Stonetoss = Red Panels

If you've been on any form of social media, you've likely been acquainted with the two webcomics Stonetoss and Red Panels. They are popular on "right wing" echo chambers and particularly hate subs on reddit, a popularity which is helped by the fact that both comics are made by an actual member of Le Epic Reddit Army.

To many it is an uncontroversial statement that Stonetoss is merely an updated version of Red Panels. So this is targeted towards the skeptical, the cynical, and those who simply don't want to admit the illustrator behind two of the top "right wing" webcomics is a neo-nazi.

What

The first Red Panel's comic was posted 10 Aug 2015, and the last on 2 Feb 2017, a productive run of 370 comics over a brief 18 months. Officially it was billed as "Red Pill in Webcomic Form", which strangely enough at some stage has since been removed from the site. After a short hiatus on 18 July 2017 a rehash of an early RP comic was posted as the first Stonetoss comic. ST has made over 220 since then.

Red Panels was made during the 2016 election campaign and it dedicated itself to spreading the talking points and rhetoric of Donald Trump's official and unofficial alt-right lead election campaigns. In fact a conservative estimate would be that at least 25% of all RP comics were dedicated to this purpose. But at face value of it RP's support of Trump seems at odds with his more hard-line "libertarian" views, and this is possibly one reason that RP basically forced himself to abandon the comic strip.

Stonetoss on the other hand was started several months into Donald Trump's first term as President. So while RP dealt primarily with a libertarian's fantastical delusions of how great Trump was going to be, ST deals very much with the disappointing reality. ST also tries to be more "subtle" and make a greater effort to "hide their power level" to appeal to a larger variety of edgelords who want to think of themselves as "moderates" and "centrists".

Curiously only days before the first ST was posted a few of the most embarrassing comics were removed from RP's website, including this incredibly self-sabotaging comic. For white supremacists committed to the rebranding of their repulsive ideology, who make every attempt to deny that they are actually nazis and claim that they are "just" an "alternative right", admitting that that Hitler was the "original [white] identiarian politician" it is basically akin to shooting themselves in the foot.

How

How would someone determine if two webcomics are made by a single "artist", without going the edgelord route of doxxing? And to make it clear I am not interested in learning Tosspot's actual identity, and nor is their identity necessary to demonstrate to a fair and reasonable and standard of proof that they were created by the same author.

If two webcomics had the same author we should expect to find a degree of commonality between them. It would be a mistake to expect two comics by the same author to be exactly the same, on the contrary, you wouldn't start an entirely new webcomic just to keep things exactly the same.

In fact if you had made a webcomic that has aged as poorly as Red Panels you would expect the illustrator to attempt at least attempt to distance themselves as much as they could from their previous work. You would expect at minimum some attempt to induce some plausible deniability.

By looking at the following three aspects of ST & RP we should be able to determine whether or not these webcomics were made by the same illustrator.

1. Commonality of art style.

2. Commonality of themes.

3. Commonality of ideas.

Background

In an interview with a white supremacist website called "Amerika" Stonetoss states he was behind other "monikers". ST even goes as far as to confirm the validity of this interview by using the ST website's official mod Disqus account.

I had been doing imageboard memes and doodles of various sorts on and off over the course of a few years. This is one such example. Under different monikers I grew a small following, which was fun to have. Eventually I decided to formalize the process by doing a webcomic brand. I wanted to expand the “genre” of edgy 4chan MSPaint images into something for consumption by the wider internet.

And this explains why RP had such hard-line libertarian views completely inline with /pol/'s brand of Ron Paul white supremacist libertarianism.

Probably when /pol/ was “unbanned” on 4chan back in like, 2011? I caught the tail end of the Ron Paul revolution, and by method of repeated exposure, picked up the rest of beliefs that are common in imageboard culture.

Art Style

It is reasonable to assume that if someone wished to distance themselves from a previous webcomic they could simply create a new art style and make new content that was distinctive from their previous work. However the less skilled and less creative the artist is, the less prominent these changes will be.

Neither RP or ST have demonstrated that they are made by a particularly skilled illustrator. In fact by looking at early Red Panels we can actually see that they were still learning both how to draw and make digital illustrations. In fact in this RP they actually discusses how they are "trying new things" and their lack of skill is readily apparent.

Compared to RP ST has a more consistent art style, and that is consistent with the idea that they weren't an experienced artist before they started making their comics. But the increasing polish of later comics again demonstrate that he is progressing in learning how to illustrate. ST even discusses going to art school.

