>>>>> EDIT: Click here for our usual sticky: the Fully Sourced Executive Summary of Pizzagate Evidence <<<<<
Why we are not advertising either of the Pizzagate Protests
This post began as a reply to @sound_of_silence, who created a graphic and asked that we post it to help publicize the two upcoming protests. After much discussion among the mods, we have decided not to, and have removed the March 25 poster from the sidebar as well. Hopefully, you can suspend your disbelief for a bit and hear what I am about to say.
Because v/pizzagate has sort of become the "newspaper of record" documenting the Pizzagate investigation during a time where just about every other site has completely shut down discussion, it is really important that we protect the continued existence of the forum -- especially from the sort of legal action that has shut down other sites. To that end, we have a responsibility to point out potential threats we see that could harm users or Voat itself. So please weigh the following with an open mind...
Problems with the March 18th protest at Beyond Borders Haiti
When we first considered promoting this event, we were surprised that someone would plan an additional protest a week prior to the one that had already been on the books for a while.
- Why split the potential crowd and media coverage between two events?
- Why go to all the trouble and expense to fund, permit, and promote two separate events?
- Why risk causing conflict between pizzagate investigators, and the plentiful troll-fuel it would generate?
This last question was particularly apropos, as this just happened to come to our attention in the midst of a concentrated, organized effort to ban prolific pizzagate investigators on Twitter, Reddit and systematically defame and undermine some of the most popular pizzagate "broadcasters."
So, I looked at the organizer's twitter stream and saw this exchange: https://twitter.com/Charyoutree19/status/838543624509980672. From the permit, it looks like he wants to protest at Beyond Borders Haiti for three hours before marching:
"The demonstration will begin in front of Beyond Borders located at 5016 Connecticut Ave NW and after a three hour protest there, we will march to the Whitehouse elipse . My permit for this event was approved by National Parks Services on 3-3-2017. Protest will end at dusk."
That seems like an awfully long time to have an upset, frustrated crowd stand outside a charity to call them out as pedophiles, rapists and slavers -- plenty of time for Antifa types to rain down mayhem and start fights as happened recently at UCBerkeley and during the election at Trump rallies.
Given the popularity of Based Stick Man in the past couple of weeks, the odds of violence have intensified. Why set up a situation conducive to it? Why pick such a confrontational location and stay there so long?
Well, my tour of his social media accounts revealed Mr. Gallant not only has an eye for cool graphics, but a taste for aggression.
He uses some fairly dark/threatening artwork, and calls his group "The Anti-Pedo League". Here's a darker poster of the event.
When I did this research March 6, the background photo of his Twitter profile was this picture -- kids with falcons backed up by a posse of gunslingers, implying a pack of killers -- from a graphic novel by Stephen King. Since mod @wecanhelp posted about the concerns we had, it has been completely removed from Gallant's Twitter media, though the theme of armed resistance remains.
Don't get me wrong -- I frankly think the kids with falcons image ought to be the official Poster of Pizzagate. It's cool AF and captures the feeling many of us have, the same spirit that made Based Stick Man go viral. That is fine for a meme, a tweet, a Facebook post, street art, etc. But the combined effect of the time in front of Beyond Borders plus the use of militant imagery to promote and set the tone for the event is problematic.
Especially in light of what the supposed DHS Insider told Victurus Libertas on March 5:
Q. Will it get bloody?
A. Lets just say its flag weather.
From what I can tell, Mr. Gallant is a decent guy who simply couldn't sit on his hands anymore. I am not trying to throw shade on his character. I DO wish to remind people of the big picture:
-
The Clinton Cabal and Soros-funded Antifa have a history of manipulating rallies in order to incite violence
-
The Comet Ping Pong shooter was likely a false flag, and we are again in "flag weather" according to supposed insiders
-
That incident has been used to debunk and suppress the pizzagate investigation ever since
-
The violence-loving deep state operatives who we believe started and maintain the trafficking rings are skilled manipulators capable of LARPing on made up sites, any of the sites we use as sources, or fooling the investigators who run them.
