Also media.
Hey everyone, it's me James. I just wanted to do very quick introduction to the episode. We have split into two parts because it went longer than we expected, so you hear the first part to day, and you will hear the second part tomorrow.
Welcome everyone to It's could Happen here. My name is Mick and I'm here with the lovely James Stouts and the lovely Molly Conger. How are you guys doing.
I'm great, so excited. I just love valve France. I love all things French. I've had such great times in France. I just particularly love like French identitarianism. So I'm excited you love French. No, it's love it with like like.
France, James out huge.
I just love like like the the idea, like of the among nations like France is chosen one. It's just like. I'm not particularly anti French, but it is quite funny to me.
James travels to France every year to go to what do they still have generation identity?
Yeah, I and every year they say, oh, well that your accent is not correct. You've not used vo in the in the requisite time. Therefore you are no longer welcome here. I went to France once with some Quebecquar friends. This is a funny, like low key identity story. I've already derailed this foc. Don't worry, don't worry. I went with two Quebecquar friends and we like doing something official and I did it, conducted my thing in French. It was fine. I speak French and this wasn't an issue
for me. And then they went up at this woman just when you don't speak French, sir, and then began addressing them in English because she was unwilling to accept the co called Quebecua in France.
That's so mean.
Yeah, well, I for one am excited to hear about I don't know a lot about this guy.
No, he's a weird little guy, my favorite kind of guy.
Yeah, exactly, notably, which is why I asked you. I'm also just recovering from like an English person here saying that they love friends. But that must that must be like a historically first time that that good.
Place to race bikes. It's a good place to if you like to hang out in the mountains and race bikes. Pretty much France, Spain, maybe Italy is where it's at I.
Visited once and I didn't. I don't know.
People are always saying that you are so cruel to Americans. That wasn't my experience, but most people long enough, Yeah, it's And you know, I'll always treasure the week that I spent in Paris because it is the only reason I didn't get deported from Germany for visa violations.
Okay, that that is a story I actually want to hear after we're done recording. So but yeah, we're talking about French identitarianism, French Nazis. But before you start, James, I want to ask you a very important question. First, you have a podcasting honorary degree, a PhD.
I've heard that's right, Yeah, me and Joe Rogan both.
Yeah, exactly, And I just must ask, how do you deal with the recurring trauma of having to hear your own voice on recording.
I play it at one point five time speed, so it doesn't sound like me.
I was very curious about that.
I've also had a fair shriff having to hear my own voice, and it just doesn't get any easier.
No, I thought I would struggle with it because I hate the sound of my own voice in casual context. But like listening to my own podcast, I guess because I talk like this on my podcast and it sounds a little different, right, So it's like.
Oh, you go into podcast mode. Yeah, yeah, I have some.
Sort of terry gross thing cooking.
Okay, okay, yeah, I'll try that. Okay, yeah, I'll do my Molly voice next time.
Well, see that, this is the kind of information that I need to cope with.
Now you have to form an alter ego.
Oh yeah, oh, like a into your podcast self a podcast the doctor Checkle and mister Hyde exactly.
Yeah.
Podcasting is just the id of every man. Every white guy in the world has a podcasting id.
This is Freud would have loved this era.
He wouldn't.
You don't have to psychoanalyze anyone anymore because they just.
Say shit, just say it.
They'll just say it.
They put it on true social like it's not fun anymore. He'd be bored.
Well, that would be counteracted by like the higher quality cocaine that we have right now compared to his era. You would also be prosecuted for feeding his children cocaine. So you know, you win some, you lose some.
You never know. Deeffrey Epsteen got away with a lot of shit, like maybe maybe Freud could have joined the club.
That's a horrifying mix of worlds that.
Tell us about this French nanasy.
Oh okay, okay, I'm just I'm starting with a bit of an introduction because this story actually.
Happens in my hometown of Utrecht.
Shit.
Yeah.
Somewhere midway through February, a message started to circulate in far right circles in the Netherlands. It originated from a group called Defense Netherlands, whom a public call to visit the AKU on the night of Thursday twenty sixth to remember Quentin killed in a cowardly manner by Antifa in Lyon earlier that month. Small side notes, all these groups are so proud of the Netherlands, but never used Dutch language. And it's huh, it's my personal pet, peeve.
