[T]he capture of Venezuela’s president, an oil blockade and intimations of regime change in Cuba, weeks of open deliberation over invading Greenland and finally the Iran war. These episodes followed the logic of content more than conflict, not so much ending as just kind of receding down the feed, replaced by bigger and better explosions. The White House social media team leaned trollishly into the idea, posting videos to X that spliced airstrike footage with movie and video game clips and a reference to the unofficial Proud Boys motto, “[expletive] around and find out.”
I'm interested in the larger theme of this column, but I got stuck on the aggressive intrusion of the Proud Boys. I would have thought "Fuck around and find out" was part of the ordinary discourse. But let's look. What's the origin and history of the phrase?
I'm seeing this article from 2025: "FAFO: The Origin, Meaning, and Why You Should Think Twice Before Testing It" (Stupid Dope).
I'm seeing this article from 2025: "FAFO: The Origin, Meaning, and Why You Should Think Twice Before Testing It" (Stupid Dope).
The phrase... became especially popular on platforms like Reddit, Twitter, and TikTok, where videos of people “finding out” went viral.... By the late 2010s, FAFO had firmly embedded itself into internet language....
FAFO isn’t just internet slang—it has been embraced by military and law enforcement communities as a blunt way to warn adversaries. The phrase is often used on patches, challenge coins, and even engraved onto military gear....
One of the most famous uses of FAFO in a military context came in 2020 when it appeared on official SWAT team gear during high-tension operations. The phrase has since been adopted by various police units and defense organizations as a no-nonsense way of saying that poor decisions will have serious consequences.
No mention of the Proud Boys. Making "Fuck around and find out" Proud-Boys specific was, in my view, a dirty trick to make Trump look racist.
***
Do the Proud Boys even have a motto?
I asked 2 different AIs and got "Western chauvinists refuse to apologize for creating the modern world" and "I am a proud Western chauvinist who refuses to apologize for creating the modern world."
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The corrupt collective left HATE it when something cool takes off.
They also hate it when our pilots are rescued.
NYT (D) - lol
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“They’re called Medicaid and Medicare and the government spends over $2 trillion on them every year!”
“Surely with numbers like that every American citizen will have exquisite health care?”
“No, mainly it goes to pay foreign scammers who set up fake hospices in California .”
Tax payers - Fucked. Newsum given tongue bath by NYT types.
The Proud Boys have done pretty well. They even have their own week when all their friends dress up and march in parades.
Most Proud Boys are undercover Democratics.
...but I got stuck on the aggressive intrusion of the Proud Boys.
Why? Was it somehow surprising? It shouldn't be. This is who they are. This is what they do. Legacy media, lead by the NYT, honestly believe there is a Proud Boy-Nazi-White Nationalist lurking around every corner.
FAFO is a call for justice after the endless failures of our justice system. It seems that with modern standards designed to make everyone a lawyer, the quality dropped precipitously, and quantity didn't even lower the prices.
The Proud are modeled after the Hells Angels minus the motorcycles. All of our rules about meets anyway. FAFO was said quite a lot but in jest just like ICUAWF, meaning I'll see you at West Fest. Or I'm gonna beat your ass when were together in Las Vegas in September. That too was in jest. I made a rule that nobody could fight over beef. I modeled that on Matthew 15. Nothing ever said about the Proud is ever accurate. We're hated because we exhibit manly virtues.
I quit when it became political. It was never supposed to be that. Just men looking after each other and getting together once a month to get drunk together.
In 67 years living and visiting all over the country, I've never met a Proud Boy, a Nazi, or a white supremist. I blame the Jews for that.
Now take a look at what the right and left have done with "The Punisher" marvel comics character. The woke left hate hate hate that he became a right wing icon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punisher
Does a day go by when the NYT doesn’t lie or make something up?
@Althouse, what mindnumbrobot said. Your mistake that you keep thinking that the New York Times is a legitimate journalistic enterprise, as it was back when you were young. It hasn’t been that for decades.
Most Proud Boys are undercover Democratics.
Yes. Given the attention 60 Minutes and all the other leftie propaganda outlets give the name Proud Boys, combined with the fact the leftie propaganda outlets are the only place I’ve ever seen or heard the name Proud Boys…I assumed they were a propaganda construct invented at sone leftie think tank.
Those FBI agents that show up in FED memes are the closest thing to a Proud Boys I’ve seen..:
One day this blog will end, but pressuring me to end it won't work.
Is someone pressuring Ann to end her blog in this thread or somewhere else?
I dont think the Times was evet legitimate for reasons
the Times has been on the side of terrorists and communists and criminals all those who have furthered human suffering
Maduro was not the legitimate president thats the flag
Just like the left's obsession with Russia Russia - they are the real Soviets.
