Hans Kristian Graebener | |
|---|---|
 Hans Kristian Graebener | |
| Born | 9 May 1990 |
| Home Base | Spring, TX |
| Published By | OPP HQ |
| Published On | 15 March 2024 |
Comics and cartoons can be used to entertain, educate and enlighten. In the case of the right-wing web comic creator StoneToss and his eponymous cartoon, they can also be used to spread racism, antisemitism, xenophobia and anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry. Since 2017 StoneToss has been doing just that. It has an exceedingly wide presence among neo-Nazis and white nationalists. The easy-to-digest three- or four-panel comics are accessible vectors for spreading right-wing hate and, as we will show, real-world violence.
Even before StoneToss began its regular program of hateful propaganda, the creator did much the same under the name Red Panels. While many have noticed a stylistic and thematic resemblance between StoneToss and Red Panels, people have debated whether or not the two web comics could be attributed to the same creator. In this report we aim to settle this debate and give the creator an opportunity to explain his views under his real identity: Hans Kristian Graebener of Spring, Texas.
StoneToss
Image used on StoneToss social media profiles. The earliest StoneToss cartoon captured on the Internet Archive on July 30, 2017 was titled “Foreign Food,” a criticism of immigration and multiculturalism, depicting two diners at a Chinese restaurant and a Spanish-speaking chef. A bigoted view, for sure, but relatively mild. A later cartoon was far darker. Titled “Friendly Fire,” it mocked the issue of suicide among trans persons.
A StoneToss cartoon titled “Friendly Fire” mocked the tragedy of suicide in the trans community.
Though the rounded, friendly-looking figures presented a light-hearted feel, the message is far more dangerous. Racial superiority, antisemitism, Holocaust denial, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia; these are themes that are consistent throughout the StoneToss oeuvre.
To counter claims of being a “Nazi,” StoneToss provided a glib denial on the “About” page of his website, writing:
No, I am not a member of the National Socialist German Worker’s Party, a national socialist, or a fascist. I just enjoy edgy humor. Redditors and other brainlets like to pretend otherwise, however.
A later capture of the same page presented a more wordy defense of his work:
Surprisingly, I am not actually a 90 year-old member of the National Socialist German Worker’s Party. Additionally, I am not a national socialist, fascist, alt-right, or any kind of supremacist. My crime may be worse, however – I make transgressive art.
In my defense, cartooning has a long tradition of slaying society’s sacred cows. Its practice predates the United States itself. My work is similar to those often featured by Charlie Hebdo, published in the New York Times, and shown on Family Guy; all famous non-nazis.
Furthermore, themes featured in the works themselves further ideas of freedom of speech, anti-war, private gun ownership, non-violence, bodily autonomy, and anti-authoritarianism.
I have also featured works from other artists including multiple artists of color.
I would make a very hypocritical nazi indeed. Despite this, some would claim that my most controversial (and successful) cartoon is an example of historical denialism. I invite you to read it yourself.
Of course, a reasonable mind would see that it is a critique of so-called “free thinkers” hysterically trying to shut thinking down. I am hardly the first satirist to receive such a reaction, but thankfully effective enough to do so.
I encourage you to enjoy the comic, but if it offends you, that’s okay too.
The StoneToss doth protest too much, methinks. Racism, antisemitism, bigotry– if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, well, you know the rest. He may argue against being a card-carrying Nazi of 1938-1945, but that’s why we have the term “neo-Nazi.”
As with anything, we have to look through the words (and pictures) to the message being delivered and in StoneToss’ case, no one is buying his argument. StoneToss is a steady stream of white nationalism, neo-Nazi ideology and bigotry. It takes only a smattering of samples to see what StoneToss is all about.
Antisemitic StoneToss cartoon.
StoneToss mocking George Floyd’s murder.
StoneToss mocking both COVID mask requirements and the George Floyd murder.
StoneToss defending the Confederate flag while mocking LGBTQ+ persons.
This cartoon is both pro-Nazi and LGBTQ-phobic.
A particularly mean-spirited StoneToss mocking tragic cases of suicide in the trans community.
A Harry Potter-themed cartoon again mocking trans suicides.
This one was entitled “Flaming F(l)ag“
StoneToss often mentions the topic of circumcision. Presenting more examples here would be superfluous. At the time of writing there are five-hundred and ninety-seven cartoons on the StoneToss web site.