Did you any English?
Yeah, they call themselves like Defend Netherlands.
Oh, it's called Defend. It's not translated. It's it's not translated.
That's so interesting I find with European Nazi groups used primarily English.
It is because it is for an American audience.
Yeah, they're trying to communicate something.
Because Americans only speak English.
Yeah, but anyway, that was the message that was circulated on Instagram and telegram. The top of the in which that was shared showed a Celtic cross, a symbol with a Christian and pagan origins but politically often used by white supremacists and neo fascist groups. At the bottom is an Italian slogan in orange letters, the national color of
the Netherlands, reading pertuti camarati kaluti presente. The slogan originates from the Italian fascist movements and means for our fallen comrades present, signaling that the fallen comrades are present in spirit. I can hear you all thinking, what the fuck has the death in France to do with the political community center in the Netherlands, because that is what accuous. It's a community center. There's concerts, there's a bar, sometimes there's fundraisers.
There's nothing openness going on there, but lots of more left leaning people visit there, which is I think why.
It was the original target.
So but to understand how it came to be that the death of French Nazi caused threats to a Dutch bar, we'll have to explore the circumstances of the death of Quentin Drank.
Drank, you're asking the wrong crowd speaks French French.
I guess it's the hunk, like what the ei a n k e u e duhon qud.
Okay, I will I will butcher this pronunciation.
It's okay if it's an.
Yeah, exactly, it's okay.
I it's friend that money money's now going to get kicked out of Paris never again. He's a law of money.
Okay, I'll help you circumvent Dutch fees a la.
Don't worry.
But Durand Rank was a far right activist who died on February fourteenth after a violent altercation between the far right and the far left. I also want to make like a broad disclaimer regardless of where anyone listening to this stance politically, I'm still going to say this was tragic.
Quentin was only twenty three, barely an adult, and as much as his worldview and politics were vile, cruel, and pretty much everything I'm personally opposed to, it was still a son, a friend, and a family member that that's not coming home.
Yeah.
I think it's always a tragic thing for someone to get beaten to death in the street, or at least almost.
Always, almost almost always.
But you know, I'm not saying it's wrong to punch a Nazi in the face, but I think beating a young man to death is probably not necessary in this case.
Definitely, And I don't want to make it come off like this as a celebration of some sorts, because it's not.
It's a tragedy.
And as much as the world will be a better place without his politics, I still think it's within my own moral lines to say, like, fuck, it shouldn't have happened.
Yeah, And I think that's important to acknowledge upfront, because I think correct me if I'm wrong. I don't know exactly where the conversation is going, but from what I have seen in you know, following a bunch of telegram chats from Nazis all over the world. And I haven't engaged really with this story. I don't know a lot about it, but I see his name a lot, so his death has become something that isn't really about him.
It's not about the tragic death of a young man, even to the people who are celebrating his life and using his as a political tool, right it's like, it's not about the tragedy of his death for the people who would have been his friends.
No, And I think we could add some asterisks later on with friends.
Because he wasn't white, wasn't he was half I think his mother was Peruvian, half Peruvian exactly.
Yeah.
Anyway, sorry, sorry to derail me.
No, that's fine.
His death is tragic, and I think that is a much more generous read of the situation than many of his comrades would actually have.
Yeah.
And also it's like, if I'm going to celebrate it, then I'm no better than they would be, other than being on another different political aisle.
So but those two.
Things can exist at the same time. But to get back who was Quintin. He was a student at Leon University. I've read contradictory reports on what it exactly was that he studied, but it was in the general area of mathematics and data science. Around his late teens, he converted to Catholicism, and outside of his studies, he was passionate about philosophy and ethics, specifically Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint Augustine.
Those close to him who had spoken with the media and describe him as more of a buquirum than violent activist. Few quotes here to underline that he was a normal young man who had reconnected with his roots, who loved this country, his people, his civilization, his religion.
Quentin belongs to the legend. He is already a hero and a barter.
Well well, yeah.
These are the things said by the people who loved him.
This was a friend of his who spoke to the media.