It's nearing time for mid-term elections, and that means that racism and White Supremacy need to be dragged out of the truck and resuscitated to once again serve their remaining vestiges of purpose. Once you see it, you can no longer unsee it.
NYeT is a legacy Diversity publisher. #HateLovesAbortion
Chuck - thanks for that.
A reminder that the left must infiltrate and destroy everything.
The left don't want anyone gathering and having fun - but the same corrupt left will gladly stand by as a man enters your daughter's locker room.
"...but pressuring me to end it won't work."
Very Trumpian.
The paper that lionized dgi trsined bill ayers on september 11th
We had it coming is the Times mottp
As if the proud boys would ever take him
But they set him up like edmund dantes
Montecristo reference
The MSM constantly centers these obscure extreme Rightwing groups that are completely infiltrated by the FBI and not doing much of anything. Then blowing them up in importance, and tieing them to Republican Pols. Meanwhile, Antifa doesn't even exist. Or the Communists. Hey what are you living in the 50s? Haha.
During the first term, no press conference was complete unless some MSM reporter asked Trump if he supported "Bad Group X". "Do you support Satan, trump? hey what about the Devil, huh,huh?"
Do normies do ever catch on to the tactic? I dunno.
What the lionesses said to the braying hyenas. Go girls!
We find it a little amusing then again antifa is just like your hamas friends their currency is death
...but pressuring me to end it won't work.
Heavens to Murgatroyd, I hope that wasn't in reference to my comment, which wasn't meant as a criticism, only an expression of my surprise at your surprise. Nothing but maximum respect for Althouse Blog here.
The MSM is also constantly asking Republican pols to "Disavow" someone. "Did you hear what R Politician said, will you disavow him, Senator X?" Republicans are supposed to be constantly disavowing and attacking their "lunatic fring", but the Democrats are rarely if ever asked to do that.
So, we get insane situations, with Trump "disavowing" a few kooks at Charlottsville 2017, and the MSM bringing it up for years and asking him about over and over again. Meanwhile, Biden and Pelosi are asked once about Antifa and BLM burning down cities and killing 50 people in 2020. And having their absurd response: "There is no antifa" accepted. Moveon.org.
This is something men have to live with every day.
Women at the NYT now just finding things out.
Weren’t the Proud Boys a group of gay Samoans led by half black/half Cuban? If they were on the left, they’d have been given the Antifa/BLM treatment; billions in donations, modeling contracts, elected positions and talking head spots.
Please don’t end the blog! I live in the Deep South and I experience the leaf changes of Fall and the snows of Winter through your daily posts that I’ve come to love.
The NYT has gone past Jane Goodall straight to full Margaret Mead.
Propaganda 101. Take something utterly benign that your enemy does and re characterize it as secretly evil. Raising your right arm., giving the thumbs up sign, using ordinary pronouns, etc.
They are Mamdani AOC voters writing for Mamdani AOC voters. Which is to say, they are dangerous and horrible humans.
FAFO has been in common usage for some time.
It's what Pepe the Frog told the media when they tried to make him the unofficial symbol of the online right.
But these are the games the media plays when we become two countries with little real knowledge of each other.
FAFO. The number is disputed but at least several hundred to several thousand political prisoners have been released from prisons in Venezuela and Cuba. There is a benign side to FAFO. I have not seen any stories in NYT or on BBC that featured touching human interest stories on their reunions with their families and friends. You just don't find out about the positive sides of FAFO........In our current engagement with Iran, we have killed fewer civilians than the Iranian regime killed while suppressing dissent. Everybody fucks around, but you don't always find out about it.
Is FAFO a more appropriate epithet for the grave of Ted Kennedy or Mary Jo Kopechne?
"... the aggressive intrusion of ..." anything that can be used to smear Trump.
As if the NYT knows acronyms. North American Treaty Organization?
bagoh20 said...
"In 67 years living and visiting all over the country, I've never met a Proud Boy, a Nazi, or a white supremist. I blame the Jews for that."
I worked in Skokie when the Nazis decided to make their statement at some park. I took half the day off to watch.
Nazi's, counter protestors, speeches and this little old yenta standing next me turned to me deadpan and said, "The real ones were much more impressive."
Like Inga, only the extreme Left is interested in Proud Boys news, even if they have to make it up to report it. Since the group is labeled a white supremacist group by lefty haters, I would expect an “official” or “unofficial” motto to be more racist than the seen-everywhere FAFO.
It’s another Gorillas in the Mist endeavor from the Times “informing” their readers about shit the Times neither knows or understands.
This is like how they tried to turn the OK hand sign into a White Power symbol.
Use "unofficial" and you can get away with any kinda bullshit.
