Why satire or irony is not an excuse for fascism

Using fascist comic maker, stonetoss.

1- What stonetoss does

If you don’t know stonetoss, then I envy you. He is a somewhat popular comic artist on the internet who makes fascist comics. I may prepare an album of his most hateful comics soon (it requires me to remove the watermark, because you should never advertise for fascists, so that takes some time). Typically, he makes comics featuring transmisia, homomisia, anti-Semitism, misogyny, fascist sympathizing, and anti-communism (which he thinks the “left”, as a whole, is).

Sometimes the subject matters are actually nonpolitical (like in the case of his New Years comics), which has a 75% chance of being a sly plot to get exposure for his comics. He watermarks each comic with his website, and drawing anti-Semitic shit won’t make people spread the comic outside of the relatively close circle of fascist sympathizers. To get new “recruits”, you need to branch out. Of course, even the most hateful person remains a person, and they don’t live their whole day, 24 hours a day, being a bigoted asshole. So it’s totally possible that sometimes a nonpolitical comic is just a nonpolitical comic.

I’m talking about stonetoss specifically, but it applies to all fascist comic artists, and there are more than he. But first, I’ll start referring to him with pet names because you shouldn’t give free exposure, no matter how small, to fascists.

2- Why it’s insidious and not innocent

Many people have been asking how we know that mineralmotion is a fascist. Surely, they ask, he is bigoted, but not fascistic? And I understand their concerns. First, the problem we face as antifascists is how to spread awareness that the name itself isn’t really important, it is a qualifier for his actions. I equally call him a nazi, an alt-righter, a white supremacist or a fascist. I refuse to use terms like “identitarian”, “ethno-nationalist” or “race realist” because those are euphemisms fascists have created for themselves, and I refuse to play by their rules.

There is no checklist for fascism. It’s a topic for a whole article in itself, but basically if you keep looking for the fascist that checks all the boxes, you’ll never find them. A quick example: most are anti-Semitic because Jews are an easy scapegoat for their conspiracy theories, but you could replace them with any other group and never find a difference (I’m thinking of the segregation between whites and blacks in the USA, for example).

What you have to understand is that by arguing his political leanings, we are arguing semantics. And arguing semantics has never done anything in any debate. It distracts us from the crux of the matter, which is the hateful content of pebblepush’s comics. If you’re not sure how vile fascists actually are, you only have to go in one of their space for a few moments. There are a few subreddits, which I won’t link here, and some sites. If you are as disgusted by the things you’ll see as we are, then you’ll understand why we take such a hardline stance against fascism.

This is the insidious power of the fascists. It has a way of crawling through the cracks and making its way into the mainstream. It has a way of being acceptable just enough so that you’ll say “alright, I don’t agree with you, but you’re not necessarily wrong”.

And these comics help with all of that stuff. They’re not innocent comics, they participate in this agenda.

3- Satire is not an excuse

First, what I feel is the most important argument, people (minorities especially) don’t have to prove their humanity. They exist, they are alive, and that’s the end of that argument. By making transmisic comics, to use just one example, gavelgravity pushes the agenda that maybe there are some questions to be asked. That maybe they don’t deserve all the rights they were given. This is bullshit through and through. mineralmotion is not the arbiter on who has a right to exist and who doesn’t.

Other people are wondering if his comics are really a danger. If they’re only satire, what’s the harm? Well, first, even if the author intends them as satire, that doesn’t mean everyone will take them as satire. It’s also a line of defence fascists can use for two reasons:

1. it allows them to claim they’re not real fascists and live with themselves, because they’re just enjoying them ironically. This is more for those who are in denial. As we saw in section 2, you don’t have to declare yourself a fascist or check a whole list of conditions to be one, you just have to act in accordance to the ideology. Even an ironic fascist, or a fascist in denial, is a fascist.
2. it allows them to deflect criticism, saying “why are you so hung up on those comics? They’re just satire, don’t take them seriously”. Essentially this shifts the burden of proof on you and they can sit back and wait for you to trip up in your argument.

I have to ask: who spends their time making offensive jokes at the expense of marginalized groups? Does it strike you as something a tolerant person would choose to do? Secondly, you can make humour without bashing groups that are already being bashed all year, as shown in this very subreddit and the various types of edits that we feature. Really, if you make offensive jokes against people’s identity, it says more about you than them.

4- What you can do

This is probably going to be a full article later on, but here are a few pointers:

• take power back. Don’t use a fascist’s online name, give them a surname. Don’t link to their website or their social media, completely scrub them out of existence.
• spread awareness. If you don’t jump on the occasion when someone asks about fascism (in good faith), then a fascist will. We are a counter-current to their current, this is what antifascist action is all about.
• don’t debate fascists. It’s a waste of your effort. Here is a quote from Sartre that is as relevant as ever.
• shut them down if you see them. Warn other people that they are a fascist. Deny them a public platform to spread their vile hatred. If they are present on a site (such as patreon), contact the owners and explain the situation.