propaganda with goals of radicalization of sympathetic readers.

    1. annadsmith says:

      Thank you for your considerate and detailed response. However, in response to your question, “Why waste valuable ink to build a tower that will crumble so easily?” It should be brought to one’s attention, a tower, which is a structure, must be built upon a foundation. The towering argument to which you have acknowledged was created here was based on three principles, or foundations. 1.) Visual mediums make great communication tools to bypass conscious thought in parking its subliminal messaging in the subconscious mind; visual mediums had been effectively deplored against Jewish people in Nazi, Germany, during the 20th century, and against African Americans in the Jim Crow south of the US in the 20th century, which led to genocide via lynchings and the gas chamber. 2.) Both African Americans and Jewish people have historical racists tropes that have been deployed against them to their collective detriment; 3.) People have the option to operate detrimentally openly or in the shadows, overtly or covertly. The general consensus is the 21st century white supremacist prefers to operate in the shadows, covertly. To African Americans, Jim Crow was south of the Canadian border. In the south it was practiced overtly, in the north covertly. Whether that be in such liberal bastions as New York City, or Los Angeles. In Rosa Parks memoirs she talks about this when she moved to the north. HERE IS YOUR MOST OVERTLY EXPLICIT EXAMPLE, APPENDIX #7 & #8: Yuga Labs created and gifted to Rolling Stones a “Rolling Stone x Bored Apes special-edition zine.” Without a rational explanation gold bars were covertly drawn in the background with rats surrounding them. That is an overtly racist Jewish trope to those who are conscious of the symbolism. No one told Yuga Labs, nor threatened them harm to covertly put that racist trope on a Bored Ape Yacht Club background image that will get huge coverage, because it’s the Rolling Stones.

If you have additional information, my audience and I would love to hear about it. Tell us about it in the reply.

2 Comments

  1. Marcus Macdonald says:

    This is a very weird conspiracy theory . Like many conspiracies it attemps to connect frivolous details to salient historical events. The conections are tenuous at best, and mainly absurd. If there is any truth to the allegations, making such weak statements and arguments is counterproductive to the cause of antisemitism. The writer is reaching beyond probable plausibility. There is not one single concrete and irrefutable piece of evidence to associate BAYC to Nazi ideology. Furthermore, if the four founding members of BAYC were actually true White Supremicists, there would be much more convincing evidence available, and other visible activities. An orchestrated propaganda attack, such as is described by the author, is of great sophistication, and would not have been an isolated creation… There is nothing here, so one asks the question: Why waste valuable ink to build a tower that will crumble so easily? The author is not addressing the mainstream, indeed; the article is aimed at an echochamber, which thrives on decrying antisemetism (real and imagined). The point of this type of article is to increase awareness about innocuous-appearing media, which actually is the vehicle of hate messages. However, in its desperate attempt to prove its hypothesis, it pulls disconnected events together in a way no rational thinker could accept. The article will not convince anyone who is not already convinced, and those who are (convinced) will simply find fuel to fire their agreement. This is not responsible journalism. It is inflammatory propaganda with goals of radicalization of sympathetic readers.

    1. annadsmith says:

      Thank you for your considerate and detailed response. However, in response to your question, “Why waste valuable ink to build a tower that will crumble so easily?” It should be brought to one’s attention, a tower, which is a structure, must be built upon a foundation. The towering argument to which you have acknowledged was created here was based on three principles, or foundations. 1.) Visual mediums make great communication tools to bypass conscious thought in parking its subliminal messaging in the subconscious mind; visual mediums had been effectively deplored against Jewish people in Nazi, Germany, during the 20th century, and against African Americans in the Jim Crow south of the US in the 20th century, which led to genocide via lynchings and the gas chamber. 2.) Both African Americans and Jewish people have historical racists tropes that have been deployed against them to their collective detriment; 3.) People have the option to operate detrimentally openly or in the shadows, overtly or covertly. The general consensus is the 21st century white supremacist prefers to operate in the shadows, covertly. To African Americans, Jim Crow was south of the Canadian border. In the south it was practiced overtly, in the north covertly. Whether that be in such liberal bastions as New York City, or Los Angeles. In Rosa Parks memoirs she talks about this when she moved to the north. HERE IS YOUR MOST OVERTLY EXPLICIT EXAMPLE, APPENDIX #7 & #8: Yuga Labs created and gifted to Rolling Stones a “Rolling Stone x Bored Apes special-edition zine.” Without a rational explanation gold bars were covertly drawn in the background with rats surrounding them. That is an overtly racist Jewish trope to those who are conscious of the symbolism. No one told Yuga Labs, nor threatened them harm to covertly put that racist trope on a Bored Ape Yacht Club background image that will get huge coverage, because it’s the Rolling Stones.

If you have additional information, my audience and I would love to hear about it. Tell us about it in the reply.