Yeah, I mean, you always hear this about I mean, I don't know anything about Quentin specifically, but just because someone close to him said he was he was a nice boy, he was never violent.
You heard that about mass shooters.
Yeah, yeah, great, iss all exactly.
And apparently he was so devout in his Catholicism that he managed to convince several family members to convert, which led to him because among his own father's godfather.
Wow, if you're an adult convert, anyone can be your sponsor any other baptized Catholic adult.
Everybody can confirmed Catholic a all.
But it still feels weird to be It's like, who's going to give who presents in in that dynamic?
Or Yah, what's the Christmas dynamic?
Now?
Does he do you get do you get too?
Exactly?
Otherwise they've just shorted you right like someone else could it, any any adult Catholic could have done that, and his dad will be cashing in now exactly.
And now now it's just an equal trait, uh sort of yeah, because they have to give each other presents. The image painted have Quinta in the early days of the coverage after his death overwhelmingly.
Attempted to paint him as.
Like this devout person, as a curious bystander who was either at the wrong place at the wrong time, or ominously targeted by left wing militants. This narrative seemed to dominate until his Twitter accounts were found, so.
You already know where this is going.
Great.
One of the first posts he bade was about his support for the repeal of the Plevin and Guisa laws, which are French laws that prohibit all acaust denial, among other things. Subsequent posts throughout the following years were frequently antisemitic, racist, Islamophobic, fascist, and homophobic. There will be some quotes later on. What stood out to me most is that he seemed to
have like a very theoretical underpinning for his beliefs. This is also a recurring theme that he seemed much more ideologically constructed in his beliefs rather than your run of the mill or your proud boy who are just like straight dugs.
Essentially.
Yeah, I mean, the French really do excel at sort of academic anti semitism. He's really I mean, that's he's getting back to his French identity.
Right exactly, yeah, exactly, Unlike most French academics. Half of the things are completely impossible to understand.
So another quote from Quinn in here, a fascist is someone who supports fascism, someone who affirms the premacy of the state over the individual. He wants the state to be a regenerative force of a moral order and to unite the nation. He opposes liberalism and Marxism.
So if he hadn't had it that last caveat, it could be describing like a Stalinist, right like.
Yeah, I think that's why it was added. He just copy pasted it.
And also, by the way, those commies.
Yeah all right, yes, the anti Tanky brigade has arrived. So sometimes he would also correct others or less informed writing activists, and he said fascists and anti fascists literally have two opposing visions of society. Political violence is not unique to fascists. It is intrinsic to politics when you have a bit of character, a bit of character.
Oh well, well, yeah, that's I mean ironic, I suppose, yeah, that's one, or rather because it's not ironic.
Yeah, there is a broken clock moment in there in that, Like, political violence is not unique to fascists.
But then but they tend to use it more.
I would like you know, I was racking my brain thinking about, you know, sort of street deaths of this nature that I'm familiar with in my work about you know, white supremacist violence.
They're usually the ones doing the killing.
Sure there's political violence not unique to fascism, but they sure do love it.
Yeah, if they have embraced it.
Yeah, but when thinking about the state and then how the state itself is like a violence machine absolutely sort of.
Supports the status quo.
That's where I'm seeing the broken clock moments and yeah, good, did you notice a bolly bit about you need to have a bit of character because that also comes back
later or on the twitters. He also commented about voting for Fortress Europe, a fringe French political party led by Pierre Marie Bono that made its campaign revolve around the repeal of same sex marriage, reproduct of rights and the creation of a nationality codes and a new form of the country's population census with additional religious and ethnic related criteria. So like, already you know exactly what type of conservative
this guy was. Yeah, there were also a lot of it that sort of very racist terms against black and Muslim people, involving hearts are and words, including explicit calls from murder. He used the acronym TND, which stands for Total N Words depth.
Oh yeah, so I can kind of guess where he was hanging out online.
Oh yeah, well he's really in deep.
Well Twitter should have been enough of the red flag for that, to be honest.
Yeah, it's truated to probably you could get that whole world view just from x dot com only everything.
But he's reposting like T and D type content like this is this is not a guy who was just reading Thomas Aquinas.
