Is She to Blame?
Sarah Palin on Friday posted a tweet containing a phrase that has very strong white supremacist ties. It turns out, the website that published the article she linked to is more to blame than she is, but why she chose to post it is a valid question.
“Trump Gives Speech to the People of Poland, Says 14 Words That Leave Americans Stunned,” Palin tweeted, with a link to a far right wing website, Young Conservatives, from which she regularly posts links.Â
Twitter saw “14 words” and many understandably freaked out.
Why?
Here’s what “14 words,” or just “14” means to white supremacists:Â “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”
Yup, pretty nasty – in fact, filthy and disgusting – neo-Nazi dogwhistle stuff.
“The term reflects the primary white supremacist worldview in the late 20th and early 21st centuries: that unless immediate action is taken, the white race is doomed to extinction by an alleged ‘rising tide of color’ purportedly controlled and manipulated by Jews,” the Anti-Defamation League notes on its website.
Here’s how some responded:
MSNBC’s Chris Hayes references another white supremacist dog whistle, “88”:
“88” is shorthand for “Heil Hitler,” the ADL also notes, “H” being the eighth letter of the alphabet.
Others made this observation:
Some more responses, some of which Raw Story also noted:
The Daily Beast’s Ben Collins:
An AV Club writer:
More:
The Daily Beast’s Andrew Kirell has the scoop on what happened, reporting, “the answer for her social-media captions more realistically lies in the Young Conservative website’s backend.”
Kirell adds, “one astute Twitter user pointed out that the manually selected Facebook caption—which automatically comes up when a user clicks the ‘Share’ button on YoungCon’s website—contains the ’14 words’ reference.”
Here’s the screenshot of the article’s source code.
The Daily Beast adds that the “article’s author, Warner Todd Huston, is a contributor to Breitbart, the self-proclaimed ‘platform for the alt-right‘ once led by current top White House strategist Steve Bannon.”
So, the question becomes, first, why didn’t Palin think before posting – it’s her brand, her name, in every tweet she posts. She’s responsible for what she’s saying.
And second, why did the Young Conservatives website have a white supremacist (and click-baity) phrase in its social sharing code?
Who knows, but here’s screenshot of a Young Conservatives article from December:
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