As I often do, I was just browsing YouTube… I was just watching regular
politics and news videos, including DW
Documentaries. Somehow, YouTube
suggested to me the video “Why Men Are Alone. The Ugly Truth Women Don’t Want
to Hear.” by Bjørn Andreas
Bull-Hanson.
I’ve never heard of the dude before. The semi-clickbait title of the video
kinda grabbed my interest. As, I’m watching the video, I have to admit that I’m
feeling uncomfortable. I agree with a lot of points made in the video, for
example, how picture-based social media have warped young people’s expectations
about romantic relationships and more broadly companionship. But many parts of
the video give me an after-taste of red pill or incel
culture, for example how he keeps
describing entitled women with “face covered in piercings and blue hair”. In
another part of the same video, Bull-Hansen says that he finds “very sad” that
“men and women […] have decided to kind of opt out of the whole [masculinity
and femininity] thing”. These are the types of discourse from the less fringe
side of incels.
Him using subscribestar.com to collect donations makes me even more uneasy.
This Patreon-like platform is used by most far-right YouTubers, such has Callum
from Britannica, a far-right,
pro-Kremlin British YouTuber.
Callum justifying that recruiting prisonners and sending them to the frontline is somehow a good thing.
I started digging even more, because I don’t like how, in our society in the
age of social media, nuance doesn’t exist. Everything is either black or white.
I do not believe in this view of the world, where you’re either a neo-Nazi or
an antifa, and there is nothing in between!
Bull-Hanson video about Stonehenge being vandalized.
Another of his video is about Stonehenge being vandalized. The video thumbnail
has the text “I’M FURIOUS” in overlay. On the premise, I agree with
Bull-Hansen. I’m also very annoyed by Stonehenge was being vandalized, even
though I agree with the urgency of climate change, I don’t like how the
collective “Just Stop Oil” goes about it. I much prefer when they spray paint
billionaires’ private
jets,
instead of pouring tomato sauce on Van Gogh’s
Sunflowers.
What’s Bull-Hansen message? “Just Stop Oil” hates “everything that they
perceive as European or white capitalists”… Ouch, that escalated way too
quickly!
The whole alt-right vibes climaxes on his latest video to date, “Trump
Assassination Attempt - Did mainstream media and the left inspire the
shooter?”
Half of the video are short clips of news commentators and politicians inciting
violence against Donald Trump. His conclusion is that the left wing and the
“mainstream media” (whatever that means) are responsible for the escalation of
violence through protest, which led to Donald Trump’s assassination attempt.
What a missed opportunity! Bull-Hansen could have also shown clips of Donald
Trump and his political team inciting violence against Hillary Clinton, Nancy
Pelosi and Joe Biden. He could have then explained how dangerous to democracy
is the escalation of violence, the ultra-polarization of opinions, and the
discourse “my opponent is a danger for America” which is prevalent amongst both
candidates. He could have then given suggestions on how he thinks one could
deescalate the situation if they were on either side.
No… Instead of this, we’re getting a “the left has gone crazy!” discourse.
While he is partially correct, he forgot to mention that the right has gone
even crazier. But that crazy version, the alt-right, is most likely what he
supports…
Bjørn Andreas Bull-Hansen is your average “I’m not far-right, and I’m sorry if you’re
offended, but…” uncle, but he prefers to be called “a novelist”, that’s nicer…