On Wednesday’s “Full Frontal,” Samantha Bee read highlighted parts of the book, Devil’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Storming of the Presidency, by Bloomberg Businessweek reporter Joshua Green which talks about Bannon’s rise to President Donald Trump’s administration.
“This is the true story of how Steve Bannon brought the alt-right into our world,” Bee said. “Like a reverse Buffy standing at hell-mouth going, ‘Come on in, demons!’”
Bannon apparently first learned the power of internet trolls in 2005, when he encountered the online gaming community while working for a company that employed “low-wage Chinese workers” to play “World of Warcraft” and win in-game gold that they could then sell back to players for real money.
“They had enough power that they basically ruined Bannon’s business,” according to Green in the extract that Bee highlighted. “But the lesson he took away from that was that these rootless white males who spend all their time online actually had what he told me was, quote, ‘monster power’ to go out there and effect change”.
“Unleashing monsters! That never goes wrong,” Bee quipped.
Once Bannon took over the far-right site Breitbart, Bee said he courted that same audience, which she referred to as “penis goblins,” as “he set about turbo-charing the website’s white populist agenda and ‘fuck everyone’ attitude.”
“Meanwhile, his beloved penis goblins had discovered a cool, new multiplayer game ― coordinated rape threats,” Bee said. “So many rape threats! Honestly, I don’t even know when they found time to play video games anymore.”