A fog has settled over the Gray Zone.
Through Max, the son of Clinton member Sidney Blumenthal, the nominally leftist is popular in some circles, with nearly a fraction of a million fans on social media.
Their stories have been retweeted through celebrities, and Blumenthal recently drew attention for asking questions of U. S. officials about the refusal to label Israeli movements in Gaza as genocide.
But they and Blumenthal have complained that he has helped spread disinformation about Syria, Ukraine and China.
Although its founders have some progressive beliefs, such as Palestinian rights, their authoritarian bent has been felt for years.
It has followed positions consistent with those of the Assad regime, Vladimir Putin, and CCP officials.
These dictatorial regimes seem to appreciate the efforts of the Gray Zone. One of his articles quoted a Chinese government official denying that the country had committed crimes against the Uyghurs. Over the summer, Blumenthal spoke at the United Nations Security Council to denounce U. S. aid to Ukraine.
And its shift to the right, with its founder embracing and appearing alongside politicians and influencers in the movement, is an example of a fledgling movement of leftists turning to the right.
In a recent article, “Losing the Plot: The ‘Leftists’ Who Turn Right,” Kathryn Joyce and Jeff Sharlet point to “the rabbit hole of a Manichean anti-imperialism, in which the enemy of my enemy is my friend” as creating an opening for those who seemingly despise right-wing perspectives rather than embrace them.
In recent years, this proclivity has become more pronounced. The war in Ukraine, COVID-19, the Trump years, the rise of LGBTQ rights, and the 2020 election has led to an ascension of reactionary figures who, for different reasons, share with the Grayzone the common enemy of U.S. hegemonic power and groupthink from more mainstream Democrats and Republicans.
This introduces new allies, new audiences, and assertiveness online, and has led Blumenthal to rub shoulders with right-wing figures, embrace the anti-vaccine cause, and defend a credible aggressor.
And it erupted with a fight between partners on the site.
The drama became public in October, when Blumenthal and former co-editor Benjamin Norton traded insults and accusations online.
“Why did I leave The Grayzone? Because it’s run by a volatile megamaniac with no coherent principles,” Norton tweeted on Oct. 4. “He has taken a radical turn to the right, looking deliberately pleasing to Trump’s ‘MAGA’ supporters.
Norton went on to accuse Blumenthal, along with his wife and fellow Grayzone writer Anya Parampil, of moving to the right in an appeal to supporters of former President Donald Trump.
He continued, accusing them of dining with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, insulting the left broadly, and being self-aggrandizing “opportunist contrarians.”
Blumenthal fought back.
In a lengthy tweet he claimed Norton, a supporter of vaccines, did not leave the Grayzone last year but was in fact fired for publicly criticizing his colleagues anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine stances, which Blumenthal referred to as “jab mandates.”
He went on to accuse Norton of moral and contractual violations, adding that he misled Patreon investors and stole social media login credentials for Grayzone and “Moderate Rebels,” their joint series of podcasts and presentations.
Blumenthal concluded by attaching a February 2022 cease-and-desist letter stating that Norton had been fired last month over allegations of “inappropriate and inflammatory social media posts similar to those of his colleagues at Grayzone in violation of the agreement” and “for neglecting for an extended era of time to carry out his general painting duties. “
The letter goes on to accuse Norton of taking Moderate Rebels and unilaterally rebranding it “Multipolarista.”
This ended the risk of legal action if, among other things, the main login points were returned to Grayzone.
Norton admitted to “signing the legal terms of termination” with Blumenthal, but went on to state, “I had created social media accounts for a podcast that we co-hosted but that I only produced, edited, and promoted; I’ve controlled those accounts and have never had access to them. So, being the bully that he is, he used some of his vast wealth to hire a corporate lawyer to capture them, ridiculously claiming that I had “stolen” accounts. that he had never had access to, that I had created and that I had controlled myself.
Blumenthal called him a “scoundrel. “
“In more than two decades in independent media, I have not worked with a more cowardly and unethical scoundrel than Ben. When arriving in a new country to take advantage of the goodwill of its hosts, citizens will need to be warned that a criminal spirit lurks among them,” Blumenthal tweeted.
The standoff had been leaking privately for some time, with Blumenthal sharing a video of a bitter argument on a public bus in Nicaragua that allegedly took place earlier in the year.
Blumenthal posted a recording of the incident during their online feud, claiming he confronted Norton for violating their mediation agreement. The video shows Blumenthal tossing accusations at a seated Norton who is shielded by a man and woman who Blumenthal claims are his twin brother and girlfriend.
“Can you tell the leaders of the moderate rebels why you stole my account?How much you stole from me, because we had a fifty-fifty deal,” Blumenthal says.
