Mike Cernovich
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About
Mike Cernovich is an American blogger and conspiracy theorist who is frequently associated with the alt-right, though he has denied allegiance to the group and prefers "new right" and "American nationalist." He is known for strong anti-feminism and anti-immigration views. He has been at the forefront of movements such as Gamergate and Pizzagate, as well as contributing to anti-Hillary Clinton conspiracies.
History
Mike Cernovich was born in Orange Country, California on November 17th, 1977.[1] He began his career by starting the blog Crime and Federalism, and later by promoting male-empowerment in the blog Danger and Play. There, he wrote pieces which he would later delete in the wake of the #MeToo movement, including a piece titled "When in Doubt, Whip it Out"[2] in which he advocated masturbating in front of girls who did not want to have sex. He came into further fame when he began advocating on behalf of GamerGaters.[3] In 2015, he self-published a self-help book called Gorilla Mindset in which he advocated women submit to dominant alpha males and controversially called date rape "a work of liberal fiction."
During the 2016 United States Presidential Election, he spread the false rumor that Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton was sick with Parkinson's disease. While not necessarily a supporter of Donald Trump's policies, he supports Trump for what he sees as Trump's alpha male persona. Cernovich supported the Pizzagate investigation in his blog and believed that nearly all Hollywood actors engage in pedophilia.
NAMBLA Protest Sign
NAMBLA Protest Sign refers to a sign at a protest of a talk by Cernovich at New York City's Columbia University that claims "No Pedo Bashing." Some have speculated the sign was planted by the alt-right in order to make the protesters appear to have sympathies for pedophiles, though Cernovich and noted Infowars writer Paul Joseph Watson have claimed that the reports of a plant are "fake news".
Sam Seder Smear Campaign
Sam Seder MSNBC Termination Controversy refers to the firing of MSNBC contributor Sam Seder over a tweet he made in satire of long-standing Roman Polanski sexual assault allegations in 2009. MSNBC faced criticism after the tweet was interpreted by Cernovich as a rape joke, claiming it was a media double standard that Seder was allowed to contribute to MSNBC with these views. MSNBC soon cut ties with Seder but rehired him after backlash from people who saw MSNBC as misreading the tweet in bad faith. In 2009, Sam Seder tweeted "Don't care re: Polanski, but i hope if my daughter is raped it is by an older truly talented man with a spectacular sense of mise-en-scene" (shown below).
On November 28th, 2017, Cernovich took to Medium to write about the tweet, claiming it was "far worse than even my most satirical or sarcastic tweet. And the media won’t say anything, because Sam Seder is one of them."
Rebrand to Philosophy
On April 16th, 2018, Cernovich streamed himself on Periscope and promised his followers his focus would be "less politics, more philosophy" going forward.[9] During the stream, he claimed the shift was due to a discontentment caused by a "shift in energy" that he and "other high consciousness people" have felt (shown below).
LIVE on #Periscope: The Energy shift and the blockchain are all connected. https://t.co/aTjWoqGLl2
— Mike Cernovich 🇺🇸 (@Cernovich) April 16, 2018
During the stream, Cernovich also pitched a "blockchain" social theory:
“We’re moving from a centralized understanding of the world to a decentralized understanding of the world. The blockchain is a distributed network that solves all the problems that we have of finance but more broadly it’s like a philosophy it’s a way of life… We’re going toward a decentralized consciousness, do you understand? That’s what blockchain is.”
The stream came after several weeks of Cernovich tweeting about what he sees as the cosmic shift in energy as well as his drug experiences (examples shown below). Buzzfeed News Director Ryan Broderick compiled some of these tweets, saying "Cernovich slowly rebranding himself as a psychonaut is my favorite plot developments of 2018."[10] Cernovich's rebrand was also covered by The AV Club.[11]
Cernovich also began referring to modern reality as a "Simulation," and praised Kanye West for apparently "waking people up" to this truth.
Online Presence
Cernovich is most prominent on social media platforms Twitter, where he has over 389,000 followers,[4] and YouTube, where he regularly appears on the alt-right channel Open Mind.[5]
Cernovich was the runner-up in the annual Shit Account Tournament in 2016 and 2017, losing to Kurt Eichenwald and Laura Loomer.
Reddit AMA
On December 22nd, 2017, Cernovich held an AMA on Reddit. The AMA was considered by many media outlets to be a failure for Cernovich, as many of the questions posed to him were about how many hate him. A large amount of questions asked Cernovich how to escape a rape charge, as Cernovich had been charged with rape in 2003 but had the charges reduced to battery.[6][7] The thread was covered in /r/AMADisasters,[8] where it gained over 900 upvotes.
Search Interest
External References
[1] Wikipedia – Mike Cernovich
[2] Danger and Play – When In Doubt Whip It Out
[3] The New Yorker – Trolls for Trump
[6] AV Club – Mike Cernovich's AMA did not go well
[7] The Daily Beast – Mike Cernovich Hounded on Rape Allegation in Reddit AMA
[8] /r/AMADisasters – Controversial right-wing figurehead Mike Cernovich does an AMA; commenters hold nothing back
[9] Daily Dot – Mike Cernovich promises ‘less politics, more philosophy’
[10] Twitter – @broderick
[11] The AV Club – Mike Cernovich is pivoting to mysticism
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