Then there was this language, also in the permit:
I, Erik Gallant of Jackson MI, aided by a handful of dedicated others, have been the hub of this movement of concerned citizens from all over the U.S. and abroad who have pitched in their efforts to make this demonstration a reality, working hard day and night pushing our campaign on various online platforms
Given the emphasis on himself, his requests for money, his cool looking but dangerous imagery and melodramatic organization name (superheroes like the Justice League?) I am not confident Mr. Gallant would necessarily recognize if he were being manipulated.
Imagine the effect of turning this rally into a Berkeley-type riot. It would not only impact March 18, it would likely completely shut down the originally planned rally on March 25. Were we to advertise it here, we might subject Voat and v/pizzagate to increased vulnerability to censorship through legal action.
Problem with the March 25 protest
Today we became aware that the March 25 protest, which will feature Titus Frost and David Seaman, also features a guy named David Surter who purports to be a Satanic Ritual Abuse survivor and the Anti-Christ (and is selling his book about it). From a post by @WolvesandSheeple:
In this Youtube Video. He goes on a 10 minute long rant talking about how he was raised to be the antichrist and put a curse on several people, including Johnny Depp. He also claims that the second coming of Christ or some otherworldly event will take place within two weeks, because he can "feel it." This man is one of the advertised speakers, and a [member of the "steering committee"](https://youtu.be/FmoUwySslaA at the second march on the 25th. Take a look at his "official" website as well: David Shurter
It is unclear how significant Surter's role will be. This protest lacks the confrontational nature of the March 18 event. It will be at Laffayette Park, a neutral location, and they are not promoting the event with imagery glorifying vigilante justice. They have raised most of their $10,000 goal. They plan to feed protestors, listen to speakers, and have an open mike. They also have security. For these reasons, we have much fewer concerns about this event being a manipulated.
To be fair, however, we removed the poster for it in the sidebar.
We are not saying stay away from these protests, or that the organizers are shills. People need to weigh that issue for themselves.
But please be aware of the issues we've pointed out. Despite the risk of unleashing a shitstorm and triggering everyone, I could not in good conscience allow these issues to go unremarked. Please be cautious if you attend the protest. We have to look out for each other, because the pitfalls are many.
view the rest of the comments →
VieBleu ago
Good Interviews From Today's Protest #1
A lot of people didn't show up but this interview was conducted fairly and shows the level of total ignorance of the average Joe citizen regarding pedogate. Still the pedogate spokespeople were well spoken and answered all the regular questions about isn't this debunked in the media, if there were something to it the police would investigate, etc type questions.
If you facebook it would be nice to comment and give these independent reporters some props or criticism, whichever you feel.
At least they showed up and asked questions which puts them ahead of 95% of all media today and the PTB here at voat.
Start at about 7:45
https://www.facebook.com/N2Sreports/videos/vb.426269657480929/1338412416266644/?type=2&theater
IN MY OPINION, THESE INTERVIEWS WEIGH IN ON THE SIDE THAT THESE PROTESTORS ARE HONEST ACTORS. THEY ARE COURAGEOUS TYPES WHO PUT THEIR BEST FOOT FORWARD. BRAVO TO THESE GENTLEMEN AND LADIES
Vindicator ago
I agree. I felt much better after watching Neal Wolf, the March 25th organizer, talking to people. He was the guy in the orange jacket. He was calm, straightforward, persistent, and patient, even when being laughed at and intimidated. He just kept calling them out on their 'smirking' and repeating his message to investigate. And he had brochures with pictures. Wish he'd skipped the "hotard" intsa, though. That is easily interpreted as not referring to the child.
VieBleu ago
@Vindicator This submission still active after hours https://voat.co/v/pizzagate/1729679 (Today's March - What A Scam!) should be removed as it is absolutely unsupported by any factual evidence.
Misleading, inaccurate title alone should be grounds for moderation.. I pinged earlier about this and no one responded as per usual these days.
Vindicator ago
See the reply I just made to your comment in that thread. Unfortunately for us mods, the protests and our various attempts to raise awareness of potential manipulation in light of Vault7 and "DHS Insider" leaks raised a fresh army of zombie shills. Mods have been hard pressed to keep up with shitposts on NEW, and answer questions from legit users trying to figure out how to make their removed posts comply with submission guidelines. Inboxes are overflowing. Sometimes it takes a few days for us to get to them all.