“That’s a lie,” Norton replies.
“You have stolen tens of thousands from me,” Blumenthal continued.
The video shows Parampil taunting Norton for hiding his brother. Norton is angry and turns off the camera angrily as Blumenthal says, “You’re a white-collar criminal, you’re guilty of computer fraud, you deserve to be in jail. “Jackson Hinkle was right, everything he said about you was true.
The reference to Hinkle is indicative of the policy update in Blumenthal and Grayzone.
Hinkle, a right-wing online influencer who drew attention for dating a Russian beauty pageant star with a history of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, is also a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump and Putin.
Recently banned from YouTube, he had said in the past: “I do everything I can to have influence. You’ll never see me do anything without influence. That’s the only way I operate. “
When Blumenthal issued the cease-and-desist letter, Hinkle celebrated Norton by calling him a “criminal” and an “idiot” in one tweet and accusing him once again of protecting a known Russian fascist in another.
Blumenthal and Hinkle had spoken at a rally in February denouncing the U. S. in Ukraine.
Eclectic attendees included conspiracy theorists, famous fascist agitators, USSR nostalgics and celebrants of far-right violence. At one point, Hinkle called an interlocutor a “fucking whore. “
But this is not Blumenthal’s first right-wing protest action.
In March 2022, he gave a speech at an anti-vaccine mask rally that prompted him to shout, “They, anti-vaxxers, anti-maskers, trucker, fascist, traitor, look at Tucker, trucker, fascist, Tucker’s lover, anti. “”Vaxxer, anti-masker, all your insults are lost, everything is mixed into one, the same, the same war, the same war.
Parampil also spoke at the rally. There she sang the praises of Scott Ritter, a convicted sex offender and former UN weapons inspector who criticized the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to speak today, but I just need to point out that more than anyone else on this stage, Scott is someone who knows what it’s like to threaten and lose everything and he did it to stand up to the most important humanitarian rights. The disaster so far this century is the war in Iraq. So thank you Scott.
He then attacked transgender people, which he did recently on social media.
“I think it’s wonderful that other people can come together and talk about spaces that they don’t agree on. And we can debate whether teenage females deserve to share locker rooms or compete in track and field and boxing versus biological males or not. time.
His tweets also lend credence to Norton’s claim that the couple is dating Carlson.
In the past, Parampil gave the impression of appearing at Carlson’s previous appearance on Fox News, where she was greeted as “one of our favorite guests. “
In a tweet announcing his new book, Parampil thanked his “friends” Oliver Stone, Francisco Rodriguez, Roger Waters, and Carlson.
In another, about his “Corporate Coup,” he said, “Tucker helped me do my reporting, and this is possible. “
“Tucker is 1 million times more of an upstanding character-& more personally likeable-than 90% of the insecure, careerist, & socially toxic ‘leftists’ I’ve known,” she tweeted.
A leftist appearing in Carlson’s exhibit is rarely very, very well-rounded, as the former Fox host has pushed right-wing critiques that, at first glance, might seem aligned with a segment of anti-imperialists. But Carlson is rarely the only standout. right-wing figure they have supported.
When far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) snapped a photo with anti-war activists from Code Pink, praising their protest of U. S. investment in Ukraine, Parampil retweeted the photo with “Based MTG. “
Blumenthal also praised him, writing, “This is the kind of unity that terrorizes the American state of war. “
These are the only numbers Blumenthal defends.
Recently, he joined Russell Brand’s defense, which is dominated by the far-right. An extensive investigation reported that Brand had been accused of rape and sexual assault. Blumenthal defended him with conspiratorial rhetoric.
“If Russell Brand had made the required celebrity pilgrimage to Zelensky and kept quiet about covidians, he would have dodged this bullet. Whatever the merits of the allegations, they are obvious,” he tweeted, seeming to insinuate that the reports influenced left-wing agendas.
Blumenthal’s march right has affected staffing at the Grayzone. Recently he brought aboard Liam Cosgrove, a reporter whose credits include the Federalist and Zero Hedge.
Thus far, Cosgrove has done two stories for the publication, both critical of U.S. support for Ukraine. He also once called the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act as, “a key piece in the arsenal for U.S. intelligence agencies’ war on free speech.”
Blumenthal, Norton and Parampil responded to requests for comment.
For his part, Norton now operates a so-called Geo Political Economy Report, formerly Multipolarist.
He features paintings about his contributions to Grayzone.
Blumenthal, meanwhile, continues to push a once-progressive right into the arms of a new far-right and far-left movement that could, in the coming years, grow in size, scope, and influence.