If you haven’t already guessed, the “white sharia” meme is both an elaborate troll and a window into the twisted minds of the misogynists that populate the alt-right. In an article promoting “white sharia” on the gutturally racist website The Daily Stormer, Neo-Nazi provocateur Andrew Anglin wrote “WHITE SHARIA is coming in and it is coming in fast like a SONIC BOOM.”

Anglin defined “white sharia” as the counterpart to “Islamic Sharia AKA Sandnigger Sharia,” and claimed it would be a powerful bulwark against the Jews and their “Islamic hordes.” In essence, it’s the idea that the brutal subjugation of women and gays is necessary to protect Western civilization, just like (Andrew Anglin believes) Islamic law does in the Middle East.

In an infographic depicting both ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Bane from The Dark Knight Rises, Anglin noted that each version “puts sluts in check,” “throws homos off roofs,” “brutally crushes enemies,” and “eliminates the jewish [sic] problem.” Where they differ, he wrote, is that Islamic sharia is devoted to the “global caliphate” while the goal of “white sharia” is “global white supremacy.”

In a separate article (link is NSFW) about the Antifa woman who was sucker-punched by fellow white nationalist and ex-Marine Nathan Damigo, Anglin cheered on the assault. He claimed the young protester was “EXACTLY the archetype of woman who forced the demand for WHITE SHARIA,” and that “freedom” had “turned her into a hairy porno monster rioting on the street.” And he used the occasion to call for “forcibly marry[ing]-off teenage girls to men who will TAKE CARE OF THEM.”

Of course, Anglin is no stranger to baiting journalists with bogus stories of Taylor Swift being a closet Nazi and New Balance being the official footwear of white people. But to dismiss this meme as purely an effort to tweak liberals would be misguided, since satire — even bad satire — is meant to advance a point of view.

As he later wrote after realizing how many people just didn’t get it, “What the meme represents – the symbol behind it – is simply restoring the patriarchal system that all European societies had up until the middle of the 19th century.” He stated that the meme was “serving its purpose,” which is to “change the way people think.”

Elsewhere in the white supremacist ecosystem the “white sharia” meme has been met with some weak resistance.

At Vanguard News Network — their motto is “No Jews, Just Right” — the reaction was mixed, with one forum member writing, “If you want to model our societies after primitive, third-world mudslime shitholes and do it by force then I think you won’t find many White women willing to go along with it.”

Joe_Smith explained that “white sharia” is “hyperbole,” meant to restore “normal sexual dynamics.” He added that Muslims are “a bit brutal but way closer to nature than the Jewish west.” Another registered user, carl_sebastian, claimed that there “is a case to be made for reducing females to property” and that no more than one percent of women should be able to vote.

Other white nationalists are far more enthusiastic. Take The War Room, a podcast hosted by white supremacist military veterans Sacco and Vanzetti Vandal, for example. In one episode, the pair joined with Sigurd Vandal, Mayhem Vandal, and Niggy Vandal to discuss “white sharia” and “white rape gangs” — white men who will use rape as a tool to “correct” women’s behavior.

In an orgy of male self-pity, one member of the “Vandal Clan” asserted that the criminalization of marital rape was just a way for women to “control births in a marriage.” In response, Mayhem claimed that “there is no such thing as marital rape” because “if ya marry the man, that’s part of the fuckin’ agreement, he is entitled to the pussy!”

Niggy Vandal stated that good fathers raise good daughters and that they aren’t “talking about having white rape gangs against good daughters,” but rather against “women who didn’t have good fathers.” “We are going to correct the raising that they had,” he added. “They’re 20 to 30 years old, they’ve had 20 to 30 years of not being raised properly. We’ve only got an hour or two to fix that.”

Of course, while the War Room crew state openly that the concepts of “white sharia” and “white rape gangs” are satirical in nature, the stated purpose is no less misogynistic. The point, as they claimed in that same podcast, is to move the Overton Window, making the restoration of the patriarchy — from the nuclear family to the highest echelons of government — appear reasonable by championing something even more brutal.

And in an article for his website Vandal Void, Sacco wrote of “white sharia”:

In our skeptical, jaded postmodern milieu, humor is the most effective way to reach people. Satire is the language that American youths speak. The Right Stuff has shown the effectiveness of extremely edgy and convolutedly layered irony. The White Sharia meme, like the helicopter and oven jokes before it, is an extreme form of edgy and ironic humor. It has caused so much controversy only because it has become so popular. It serves as a distant beacon of the patriarchy we as a people need and will one day have. It is both a rallying cry for the disillusioned young men in our movement as well as their guiding light. The inspiration it is giving these young men will assist them in their future culture creation. When I say we will have White Sharia in White Afghanistan one day, it means that we will have an extreme tribal Patriarchy in the ethno-state. But it also produces real images of what that Patriarchy and that ethno-state could look like. People can imagine themselves with a beard and an AK in the Appalachian Mountains. Images and examples are more powerful than words. That is why joking about White Sharia is more powerful than pleas for returning to traditions that have long since been dead.