Red Panels
Image used on Red Panels social media profiles. Red Panels was an earlier cartoon that shared StoneToss’ style and themes. Its last cartoon, titled “Hot Mettle,” was published on February 27, 2017, a few months before StoneToss appeared. This cartoon, which was a riff on a scene in the 1991 movie Terminator 2, was a farewell of sorts and depicted a “terminator” signalling his goodbye before being lowered into molten metal and giving a Nazi salute. It was accompanied by a farewell message from the creator:
After 18 wonderful months as the creator of RedPanels, I am announcing my retirement. Knowing and interacting with you has made all the labor worthwhile.
My decision is motivated by a bright future. The Meme President has ascended to the throne, Brexit has shaken the foundations of the E.U., and everywhere you look there is a new skepticism of mainstream media. The tide of the culture war shifts. In the midst of all this good fortune I am taking the opportunity to rest.
RedPanels has been the most fun project I have ever undertaken, though it is not the only one I plan to. Producing free comics for you has been immensely rewarding, but future endeavors require the funds that a proper career would provide. As such, I am focusing my time accordingly.
This cartoon with an explicitly Nazi message was removed from the existing web site, but the original has been preserved here for viewing.
The last Red Panels cartoon, published on February 27, 2017.
The first StoneToss cartoon, published on July 18, 2017. Its stylistic resemblance to Red Panels is obvious. Many on the internet have noticed the stylistic resemblance between StoneToss and Red Panels in art, kind of humor and themes, as well as StoneToss’ timely appearance as a replacement for Red Panels. Nevertheless, StoneToss has consistently denied that he was the creator of Red Panels.
An anti-LGBTQ+ Red Panels cartoon.
An anti-LGBTQ+ StoneToss cartoon. Besides the stylistic similarities, both web comics shared a fixation on the perceived “degeneracy” of the LGBTQ+ community. Again, small sampling Red Panels is representative of the sort of content of the cartoon. Like StoneToss, Red Panels consistently featured extreme right-wing themes, like racism, xenophobia, bigotry and explicit nods to Adolf Hitler.
A Red Panels cartoon, published on September 21, 2016.
This Red Panels cartoon alludes to the neo-Nazi tropes “1488,” “Six Million Jews” and the neo-Nazi podcast network The Right Stuff.
Another blatantly antisemitic Red Panels cartoon.
A transphobic Red Panels cartoon. Not Just “Fun and Games” Every online neo-Nazi these days is out there expecting to be paid for their racism and StoneToss is no different. He’s made his cartoon into a cash cow through donations and sales of merchandise related to the comic. Plush toys made in “StoneToss” style are sold through his website, and he has solicited payments through crowdsourced donation platforms, like the short-lived Nazi-friendly fundraising site Hatreon. On his Hatreon profile page, he wrote,
Sup my fellow thought-criminals, it’s Stone, creator of StoneToss comics here. I am manufacturing the psychic chemotherapy necessary to cure the world of the mental cancer spread about by the likes of Assigned Male, (((liberalism))), and Soy-based dieting.
Not only will every dollar you contribute be denied to gay-pandering corporations, you are steering the culture away from an estrogen fueled dystopia where you BETTER bake that homo-cake OR ELSE.
Notably, in addition to the blatant trans- and homophobia in that statement, StoneToss uses triple parentheses, an antisemitic symbol that has been used to highlight the names of individuals thought to be Jews, and the names of organizations thought to be owned by Jews. He also wrote in that statement that a donation “secures the existence of the comic and a future for brave content,” a tribute to murderous neo-Nazi leader David Lane’s “14 Words.” Later, StoneToss established his own donation site, “OwnLibtards.com,” which links out to Gumroad, to solicit donations for himself.
A StoneToss plush toy sold on his website.
In 2021 StoneToss launched a line of NFTs (“Non-fungible Tokens,” or digital collectibles) and raised the equivalent of approximately 1.8 million US dollars in cryptocurrency before his account was suspended by NFT platforms. StoneToss accused the platforms of “political censorship.”
StoneToss called his NFTs “Flurks”
StoneToss has leveraged accessibility and “plausible deniability” to spread dangerous right-wing hate and bigotry. Even the billionaire manchild Elon Musk posted on his microblogging platform X (formerly known as “Twitter”) a modified StoneToss cartoon in which the text in the final panel had been altered.
An altered StoneToss cartoon posted by Elon Musk on X (archived here).
The original StoneToss cartoon. StoneToss and his cartoons have an inordinate reach and have been boosted by many in white supremacist circles as well as those on the extreme-right side of the US political scene. While it is no surprise, the racist former Michigan Representative Joshua Schriver also re-posted a StoneToss cartoon on Twitter/X. No doubt the creator of StoneToss is very proud to see that his work has caught the attention of so many right-wing asshats, but it goes to show how dangerous these admittedly effective and accessible cartoons are in spreading hate and bigotry.
