Yuga Labs’ most renowned NFT package includes allegedly racist and white nationalist emblems, according to a new video.
The argument over whether Yuga Labs’ flagship Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) non-fungible token (NFT) series incorporates racist symbolism and white supremacist occultism has been reignited by a film posted by analytical YouTuber Philip Rusnack, also known as ‘Philion.’
Rusnack laid out his argument in an hour-long video posted to YouTube on June 20. He said that BAYC is “one giant alt-right internal joke” that uses terminology, emblems, and images from the secret imageboard website 4chan.
He said that the NFT graphics contained racist stereotypes of black and Asian people and drew parallels between Yuga Labs and the BAYC’s symbolism and vocabulary and those of the Nazis.
For the scenario, a popular example cited by proponents of the allegations compares the BAYC insignia to the Nazi Totenkopf symbol used by the SS Panzer Division during WWII.
Rusnack delivers a call to action at the end of the clip, urging his audience to push BAYC NFT owners to “burn” their tokens by sending them to a useless and unsalvageable digital wallet.
“I want every actor, athlete, and influencer worldwide to burn their f*cking ape.” I’d like to make one of these.
Artist Ryder Ripps presented a compendium of what he thinks is proof of Nazi imagery and racism in early 2022, and the charges of racial symbolism within the gathering became a major subject on social media this year.
Ripps purchased the domain gordongoner.com, which is the same anonymous moniker used by Yuga Labs co-founder Wylie Aronow to operate a website devoted to occult symbology. The movie goes over the data Rusnack gathered and Ripps’ study.
In the video, Rusnack claims there’s a “point at which these parallels are no longer happenstance,” trying to add:
“You might think to yourself, ‘I see that, but it’s a stretch,’ if I bring up one case demonstrating intentional Nazi, fascist, or alt-right propaganda.’ So, what is your phone number? When do all of these instances in front of your eyes become crystal clear?”
Yuga Labs reacted to some accusations without explicitly addressing the topic, writing in January that apes were used because many in cryptocurrency allude to themselves as such. Probably about the crypto-slang term “ape in,” which refers to someone who invests extensively in coins or ventures without doing any prior study.
Yuga Labs explained why they selected a skull for the BAYC logo, saying the objective was to create the “club” look “ramshackle and divey.”
“We chose an ape head to symbolize how tired these monkeys are—they’re “bored to death.'”
Mark Pitcavage, a senior scientist scholar at the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) Center on Extremism and a well-known radicalization analyst, said in a February discussion with input that he saw no link between the logo and the Totenkopf, telling:
“The Nazi Totenkopf is a highly distinctive graphic art of a skull and crossbones, and the monkey skull has no resemblance to it other than to the extent that all skulls bear some resemblance to each other.”
Pitcavage ultimately agreed, though, that some NFT qualities and characteristics were troublesome, such as the “hip hop” feature with a gold chain and the “sushi chef headband,” both of which are caricatures of Black culture and a Japanese person.
However, Pitcavage and another ADL scientist, Carla Hill, agreed that Ripps’ findings do not lead to a particular group of radicals.
Ripps has been accused of using his compiled research to promote his own BAYC clone NFT library, “RR/BAYC,” which includes over 6,000 NFTs based on the classic collection.
The collection, according to Ripps, is a parody and a protest meant to teach kids about the BAYC’s suspected extremist affiliations. These assertions, on the other hand, do not provide a counter-argument to Ripps’ assertions.
Leave a Reply