An exposé of /r/consumeproduct (repost from Google Docs)

Brief history and overview of consumeproduct

Consumeproduct is a subreddit created 9 months ago which today has a little more than 60 thousand subscribers. Its self-reported mission is simply quoted as: “Don't ask questions just consume product and get excited for next products”.

We consider consumeproduct to be a fascist subreddit and will delve into this shortly. But first, there have been people, both in good and bad faith, that feel this subreddit is not entirely fascistic yet, or that it didn't start out that way. We will dispel their concerns right now.

ConProd was started by a user called Herr_Teapot, whose account has been suspended since then. While we can't see his comments directly, we can google him: just search for site:reddit.com “herr_teapot”. From this query we see participation in ZweiRama (an inflammatory subreddit whose references to Germany, culminating in “This sub is a big cope, welcome to the 4th reich”, are dogwhistles), and he himself links to a post by another of his (suspended) alts, Mister_Teapot. Most telling is this comment:

If you've never heard of CWW, it was a short-lived alt-right subreddit banned about a year ago, which took from two alt-right meme sources: clown world and the race war. There are some examples of content in this post.

There are currently 30 mods on consumeproduct, of which several have no karma, meaning they are most likely alts in case someone gets their account suspended. The two top mods have also been suspended, which makes Happybillmoney the current top mod of the subreddit. We'll focus on the mods with the most karma and most activity for this article due to length and clarity.

Elvis_Interstellar links to his own political compass results, which place him as a hard fascist: http://archive.is/wip/qmObx

Happybillmoney, the current top mod, is probably the one trying the most to keep the subreddit toeing the good side of the line so that his sub doesn't get banned, though it doesn't really hide his affiliations well: here for example (“it's just a joke why are you triggered”), or here (“the left is cucked and effeminate”). He also moderates r/soylentcentral, a dead subreddit which, however, doesn't hide its reactionary stance (especially the creator of the subreddit, whom happybillmoney is happy to co-mod with).

armaliteisforever moderates a transphobic subreddit which we won't link here; it has 48 subscribers and he's the only active poster with an alt. He also made this comment that echoes traditional fascist myths, i.e. being gay is bad and weak; my enemies are gay therefore bad and weak. There is also a clumsy argument about the LGBT being pedophiles tacked on at the end, which is not a new disinformation campaign from the alt-right, but it's something they've been ramping up recently.

(Update June 3rd: armaliteisforever has been suspended and so have his alts that also moderate conprod, such as u/armaliteisyourfren and u/armsrlite4u).

u/discotekastrobia53 is not really hiding his affiliations with over 26% of his comments made in r/reclassified. Just an example. (“They just want to protect their borders”)

u/Primary_List participates in r/shitneoconssay, which describes itself as such:

> Neoconservatism, the intellectual basis for most modern “conservative” movements and political parties, is a uniquely evil ideology that exists only to feed globalism, imperialism, corporate profits, state power, capitalism, consumerism, the 0.1%, and Israel, while sucking up nationalist/anti-left votes to prevent any real progress from being made. This is a place for us to expose and ridicule neocons, on Reddit, from around the web, and in real life.

This is the subreddit for fascists who find Trump is not extremist enough.

Most of their participation (56% of their comments) remains in r/politicalcompassmemes, which includes posts such as this: http://archive.is/wip/nmXpe. Note the unspecified “auth” flair, which is often used by fascists to avoid using auth-right, allowing them to mask their true ideology.

u/AnotherSaxon (note the name; only traditionalist, fascist types actually call themselves Saxons) also participates in r/shitneoconssay, with over 26% of their comments made there. We also note 28 comments in r/tuckercarlson and 17 in r/altunitedkingdom.

u/real_JeffreyEpstein, the latest mod, has a libright flair on r/politicalcompassmemes, said “I love Stonetoss” (archive), and moderates subreddits such as r/WatchRedditDie or the same transphobic sub armalite used to moderate too.

This is not by chance.

Moderators can be added by anyone that has the appropriate permission (currently all mods except u/indigo_wizard64). They have been selected because they espouse fascist and reactionary views. The way Reddit works, mods can remove anyone below them but they can't remove anyone above them in the list. As u/happybillmoney is the top mod at this time, he has the power to remove all mods and reform the subreddit if he chose to.

