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Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 26, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Does anyone have any thoughts on “day of hate”? Might make post about it this week

Near as I can tell, the original source is this Telegram post. Some nobody with virtually no engagement. Their group's only sign of real-life activity is a banner drop done by 2 people. I found dozens of channels with hundreds to thousands of times the exposure mocking it as an obvious fed trap, and zero promoting it. Looks to me like the usual batch of activist groups lifted this out of obscurity to scare people, promote themselves, and get more donations. Oh, and also waste a ton of law enforcement time chasing ghosts and protecting things that were never threatened.

The Counter Extremism Project is responsible for pulling it out of obscurity. What’s so odd (telling?) is that nobody really wants to link this back to them. This is billionaire Thomas Kaplan’s project. The reason for this spectacle is to reinforce the idea of Jewish victimhood status. Now, Kaplan has funding ties to ultra-orthodox yeshivas and rabbis. Bear with me on this leap: the reason for this spectacle is to increase the funding allocation for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program. This is a 200mil slush fund for nonprofits to increase their “security”, broadly defined, and Jewish groups want to increase it to 400mil. Since 2010 (when the fund was smaller), up to 97% of all funds went to Jewish groups — I have read numbers indicating 75% or 97% depending on year.

So it’s… actually much more nefarious. Like something out of James Bond. A billionaire mining magnet, who has previously bet his money on war with Iran (sacrificing thousands of American lives), and who funds actually racist ultra orthodox groups, has created (out of thin air!) a national spectacle involving a day of hate. Now, sure, it’s obvious stereotype of a gold-investing billionaire able to control the media like a puppet master and thanos snap his finger into existence more than 120,000 tweets on his day of hoax… but this is essentially what happened. And all for a nefarious end.