Diagolon and Trolling: How To Minimize Platforming the Far-Right and Instead Provide Context

Over the years there has been a lot of discussion about the danger of platforming right wing extremists. It's an issue that I've wrestled with for years myself here on the blog and also on Twitter. On the one hand I've always believed that it was important to share information about could amount to a significant danger to the community; the best disinfectant is sunlight after all. 

But as I tried to expose those individuals and groups who could cause real harm, I also tried to do so in a way that didn't give them any sort of power. A lot of these individuals and groups WANT others to talk about them because uncritical examination allows the noxious beliefs to spread more widely.

In order to try to avoid that I generally employ two primary strategies. The first is mockery. The bigots and hate groups I covered have all been so very self-serious. Using humour as a means of disarming and showing how utterly ridiculous that they are while at the same time showing the public why we should also be concerned often took the wind out of their sails, so to speak.

Also, I'm naturally snarky so there's that too.

The second thing I do which I think is far more important is to try as best I can to provide the critical context for the stories I shared (hence why I was and continue to be verbose as hell) and to avoid telling the narrative that THEY want shared.

So with that, let's engage go through that process by discussing the critical context behind this still I took from a video posted by Derek Harrison of the Plaid Army/Diagolon on his Telegram page:

Shane Marshall and Pierre Poilievre

This photo shows Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre shaking hands with Shane Marshall. If the name "Shane Marshall" is familiar at all, it is likely because of an incident that occurred during the 2021 federal election where Marshall threw pebbles at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau:

• Trudeau hit by gravel as protesters surround campaign bus in London, Ont.
• People's Party of Canada drops riding president over stone-throwing incident at Trudeau event
• Trudeau lawyers fight subpoena for his testimony at stone-throwing trial
• Trudeau won't have to testify at trial of man accused of throwing gravel during London, Ont., campaign stop
• Trial date set for man accused of throwing gravel at Trudeau at 2021 London, Ont., event

Earlier this month, Marshall pleaded guilty to common assault (he had originally been charged with assault with a weapon). The video taken of him shaking hands with Poilievre occurred prior to Marshall's trial where he pled guilty on the first day.

Marshall is also a figure who has been covered by the Canadian Anti-Hate Network for his ties to the overtly racist Canada First and the accelerationist Diagolon:

• PPC RIDING DIRECTOR RUNS MULTIPLE WHITE NATIONALIST SOCIAL ACCOUNTS
• KNOWN WHITE NATIONALISTS SPOTTED AT VIOLENT ANTI-TRUDEAU DEMONSTRATION

Marshall was among those who attended the occupation in Ottawa in February 2022 where he was both photographed with then Canada First leader Tyler Russell (who now lives in the United States and runs with Nick Fuentes) and Diagolon de facto leader Jeremy MacKenzie:

Marshall and Tyler Russell left; Russell and Nick Fuentes right

Marshall and Russell with Jeremy MacKenzie during
the "Freedom Convoy" occupation of Ottawa, 2022

Marshall was also briefly detained in Ottawa during the occupation.

So when one looks at this photo of Shane Marshall and Pierre Poilievre, one's first instinct might be to suggest this is proof that Poilievre is courting far right extremists. Without any other context and, given Mr. Poilievre's own dog whistles since becoming leader, that might be a reasonable conclusion... EXCEPT that the context here is critical to understanding what we are actually seeing.

I found the video from which the still is taken on Derek Harrison's Telegram page. Harrison is someone who has been profiled here on the blog a number of times -- I first came across Harrison when he was volunteering for white nationalist Faith Goldy's mayoral campaign -- and he is, I guess, a sort of founding father of the Plaid Army and Diagolon. Harrison's antisemitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, and anti-immigrant rhetoric is well know to people who study this ecosystem.

Harrison and other Dags attended Marshall's trial in support. Suffice to say that it doesn't seem that any of them are especially contrite:

Shane has all the charisma of a soggy phonebook from 1992.

Marshall and Derek Harrison flanked by two unknown Dags.