A re-post of a StoneToss cartoon by the racist former Michigan Representative Joshua Schriver.
But StoneToss cartoons are not just fun and games. They are also fuel for real-world violence. On May 14, 2022 an eighteen-year-old man murdered ten people in a racially motivated attack at a Buffalo, New York supermarket in a predominantly black neighborhood. Prior to the attack, the murderer had published a one-hundred-eighty-page manifesto which praised other well-known neo-Nazi mass murderers of recent years. Included in the manifesto were cartoons by several of the most prominent white nationalist cartoonists, including one we have reported on previously, Joshua Thayer LeGoff, aka “Jinjerzilla.” It is no surprise that StoneToss cartoons also appeared in this mad collection. Another mass murderer who had a fascination with white supremacy killed eight people at a Dallas, Texas shopping mall on May 8, 2023. This murderer also shared on social media a modified homophobic StoneToss cartoon.
A social media post by the May 6, 2023 Dallas mall mass murderer featuring a modified StoneToss cartoon.
It’s no coincidence that StoneToss cartoons appeared in the digital footprint of both these killers. StoneToss cartoons, tremendously popular amongst white supremacists, fan the flames of their violent impulses.
Joining The Dots StoneToss was very careful about not exposing his true identity. Despite publishing hundreds of cartoons, there were not many clues about who the cartoonist really was. In one November 11, 2017 interview with the pseudonymous neo-Nazi “Brett Stevens,” StoneToss claimed to be the creator of the “This Is Your Home Now” meme and claimed his cartoons were “psychic chemotherapy necessary to cure the world of the mental cancer,” but provided no personally identifiable information.
StoneToss claimed to have created this internet meme.
The topic of Red Panels was not addressed in the interview, but noting the obvious similarities with StoneToss we aimed to determine whether or not they were indeed created by the same person (and you already know the answer). Both StoneToss and Red Panels had made podcast appearances. Though these podcast episodes were difficult to locate, we did locate them nevertheless, and carefully compared the voices of the speakers.
In one appearance, Red Panels engaged in insipid debate with the far-right British podcaster Carl Benjamin (“Sargon of Akkad“) about the merits of “classical liberalism” versus “anarchocapitalism.” This debate has been archived on the Internet Archive and is available for listening here.
The other appearance was a guest spot on right-wing racist dumbass Ethan Ralph’s podcast Killstream as “StoneToss.” It is interesting to note that this episode did not stay in the Killstream playlist for long. It was up for a short time but was then removed from every platform hosting Ralph’s podcast, much to the chagrin of some internet users who wished to hear StoneToss’ voice. Despite nearly every other episode of Ralph’s podcast remaining available, this particular one was removed and apparently was nowhere to be found.
4chan users were frustrated that the Killstream episode featuring StoneToss was seemingly completely removed from the internet.
This is not completely true, of course, since we found that episode. In fact, the Internet Archive had already archived it with its webcrawler, and it is available for listening here.
This October 24, 2018 Killstream episode, entitled “Avenatti Loses, Trump Trolls Obama, StoneToss Live, + Caravan Insanity,” featured StoneToss as a live guest. In this interview and call-in session StoneToss spoke about contemporary political affairs from a Texas perspective (a point that would be important later) and addressed a question asking him if he was also the creator of Red Panels. He denied this and laughed it off, but a comparison between the voice in the debate featuring the Red Panels creator and the voice of StoneToss in this interview are the same. Audio samples of each are provided below for comparison.
“Debating Classical Liberalism And Anarchocapitalism With Redpanels“:
Audio Player
00:00 00:00
Use Up/Down Arrow keys to increase or decrease volume. “Avenatti Loses, Trump Trolls Obama, StoneToss Live, + Caravan Insanity”:
Audio Player
00:00 00:00
Use Up/Down Arrow keys to increase or decrease volume. Having established that the creator of Red Panels and StoneToss were indeed the same person – a fact that would also be further supported by later findings – we focused our attention on learning more about Red Panels.
In February of 2021 the far-right social media platform Gab experienced a data breach resulting in the exposure of more than 70 gigabytes of Gab data, including user registration emails and hashed passwords. Like many of those on the far-right, Red Panels had a presence on Gab, so we consulted the now-public data set from the Gab exposure. We learned that the “@redpanels” account had been registered with the email hgraebener@*****.com.
The Gab breach of 2021 showed an email address used to register the “@redpanels” Gab account. We have redacted the full email address as well as the password hash for this account.
We focused in on this email address, which was found in many data breaches over the years. Cracked passwords associated with this address were also associated with dozens of other email addresses. Over 1,700 domain names were registered to the email address associated with the “@redpanels” Gab account.