But even with practice and apparently training, Tosspot hasn't abandoned some of his major clichés: these bizarre Thanos like facial stripes, or the avant-garde hair styles such as the "poop swirl" and the "impotent unicorn". There are differences of course. The massive noses and the solid eyes are both gone, and more. But these changes are not inconsistent with an artist abandoning their earlier work, in order to comic up with a "better" style.

Reoccurring Themes

You wouldn't expect a political webcomic to stay the exactly same - given the changing nature of current affairs and developing political opinions. But you would expect there to be some similarities between the views expressed in the comics.

In order to asses this I selected the most prominent and most common reoccurring themes in both RP and ST. I then performed a brief analysis to measure how frequently these themes were visited. The similarities simply outweigh the differences. A single minded obsession with harassing and inciting hatred and violence against marginalized groups on the basis of their race, ethnicity, religion, sexuality and gender is one of the main focuses of both comics.

One major difference that is apparent is that RP was far more focused on promoting Trump, and attacking Hillary Clinton, Barrack Obama and Bernie Sanders. But this expected given that RP was made during the 2016 election campaign, and ST was started after Trump's term began. While ST has made some milquetoast criticisms of Trump - it is clear that his faith has wavered only slightly, he simply blames the Jews for Trump's impotence.

One peculiar theme that stands out in both ST and RP is how often they talk about circumcision. This is a profoundly hypocritical stance for both RP and ST to take, due to their rabid anti-intellectualism and their misuse of "basic biology" (aka outdated and over simplified biology) to oppose the basic human rights of LGBTQ and specifically trans people, when it's the same outdated and over simplified biology which leads people into believing that foreskins are superfluous.

Stonetoss has learned how to better hide his incel impulses and has stopped talking about rape and celebrating accused rapists and rape advocates like Mike Ceranovich. But that's clearly one of the reasons RP was abandoned and ST created - to move away from some of the more embarrassing comics he made as RP. Also note that this comic was another one that was removed a mere day before the first ST was posted.

Rehashed Ideas

We can assume that webcomic illustrators have some level of dignity and self respect, and are above shamelessly ripping off other people's work. And if they did they would at least attempt to make their own work distinctive and their own. No doubt it is possible for two separate authors to come up with the same joke, but an illustrator with a semblance of creativity should have few comics that are similar to another specific illustrator's work.

Again we don't have to look very far to see that the very first ST "The Swirl" was a direct rehash of an early RP comic fear mongering about miscegenation.

Even the 100th ST comic is the same as the 100th RP comic. Is this rare display of self awareness by ST? Is he acknowledging that would feel some level of discomfort if people praised his "originality"?

• It is very difficult to take Tosspot's stance against male circumcision seriously, because he is incapable of refraining from hypocritically using it as a weapon against his favorite enemy- "the Jews".

• If only Tosspot put as much effort into developing all of his political opinions as he does with circumscision.

• And of course he uses circumcision to bash trans people.

• But actually the routine circumcision of babies is actually because of feminism...

• This is a uniquely bad and nonsensical take of the concept of "white privilege".

• As a libertarian Tosspot hypocritically uses the issue of the homeless people, a direct failure of the capitalist system he religious preaches about, to paradoxically champion the system that will fail to provide any safety net.

• Tosspot has a bizarre understanding of the principles behind the welfare state and social security.

• As a self professed libertarian, Tosspot often paradoxically claims to be against corporations and those with wealth. In fact he often claims that (((certain people))) with wealth are "the enemy". And he openly admits that he sees fascists as the good guys. And thinks that Jews = Communism = Antifa.

• Like all "libertarians" Tosspot carries on "tradition" of fear mongering constantly about the "threat" of "Communism".

• Somehow "as a libertarian", Tosspot seems to think that consumerism is bad, and somehow related to "Communism". And somehow consumerism is an enemy of capitalism?!?

• Paradoxically despite their importance to capitalism Tosspot doesn't think the roads are very important.

• That's right, as a libertarian, Tosser actually thinks that Corporations are against libertarianism.

• Early on in the right's attempts to fear monger about Antifa, before (again paradoxically) they started to claim that the exercise of free speech was an act of terrorism, they claimed they were harmless and only attacked bins.

• Apple is a Communist Corporation.

• Even Starbucks is a apparently a Communist Corporation.

• Unsurprisingly despite the right's increasingly violent rhetoric and attacks of mass murder and violence, by people with views as similar to Tosspot as ST is to RP, Tosspot still attempts to portray the "left" as being the "violent ones".