No, you get what I'm saying, But no one should read Thomas Aquinas to be honest. Neither Saint Augustine. I've read both some and hypnostick. What I do find very interesting was a particular tweet in which he compared African migration to German occupation, where he expressed his preference for doughlecoselethic blondes over blacks with large nostrils and disproportionate lips. Oh that's great, and that's a very nice scrabble word for those of you that play. It's a patholatic choice
of words. It comes from nineteenth century anthropology, back when anthropology was more problematic than it is now. It's like scientific racism pretty much. It comes from cephalometry, the measuring of skulls and crania.
Yes, I love a good calaper guy.
Oology Now this was like a branching off of prenology. Okay, I dove into this because it was like, the fuck is he saying? Yeah, But essentially it was used to make different races, and of course the Aryan race was the best one.
Though les Co Sephalic refers.
Specifically to the Aryan white race. What he essentially said is that I prefer to be occupied by white people. So great guy. And then this is also how I come back to like how well read he was in this garbage, because those are not terms that you typically find when you're you're researching Nazis or like the Nazi discourse.
It almost is like an academic level of I mean, that's very French, very French.
Well, it's reminded me of like quaintance of yours, Molly Richard Spencer, who I think wants I'm not sure if I can.
Oh, he does love to let you know that he's read philosophy.
Yeah, yeah, he's not a common gutter racist. He's read papers, he's read anthropology.
We can bleep the following word out because I'm not too into like American discourse to know if I can say this, but I think at some point he referred to like people of African ancestry as or taroons.
Oh yeah, that's an.
It's a very obscure, like old racial slur. Like it's something like my great great grandparents would have.
Said, yea exactly.
Yeah, that's a fascinating Yeah. They love to flag so they have read a book.
The N word is for common racist, I know, old fashioned racist.
They genuinely do see themselves above in the hierarchy of people who say that, though like that.
With well James has half a PhD, right.
PH he had he had to drop out of his PhD program to pursue a career in professional racism.
I see. Ah, to be fair, many people in the in the PhD academia world could have done.
That, pursue a career in professional racism.
Yeah, yes, yeah, that's the thing I have observed in the academy.
I believe that instantly.
Yeah, you could argue in fact that in some disciplines have a PhD is pursuing a career in professional racism.
Now, I'm very curious as to what those disciplines are like.
In anthropology more than fifty years ago. Oh yes, oh, de definitely it would be the obvious one.
Yeah, it's as an anthropologist, Yeah, very much, very much true. I could say it's it's less bad now nowadays that it was fifty or years ago, but still there. Yeah, definitely that there's still improvements to be made. And speaking of improvements, you are the products and services that support this podcast.
God save and we're back.
So we left off with Quentin being on the twitters and saying Twitter things there, and what you will gathereds from this right now is that despite what his friends and family and fellow fascists said he was definitely not as peaceful or as harmless as they tried to portray him. In the wake of his death, he was also getting increasingly involved with far right self defense groups, among possible others, Active Club France.
Oh that's a NATTI group.
Oh yeah, you don't say, my poor philosophy student. With those people, he had regular interactions with them, also with das Leon, who provided combat trainings in a local park. Their slogans are nothing new or interesting. White people need
to defend themselves against migration and the left. What was interesting was one of these training sessions was with toy knives, where they had the practice like dueling against each other, and to everyone's surprise, Quintin managed to defeat several people because he was.
Very He's kind of a s probaty little guy.
Yeah, exactly.
He studied the way of the blade.
Blade.
Yeah, specifically.
I have not found a bench Shapiro Ninja photo of him, but it would have been appropriate.
At this point.
I'm now quoting a little bit from media parts that also the ones who unearthed a lot of his tweets. In the spring of twenty twenty five, Quentin launched a small group in Bourgeois Jalieu the ada Alo.
Bourgeois sorry to the French speakers, sounded good to me. Yeah.