As moderators are the only ones that can remove comments and ban people in their communities, they are the ones who decide which community they want. The observation: the moderators of r/consumeproduct will not ban their anti-Semitic, reactionary userbase because they themselves are anti-Semitic reactionaries. This is the community they want and cater to.

ConProd was never meant to be a “generally anti-consumption” subreddit; it's another recruitment ground for their movement. It's the entry point before they move further down the pipeline and start browsing /pol/ or other “mid-level” fascist sites (the “end-level” websites are the invite-only forums and boards). This also puts a rest to the rumours that it started out with noble intentions but was hijacked by neo-nazis.

Fascist rhetoric

Fascists learn to be good at toeing the line just right so that they can dodge, pivot, and retort. While on the surface ConProd is unique in its anti-consumerism angle, in the end it always returns to the same talking points that are popular with fascists: anti-Semitism, transphobia, and racism in general. White supremacy is also part of it but they've learned to hide it better. There cannot be anti-Semitism without supremacy after all.

Likewise, this angle of anti-consumerism allows them to lure in unsuspecting normies, people who aren't yet down the alt-right rabbithole, and propagandize them. It's not really different from what r/frenworld was doing (of which we still have examples online after their ban); there were people who thought it was a cute subreddit for sharing pictures of a meme frog, and who thought the people who were openly anti-semitic or racist were a minority, or dealt with —– you can still find some of them in the link above.

To be clear, fascism, as a reactionary ideology, is incapable of evolving, reforming, or reinventing. It will always propagate the same message, only in different ways. For example, Nazis used to call people “untermensch”, or inferior people. Today, alt-righters call you “cuck” on Reddit. In both cases, the point is to make themselves superior to you: the words have changed but the mission hasn't.

Below we've categorized their values, which we'll exemplify in chapter 3.

If you are a regular of consumeproduct but not a fascist, this isn't about you. We're not targeting you. Please leave that sub while you still have your critical thinking skills.

Anti-porn and the traditional family

They have a very strong anti-porn sentiment, perhaps even stronger than anything else listed above. When people rushed in to defend conprod, this was the first thing they pointed out about their subreddit. Of course, as we'll see in chapter 3, these anti-porn beliefs come from an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that, basically, Jews don't want you to have white kids so that the white race dies. Yeah, here's an interesting article about that.

They dislike porn because it distracts you from having (white) children, and the only way they can imagine having children is with the nuclear family, a form of family that has existed only for the past 70 years. For most of human history, familial structures took on various forms but polygamy was the norm. Some cultures adopted children from their siblings in various ways, and the most ancient form of the family was the polyamorous family. The author above didn't live to see the nuclear family, but he wrote about the monogamous family. The nuclear family is different in that the unit is the mother, father, and children (the erasure of LGBT structures was on purpose at the time).

The grandparents, the uncles and aunts, the cousins, are not part of this unit. It used to be, before that structure, that whole families would live under the same roof or in the same neighbourhood. What the nuclear family did was break those links, allowing families to move across the country for work (i.e. reinforcing the capitalist system: it's easier to move if you only have your spouse and kids to take with), remove the respect, influence, and power whole families could have in their towns in favour of capital, and on a more consumerist aspect, push people to purchase/rent their own homes (it was also a time of great economic growth after WW2).

Yet this is supposed to be the traditional unit to reactionaries. This is because in this form of the family, women are subservient to men and have no agency. Women got a lot of independence when they fought for (and received) the privilege to have a career — this meant divorcing their abusive husband was now viable and possible.

Interestingly, we find roots to this conspiracy in Nazi Germany and even earlier. Hitler for example called Madison Grant's The Passing of the Great Race his “bible”; this book published in 1916 pushes the narrative of the great replacement conspiracy theory, which the alt-right today has brought up again in full force.

Fascists haven't invented anything new; they build the exact same house again but paint the exterior a different shade to claim they've done something unique.

Anti-consumer angle

It shouldn't feel strange then to find out that their anti-consumerism mission is actually an anti-consumer one. Fascism is closely tied to power in more ways than one. Fascists need to be powerful (as they are the rightful masters of the world), and one way to feel powerful is by undermining and humiliating other people. This is why most posts on conprod are making fun of people for enjoying things (when they're not trying to clumsily equate being trans to being a “consoomer”).