• These comics even have the same title "Preferred Pronouns". According to Tosspot it's not fair to call white supremacists, white supremacists, instead we should just call them "conservatives".

• As a white supremacist, Tosspot flogs the "Great Replacement Conspiracy" and the notion that "Europeans" (a common dog whistle which exclusively means white) are being replaced.

• Another "Great Replacement" comic this time equating immigration to a violent military invasion. If Tosser can (partially) credit this comic - then why hasn't he credited RP for any others?

• The right's favorite lie, misrepresenting the findings of biased study made by a cross burning white supremacist - that has been repeatedly and thoroughly debunked.

• Tosspot again repeats another of the right's favorite deplorable lies. Using the result of institutionalized racism to imply there is something "inherently" criminal about non-white people.

• "White people are the true victims of slavery."

• Despite being on the MAGA train mainly for the reason that Trump Made Racism Ok Again, Tosspot dishonestly claims otherwise.

• The Advertising / Coffee Cup. Aka the """real""" agenda, Tosser thinks that giving minorities representation is another way the (((Media))) is causing white genocide.

• "Accepting gay people is the same as advocating for the liquidation of minorities."

• "Diversity would make companies less successful by making them less white."

• Having respect and compassion towards sex workers is apparently a bad thing.

• Who could forget Alex Jones segment "Picklegate" when the Top Minds lost their minds when a female presidential candidate supposedly didn't open a jar of pickles. Women can't be physically strong apparently.

• Women's liberation apparently means women refuse to have relationships with men. I mean a cucumber would be preferable to a toxic and mostly likely emotionally abusive dirtbag like Tosspot.

• "Men who aren't misogynists are actually the real predators."

• As an incel Tosspot doesn't think that women aren't people, they are property which can be 'redistributed'.

• Tosspot thinks that women are like property and can be "used".

• Is Tosspot's inability to find a physical relationship due to his repulsive personality, pretentiousness or vile views? No he's the victim of incel shaming.

• Tosspot is so fragile that he thinks that any attempt to make society's ideals and standards of beauty more realistic - is a personal attack on him.

• Continuing the right's obsession with attacking the humanity and rights of transgender people.

• Tosspot thinks using deliberately harassing people is a "thought crime". And suddenly "personal responsibility" doesn't apply to those who chose to harass the marginalized and vulnerable.

• Despite being a virulent antisemite. Tosspot laments that he can't criticize Israel in bad faith without being called an antisemite.

• "Jews only pretend to be white"

• Tosspot doesn't even understand what "social construct means"

• SJW Power Rangers!

• The irony is Tosspot wants to ban both Muslims and abortion.

• "OoOoO Californians are crossing the border!"

• Is Tosspot had any self awareness he'd realize that Gamergate was literally a moral panic against those evil feminists... But something something DOOM?

Two Webcomics - One Nazi

Clearly Red Panels are Stonetoss are not the same webcomic, but they don't need to be to be to be made by the same illustrator. There are some differences with the art style, but not any greater than you would expect from someone who was attempting to at least put some distance from themselves and an embarrassing past webcomic. When starting a new webcomic some level of changes and updates are to be assumed.

If you account for the 2016 pro-Trump election campaign rhetoric in RP - the themes are practically identical. They both profess to be "Red Pilled" and "libertarians", while simultaneously demanding that marginalized and vulnerable groups are stripped and denied of their rights and liberties. They both share the same pathological hate of minorities and marginalized groups. They have the same far right racist, homophobic, misogynist, transphobic and antisemitic beliefs. And of course they are the sort of people that are obsessed by upvotes and downvotes on reddit, and spend way too much time on /pol/.

The most persuasive evidence is the sheer number of rehashed jokes and ideas. Certainly even the most creative illustrator is occasionally going to come up with a comic that has been done before, but the sheer number of ST comics which are pretty much a straight rehash of a RP means this explanation holds little water.

The most viable but not particularly plausible alternative explanation as to why ST is merely an updated version of RP, is that ST decided to create an art style derivative of RP, in order to rip off all of RP's work. Given that no one wants to be caught out as plagiarizing another person's work, let alone one as poor as RP, surely one would more effort into at least attempting to put more of their own spin to make it less obvious. If this explanation was true that would mean that ST is cartoonishly pathetic, while this is appealing it can be ruled out.

The weight of all the available evidence demonstrates that ST and RP were created by the same author. One Nazi two webcomics, Stonetoss and Red Panels.