On May tenth in Paris, he was photographed wearing a partially covered by a neckwarmer and participated with a small group into a neo Nazi march that was organized annually in homage to a member of the Bititanist group le'vre Francois, who died in nineteen ninety four. Alog Bourgeois also paid tribute to Jean Marie le Pin one year after the death of the founder of the National Front. They now go by the Supplement and Nacional r N. I suppose
it's a rebranding exercise. So at this point, I think amongst ourselves we can agree that he was not a particularly innocent philosopher or good hearted, saintly person. It feels much more like he was someone who acted on his beliefs, a.
Neo Nazi and someone who is a member of several violent neo Nazi organizations.
Yeah, that tends to be like a very strict causation between hanging out with those groups and being one.
And I would be very curious to know sort of what order these things happened in was his conversion to Catholicism part of his descent into these neo Nazi groups, because this is the sort of traditionalist Catholicism he was involved in. Because it looks like he was involved in Academia Christiana, which is yes, not that's not normal, that's not church, that's a Nazi group.
Definitely, in so far as I can tell, I think his conversion happened earlier.
So maybe a sincere conversion to Catholicism, but then he got involved in traditionalism, maybe as part of his entry into far right politics.
I know these things are very intertwined.
Given the like this, this Academia Christiana group was founded by one of the founders of Generation Identity, these things are overlapped completely. He wasn't just going to Catholic Church. He was going to a very extreme right wing, anti Semitic, identitarian traditionalist subgroup.
Yeah, to the Westborough Baptist Church. Pretty much.
French Catholicism.
French Catholicism.
I don't know how many groups we've insulted with that comparison. It's fine, well we'll have to have Italian.
Oh, okay, then it's goods.
But with that bit of context about like Quinton's background behind him, we're going to go to the faithful day of February twelfth when he was beaten. It was not fatally beaten, I have to say. But more on that a tiny bit later. On the day of February twelve, a French eupolemeritarian, a Palestinian woman named Rima Hassan, was giving a speech at the Leon Institute of Political Studies. Hassan is a member of the French far left party
La Force Sums French Unbowed. A counter protest was announced by the far right feminist group Nemesis, for which some fascist groups volunteer to do security at the protest.
Yeah, James, I see the look on your face. Girls can do fascism too.
Yeah, I'm sorry you get get on the train, James.
Yeah, okay, women's rights and women's wrongs.
This is the only women's wrongs I will ever support.
I am curious what neo nazi feminism looks like, because they're not just like a women's fascist group there. Yeah, e fascist feminist group. What do you think those words mean, babe? Yeah, I'm gonna find out more about on my own time.
Yeah, yes, this is going to be her money's evening gets logged in.
Now, yeah, I can give you some pointers.
I'm familiar with women doing fascist organizing, but it's usually in sort of a very confined sure to a traditional female role.
Yeah, so what are fascist feminists?
It was like the cession feminina of Francoist if if that's any indication, but maybe so.
Yeah, he was just being a gentleman providing security for these girl boss Nazis.
Pretty much. There is a very girl boss photo I found.
I'll pull it up in a bit, but yeah, they are identitarian air quotes feminists who blame all sexual violence on people of color and Muslims.
Here it is okay, great, Yeah, we knew this was coming.
I bet there are white boyfriends never never miss never.
They respect to women depending on her race.
And her politics. Of course.
In the Beauty of the White Arian Woman, James Please.
Founder and frequent guest on various French writing platforms, Alice Cordier was the one who founded this collective. They seem to have like a few hundred people in the collective, but like a very small inner circle of.
Like twelve people.
And Alice Cordier was already at the center of a controversy.
On March tenth this year.
Journalist Ricardo Pereira pushed a photo on Twitter of Alice mimicking an ass As symbol with her hands. And in this photo she's together with former Lyon Populaire member who is allegedly now fighting with the ass of a battalion in Ukraine.
Wow, it's all coming together.
Yeah, exactly.
So this is Alice doing an As symbol with her hands.
Oh yeah, exactly at her Okay, yeah, yeah, Wow.
That looks very intentional.
This doesn't seem like a gesture you would make by accident.
M Alice Cordier based question, what does this sign mean?
Exactly?
And just because we were talking about the girl Boss, can.
You see it?
Oh wow yeah, oh wow, okay, well well they are Wow what a vibe.
Yeah, definitely girl bosses.
Mm hm.
They have pant suit fascism.
Business casual fascism for the woman in the workplace.
