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In March of this year history was made. For the first time ever, something cool actually happened at SXSW. Bernie Sanders was speaking during the tech conference week of the festival, and InfoWars had dispatched a team of intrepid InfoTeens to hassle his supporters outside of the event. The result was a clip they put together called "Liberals Defend Socialism At Bernie Sanders Event." While it was posted shortly after it happened, the video seems to have been taken down off their channels some time recently. Perhaps because, and this is another first, they realized how dumb they look.You donât need to watch the whole thingâit still lives online elsewhereâunless youâre a fan of flop sweating reporters and bleak cringe comedy. But there is one highlight that is a must watch. It was reposted on Twitter earlier this week by Dasha Nekrasova, one of the people InfoWarsâ Ashton Whitty attempted to interview, where it quickly went viral, owing almost entirely to her super human levels of indifference.
Dasha Nekrasova: They took it down because it became sort of softly viral I guess, and they probably realized they looked stupid.What was going on that day when they tried to interview you?
Bernie Sanders was there giving a speech, which I couldnât go to because I had to do an interview for my film. So I went and got an iced coffee. I was on my way to do another interview when Ashton Witty accosted me. The phone Iâm holding right before InfoWars came up to me, a SXSW staffer had handed me the Google Pixel phone Iâm holding to fill out a survey. Thatâs why Iâm kind of preoccupied with the phone because thereâs a woman off camera thatâs waiting for me to fill out this survey at the same time.You seemed to think it was funny at the time. Do you still think itâs funny?
I think itâs funny. I didnât realize it was an InfoWars reporter at first, which is why Iâm so enthusiastic to talk about Bernie Sanders. And when she asked me whatâs so great about socialism I sort of like⊠I told her I donât want to do this! But InfoWars is such a joke. I watch InfoWars.You mention they have brain worms, what do you think is actually wrong with these people?
Ashton Whitty has a real victim complex. Sheâs an interesting person whoâs like a social justice warrior who got red-pilled. Sheâs operating in the same way that obnoxious libs do, but she has a conservative worldview. I think she watches this propaganda and absorbs it. I donât know whatâs wrong with them, they have like a paranoid conspiracy worldview.She definitely wasnât on the top of her game that day.
Well, her whole thing is sheâs from Berkeley, and with her victim complex pretends that she came out as conservative and it ruined her relationship with her family. I think sheâs also an aspiring actress, and she attributes her failure in Hollywood to her red pill politics. Itâs remarkable.Do you think if this keeps getting bigger it will get a reaction out of Alex Jones?
Well, Ashton just did a new response video. I think she should lose her job! Sheâs a terrible reporter. But no I donât think it will make it all the way to daddy. I think it would be wise of them to abstain.You watch InfoWars to goof on it or?
I donât watch it regularly. But itâs highly entertaining.Alex Jones and Ben Shapiro are having a beef now. If you had to choose, gun to your head, who are you siding with there.
Um, Alex Jones!He seems more human in his horribleness to me.
Yeah, I would agree with that.Like a meaty, fleshy, horribleness. Not a wooden boy.
Yeah, heâs alive.So at some point in the video your friend seems like he realized, Yeah, I don't want to be in on this.
That was my filmâs producer AJ. We were all stunned when it happened. I was kind of afraid. It was very nerve-wracking. Me and Ashton both were like trembling, like vibrating as we were talking. She had a very nervous energy that made me very nervous. I think I reflexively had this very nonchalant demeanor. After it happened I was positive they were going to chop it up and edit it to make me seem totally stupid. I was surprised when they posted the un-edited video.Thatâs funny that you say you were nervous because I think the general reaction has been, Oh my God, she is playing it so cool⊠So thatâs not your natural affect?
Not exactly. The coffee sipping seems like it. I knew when I said eating the rich that was something they would like hearing. There was like a performative aspect to it. But the performativity was like a defense.I didnât realize you were an actress when I saw it. I wonder if you were playing a role in retrospect.
Maybe a little bit. I really was trying to listen to her and engage with her and respond. But then when she started talking about rats and Venezuela and stuff I realized it was like talking to a mentally ill person. I was sort of improvising.Iâm sure youâre getting a lot of people saying youâre a bad ass and a lot of horrible shit from the InfoWars mutants.
Itâs been more of the former. The InfoWars critique is that I seem very much like a millennial caricature. And obviously Iâm wearing that sailor outfit.That does add to the absurdity!
