Tom Tilley's controversial interview with a white nationalist has shed light on the way Australia's alt-right underbelly attempts to troll the media and misrepresent the views of Jewish Australians.
Earlier this week, Triple J's Hack program aired a segment featuring Eli Mosley - one of the organisers of the Charlottesville protests that ended with one woman dead and several injured.
After grilling Mosley, Tilley threw to "Herschel", who described himself as a Jewish man living in Brisbane. The interview started off as one might expect, with Herschel calling the actions of white nationalists "disgusting".
However, things took a strange turn when Herschel veered from talking about how white nationalists have false grievances to talking about how, as a Jew, he welcomed the "end" of white people.
"They have to learn to accept it," he said. "It's certainly beneficial for my people. If the cost they have to pay is them falling and obliterating themselves into nothingness, then that's the cost they're going to have to pay."
When Tilley pointed out this was an "extreme" view, things deteriorated even further.
"I'm sorry, Mr Tilley, but if you promote multiculturalism in any way, that's what you're promoting," Herschel said. "Multiculturalism is the end of white people. And that's why you have things like Unite the Right. Do you not agree with me?"
Tilley, perhaps realising he was being trolled, then decided to end the interview.
Prior to the Hack segment, Fairfax Media can reveal, members of the so-called alt-right movement had turned to chat rooms and online discussion boards such as 4Chan to encourage sympathisers to flood Triple J's switchboard with pro-Trump and Charlottesville messages.
"If you're too pussy to call, then please send them a text, lads!" one person wrote.
However, the online conversations turned from organising to outright joy when they realised "Herschel" had managed to get on air. Many said the Hack segment "surpassed all expectations".
"Holy f--- that Jew larper is a legend," one anonymous user wrote. "Absolutely amazing subversion."
"It's our guy redpilling the masses, saying accept multicult [sic] and die," wrote another. "F--- yes. Legend c---."
It's not the first time Hack has been trolled by people pretending to be who they're not. In 2015, Tilley was forced to apologise to listeners after a serial prankster managed to fool the program into thinking he was in love with his stepsister.