Wow. Yeah, it's the other pantsuit nation.
Yeah, an all white pantsuit nation.
Yeah yeah yeah, although.
Two of those women don't actually look Anglo Saxon.
It's it's so interesting to me.
That's something for the French to figure out French identity and national identity is different.
It's more immigrants. Your grandparents were fine.
Yeah, ladder up exactly, but now now it's starting to punch down on the other people who've had We don't have the opportunity use my parents had.
Yeah, not a phenomenon that's unique to France.
Oh no, No, I mean.
Settler colonial country of the United States.
French and colonialism, James. Really no, they never would do that. Not the French in all those places were parts of France.
They're not still doing that.
No.
I think al Cheers would like to have a word with.
You, Molly. That was Alice from a like the Nemesis Collective.
Yeah, that's a collection of my nemesies now, yeah, like.
That is the name I used when I was fourteen and I had to make up a character name when I was playing video games or something.
It's like, it's not original.
Yeah, it is extremely teenage.
Like Angel of Darkness, levels of cringe, something like that.
Yeah. But what I found.
Most frightening about these people, though, is they seem to be incredibly media sevy and cunning as a group. And to give you an example, in twenty twenty four, several members of this group infiltrated an anti far right protest in Paris. They had brought slogans highlighting legal convictions or trials from several high profile far left French politicians. This includes Jean Luca Malechon, who was convicted of inciting rebellion or revolution in twenty nineteen.
That that's for the CP right, there.
A thing for the French to make it illegal.
That one cool thing we did, we'll noble do it again, never again.
Yeah, yeah, the best thing about France pulling the old ladder up behind them again.
Exactly like there's no return to tradition if that's the thing you're going to make illegal.
And I thought these guys were traditionalists.
Exactly like same with the Dutch. We can't do it anymore, but I think back in the seventeen hundreds we literally clubbed some high functionary to death and ate him and his brother.
We can't do it anymore, but we.
Can't do it any just because of woke, because of exactly this is the this is the one.
Dutch tradition I foolheartedly support.
If you're upset with your elected of now well elected air quotes, because I don't think they were elected. Then now you know, some casual cannibalism might just do the trick.
Well, if you guys bring back clubbing out of control elected officials, we could look the other way on some of your more questionable Christmas traditions.
Oh, I know, if we could. That's not a Christmas tradition.
But I know what you mean.
I don't think I'm going to look the other way on that one. No, okay, it's the chimney sweep, guys, It's just a chimney sweep. It's fine.
Yeah, that's uh.
This what's called an Easter egg for listeners. You can google that in your own time.
Don't google it.
Yeah, you're going to see some racist ship.
Back to this guy getting beaten to death, not to death, just being beaten.
He did die.
He did die, but apparently where everyone had flat he refused to go to the hospital despite several non activist bystanders like emphasiatic like hey, you should go to the hospital, and he did not. He walked for at least one and a half kilometers like a little more than a mile for the Americans, thank you, and he then collapsed and he was in a coma for two days in the hospital and then on Valentine's Day he died.
That's a real bummer.
So yeah, and that's also why I'm going to say, like that he wasn't fatally beaten, because I don't know if well.
So, I mean, at least an American law, he did die of injuries inflicted from that beating, So you would say the people who inflicted that beating on him did cause his death. Yeah, So, I mean under American law, like if you get shot today and you die from a disability from that shooting ten years from now, you were murdered.
Yeah. I hated that. I'm surprised by this.
Because you would not be dead but for those injuries. If he had not been hit in the head, he would not have died.
Indeed, you can, in fact, not be the person doing the shooting and still be chiged for murder in the US as someone.
And that's a different road.
The felony, the falony murder problem is is very serious here. But but no, I mean, he would not have died had he not been beaten. So he was beaten to death, It's just that it would It is perhaps possible that he could have survived had he attempted to survive.
I don't know if he would have survived if he had got it's called an ambulance straight after.
That's the other thing.
That's the other thing is if he had that, if he had that much probably intracranial bleeding that he collapsed pretty soon afterwards.
He may have died regardless.
Well never know, probably right, but I would say he was fatally beaten because he would not have died if the beating, at least under American under American law, that would be the case.