Right! I seem like a cartoon of a millennial. But itâs mostly like, if youâre such a socialist why are you⊠drinking coffee?What advice would you give anyone who finds themselves ambushed by one of these people?
Theyâre so hostile and aggressive. I mean, I think you just do your best. I think you keep in mind what theyâre trying to do is get a reaction out of you, which is what I think people appreciate about my InfoWars appearance, the high-nonchalance. But when that happens to you you just have to go for it.Itâs almost the same rule for Twitter. Donât get mad.
For sure. Like, donât make a spectacle out of how mad you are. I think they want people to get mad.You do a podcast called Red Scare. Is it mostly really left wing political stuff?
Itâs me and writer Anna Khachiyan and we do neoliberal critiques, with a focus on womenâs issues and Russian American affairs. The last episode we talked about the White House Correspondence dinner.Where did you come down on that?
I think our guest on that episode, comedian Stephen Phillips-Horst, made a really good point, that itâs almost the perfect story because it gives people on the right a chance to be outraged about the content of her jokes and people on the left get to do a preachy free speech to power thing. A big part of Trumpism is the impression I get that everyone is role-playing or LARPing. Itâs this reality TV spectacle of politics, which InfoWars very much is. At the same time, a lot of rose emoji communists online are also doing that, too.You said your film is political as well?
Itâs sort of a political movie. Itâs set Halloween weekend before the 2016 election, and itâs sort of an improv-y relationship sex comedy. Itâs very much a time capsule of that period. The two characters in it, who break up, they meet in 2012 in line to vote for Barack Obama, and the relationship spans the Obama administration, and you see them in these three days before the election when everything is sort of falling apart as Trump is about to win.Did you ever get to the bottom of what Whitty was talking about with the rats?
Do you remember the video of the rat taking a shower? Itâs not a rat. Itâs like this Venezuelan rodent. And itâs not showering it probably wants to get the soap off its body. But I think thatâs what Ashton was referring to. I think they eat whatever that rodent is called.Sign up for our newsletter to get the best of VICE delivered to your inbox daily.Follow Luke O'Neil on Twitter.
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Nekrasova, a 27-year-old podcaster, socialist, and actress from Brooklyn who was at SXSW to promote her new film Wobble Palace, a relationship comedy set in the final days before the 2016 election, handles the onslaught of stupidity from Whitty exactly how ambush interviews like this should be handled: not with an earnest attempt at debate, which isnât what InfoWars is after in the first place of course, but with soul-chilling indifference, perfect comedic timing, and a series of instantly memorable line-readings. âYou people have like worms in your brain, honestly,â she says at one point to Whittyâs questioning about people in Venezuela eating rats due to⊠socialism, or something.Since Nekrasovaâs tweet has exploded, Whitty has offered another rejoinder, which she posted to YouTube and Iâm not going to watch but you can if you want, and a predictable chorus of the most disingenuous and dumbest people alive, like Pauly No Mates, have jumped in to destroy Nekrasova with her own logic, by pointing out a socialist drinking an iced coffee is a disqualifying indulgence.
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I called Nekrasova to talk about her appearance on InfoWars, and life after going "softly viral."VICE: Why did you decide to repost the video this week?
Dasha Nekrasova: They took it down because it became sort of softly viral I guess, and they probably realized they looked stupid.What was going on that day when they tried to interview you?
Bernie Sanders was there giving a speech, which I couldnât go to because I had to do an interview for my film. So I went and got an iced coffee. I was on my way to do another interview when Ashton Witty accosted me. The phone Iâm holding right before InfoWars came up to me, a SXSW staffer had handed me the Google Pixel phone Iâm holding to fill out a survey. Thatâs why Iâm kind of preoccupied with the phone because thereâs a woman off camera thatâs waiting for me to fill out this survey at the same time.You seemed to think it was funny at the time. Do you still think itâs funny?
I think itâs funny. I didnât realize it was an InfoWars reporter at first, which is why Iâm so enthusiastic to talk about Bernie Sanders. And when she asked me whatâs so great about socialism I sort of like⊠I told her I donât want to do this! But InfoWars is such a joke. I watch InfoWars.You mention they have brain worms, what do you think is actually wrong with these people?