I've never met a Proud Boy, a Nazi, or a white supremist.
I've met both Communists and one Nazi. The Nazi came from a Nazi family, apparently there is a small community of actual Nazis in this country. What surprised me was that he hooked up with a Polish student. Which is to say, I was surprised that a Polish national would take to a Nazi :) Love is strange.
All's fair in lust and abortion? Maybe, baby, not.
Wow. A Proud Boys sighting. Been awhile.
The Proud Boys used to hold Free Speech rallies in Portland, OR, in support of Patriot Prayer whose Free Speech family prayer rallies were attacked by Antifa who would also turn out to attack to attack the Proud Boys.
The Proud Boys described themselves as a drinking club with a patriot problem, upholding western civilization. Their local leader was a big black guy who, of course, was named Tiny.
Pretty sure that, while infiltrated by the Feds, they were the genuine article.
narciso said...
“But they set him up like edmund dantes
Montecristo reference”
I’ve been streaming the latest adaptation on PBS Masterpiece. Two episodes in. He has just broken out of Chateau D’if. Pretty good so far.
Does anyone know what AI Anne used in researching "FOFA"?
They differ and which one matters as some are notorious for wrong answers and should not be trusted.
Yes id never seen that sectiom
Im a quarter through the book
Who is the official who decides who has what unofficial motto?
"Who is the official who decides who has what unofficial motto?"
Wouldn't you need an unofficial to make that determination?
I always thought of "FAFO" as being a shorter, pithier version of the earlier "Play stupid games, win stupid prizes."
Before there was "Play stupid games...", there was "Think of it as evolution in action."
"Making "Fuck around and find out" Proud-Boys specific was, in my view, a dirty trick to make Trump look racist."
The dirty fact of life is that Donald Trump has been racist his entire adult life.
In the 1990s, John O’Donnell, the former president of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino, wrote a book about his time working with Donald Trump. O’Donnell reported that Trump frequently denigrated African Americans. He specifically remembers Trump saying of his accountants:
“I’ve got black accountants at Trump Castle and Trump Plaza. Black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day.”
Speaking of another African-American employee, Trump told O’Donnell:
“I think the guy is lazy. And it’s probably not his fault because laziness is a trait in blacks. It really is. I believe that.”
In a Playboy article published May 1, 1997, Trump was talking about John O’Donnell’s book and said, “Nobody has had worse things written about them than me,” Trump says. “And here I am. The stuff O’Donnell wrote about me is probably true.”
weeks of open deliberation over invading Greenland
I don't recall anyone in the Trump administration ever discussing invading Greenland, only discussing bringing it into the United States generally, through agreement with Greenlanders (and Denmark, by extension). The only people "discussing" invading Greenland were hysterical shrieking MSNBC-types to try to convince us that Trump is a monster while claiming the ability to read Trump's mind and discern unspoken thoughts and plans.
Do the Proud Boys even have a motto?
Is there even such a thing as the "Proud Boys?" There is far less evidence that this is a real organization than Antifa, which the left routinely claims is non-existent.
Nato has proven itself, not merely a paper tiger, but a small cub,
The boogaloo boys are feeling left out.
I, for one, have long thought FAFO was the interpersonal variation of GIGO, a computer science programming rule.
I am vaguely familiar with the "Proud Boys", however, I am unfamiliar with Homans, whoever the F he is. Does anyone care who he is besides his fellow travelers? Chuck sounds like he's just making it up as he strives to hit the magic word limit so he's gets paid.
Who is playing the dirty trick? Here’s what AI told me:
The Proud Boys have several unofficial mottos and catchphrases that reflect their extremist ideology, emphasis on violence, and political views. The most prominent ones include:
"FAFO" (Fuck Around and Find Out): This acronym is frequently used by members to justify street brawls and violence, implying that those who oppose them will face severe consequences.
"Stand Back and Stand By": Originally a remark by President Donald Trump during a 2020 presidential debate, this was immediately adopted as a slogan, with members creating merchandise and interpreting it as an endorsement of their actions.
"POYB" (Proud of Your Boy): Short for "Proud of Your Boy," a reference to a song from Disney's Aladdin which inspired the group's name.
"West is the Best": A slogan highlighting their ideology of "Western chauvinism," which claims that Western culture is superior to others.
"Uhuru!": A Swahili word for "freedom" adopted by the group to mock left-wing activists.
The group also frequently uses the phrase "No Trump, no peace" and has expressed a desire to be considered "Donald Trump's army". Additionally, founder Gavin McInnes has framed their activities around the idea that "fighting solves everything"
Not sure why Ms Althouse thinks the Proud Boys are racists. Pretty sure they have plenty of minority members.
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