Oregon Ranching Standoff Militia Protest

A tense standoff at an Oregon wildlife center led by armed, primarily white, antigovernment protesters captivated social media on Sunday as users alternately debated their motives and ridiculed them.

It began on Saturday when the group took control of the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in southern Oregon to protest the jail sentences of two men who set fire to federal land.

The occupiers were led by Ammon Bundy, whose father, Cliven Bundy, made national headlines for a tense encounter with law enforcement in a similar dispute in 2014.

While news organizations were initially using #OregonUnderAttack to talk about the standoff, Twitter users started using some less neutral terms to refer to the "militia." The primary hashtag Twitter users began employing was #YallQaeda, clearly likening the Oregon group to Al Qaeda.

While #YallQaeda has been used intermittently since at least 2011 to refer to various right-wing, Tea Party, or other antigovernment groups, it caught fire with users commenting on the Oregon standoff. It is currently trending with over 35,000 tweets so far.

If we're not reoccupying the land tonight, blockade #YallQaeda and let 'em go Galt Donner Party style — Noel, Joyeux (@NoelAbstract) January 3, 2016

Whoever coined #YallQaeda for the Oregon militia can just take the rest of the week off. — Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) January 3, 2016

So some religious militants took over some territory, threaten violence, and are calling for like-minded believers to join them. #YallQaeda — ⓉⒶⒷ (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ (@tabatkins) January 3, 2016

Every successful revolution starts with takeover of closed visitor center with gift shop. #OregonUnderAttack #YallQaeda — Lars Petticord (@fatdownjacket) January 3, 2016

Then some users added #YeeHawd and took it to another level:

Story continues

#YallQaeda waging #YeeHawd on America and we're still calling it a "peaceful protest." It's domestic terrorism and we need to shut it down. — John Hulsey (@JohnHulsey) January 3, 2016

After that, the terrorism-related puns really took off. The next biggest was #VanillaISIS, which some users have been using over the last month to refer to Donald Trump and his supporters, following "Daily Show" host Trevor Noah's dubbing of Trump as "White ISIS" or "WHISIS."

#YallQaeda vs. "Vanilla Isis" - so hard to choose — Carolyn Kellogg (@paperhaus) January 3, 2016

Currently #YallQaeda is engaged in an act of #YeeHawd in rural Oregon in defense of arsonists. If successfully they will get 72 strippers. — Blake (@cbwhitson83) January 4, 2016

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