Ashton Whitty has a real victim complex. Sheâs an interesting person whoâs like a social justice warrior who got red-pilled. Sheâs operating in the same way that obnoxious libs do, but she has a conservative worldview. I think she watches this propaganda and absorbs it. I donât know whatâs wrong with them, they have like a paranoid conspiracy worldview.
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Well, her whole thing is sheâs from Berkeley, and with her victim complex pretends that she came out as conservative and it ruined her relationship with her family. I think sheâs also an aspiring actress, and she attributes her failure in Hollywood to her red pill politics. Itâs remarkable.Do you think if this keeps getting bigger it will get a reaction out of Alex Jones?
Well, Ashton just did a new response video. I think she should lose her job! Sheâs a terrible reporter. But no I donât think it will make it all the way to daddy. I think it would be wise of them to abstain.You watch InfoWars to goof on it or?
I donât watch it regularly. But itâs highly entertaining.Alex Jones and Ben Shapiro are having a beef now. If you had to choose, gun to your head, who are you siding with there.
Um, Alex Jones!He seems more human in his horribleness to me.
Yeah, I would agree with that.Like a meaty, fleshy, horribleness. Not a wooden boy.
Yeah, heâs alive.So at some point in the video your friend seems like he realized, Yeah, I don't want to be in on this.
That was my filmâs producer AJ. We were all stunned when it happened. I was kind of afraid. It was very nerve-wracking. Me and Ashton both were like trembling, like vibrating as we were talking. She had a very nervous energy that made me very nervous. I think I reflexively had this very nonchalant demeanor. After it happened I was positive they were going to chop it up and edit it to make me seem totally stupid. I was surprised when they posted the un-edited video.
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Not exactly. The coffee sipping seems like it. I knew when I said eating the rich that was something they would like hearing. There was like a performative aspect to it. But the performativity was like a defense.I didnât realize you were an actress when I saw it. I wonder if you were playing a role in retrospect.
Maybe a little bit. I really was trying to listen to her and engage with her and respond. But then when she started talking about rats and Venezuela and stuff I realized it was like talking to a mentally ill person. I was sort of improvising.Iâm sure youâre getting a lot of people saying youâre a bad ass and a lot of horrible shit from the InfoWars mutants.
Itâs been more of the former. The InfoWars critique is that I seem very much like a millennial caricature. And obviously Iâm wearing that sailor outfit.That does add to the absurdity!
Right! I seem like a cartoon of a millennial. But itâs mostly like, if youâre such a socialist why are you⊠drinking coffee?What advice would you give anyone who finds themselves ambushed by one of these people?
Theyâre so hostile and aggressive. I mean, I think you just do your best. I think you keep in mind what theyâre trying to do is get a reaction out of you, which is what I think people appreciate about my InfoWars appearance, the high-nonchalance. But when that happens to you you just have to go for it.
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For sure. Like, donât make a spectacle out of how mad you are. I think they want people to get mad.You do a podcast called Red Scare. Is it mostly really left wing political stuff?
Itâs me and writer Anna Khachiyan and we do neoliberal critiques, with a focus on womenâs issues and Russian American affairs. The last episode we talked about the White House Correspondence dinner.Where did you come down on that?
I think our guest on that episode, comedian Stephen Phillips-Horst, made a really good point, that itâs almost the perfect story because it gives people on the right a chance to be outraged about the content of her jokes and people on the left get to do a preachy free speech to power thing. A big part of Trumpism is the impression I get that everyone is role-playing or LARPing. Itâs this reality TV spectacle of politics, which InfoWars very much is. At the same time, a lot of rose emoji communists online are also doing that, too.You said your film is political as well?
Itâs sort of a political movie. Itâs set Halloween weekend before the 2016 election, and itâs sort of an improv-y relationship sex comedy. Itâs very much a time capsule of that period. The two characters in it, who break up, they meet in 2012 in line to vote for Barack Obama, and the relationship spans the Obama administration, and you see them in these three days before the election when everything is sort of falling apart as Trump is about to win.Did you ever get to the bottom of what Whitty was talking about with the rats?
Do you remember the video of the rat taking a shower? Itâs not a rat. Itâs like this Venezuelan rodent. And itâs not showering it probably wants to get the soap off its body. But I think thatâs what Ashton was referring to. I think they eat whatever that rodent is called.Sign up for our newsletter to get the best of VICE delivered to your inbox daily.Follow Luke O'Neil on Twitter.