The Lotus Eaters brought their live show to Swindon’s MECA venue yesterday evening, and Swindon anti-rascists made sure they did not go unopposed.
Around 30 protesters, mobilised by SUTR and armed with a sound system and an unrelenting repertoire of chants, made themselves heard outside throughout the event.
Commendable turnout
It was a commendable turnout to oppose a group that, despite its outsized online presence, commands little recognition in the real world.
Lotus Eaters is an online platform founded by Carl Benjamin, better known online as Sargon of Akkad, operating out of Swindon.
Since its launch in 2020, the outlet has become increasingly extreme, pushing racist and hard right positions and platforming an array of fascist figures and groups.
Unregulated by Ofcom, it pushes relentless narratives of white victimhood and decline to a large paying subscriber base.
Benjamin himself infamously told Labour MP Jess Phillips that he “wouldn’t even rape her”, a comment he declined to apologise for at the time, before eventually rowing back years later.
Inflated claim
Organisers claim the event attracted a thousand attendees. The reality was rather more modest: with the venue holding 700 seated, the actual crowd was around 400, with the hall clearly half empty.
What the counter-protest lacked in scale it made up for in impact. Counter-protesters drew sustained interest from passers-by, bus passengers and drivers, with cars, taxis and buses all honking support.
Public disgust
Many members of the public stopped to ask what was happening, and expressed disgust that the event was being hosted in the town at all.
It was, in short, a reminder of something the Lotus Eaters’ subscriber metrics tend to obscure: online reach is not the same as public acceptance, and Swindon is not their town.
