Right-Wing YouTubers Had to Get Their Dumb Anti-Refugee Boat Rescued by a Pro-Refugee Boat

A uniting factor of the alt-right and their attendants is that they think they’re purebred galaxy-brain geniuses while they in fact possess the intelligence of an ostrich bred with a bowl of tapioca pudding.

For months now, members of the alt-right have set sail on the Mediterranean Sea with the goal of impeding and intimidating boats carrying refugees. Defend Europe, the white nationalist organization behind the effort, recently chartered a ship called the C-Star, using it to block refugees who are in the process of fleeing for their lives.

But on Thursday night, the 130-foot ship that Defend Europe had chartered for its vigilante mission, experienced a “minor technical problem” and, in a moment of perfect irony, almost had to be rescued by a refugee aid organization.

Sea-Eye, the German NGO helping refugees travel across on the Mediterranean safely, received word from Italian authorities about the C-Star’s troubles, and sent its vessel full of volunteers to rescue them:

A spokesman for the European Union Naval Force Mediterranean’s Operation Sophia said the distress call was flagged to Sea Eye, a German volunteer rescue organisation whose vessel is currently nearest to C-Star.“As our Sea Eye cutter is closest to the C-Star, we were commissioned by MRCC Rome (the sea tributary centre for the western Mediterranean) to help the ship,” he said. “The Sea Eye currently on the way to the C-Star.”Michael Buschheuer, chairman of Sea Eye, said: “To help in distressed persons is the duty of everyone who is at sea – indifferent to their origin, skin color, religion or spirit.”

However, when Sea-Eye got to the C-Star, the alt right vigilantes refused the NGO’s help.

“Sea-Eye took on a course towards the C-Star and got in contact with the right-wing extremists but they refused any help,” a Sea-Eye spokesperson said, according to the Telegraph.

This is not the first time anti-refugee members of the alt-right have had maritime troubles. In May, the Italian coast guard detained Lauren Southern, a Canadian alt-right YouTuber, for impeding refugee rescue operations:

To make things even more confusing, the C-Star’s crew has become embroiled in its own human trafficking scandal. Last month, the ship was detained at a port in Cyprus, and authorities found at least 20 Sri Lankan refugees illegally aboard. The C-Star’s crew and owner were charged with preparing and circulating false documents.

“Some said they had paid €10,000 to smuggling rings to get on the ship and be taken to Italy,” Faika Pasa, a local human rights activist, told the Guardian. “Five have since requested asylum. The other 15 have now flown back to Sri Lanka.”

Defend Europe denies the allegations, saying they took on the Sri Lankans as “apprentice sailors”:

So far, Defend Europe’s maritime follies have almost completely backfired on them. Patreon, the popular crowdfunding website, deleted both Southern’s and Defend Europe’s accounts after news of their anti-refugee campaign surfaced. After members of the alt-right complained to Patreon, the company decided to play the both-sides-do-it-too card by taking down the account of It’s Going Down, an anti-fascist website.

People like Southern and the members of Defend Europe like to think of themselves as courageous warriors defending their personal superiority over the unwashed masses. In reality, they’re a bunch of assholes stuck on a boat.