In his article for Spectator USA last week entitled ‘In 2018 America, everybody you don’t like is “extremist”’, John R. Schindler wrote of the Proud Boys:

‘While it has been portrayed by the media as the current era’s Sturmabteilung, it’s difficult to see how any actual right-wing extremists could take the Proud Boys seriously. Their Fred Perry polo shirt uniform screams preppy, while their obsession with ‘no fap’ (Google is your friend here) as a core group value bespeaks adolescence more than Waffen-SS.’

A few days later, we received an email from Matthew Plummer, the Community Manager of NoFap, LLC, with the subject line: ‘Libelous association between our website and a violent far-right organization’. The message reads:

‘Hello,

‘It has come to our attention that an article published on your website draws a highly libelous association between a far-right group that employs violence and our website, a non-political porn addiction recovery forum.

‘Specifically, the following two instances where you mistakenly name our website:

‘“Their Fred Perry polo shirt uniform screams preppy, while their obsession with ‘no fap’ (Google is your friend here) as a core group value bespeaks adolescence more than Waffen-SS.”

‘“Media furor came fast, with denunciations of the Proud Boys as extremists with ties to white nationalists, according to the FBI. Explanations followed that the ‘no fap’ brigade was basically Al-Qaeda.”

‘In both these instances, the use of our website’s name to describe a group that has nothing to do with us is inaccurate: “no fap” should be corrected to “no wanks”, “masturbation avoidance”, or something that doesn’t include our name.

‘The Proud Boys’ “No Wanks” requirement is superficially similar to our recommendations for porn addicts recovering from compulsive porn use, but the similarity ends there and in no way constitutes an endorsement of the Proud Boys or their founder Gavin McInnes. NoFap is a porn recovery forum that specifically bans hate speech being posted by our users. “No Wanks” was created by the founder of the Proud Boys, as seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=21jA4k3rc0E Personally, I find the political violence encouraged and participated in by the “Proud Boys” to be quite reprehensible.

‘NoFap isn’t associated with the Proud Boys. And “No Wanks” and the Proud Boys are not associated with NoFap. NoFap is not affiliated with the Proud Boys in any way, shape, or form. Our users span from all over the world. We’re proud to have such a diverse user-ship from every continent and most countries, of various nationalities/ethnicities, races, faiths and non-faith, genders, and sexual orientations. We are proud that our website brings people together from different backgrounds and beliefs to pursue the common goal of overcoming porn addiction.

‘We would appreciate it if you could make the suggested corrections to this article.’