In a broader aspect, we could say conprod is about the anti-consumption of values. The overarching theme one will notice when browsing that subreddit for some time is that users mock values they don't identify with (or think of as inferior). They target values associated with “liberals”, such as LGBT inclusivity, supporting immigration, tolerance and diversity, etc.

There is of course nothing inherently wrong with criticising consumerism (and you shouldn't think of dogwhistles and fascism when you hear critiques of consumerism). But conprod is wielding it not as an honest, serious critique but as a recruitment tool and, generally, yet another way to spread their bigotry on public platforms. As we said, they equate being trans to consumerism, which allows them to shield and defend their transphobia.

Where are the posts against unethical advertising practices (like neuromarketing)? The comments against the imperialism capitalists inflict just so they can sell their products (banana republics, coca-cola death squads)? Spend a short time browsing their front page and you'll see it's about making fun of people who are different, and yelling at corporations that try to represent said people. Rainbow capitalism is not liberating, but they're not taking on rainbow capitalism, they're taking on companies that caters to people they don't like.

Hypocrisy in anti-consumerism

It's also a very hypocritical take for various reasons, but fascists are not really concerned about being hypocritical — their goal is to demean you, they will use anything they can against you, even if they have to lie. Indeed, these people obviously consume too. They spend a lot of time on a subreddit dedicated to anti-consumption. They, of course, buy groceries and are subjected to advertising. Don't think the 50k+ members of that subreddit are all ascetics living on the bare minimums. They consume just as much as you, if not more, but you'll be their target because you like something that they see as beneath them (for some reason it's Marvel specifically that gets their wrath).

Anti-Semitism

And of course no fascist subreddit is complete without anti-Semitism. This is actually the unifying value of conprod, that ultimately created and sustains this subreddit. We talked about the family, here is an openly anti-Semitic post about it (archive) — the comments are interesting too. Another post about consuming media (archive) (also look at the top comment). There will be more examples at the end of chapter 3.

In short, for everything that they criticize, it will always boil down to anti-Semitism. They only hide it to various degrees.

Examples of content

AHS has been compiling things they'd rather have forgotten for some time now: https://www.reddit.com/r/AgainstHateSubreddits/search/?q=consumeproduct&includeover18=on&restrict_sr=on&t=all&sort=new

You can also google site:reddit.com/r/consumeproduct “word” (replace word with dogwhistles or other alt-right terms but keep the quotes, such as “goyim”, “cuck”, “tradition”) and come across tons of content.

For this exposé, we won't do what AHS did because it's all there already. Rather we'll select the best examples we've come across and explain them thoroughly.

We've also noticed several regulars on conprod who also regularly post to r/teenagers. While they're not the subject of this exposé, it's important to remember that there are teens on that subreddit who are still finding themselves; they are the perfect prey for the alt-right.

To illustrate that point, here is an apparent distancing from mass shooter white supremacists from 7 days ago : https://np.reddit.com/r/ConsumeProduct/comments/gmn6jz/thisishowrconsumeproductradicalizes_fascist/ (archive) (887 karma, 7 days ago). The idea is to pretend conprod is not a fascist subreddit, therefore people who attack it are wrong and shouldn't be taken seriously. As we'll see in the coming paragraphs, conprod is anything but.

Remember that any time a fascist committed a mass shooting, other fascists rushed to the media (including the BBC platforming one) to disavow the shooting, while they were praising them on /pol/ and other alt-right platforms (and even Facebook groups). There are teens and young adults being radicalized by fascists on the Internet to the point that they purchase weapons and kill innocent people randomly, but apparently it's not anyone's fault and nothing can be done to prevent this. It's a paradox, and we can of course point to specific people and influences (per shooters' manifestos, for example).

Have children, slave! https://np.reddit.com/r/ConsumeProduct/comments/gqtqju/theresmoretolifethanhavingkids/ (archive) (681 karma, 1 day ago). This is essentially what we were saying about the Jews not wanting you to have children. Being anti-consumerism also means you have to have children? The two are of course not directly connected, unless you think like a fascist. Jews want you to consume to detract you from the real world surrounding you, and they also don't want you to have children so the white race dies. Then it all makes sense... if you don't think too much about it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ConsumeProduct/comments/goelio/consoomjunkfood/ (archive). It should strike you how dehumanizing this meme is, for all three characters involved — which is projection from the author. The takeaway is that being fit (and attractive to men) is the only way for women to be confident in life. Billy only exists as a burn victim to be inspired, and the strawwoman on the right only exists to reinforce stereotypes that are neither new nor original about overweight and obese people. Most interesting is the deliberate juxtaposition of the two, as if one cannot exist without the other.

