#2895: Tim Gionet

A.k.a. Baked Alaska

A.k.a. Tim Treadstone

 

Anthime ‘Tim’ Gionet, popularly known as Baked Alaska, is an alt-right media personality, influencer, troll and promoter of neo-Nazi nonsense – including neo-Nazi slogans and photoshopped images of people he doesn’t like in gas chambers – and anti-semitic conspiracy theories. Although he has a long history of being banned from social media (from Twitter in 2017 for violating its hateful conduct policy, and from YouTube in 2020 for a video of him harassing store workers over a face mask requirement), Elon Musk reinstated his Twitter account in 2022 – it quickly got suspended again, though, prompting Gionet to assert that now he knows “what it’s like to go thru the holocaust”.

 

Gionet started his online career as a writer for BuzzFeed, and would early on trade in “parody” and “ironic” “jokes” with racist, conspiratorial and Nazi content; at some point, the ironic distance collapsed and Gionet underwent a process of radicalization culminating in his participation in the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville – Gionet held a speaking slot – and, subsequently, the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. On social media, Gionet is best known for various gonzo stunts and delusional viral campaigns, but also famous for his often spectacular own goals (his livestreamed videos from January 6 were e.g. used by the FBI to identify other participants).

 

Gionet has views on Jewish people (“I was JQ’d long ago — pay attention!”). For instance, “Jews do control the news”, which is demonstrated by the fact that Gionet can’t spout anti-semitic conspiracy theories or call for genocide without someone criticizing him. Indeed, evidence of the Jewish conspiracy are everywhere: for instance, in 2016 “Trump got 304 electoral votes”, is the “45th President of the USA” and “saved 800 jobs from Carrier”, and “304 ✖️45➕800 = 14,880”, which “really makes you think” – 1488 is a number of apparent significance in neo-Nazi circles; and though it is not the most idiotic part of Gionet’s reasoning, it is worth pointing out, if you didn’t notice, that his math is wrong as well. And although Gionet is an ardent fan of Trump (Trump himself signed Gionet’s arm next to where he had Trump’s face tattooed), he isn’t necessarily a fan of all of Trump’s associates – he has for instance tweeted cartoonish images depicting Trump-associate and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, who is Jewish, in a gas chamber.

 

Of course, Gionet has views on race issues in general, a mainstay being attempts to interpret anything having to do with the topic of racism as being an attempt to commit or justify “white genocide” and chanting things like “You will not replace us”, “White Lives Matter” and “I’m proud to be white” at various protests such as the Charlotteville Unite the Right rally. Following Roy Moore’s loss in 2017, Gionet urged white people to have more children and “form some sort of coalition” because white people are “the ones that are picking the right people” (the loss was apparently a “blacklash” against MAGA, and also “maybe women shouldn’t vote”). In 2018, he supported Paul Nehlen’s congressional campaign.

 

At the beginning of 2019, Gionet claimed to have changed his views and ways and tried to rebrand himself by condemning alt-right nonsense, but he quickly allowed himself to be sucked back in, professing his adherence to Groyper ‘ideology’ and posting videos of himself harassing bystanders and doing stupid stuff, ending in a new string of own-goals as well as an assault charge. Of course, his waffling has drawn some criticism from other wingnut groups; Jim Hoft of the Gateway Pundit, for instance, which has relentlessly pushed false flag conspiracy theories about the January 6 insurrection, accused Gionet of being an undercover federal agent at the event who deliberately sought to incite violence to frame Trump and his allies; Gionet, in turn, responded, predictably, by accusing Hoft of working for Biden and being a pedophile.

 

There’s a decent Tim Gionet resource here.

 

Diagnosis: A crazy, dysfunctional but apparently central node in the chaotic network of nonsense hate and conspiracy theories that is the current wingnut fringe. And though he is a champion of neo-Nazi conspiracy theores and white supremacy, the characterization by a former employer of his may be apt: “I don’t think Tim believes in anything. I think Tim just wants someone to love him.”

 

Hat-tip: Rationalwiki