Social media personality Ricky Vaughn was recently doxxed causing an even greater amount of fracturing within the Alt-Right.
As many of you are probably aware, the nationalist movement has been a bit of a shit show for the past few months. Some would argue that it has been a shit show since a little after Charlottesville last year.
There’s definitely been a fundamental disagreement in how we should move forward. Some believe that we should do more street marches and focus in on real life activism. Others believe that we should continue focusing our efforts and energies on the Internet. I personally believe that we should be doing a mix of both but that the real life activism shouldn’t consist of goon marches that look like a scene out of American History X. I do not believe this is an unreasonable position considering the decades of history which show that this approach has not been effective.
One of the more divisive figures post-Charlottesville has been the social media personality Ricky Vaughn. He became known for supporting Donald Trump’s presidential campaign with frequent Twitter posts that were mixed in with Alt-Right related material. His approach was effective and he was recognized as a top voice and influencer in the 2016 election.
After getting banned on Twitter he had been posting frequently on Gab. He had been critical of some of the post-Charlottesville events and had managed to create a bunch of enemies along the way. I’ve honestly lost track of all the things he’s been accused of but he had become a hated figure on the platform. It appeared as if he was pushing his views aggressively on people and this definitely amplified the hate that was directed towards him.
A few days ago, his real identity was leaked which appears to have stemmed from a business disagreement. This is something that should have never happened. Strategically, this was one of the dumbest things imaginable unless this was done intentionally to create more schisms and fracture the movement even further. In that regard, the doxxing certainly did its job.
First, the people involved with doxxing Ricky have shown themselves to be unethical and unworthy of trust. The only way this movement can grow is if we are able to get new people to join us. Doxxing somebody regardless of your differences with that person, creates an atmosphere that discourages new people from joining our ranks.
Second, the doxxing was done on Gab. This forced Gab which markets itself as a so-called “free speech” platform to ban the doxxer. Gab’s terms of service policy specifically forbids doxxing people. It’s a tough situation for Gab because as unethical as doxxing is, it is not illegal and it is not unlawful speech. They’ve put themselves in a situation where they have to police this sort of thing. Having to ban doxxers has opened themselves up to even more criticism about how they’re not a true free speech platform. And in this regard the critics have a point. So this dox has served to harm Gab’s credibility.
Third, the dox was a net negative politically to all involved. Even if we were to assume that Ricky Vaughn is the most evil person to ever live, it isn’t like revealing his identity provided any strategic political value. We also have people from the Anti-Defamation League and cuckservative types cheering the dox.
This whole situation is insane. There’s a great many people in the movement that seem to have completely lost their shit after Charlottesville. I’m not going to speculate why that is or what might have caused that to happen because that’s not really important. Even though many of us agree on most everything politically, there are all sorts of fights and arguments happening over the 5 to 10 percent we have disagreements on. There doesn’t seem to be any real purpose to this.
If someone has a fundamental difference on branding, strategy or anything else, they should simply move forward and execute on their vision. There’s no reason to spend all sorts of energy attacking people on the Internet who disagree with your vision.
Most importantly, doxxing someone on the political right over political differences or business disagreements can’t be condoned in any way shape or form. It’s strategically stupid and it only serves to foster a toxic environment. Hopefully this will be the last time something like this happens.
