According to Carl Benjamin himself, the comments were meant ironically. He was reacting to a chat stream, which is missing context in that video, and the chat used slurs like this. So Benjamin used the slurs back at them.
Having said that, we have to assume Benjamin’s inner thoughts to know what he really meant, so I’m not arguing we should disregard it completely because of his alledged good intentions.
I don't think you should get to walk back your shitty comments by claiming you were just joking the whole time. Based on this guy's past behavior, I don't think anyone is giving him the benefit of the doubt here either.
It is obvious that much of this speech was sarcastic. To the point that I would say that it requires willful ignorance to say otherwise. Take for instance:
> And I see, like, 'kikes are ruining everything'. [laughs] Good—good—good job... You're making your movement look like you're not full of Nazis! Great! Bravo!"
Is it your genuine belief that the statement "You're making your movement look like you're not full of Nazis" was meant non-sarcastically? Do you genuinely believe that Benjamin stated that statements like "kikes are ruining everything" among the Alt-Right makes the group not look like Nazis?
Again, to say "yes" to these questions requires willful ignorance in my opinion.
I agree, if not sarcasm, "kikes are ruining everything" was clearly intended as mockery. I listened only the to the first part of the video, and then grabbed quotes from the transcript. If I'd understood the context, I wouldn't have included that one as an example.
Analogies are flawed, by their nature. In this case, we don't have a clear case of X, followed bu backtracking and claims of not really saying X. Instead, we have the same X, that some people interpret as malice and hate speech, and other people interpret as using alt-righters own bad language back at them.
Having said that, we have to assume Benjamin’s inner thoughts to know what he really meant, so I’m not arguing we should disregard it completely because of his alledged good intentions.
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