The “Reddit Rambo Brigade” has moved from r/VolunteersForUkraine to r/VolunteersForYemen after a member of their forums posted the following graph:
The graph shows that while only a few dozen children have been killed in Ukraine, hundreds of thousands have been killed in Yemen. Users began posting images of the devastation in Yemen, showing that it is much more extreme and brutal than anything happening in the former USSR.
Articles about hospitals and aid convoys being deliberately bombed were also shared.
“How did I not know about this?”, one user asked, adding, “I was led to believe that the Ukraine war was the first war on the earth since the end of World War II.”
The r/VolunteersForUkraine forum appeared to reach unanimous consensus that they were more needed in Yemen than in the Ukraine.
However, the move supporting the Houthis in Yemen over the Ukraine was quickly denounced as “anti-Semitic terrorism” by the media and lawmakers.
“We appear to be witnessing an anti-Semitic terrorist movement building on reddit as we speak,” said Jake Tapper of CNN. “This is another harsh reminder of the suffering of the Jews during the Holocaust.”
“It’s time to shut these people down,” said Senator Ted Cruz. “There is no room in this country for anti-Semitism. These people are no different than the terrorists who attacked our Capitol on January 6, and they should be treated the same – locked up without trial in a political prison in DC.”
Senator Lindsey Graham went so far as to call for targeted assassinations of the mods of r/VolunteersForYemen, and called for NATO airstrikes on the reddit corporate headquarters in San Francisco.
“We are sworn to protect our allies in Israel. I took an oath,” Graham told Fox News’ Sean Hannity. Graham did not elaborate on what oath to Israel he was referring to, and Hannity did not ask about it.
Liz Cheney retweeted a clip of Graham calling for NATO strikes on the reddit HQ, adding the hashtag “#NoPlaceForHate.”
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appeared on Fox News to declare that “reddit would not dare to make such bold moves against our ally Israel under Donald Trump.”
Pompeo fell short of calling for NATO strikes against the reddit HQ, but suggested that the CIA could do targeted assassinations, saying “our intelligence services have a million different ways to take out terrorists without involving NATO.”
Shortly after the threats from various government officials of a tactical strike against reddit, the r/VolunteersForYemen was banned from the site, with the company issuing a statement saying that they “despise anti-Semitism in all its manifestations, and will continue to oppose hateful and terroristic content on our platform.”
The reddit group was also banned from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Gettr. Uber and Airbnb also announced that they would deny service to anyone known to be involved with r/VolunteersForYemen.
Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt went on CNN to say that the bans were not enough, and that the US must further strengthen domestic terrorism laws to prevent groups like r/VolunteersForYemen from organizing international terrorism in the United States.
“Those who would organize anti-Semitic international terrorism domestically deserve more than bans,” Greenblatt told CNN. “It’s time for the Biden Administration to act decisively against this rising anti-Semitic terror threat.”