Oct. 17—The “North Atlantic Fellas Organization” (NAFO) functions as a “public-private” adjunct in NATO’s social media operations. But the narrative is that a bunch of “good ole boys” who love democracy and hate Russian autocracy are just harnessing their social media skills to troll, harass, and otherwise do their keyboard warfare thing against anything that deviates from the “destroy Russia” mission. It all supposedly started with a Polish Twitter user, one Kamil Dyszewski, using a catchy Shiba Inu avatar.
That narrative took a hit last week with the exposure of Dyszewski as a raving Nazi anti-Semite. Dyszewski’s tweets featured praise of Hitler and other infamous Nazis and racialist attacks on Jews. However, a history of vile tweets and snide jokes about genocide was bad enough, but the online defenses of Dyszewski’s past may be as bad or worse. First, Dyszewski, who has since locked his Twitter account (@Kama_Kamilia), explained his Nazi postings:
“So as is the tradition. These very helpful individuals have combed through my timeline and found some overly edgy and incredibly inappropriate ‘jokes’ I’ve made couple of years back, to fit in, just so I can mess with people further. None of those are acceptable, and they do not represent me as a person. Some of you have grown to know me better over the last few months, and understand that I don’t believe, endorse, or support any of the views represented in those ‘jokes’. NAFO is a welcoming and inclusive community. Everybody is welcome… And no one is judged by their race, creed or beliefs. I hope that you understand, and that we can all move on together.”
On his account, he had a need to “fit in” with Nazi elements. So, if it wasn’t his real thoughts, then it would appear he was recruiting online Nazis to his operation. But has his supposed fooling of the online Nazis resulted in exposing his current neo-Nazi operation? Indeed not. His NAFO operation aggressively undermines anyone inside or outside of Ukraine who works for peace, sending its internet warriors out to swarm contrary messages. It also raises funds for Ukrainian militias. Further, were it actually the case that he was just fitting in, “just so I can mess with people further,” how is his present explanation not just messing with people further?
However, the string of online comments defending Dyszewski indicate his collaborators either:
have their own neo-Nazi pasts, which they excuse as youthful excesses. One supporter, finding that Dyszewski was only 24 when his Nazi postings were made, pronounces that as ancient history—but, in fact, it was two years ago. (Not so ancient, but importantly, it indicates that he was building his neo-Nazi network in 2020.) Or,
excuse his Nazi rantings on account of all his excellent internet war-fighting since then.
So, the cover narrative has got mud all over it.
More material to come will address what NAFO really is.
