Charlottesville
Article
Charlottesville is a recurring place in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 3 times across 3 issues between April 19, 2021 and April 10, 2023. The archive places it in contexts such as “his post-Charlottesville comment, where he said that there were ‘good people on both sides’ of a protest that included alt-right figures”; “After Charlottesville, the media tried to convince everyone that this was the promised spike in white supremacist activity”; “Then Charlottesville happens and they suddenly realize”. It most often appears alongside Atlanta, Budapest, facebook.
Metadata
- Category: Places
- Mention count: 3
- Issue count: 3
- First seen: April 19, 2021
- Last seen: April 10, 2023
Appears In
- Mantic Monday: Grading My Trump Predictions
- Highlights From The Comments On Culture Wars
- Spring Meetups Everywhere 2023
Related Pages
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- Atlanta (2 shared issues)
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- Budapest (2 shared issues)
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- facebook (2 shared issues)
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- France (2 shared issues)
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- George Floyd (2 shared issues)
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- Israel (2 shared issues)
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- McCain (2 shared issues)
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- Obama (2 shared issues)
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- Peter Thiel (2 shared issues)
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- Portland (2 shared issues)
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- Republican Party (2 shared issues)
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- Richard Spencer (2 shared issues)
External Links
Source Context
Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.
Might there still be a case against Trump, on the grounds that all Charlottesville protesters were neo-Nazis and white nationalists and Trump surely knew this and was just dog whistling by pretending some weren't? No - in fact, there were many non-neo-Nazi protesters there - the New York Times did an interview with one of them (CTRL+F "Michelle Piercy"). This is just a total refusal to care what Trump actually said, combined with lies to make the deliberate misrepresentation sound defensible. It's exactly the sort of willful misreading that I complained about in my post.
Inline links: did an interview
Needless to say, none of that happened. White supremacist activity in the United States never went beyond normal levels. After Charlottesville, the media tried to convince everyone that this was the promised spike in white supremacist activity, but it wasn't: there had been a bunch of white supremacist rallies larger than the Charlottesville protest throughout the Clinton, Bush, and Obama presidencies - the media just hadn't signal-boosted them as hard. 500 Nazis rallied at Lake Tahoe in 1996; 125 at Yorktown in 2005; 2000 in Budapest in 2009. Charlottesville's couple hundred were kind of par for the course - and all of these numbers are around the same number of people who eg attend Satanist rallies. After Charlottesville there were no further large white supremacist rallies, with an attempted Charlottesville II attracting about 20-30 people.
Inline links: at Lake Tahoe in 1996, Yorktown in 2005, in Budapest in 2009, attend Satanist rallies, attracting about 20-30 people
In practice, the main post-election comment everyone holds up as Trump Explicitly Saying Nazis Are Good was his post-Charlottesville comment, where he said that there were "good people on both sides" of a protest that included alt-right figures. What actually happened: Trump said that "We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence." Later he said of the protesters that "You had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides". When asked to clarify he said "I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists -- because they should be condemned totally. But you had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists."
Inline links: said
So they join MRA/PUA groups - until 90% of them realize that the leadership of those groups just truly, deeply hates women and literally wants them to die. They don't want to be part of that so they go on to join Gamergate. When the doxxing and the threats start having significant consequences, 90% of them eff off. Then they move on to Milo and his shared appearances with Spencer. They think it's fun to get a rise out of the overly sanctimonious by appropriating nazi symbolism. Then Charlottesville happens and they suddenly realize that they've joined an actual white supremacist movement. They leave in droves.
Inline links: leave in droves
NORFOLK, VIRGINIA, USA Contact: Willa Contact Info: walambert[at]pm[dot]me Time: Sunday, April 30th, 10:30 AM Location: Pagoda & Oriental Garden, 265 W Tazewell St, Norfolk, VA 23510. Moved to Fair Grounds instead of the Pagoda due to inclement weather. 806 Baldwin Ave # 2, Norfolk, VA 23517. I will wear a green shirt, green & yellow hat, and have an ACX MEETUP sign. Coordinates: https://plus.codes/8785VP82+XH Notes: We may decamp by 12:45 to wander around downtown and/or get lunch. Possible after-meetup hangout! If you can't make it to the meetup but can do lunch or something a little later, please email me. In Norfolk on a Wednesday in the future? We regularly meet Wednesday evenings at Fair Grounds (cafe in Ghent) from 17:00-19:30. There are meetups in Richmond or occasionally in Charlotesville. Check out Virginia Rationalists on LessWrong for Upcoming Events: https://www.lesswrong.com/groups/pLEbtx3BbdaLMXZKi