Ethan Ralph

From RationalWiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Ralph in 2020; this is before the drug abuse really hit hard
Frogs, clowns, and swastikas
Alt-right
Icon altright.svg
Chuds
Rebuilding the Reich, one meme at a time
Buzzwords and dogwhistles
v - t - e

Ethan Oliver Ralph (September 20, 1985–)[1] is an alt-right[1] American podcaster, self-proclaimed "gonzo journalist", registered sex offender, and convicted felon who started his troll career during the Gamergate harassment campaign.[2][3] He doxed and harassed game developer Brianna WuWikipedia via his webshite, The Ralph Retort.[4] His primary platform is his podcast, the Killstream (stylized #Killstream),[5] where he spends most of his time shitfaced on Maker's Mark and hollering at his "haters" (read: pretty much everyone who isn't a groyper). His tendency to pick fights with anyone led him to be considered a laughing stock of the internet, including by other alt-right sources such as Kiwifarms.

Ralph has been banned from services including YouTube,[6] where he formerly hosted his show. As of 2021, the Killstream was hosted on Trovo Live, after receiving a month-long suspension from the alt-techWikipedia streaming service DLive earlier in January.[7][8] The show is also published on Apple Podcasts.[9]

On January 5th, 2022, Ralph pled nolo contendere (no contest), thus accepting conviction without admitting guilt to disseminating revenge porn of his former girlfriend with whom he has a son and received a suspended sentence of 12 months as long as he maintains "good behaviour".[10]

Controversies[edit]

Ralph is known for having the preternatural ability to get himself mired in controversy after controversy thanks to a mixture of drug abuse and narcissism. He was an early and obsequious personality in the Gamergate controversy, spewing lots of hate and bullshit into cyberspace. During the peak of the Gamergate shitstorm, he doxed and harassed game developer Brianna Wu,[4] but eventually the Gamergate crowd got tired of his ego and turned against him.[11] After his 2016 arrest, he was proclaimed as a "prominent leader" of the Gamergate movement by media organizations that should have known better.[2][3] Ralph was never a leader of the reactionary Twitterverse or any other manufactured movement; he is merely a sad and rumpled grifter whose life ambition appears to be getting paid to be a troll.[citation NOT needed]

#Healstream[edit]

In 2018, Ralph accepted multiple donations via YouTube's Super Chats feature[note 1][12] to be donated to St. Jude's Children Hospital, some of which had attached messages written by Ralph's fans that Ralph read aloud verbatim to encourage more fans to donate despite some of the messages denying the Holocaust or celebrating the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting only days after it happened.[13] St. Jude's refused the donations from Ralph's fans, refunding all the donations from YouTube that came via the Killstream channel.[6] After a report[6] in the Wall Street Journal on the incident, YouTube terminated Ralph's account on November 3, 2018.[12]

Bitcoin donations[edit]

Bitcoin payments totaling ₿28.15 (then worth US$522,000)[14] were made to 22 different virtual wallets, most of them belonging to far-right activists and white nationalist personalities, by a French donor before the storming of the U.S. Capitol in January 2021. From this total, Ralph received a donation of approximately 0.5BTC, then worth US$9,595.[15][16][14] VDARE, the Daily Stormer, and Nick Fuentes were among the crypto donation recipients. Ethan Ralph is also on the list that Chainalysis published regarding the half a million dollar donations.[17]

Revenge porn conviction[edit]

On August 11th, 2020, Ralph shared a video of him engaging in sexual intercourse with his then-girlfriend—without her knowledge or consent—with his viewers. He was arrested for disseminating revenge porn (Va. Code §18.2–386.2) in mid-December of that year. The case, initially tabled by the prosecution the following February, was reinstated by the prosecution at the victim's request by August.[10]

On January 5th, 2022, Ralph pleaded nolo contendere (no contest) to disseminating revenge porn and was subsequently found guilty, receiving a suspended sentence of 12 months.[10] The woman he distributed revenge porn of is also the mother of his child,[18] and has a restraining order against Ralph, on her own behalf and on her infant son's behalf.[10]

On July 24th 2022, Ralph called his ex-girlfriend via Skype, a likely violation of her order restraining him from contacting her.