I don't know about in France.
It's probably worth noting that. Like the American phenomenon of not wanting to go in an ambulance to hospital because you know that you will have life altering medical bills like this is, believe me, as someone who did not grow up in the United States and now lives here, is a unique and quite disturbing character trait of people living in the United States, Like because people are thinking like yeah, like I personally have not gotten an ambiance
when I should have done in the United States because I knew that I wouldn't be able to pay the bills.
Oh, if I'm conscious and able to walk on my own t feet.
I'm not getting a.
Yeah, this is just just so people understand that this is not a thing that people tend to do as much, at least not for that reason in Europe.
He just don't want to be a pussy. I guess, I don't know.
I can also imagine that maybe, like after authorities were alerted, that maybe he would have been visited by police in the hospital due to the fight.
Right because he was involved in a conflict.
Yes, and I have some photos later on, like images taken by I think a journalist where you just see the black leads like fascists, with like iron bars in their hands and everything. So I would say that the self defense motive is very indefensible. You know what, let's take an ad break.
You know who who won't beat you to death with a bar?
To death with a bar allegedly.
I'm pretty sure none of their advertisers have ever beaten someone to death with a pipe.
H oh No, I can't guarantee that.
Ye a mining company, who can serve they.
Will not beat you the listener to death?
Probably I was about to plug the Washington Highway state patrol, but I'm not sure if I can. They can get to be in the Netherlands some safe and we're back unbeaten with iron bars. So when we left off, we were supposed to talk about more about nemesis, so we'll
continue there. Yeah, they were carrying slogans with like accusations and trials of like left prominent left wing politicians, but they had them covered up with like regular so at some point they unfilled their actual slogans and they repeatedly chanted to the crowd of anti far right protesters, you're not feminists. This action only took about two minutes, a combination of chance being sped on and the general hostility that I imagine followed very quickly.
I'm feeling in general hostility and I'm not even there no.
Now what you've seen the Girl Boss photo now, so you know why. Yeah, that's why you feel hostile. Maybe it's just the pantsuits. Those two minutes were enough though, because they had the content and the images that they were after. They also brought bodyguard to protect them, which again it's this this saviness and this this cunningness that I said earlier, Like they know they're going to be provoked and possibly attacked, so they're already preemptively bringing bodyguards.
Well, they're not going to be provoked. They were going there to the provoking. Yea, they went.
They went to someone else's rally to do a provocative stunt. Yeah, and so they It makes sense, you'd I was going to if I was going to cause problems on purpose, I'll bring your bodyguard.
Okay, okay, I'll make sure to watch out for you if you ever bring a bodyguard and I see you.
But yeah, those two minutes they proved enough.
They had the content and the images they were after, which were quickly published by far right magazines. Social media accounts for members of the Collective were later interviewed by c News, and Cordier herself was hosted on europe One. Both of these stations are owned by Vincente Bolour, who is sort of rupert murdering portions of the French media ecosystem. So again not surprising to anyone, I suppose, and in so far as I can tell, this is also nemesis
preferred method of getting attention. Their modus operandi, the big high visibility locations or events where they provoke their opponents through their messaging and when confronted by people opposing their racism and their views.
They'll play the victim cards, classic maneuver.
Yeah exactly, Yeah, and it's.
The best way to get positive attention while not actually having enough numbers to hold your own rally that anyone would notice.
Exactly.
But again, coming back to this, this feels much more sefy and thought out than Oh.
Absolutely it's a clever strategy.
But it's like the media keeps falling for it, Like you don't have to interview the head of this little Nazi group just because they put on a nice outfit.
It's the Richard Spencer problem all over again.
Yeah, just because they dress nice doesn't mean just because he owns a little suit jacket.
Now, this is why I don't owe any suits. Look, I'm just to avoid being associated. In November twenty nineteen, they infiltrated the Paris March against Sexual and Gender based Violence and then they brandish science referring to foreign rapists.
I hate these women.
Yeah, you'd have to have a woman on so that we could so someone can say, ex ore dumb bitches.
It's legal for me to say.
Yes.