What's interesting is that there are rightful criticisms of the body positive movement as pushed by corporations. Yet where are the conprod regulars fighting against Dove for not including neurodivergent or disabled people in their ads? Probably too busy trying to abort their neurodivergent kids (archive). Where are the conprod users promoting body acceptance, such as on r/BodyAcceptance?

Being trans is consuming apparently? For unknown reasons, conprod really really hates trans people. Here's one of their top posts. While we could be lenient on the topical nature of the meme (since GoT is a world-famous show on TV), it's interesting that they chose this specific caricature to criticize. The character in the show is royalty, so anyone could be criticized for relating to her. Yet they picked a caricatured trans person specifically. The link between earning a queen and being trans has not been explained in the comments.

Another of their top posts. AHS has many more examples of transphobic content.

The bigger problem is that they've never really justified how trans issues are consumerism and how the two intersect. Yet, transphobia is very, very popular in alt-right and other reactionary circles, down to the caricatures and jokes they make about them. These two circles, r/consumeproduct and the alt-right, do intersect.

Only monogamous divorceless marriages allowed! Everything else is degen— consumption! (archive) (non-paywalled article). This is a great example of our section on the nuclear family. We're talking about one author and professor who made one book which contains one section about this so-called cheat pass, but apparently that's enough to rile them up. Nobody is forcing you at gunpoint to give your spouse a cheat pass (which the author says, is an agreement that one or both of you can sleep with someone else, without repercussions). It's interesting that these superior specimens who are above mindless consumerism try hard to shoehorn polygamous relationships as consumerism. Yet when monogamous marriages and the nuclear family was also forced as the norm (the clergy, the neoliberal establishment, parliaments and laws, all participated in making monogamy the only recognized and viable form of a relationship), and today still they've internalized this idea, this is not consumerism? They're hypocrites and don't care about that.

And of course in the comments they completely misunderstand relationships other than monogamous, so that they can attack strawmen and justify their anger. Someone linked the European Jewish Parliament's wikipedia page and said “you're too blue-pilled to get it” to a confused onlooker. Someone else posted a reaction image of an SS Soldier saying “how compelling, please face the wall now”, claiming he “got so much mileage out of it [he] keeps it open in another tab all the time”. A third one said “Let's destabilize the family unit in preparation for the new world order and global government.”. A fourth one, talking about interracial porn, called a woman a coal-burner.

While this post in particular (archive) hasn't garnered much attention yet, “reject modernity, embrace tradition” is not an innocuous phrase: it's an alt-right meme. It's all over conprod, especially after the nationwide BLM protests erupted (also the title of the post, based on “The Jewish Question” is not innocent either). The top comment at this time, “Minecraft updates and the new biomes have been a disaster for the human race.” is based on the Unabomber's manifesto (replace with Industrial Revolution). This feeling is echoed in one of their top posts of all time (archive), for example.

We were speaking of porn in chapter 2. Interestingly, conprod is also vehemently against sex workers (archive) (one of the top posts). Yet being pro-sexworkers is compatible with being anti-pornography, and one should understand how people are attracted or forced into sex work to form a basis for their arguments, ultimately finding a solution that will progress society. However, conprod decided to stop at their base instincts and prefer to decry sex workers as whores. They are incapable of evolving their stance as they are reactionaries; for all their talk of Aryan women, Nazis still institutionalised forced prostitution in their concentration camps. The rules don't apply to “good-standing” women, i.e. white daughters. There is a contradiction here, in that everyone is someone's daughter — therefore their dream of making women subservient to their husband but not letting their own daughter be used is impossible in their dream society.

And finally the anti-Semitism. There is so much of it it's difficult to pick. Just google “goyim” in your search, “oy vey” or just “Jews”.

