Organizers: N.H. lawmaker to address 4chan-inspired alt-right ‘free speech’ rally
7/23 Update: The Boston Free Speech Rally organizer who posted the announcement on Reddit now says that Phinney will not be speaking at the rally. “He did initially say he was interested,” he wrote in a message to Miscellany Blue, “but decided against speaking later on.”
Organizers for a May 2017 Boston Common rally that devolved into a shouting match between alt-right militants and anti-fascist protesters have announced that a New Hampshire lawmaker will be the featured speaker for round two.
The inaugural Boston Rally for Free Speech, organized on 4chan by a Peabody teenager, drew a crowd described by Esquire’s Luke O’Neil as three hundred or so “MAGA teens, denizens of alt-right groups such as Kekistan, Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, and the greater diaspora of white male rage and impotence.”
A smaller group of socialists and Antifa activists gathered for a counter-protest about a hundred yards away, separated from the alt-right protesters by a small contingent of officers from the Boston Police Department. The groups taunted each other (“Fuck Trump!” “Go home cucks!”) but they avoided the kind of violence that occurred in the Battle of Berkeley, the series of clashes earlier this year in California that preceded the Boston rally.
In a notice posted on Reddit promoting a second Boston Free Speech Rally, organizers announced New Hampshire state Rep. Brandon Phinney, a recent convert to the Libertarian Party, will be a featured speaker. “[W]e are looking to make this event have a more libertarian angle,” the organizer wrote, “hence our first confirmed speaker being an actual elected member of the libertarian party.”
The organizer who posted the announcement insisted the rallies are not an “alt-right thing,” though he conceded that “certain people who attend are what would be deemed ‘fascist.’ ”
“I assure you that our rally is actually a free speech rally, most of the people who show up are libertarians,” he wrote.
“Calling events that bring out lots of fascists ‘free speech’ rallies is nonsense,” one Redditor replied. “I support you’re [sic] right to say whatever you want, but don’t dress it up. At least have the balls to come out and say you’re having a fashy rally with plenty of white supremacists and lots of people who believe in Western cultural hegemony.”
The rally announcements on 4chan were less circumspect. In one post, the announcement was illustrated with a photo from the first Boston rally that pictured alt-right comedian Sam Hyde “yelling at a jewish kid.” A second posting of the announcement kicked off complaints about the “fucking niggers” who protested the first rally.
“Can I carry my black sun flag?” asked another 4chan member, referring to the banner embraced by many neo-Nazis and white nationalists. “Of course you can,” the rally organizer replied. “This event has a lot of different people, often libertarians or militiamen, but there were also many members of the alt-right.”
‘Too weird, mean and racist for Republicans’
The announcement came just days after Phinney changed his party registration. And while the national Libertarian Party welcomed Phinney with open arms, some members expressed concern over having him join their ranks.
Referencing the Miscellany Blue profile that documented Phinney’s history of controversy, the former Connecticut state director for Gary Johnson’s presidential campaign blasted the Rochester lawmaker.
“This is NOT what we need in the LP,” Libertarian Party activist Jody Weitzman wrote on Facebook. “I can’t support his racism or his misogyny – or the fact that he just seems to be a bad person. Just another obnoxious internet bully who was too weird, mean, and racist for Republicans.”
“IF the only people we can get are mean racists that shame fat women, and the men who defend them, then we just suck,” Weitzman added. “I can’t stay in a party that tolerates racism, and misogyny, and so much garbage. If we need the racist vote to win, we are worse than Republicans. I have seen this for years and in the Trump era, it’s gone toxic.”
‘I am not a white supremacist’
This week, Phinney responded to the criticism by denying he is a misogynist and a racist. ‘I have never been ‘misogynistic’ or ‘racist’ towards anyone in my whole life,” he wrote in a public Facebook post. “I am not associated with any ‘alt-right’ groups and I am not a white supremacist. I actively reject those ideologies as they are not in line with liberty.”
The one-term Rochester lawmaker did acknowledge his history of inflammatory rhetoric. “[T]he article highlighted some posts from me that I cannot deny posting because it is clear as day that they are associated with me,” he wrote.
“Some time ago, I used to be very antagonistic about certain views and I would blatantly post my opinion about them without regard to anyone’s sensibilities and basically make myself look like a jackass…” he confessed. “I assure you that it is not my intent to hurt anyone’s feelings or to antagonize others.”
“The point of some of the posts that I have made in the past was to challenge the PC liberal narrative that basically treats everyone with contempt and hatred, the very same attitudes they claim to fight against,” Phinney explained. “I do not accept a culture that is turning ‘tolerance’ into intolerance for anything that challenges their worldview. However, the things that I’ve said in the past and the way that I’ve said them is in no way a reflection of who I am today.”
“I am moving forward,” Phinney concluded. “So should you.”