Antiquated beliefs about women (and the LGBTQ community) are coded into the very DNA of white nationalism. Its purpose is to restore whites, especially white men, to their “rightful” place at the apex of civilization, no matter how much they attempt to glamorize the lifestyles of so-called “tradwives.”

In white nationalist circles women are routinely degraded and disparaged as “cunts,” “sluts,” “whores,” and “thots” — the latter being an acronym for “that ho over there” which had been riling up feminists since before the alt-right came to prominence.

Matt Forney, a prominent white nationalist and pickup artist, has repeatedly promoted violence against women, including girlfriends and wives, and has even offered tips on how to “get away with it.” In one particularly odious tract, Forney instructed readers to “violate” their partners’ sexual boundaries in order to force them to acquiesce to more uncomfortable sex acts later on. “If she doesn’t violently resist getting her anus fingered, a little more pressure and you’ll be full-on sodomizing her, grinning as she whimpers between each thrust,” he boasted.

Richard Spencer once remarked that women seek white nationalist boyfriends because they are drawn to “alpha genes” and “alpha sperm.” And during the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, Spencer tweeted, “Women should never be allowed to make foreign policy. It’s not that they’re ‘weak.’ To the contrary, their vindictiveness knows no bounds.”

In one unhinged rant, alt-right vlogger Beardson Beardly directed a torrent of abuse at women and any men who believe they have the capacity to serve as political leaders. He railed against the “fuckin’ pussies” who believe women have a role in politics, and called it “unbelievable” that any man would “wanna be led by a woman.” He suggested that any “beta bitch” who disagreed with him should have simply voted for Hillary Clinton and gotten his “dick cut off.”

And men’s rights/white supremacist luminary F. Roger Devlin wrote in his seminal book Sexual Utopia In Power that:

The date rape issue can be solved overnight by restoring shotgun marriage—but with the shotgun at the woman’s back. The “victim” should be told to get into the kitchen and fix supper for her new lord and master. Not exactly a match made in heaven, but at least the baby will have both a father and a mother. Furthermore, after the birth of her child, the woman will have more important things to worry about than whether the act by which she conceived it accorded with some women’s studies professor’s newfangled notion of “true consent.” Motherhood has always been the best remedy for female narcissism.

Crank though he may be, Devlin’s writings on subjects like rape and “hypergamy” have informed entire generations of men’s rights activists, men going their own way (MGTOW), pickup artists, and other manosphere bottom dwellers.

And when women aren’t the subject of white supremacists’ scorn, they are infantilized — the protection of their physical well-being or chastity were used to justify the brutalization of non-whites. Years ago the allegation of rape by a black man or wolf whistle by a black boy could spell a death sentence in the electric chair or at the hands of violent lynch mobs.

Even today white terrorists like Dylann Roof in South Carolina and James Jackson in New York murdered innocent black men, women, and children in order to save white women. Roof told his victims “I have to do it. You rape our women and you’re taking over the country. And you have to go.” “Our” women, implying some type of ownership on Roof’s part. Jackson confessed to stabbing an elderly black man to death with a sword in order to intimidate white women, and convince them to not become involved with black men.

As we speak, legislation is working its way to the U.S. Senate that will, if passed, crack down on Latino immigrants and sanctuary cities. Both bills, Kate’s Law and the No Sanctuary for Criminals Act, were proposed by Rep. Steve King (R-IA) in response to the 2015 murder of Kate Steinle, a 32-year-old white woman, at the hands of an undocumented immigrant.

King made headlines in the past for claiming racial “sub-groups” other than whites have not contributed to civilization, and that “we can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s [read: non-white] babies.” Even more fittingly, Kate’s Law was relentlessly promoted by a racist, right-wing television host and sexual harasser.

White nationalists are merely using a carrot-and-stick technique to relegate women to a second-class status. They offer protection from non-white invaders or liberation from today’s “degenerate” sexual mores, and, when that fails, resort to violence or threats of violence. The endgame is always the same: control of women’s bodies and sexual choices, and the creation of a rigid, patriarchal society where women are utterly silenced.