EXPOSING NEO-NAZIS
The Montreal Gazette revealed this week that a prominent North American neoNazi propagandist is based in this city and has been recruiting here. A major investigation by two independent journalists and a Gazette reporter linked “Zeiger,” the pseudonym for a prolific writer for the extreme-right website the Daily Stormer, to an IT consultant who lives in Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie. And their investigation chronicled how Zeiger assembled a nucleus of supporters who left the shadows of the internet to meet up in real life.
While that news is disturbing, it is essential to expose such activity, and to deny it any safe haven.
Zeiger was among the white supremacists who attended last summer’s infamous rally in Charlottesville, Va. The sight of members of the so-called alt-right marching through an American city holding torches and shouting Nazi slogans was not only revolting, but a shocking reminder that such forces should not be left to build strength unopposed.
It is cold comfort that the vast majority of those who consume racist, anti- Semitic, homophobic and misogynist drivel and who interact with each other in chat rooms are, as one expert notes, “keyboard warriors” who will not act on their beliefs. The propagation of hateful ideas all too often is a precursor of the violent acts that do take place. And even one person can cause enormous harm.
Before violence comes desensitization, where the “other” is dehumanized and portrayed as a threat and/or treated as a scapegoat. The way in which such propaganda preceded the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide, for example, has been well documented. We have also heard testimony that mosque shooter Alexandre Bissonnette was exposed to Islamophobic and misogynist material on the internet. And the accused Toronto van attacker has been linked to an online community spewing hatred against women.
The messages gleaned from a closed chat room created by Zeiger reveal unsuccessful, troubled young men who blame their problems on others. These sound like people who need help; instead, they are being exposed to brainwashing and manipulation.
It is reassuring that those in authority are taking the matter very seriously. Politicians have united in expressing disgust, and the Montreal police hate crimes unit is looking into the information published by the Gazette.
Mayor Valérie Plante, who also spoke out after a Nazi flag was waved from a rooftop during a May Day demonstration, said it well: “Any hateful neo-Nazi propaganda obviously has no place in Montreal; it goes against the values of tolerance and respect promoted by the city.”
Nor, of course, does it have any place anywhere.