Deplatformed is a weekly column that looks into the nether reaches of the internet—outside the big few that everyone already covers—to tell you the political discourse online. It runs on Thursdays in the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter. If you want to get this column a day before we publish it, subscribe to web_crawlr, where you’ll get the daily scoop of internet culture delivered straight to your inbox.
1) Ecocide
Nothing sends the nether reaches of the internet quite into a tizzy like the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting of global elites at Davos, where, well, no one actually knows.
If you’re not of the mindset that a secret cabal of rich people conspire with governments to bend the world to their will (outside of the ways they do with tax codes, legislation, and money in politics), then it’s just a few fancy folks sipping champagne and watching educational PowerPoints, not that much different from any trade association hosting an annual meeting so its member can hit up a resort and expense steak dinners.
But if you think their influence is profoundly more odious (A panel on government vaccine development in 2019 will do that), Davos is where the elites tell you their plan for the future and expect you to eat it up.
This year’s agenda. Banning people from producing their own food.
In a presentation, the founder of Stop Ecocide Now, JoJo Mehta, said that “ecocide” needs to be recognized as a serious crime, along par with genocide. She said that while it’s easy to quantify and care about the destruction of life and property, there’s no equivalent of damage to nature.
In a video shared to Rumble, Mehta specifically mentions businesses that farm and fish, implying she would like to target big agriculture for crimes like wanton use of pesticides and overfishing.
But the message received online is that the WEF wants to stop you from producing your own food.
“WEF panelist declares farming and fishing as ‘Ecocide,’” blared one headline on right-wing social media.
“In Davos at WEF the global ‘elites’ are now talking criminalizing food production for humankind,” claimed one user.
“ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION… THIS UNELECTED ORGANIZATION WANTS TO TAKE ANY OF YOUR RIGHTS TO FEED YOUR FAMILIES AND BE SELF SUSTAINING !!! THEY WANT TO HAVE THESE ACTIVITIES RECOGNIZED LEGALLY AS SERIOUS CRIMES !!!!!” said another.
While responsible farming would not fall under that purview, that nuance was completely lost.
2) Fake Fuck You
Missing nuance was a theme in the reaction to Davos.
Given the concern, anger, and fears emanating out of people watching the rich at Davos decide our fates, it’s no surprise that a savage takedown of them went viral.
In a video, a speaker on stage presumably went off script and declares, in no uncertain terms, “Fuck you Klaus Schwab,” calling out the leader of the World Economic Forum, while guests watch his tirade in horror.
Users on sites across the right wing cheered his vitriol, the kind of dressing down elites need, and the copy pasta of his message cropped up on sites like Gab, Truth Social, Gettr, and others.
“FUCK YOU KLAUS SCHWAB AND FUCK YOUR NEW WORLD ORDER… WE THE PEOPLE WERE BORN FREE AND WE WILL STAY FREE AND YOU AND ALL OF YOUR GLOBALISTS FRIENDS INCLUDING EVERYONE IN THIS ROOM CAN GO FUCK YURSELF TOO!,” the message aid.
Unfortunately, for those who enjoyed it, it’s not real. Damon Imani, the person at the lectern, specializes in satirical videos.
3) Hillary Clinton’s secret shame
This week, Hillary Clinton was photographed in Manhattan holding a copy of “Shanda: A Memoir of Shame and Secrecy.”
Published in 2022, the memoir is about a “Jewish immigrant family mired in secrets, haunted by their dread of shame and stigma, determined to hide their every imperfection,” according to Amazon.
Shanda is the Yiddish word for “Disgrace” and given the picture coming just days after the recent revelations about her husband, former President Bill Clinton from newly unsealed documents surrounding Jeffrey Epstein, some thought Hillary was sending some sort of coded message, either admitting to the crimes or distancing herself from them. Posters couldn’t really settle on a coherent reason for why she might be holding the book, but all agreed it was done for a reason.
Like signaling secret Satan worship. One commenter took things very far, noting that the author’s surname, Pogrebin, just so happened to share the same name as a Russian demon in the Harry Potter universe.
Daming indeed.