Camping out in comments telling mods they suck and narking on users whose sourced opinion you don't like in order to try to get it removed is petty, rude, unhelpful and makes you look like a shill trying to hurt the morale of a group already struggling in that department. I've half a mind to organize a mod vacation for a week and let you enjoy what this subverse would be like if we let the ShareBlue snakes run wild. We could use a damn vacation.
VieBleu ago
You could have answered regarding what you started the conversation about
Title: Today's Protest - What A Scam!
is a misleading title on a post that should be flaired at least for accuracy.
Of course you change the subect. Thanks for proving my point..
Perhaps if you al lhad not removed - without notification or comment - the 100 comments in subverse rule which buffered shills from running wild YOU WOULDN'T BE SO OVERRUN WITH SHILLS.
Do you have anyone amongst all of you that can think little things like that through?
Vindicator ago
Are you retarded VieBlue, or just entitled and arrogant? Do you not know that all the active mods here were users just like everyone else? We have no control whatsoever over the development side of Voat. Literally, none. You are a poisonous person, as anyone reading through your comment history will immediately see.
You want opinions and comments you don't like banned. You call people whom you disagree with shills. You make unsourced accusations constantly and seek out disgruntled users in an attempt to undermine this community. And you pose as someone who cares about pizzagate. You lack grace, discernment, respect for others and magnanimity. You have tantrums when your bitching isn't responded to as quickly as you like.
If you think it's so shitty here, why don't you go? No one will miss your negative, destructive commentary.
VieBleu ago
But this - Why we are not advertising either of the Pizzagate Protests on March 18 or 25th - is so positive and constructive, right?
I am just willing to say directly to you what others will not. Thanks for sharing my comment history btw, I am very proud of it -, that's why I don't use different names. Can all of you mods say the same?
But you do have control over community annoucements and you should have told everyone this was happeneing. you still do nothing to inform people about a very important component of the forum, and are deaf and dumb to the obvious problems it presents. You have total control over all of that, and yet for days and days it is not addressed.
I didn't understand when I first came here that this was a total free speech forum, because the people here did NOTHING to prepare any information or direction. Thus I wrongly assumed that like most forums bigotry, racism and homophobia and also vigilante justice would be grounds for removal of posts. Once I was rudely schooled by Crensch and KevDude who are both universally reviled as you are well aware, I never asked for any deletion of posts or comments again. So you are bringing up an issue that happened months ago at this point and is not relevant. Also I never asked for banning, so that is a lie.
This is not true. I call shills shills. I have had civil disagreements with many people and am known for not being vulgar.
This is a lie
I don't seek anyone out, we bump into each other all the time just by being here. And nothing undermines the community more than every misstep or planned move made to weaken it such as your demoralizing sticky post bashing the protest movement, taking away the 100 subverse comment points, and the constantly terrible modding that happens here.
I have been extremely graceful under the pressure here but you guys expect people to kowtow to you when you complain constantly about your jobs, your lack of pay, your lack of vacations, how hard it is for any of you to make a decision, how you have no power to do anything, how terrible people are to you and on and on and on. Everything except just moderate reasonably. I am discerning, I am capable and I have been way too nice as have many others.
Prove this because I have no idea what you are talking about. I never expect to see you guys do much of anything ever.
Because pizzagate/pedogate is important, this place needs a watchdog, and every time mods turn a trusting and naive person who comes here to help into a calloused and angry fighter, like YinYangMom today as just one example, or nosy, a journalist, or many many others, someone has to be around to help them understand the duplicity they've experienced. If you shape up, fine. You'll see a difference in me. So consider me a reflection of your ugly actions, you being every single mod that does not commit to moving this forum forward. That's why.
I would like to say that as far as free speech goes, Voat does seem to stick to that principle no matter what. I find the goings on of Voat management to be really reprehensible in many ways, but I am given the opportunity to dissent vociferously. That makes us, for better or worse, a community with at least one underlying priniciple. I have to give this website thanks and props for that.