In hindsight, I'm very glad that you're here to say those of all because I won't talk about women's wrongs, but you can which I mean, it's just.
It's so cynical and so nasty to show up to an anti rape march to displace the blame for sexual violence onto immigrants, to just like yeah, ooh, gross gross.
Yeah, that's that's like ninety percent of right wing politics at the moment.
Right, But for the women themselves to be doing because you see men do it all the time, but these women know better because I can see you at least half of those women have been sexually assaulted and it probably wasn't by an immigrant, like you know better, you know better.
Let's call it yay, says she She suffered from a sexual assault by immigrants, but there's no way to prove it because it was allegedly when she was thirteen or fourteen. So it's just this after the fact justification that you can't prove or disprove either way. And even if we were going to say, okay, you know what, we'll take that doargumented face value, I won't.
That is your prerogative.
No, I just you see, it reminds meds me so much of this this funny little you know, Nazi con artist that was She testified in the Oklahoma City Trials.
She had this like her origin story.
Was like, oh, like I became a racist because I was listening to racist radio shows while I was recovering. Because I was attacked by a gang of black teenagers and I broke my legs. She broke her legs because she got drunk at the park and she jumped off a giant Crucidex set up for a passion place. Okay, Okay, so this whole like my origin story is like I was assaulted by a gang of like people of color.
Like, I don't believe you anyway completely valid.
But what I meant to say is like, even if that were true, that no argument to like generalize that to an entire population.
No, or just show up to the anti rape march to cause a scene. Girl go home.
Yeah, you'd think, Yeah, if you've been subject to sexual assault, you would want to be in solidarity with other people, maybe make sexually assaults stop happening, like period, not focus on a subset of human beings.
But James, what you're forgetting there is that sexual violence is okay if it's done by white people.
Okay according to Nemesis.
And in a biblical way. You know, within the bounds of marriage.
Yeah, in the holy bounds of matrimony. So yeah, what this group essentially does is they tie feminism or their brand of it. Yeah, thank you for the air quotes. Yeah, they tie it to their nationalism. But they focus solely on sexual violence, and even then only the violence that is connected to like migrants.
So it's no feminism at all. It's just it's a lie.
You won't be surprised that they're awfully silent about equal pay or abortion rights.
Well, I imagine they're probably anti abortion. How did you.
Guess that, Boy, It depends who's getting the abortion.
I would assume I will send them like an email to ask for a verific a specify I need more coverage. That's the way we should respond to this exactly. And I want to know which abortions are okay and which are not so I can.
Accurately make a herrowing story of it.
Anyway, this exploitation of women's issues by right groups to proliferate their bullshit worldview and pull people in is called femo nationalism. It was coined by the British sociologist Sarah R. Ferris in twenty seventeen, which might be a broader topic worth exploring in the future.
Yeah, I'm very interested, you doo.
People have been complaining that I never talk about we're little girls.
Well now you can, Elies Cordier, here you go for now.
It is love to see this what they're doing as some sort of bucked up arranged the marriage of feminism and ethnic nationalism that views gender issues explicitly.
Through the lens of ethnicity.
Yeah, and as I said before, they're notably very quiet on bodily autonomy, workplace equality, equal opportunity, abortion, and maternity care.
So like actual sort of safety and well being and equality for women, the things that I think of as feminism.
Yeah.
Yeah, like the maternity care was like that sprung out to be because like in.
My feminism, I don't die in childbirth because it's woke.
They want to return to tradition and have thirty percent of job as result in one one or other party dying.
Ah, great stuff, it's beautiful. Yeah.
I guess if you were trying to invent feminism but the only text you had is the fourteen words, this is what you would get.
You had a dictionary with the word feminism and the fourteen words, and that was all he had to go.
David Lane, famous feminist.
Yeah, I guarantee you that Alice Cordier has said the fourteen words on probably multiple occasions. It's a garbage group of people, and I hope they have to hiccups the rest of their life.
Oh that's hurtful. I like that.
Yeah, it's a pretty good one.
And with that, that is the end of part one. If you'd like to find out more about Quentin and various other French fascists, please join us again tomorrow.
It Could Happen Here is a production of cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website coolzonmedia dot com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever.
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