They're not even hiding it any more (archive). Note that Christians for Truth is a known fascist organisation, the category on their website for their articles about Jewish people is named “Hidden Hand”.

This thread was deleted (archive) but the answers are fully masks off (even linking to eurofolk radio, the dogwhistle couldn't be clearer). It's no surprise that the overtly anti-Semitic posts get removed, as the moderators don't want their subreddit to be banned for it. Since they believe Jews run the world, they think Reddit is also controlled by them and so they have to be watchful of anti-Semitic posts, more so than the other posts which we've linked before.

This picture was also deleted but the comments couldn't be clearer.

The comments in here didn't even need some goading for the mask to slip off.

This article was written before the BLM protests across the United States. Since then r/consumeproduct has gone full mask off, and we'll probably add examples here as they develop.

How it ties in with antifascism

As an antifascist, it's important to familiarize yourself with fascist tactics: how they debate, how they recruit, the propaganda they use (and how to argue against it), the dogwhistles they use, and where they meet. To that end we've also prepared resources to learn about fascism.

Fascists are taking the recruitment online. It's well-known that they target disenfranchised, alienated teens; in online video games for example, where they make guilds or teams. Consumeproduct is part of this agenda; as we said in the introduction, conprod places itself as the first step in the alt-right pipeline

It's important to educate yourself on these fascist tactics, and ask yourself what you can do to help. As antifa is simply antifascist activism, you have a whole panoply of tools at your disposal: you can make a group with like-minded friends to monitor fascist activity online, you can create a subreddit, you can powerwash hate graffiti in your neighbourhood, you can attend protest marches... the list is endless. Ask online if you're out of ideas or don't know where to start!

Fascism is not a dead ideology. It would be a grave mistake to think that. There are, at this moment, thousands of people in the US alone trying to revive an ethnostate, and they've shown that they'll do this by any means necessary. There are fascists in almost every country in the world, with varying power and notoriety. They are fighting for what they believe in; are you?

How it ties in with stonetoss

Conprod, for some reason, loves Stonetoss. His comics often get posted as they are released, even when they have nothing to do with consumerism. He gets discussed there like people on r/pics discuss their hometown and what they like about it. In other words, conprod has become a part of his network, you have on that sub a portion of fans who get his new comics through r/consumeproduct only.

Here is someone asking what the new comic (archive) is about, and people help out. Which also means OP is a regular fan of stonetoss.

In this thread (archive) they're congratulating anti-stonetoss subs for telling them when a new comic comes out (130 points) and thanking AHS for introducing them to new based subs (85 points).

The one comic they love is of course this one (archive) because they can meme it for anything they don't approve of. In the same vein here (archive) they refer to the comic, with someone calling stonetoss a “visionary”, and another linking to a Swedish Jewish family's Wikipedia page.

Again, you can google site:reddit.com/r/consumeproduct “stonetoss” to find out more.

What to do

Not much. They'll get themselves banned for stupid shit like they always do; r/stonetoss got banned for recreating a banned subreddit, r/frenworld was banned for going masks off, and r/cringeanarchy was banned after being quarantined, not cleaning up their subreddit, and actually going after the admins.

But you can report rule-breaking content if you go on there (though why would you?), and especially watch out for harassment. They've been known for harassing users directly for example (so if you're harassed look for a coordinated effort and report it anyway).

It should be noted that one of their mods was having a personal crusade against r/antifastonetoss and one of our mods specifically, claiming that we're trying to get their sub banned. We're not trying anything, we don't have to. They'll slip up themselves, and they already have several times in various ways.

Of course fascists will lie to undermine their enemies and their peers will gladly join in; this is perhaps the most important lesson to take home: fascists lie. It's what they do. A debate to them is about looking strong — it's how they recruit impressionable, lonely, teens as it speaks to them.

We previously made a callout post on conprod before this exposé, here: https://www.reddit.com/r/antifastonetoss/comments/gm11uo/awordon_consumeproduct/, and we've left the comments up because they're a great look into how fascists “debate”. Not once has there been an actual defense of what conprod does, or taking on the arguments laid out in the post. Rather, they deflected criticisms, pivoted, and attacked the author on ad hominems. “Oh you say we're fascists but everyone is a fascist to you antifa huh?” is not a rebuttal, because even if that were true, it doesn't make the argument invalid.