The context of the video still with Marshall, a former PPC riding president who was working on Chelsea Hillier's campaign and an associate of Diagolon (many of whose members are supporters of the PPC and Bernier), and Pierre Poilievre who is the leader of a rival conservative political party is very important however:

Pictured from left to right: Derek Harrison, Maxine Bernier, Chelsea Hillier, and Tyler Russell

MacKenzie, Bernier, Harrison

Diagolon in general and in this case Harrison specifically loathe the Conservative Party, claiming that the CPC and the Liberals are simply two sides of the same corrupt, globalist, coin:

October 2020 Bits and Bites: Halloween Edition

We haven't really done a bits and bites article in some time but we thought we would do so now. Please forgive our omissions in this purposely irreverent look back at the month of bigots behaving badly, often towards each other.

In the last article we discussed the antics of Brian Kidder who, since it was published, has continued on in his campaign to arrest a politician. He is not surprisingly being egged on by some of the bad actors who have profiled consistently on this blog:

Derek Harrison Justifies Violence Against Women in Transphobic and Misogynistic Video

In a video uploaded to YouTube on March 22, Derek Harrison (Rants) of Plaid Army framed a new clip as a being about "personal responsibility," showing what Harrison claims to be examples of people who did not take personal responsibility and therefore are at fault for what happened next. Harrison, however, uses this narrative to spread transphobia and misogyny.

Before we get to the video itself, the comments are fairly standard:

Jeremy Mackenzie showing support for a video defending violence against women and transphobia

As did Mike Kirkland 

And London, Ontario amateur comedian Dan Sleno, aka EdgyD, 

a newer member of Plaid Army, who we'll get to in a later article

That's true - it is an older video. Initially, it was posted to YouTube, which according to Harrison, deleted it. He then uploaded it to BitChute in February 2019.

I guess "personal responsibility" doesn't apply to Derek

Comments from the original BitChute upload:

That first comment. Yikes.

Yeah. 

He uses this video to poke fun at people from previous viral videos, and introduces his "new pronoun," the clever and pithy "it," before showing a horrific attack in Australia by a trans woman in a gas station. The purpose isn't to highlight how the people in the gas station were to blame by not leaving when the woman with the axe enters, although he makes that claim too.

It's clear that the purpose is to incite hatred toward trans people, as if people who happen to be trans are expected to be exempt from the gamut of types of people across the human condition, including sometimes violent ones. This is nothing new. Examples of bad, outrageous, or violent behaviour are often used to paint trans people as a whole. Harrison just plays into that.

Harrison continues on, showing a video of an attack by a man on two women in LA (which he erroneously refers to as being in New York.)

He states:

Now most people right off the bat are saying 'that motherfucker shouldn't have been hitting girls and you shouldn't hit women.'

No. Girls? That's your fault.  

If either one of these girls had ever been hit or struck before on their life they would not go after a man that size. Do you really think this guy just started laying bitches out at the hot dog stand or do you think there was something before that?

Just saying, that's your fault.

Watching these two little chihuahuas trying to attack this rottweiler reminds me of another clip I've seen. What do you think's gonna happen to it? Now you want to act surprised?

The actual story from NBC Los Angeles:

The woman, whom NBC4 is not naming to protect her identity, was out with her friend when they stopped for street hot dogs. She said they noticed a man being rude to a hot dog vendor over the $6 cost. She said another vendor offered the man a free hot dog, but when he did not stop, the woman and her friend spoke up. 

"Me and my friend said something like, 'Just leave.'" The woman said he punched both of them at least once before additional blows were recorded by a bystander's cellphone camera...

Harrison thinks that speaking up and trying to get a rude customer to leave a hot dog vendor alone and take his free hot dog is deserving of being beaten up - if you're a woman.

The last part of the video is Harrison showing various websites - including the article cited above:

Harrison knew the context of the story - he just decided that the women are at fault because women shouldn't step up to a big man, even in situations where it is reasonable to do so, and if they get assaulted, that's on them.

It's a disturbing message from a man with a university-age daughter.