Ralph claims that his finger "slipped" while he was finding evidence to use against "this lying woman" whom he totally doesn't wish to contact.[19]

Career[edit]

Ralph hosts a podcast called the Killstream.[5] Among the Killstream's guests have been Red Ice Creations co-founder Henrik Palmgren[20] and Lana Lokteff.[21] According to Washingtonian, the Killstream "frequently shares extremist propaganda".[22]

Ralph's political views are alt-right,[1] and Politico has described Ralph as a "white supremacist-sympathetic livestreamer".[5] According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Ralph has "featured numerous prominent white nationalists" on the Killstream.[23] Ralph self-identifies as a right-wing conservative, though in 2016 he told The Washington Post, "if you want to call me alt-right, that's probably fair".[1][15]

Originally hosted on YouTube, the show was distributed on the alt-tech platform DLive after YouTube banned the account in November 2018.[12] In January 2021, DLive suspended Ralph's account for a month and Ralph began broadcasting on Trovo Live.[8] The show is also published on Apple Podcasts.[9]

In the period of April–October 2020, the Killstream earned Ralph US$24,346 on DLive.[7] Yes, despite being 39 years old, Ralph's main income source is saying the N-word online repeatedly to an audience of groypers.

External links[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ↑ The Killstream is a podcast which was simulcast over YouTube. Super Chats are a YouTube feature where users can pay to make the message they write appear for longer than other messages which appear in the chat section of a livestream.

References[edit]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Moyer, Justin William (September 9, 2016). "Gamergate activist charged with assault on officers, public intoxication in Virginia" (in en-US). Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. ""If you want to call me alt-right, that's probably fair," Ralph said." 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Gilbert, Ben (September 7, 2016). "A prominent leader of Gamergate was just arrested on charges of assaulting a police officer". 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Florentine, Sharon (September 15, 2016). "Gamergate leader's arrest doesn't signal change" (in en). 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Wu, Brianna (September 7, 2016). "Gamergate Leader Arrested on Two Felony Counts of Assaulting a Police Officer" (in en-US). 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Nguyen, Tina (November 11, 2020). "MAGA nation tries to rally around Trump with MAGApalooza" (in en). 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Koh, Yoree (November 3, 2018). "Hate Speech on Live 'Super Chats' Tests YouTube" (in en-US). Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Gais, Hannah; Hayden, Michael Edison (November 17, 2020). "Extremists Are Cashing in on a Youth-Targeted Gaming Website" (in en). Southern Poverty Law Center. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Ethan Ralph (January 13, 2021). "DLive has suspended me for one month. The rest of this week's Killstreams will be broadcast on Trovo. We'll see how that pans out going forward. I have reason to think it might go well! Time will tell! Please follow me there!". 
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "#Killstream on Apple Podcasts" (in en-GB). 
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Doerer, Kristen (January 24, 2022). "Far-Right Podcaster Ethan Ralph Convicted of Revenge Porn". 
  11. ↑ [OpinionMessage to Ethan Ralph: Stop Becoming Leigh Alexander 2.0 While You Have A Chance]. Reddit, 2016.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 "YouTube's Super Chat hijacked for hate speech" (in en). CNET. November 3, 2018. 
  13. ↑ Alexander, Julia (November 5, 2019). "YouTube live streams get even more Twitch-like with Super Stickers launch" (in en). The Verge. 
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 "Alt-Right Groups and Personalities Involved In the January 2021 Capitol Riot Received Over $500K In Bitcoin From French Donor One Month Prior". Chainalysis. January 14, 2021. 
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Kharif, Olga; Mehrotra, Kartikay (2021-01-19). "Far Right Groups Get Bitcoin Windfall Weeks Before Capitol Riot" (in en). Bloomberg. 
  16. ↑ Reuters Staff (2021-01-14). "Large bitcoin payment made to far-right individuals before U.S. Capitol attack: report" (in en). Reuters. 
  17. ↑ Jenna McLaughlin, Exclusive: Large bitcoin payments to right-wing activists a month before Capitol riot linked to foreign account. Yahoo News, 14 January 2021.
  18. ↑ Doerer, Kristen (2021-02-11). "Far-Right Podcaster Accused of Revenge Porn Rejoices in Suspension of Case Against Him" (in en-US). Right Wing Watch. 
  19. ↑ Ralph, Ethan (2022-07-04). "I have no desire to contact this lying woman and haven't tried in over a year. Me going through my Skype messages to find the part where you wanted to have her own son aborted is what led me to accidentally press call and now they're trying to trumpet that." (in en-US). Twitter. 
  20. ↑ Gais, Hannah (October 23, 2019). "YouTube Yanks Second Red Ice Channel" (in en). 
  21. ↑ Holt, Jared (August 21, 2018). "'Alt-Right' Radio Host: Alex Jones Is A 'Gateway Drug' To 'Our Side'" (in en-US). 
  22. ↑ Beaujon, Andrew (November 12, 2021). "There's a Very Real Potential for Violence at Saturday's MAGA Events in DC, Say Extremism-Watchers" (in en-US). 
  23. ↑ "Extremists Are Cashing in on a Youth-Targeted Gaming Website" (in en). 
Retrieved from "https://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?title=Ethan_Ralph&oldid=2694370"