Some of the many associated emails used by the Red Panels creator (redacted).
Over 1,700 domain names were registered to the email address associated with Red Panels. Many of the associated emails were tied to cryptocurrency sites. StoneToss heavily promoted cryptocurrencies on his site and through his products, so this was consistent with the profile we had developed for him. One of the user names for the hgraebener cryptocurrency accounts, “Scythe_001,” also appeared on Reddit, as the similar user names “u/Scythe-001” and “u/Scythe_001.” Using a Reddit archive search engine, we found that these Reddit users had a history of frequently posting both Red Panels and StoneToss cartoons.
The user “Scythe-001” frequently posted both Red Panels and StoneToss cartoons on Reddit. This user name was associated with the email address used to register the Red Panels Gab account.
Additionally, the user “Scythe-001” claimed to have lost 23 Bitcoin in the infamous 2014 Mt. Gox Bitcoin disaster. Indeed, an email address associated with the other addresses appeared in the Mt. Gox data breach, providing further confirmation this was the same person.
Reddit user “Scythe-001” claimed to have lost 23 Bitcoin in the 2014 Mt. Gox cryptocurrency theft.
The email address “postrovsky4@*****.com was associated with the other email addresses and found in the Mt. Gox data breach. The Reddit posts and comments by “Scythe-001” show a particular obsession with circumcision, a theme that carried over in StoneToss and Red Panels cartoons. “Scythe-001” also stated that he regularly donated to a “foreskin regeneration” medical firm. In one deleted-but-archived post, he explained a little about his preoccupation with the topic, writing:
I am circumcised, the resulting dryness of my Glans Penis, the limited range if [sic] my penile skin to glide, and the psychosexual body image dismorphia [sic] makes it difficult to achieve orgasm during coitus and encumbers masturbation.
Probably a little more info than anyone wanted to know, but it correlates with the obsession over circumcision in both StoneToss and Red Panels comics.
TMI alert.
Our conclusion that the creator of Red Panels and StoneToss are the same person is also supported by the fact that one of the hgraebener email addresses was used to register a Twitter account with the handle @MisterRoasty. This was revealed in a 2021 scrape of Twitter users who had set their email addresses to be publicly located. This Twitter account, “@MisterRoasty,” posted some telling tweets, hyping up the StoneToss cartoon. The creator of Red Panels used this Twitter account to support his new cartoon StoneToss.
Red Panels’ “@MisterRoasty” Twitter account boosting StoneToss.
The fact that Red Panels and StoneToss were the products of the same creator was an unsurprising revelation, despite StoneToss’ denials. The evidence presented here should put any questions about this to rest. But then came the question, “So, who is this guy?”
Hans Kristian Graebener, aka “StoneToss” and “Red Panels” We found the email address “hgraebener@*****.com” associated with a person named Hans Kristian Graebener, born May 9, 1990, of Spring, Texas. According to a Red Panels AMA (“Ask Me Anything”) on Reddit and a deleted Reddit post by user “Scythe-001,” Graebener worked as a security guard in Texas around the period of 2014 through 2017.
A now-deleted Reddit post (still viewable by various Reddit archives) show that Graebener had been working as a security guard in Texas.
Graebener was also found in a 2014 article in New York Magazine that noted “an enormous bald man named Hans…who had flown from Texas” for a party of Gamergate supporters at a New York strip club. In the article, Graebener defended the misogynistic Gamergate harassment campaign by 8chan users:
“Naturally, accusations of misogyny are thrown around, but as evidenced by the presence of women, of which there are a few, it is a diverse group.” Hans paused, then winked. “By the way, table dances are $10 and lap dances are $75, if you’re interested. May I recommend Ms. Rain?”
Hans Graebener (back, fourth from right) as he appeared in a 2014 New York Magazine article.
More recently, however, we found Graebener employed by IT management company Open iT at their Houston office since 2017. Graebener was part of an Open iT delegation to Japan in May 2019 and appeared in photos of this on the Open iT LinkedIn page. Curiously, the same photos on the Open iT Facebook page were awkwardly cropped to omit Graebener. During the same time, StoneToss was eager to let his fans know that he had arrived in Japan, writing on Twitter, “Finally made it to the ethnostate, fellas.” Other Japan-related Twitter posts followed.
Hans Kristian Graebener, aka “StoneToss” and “Red Panels”
Hans Graebener during a business trip to Japan in May 2019, as seen on the Open iT LinkedIn page.
Another shot of Hans Graebener working for Open iT during a May 2019 business trip to Japan.
Curiously, these same photos on the Facebook Open iT company page were awkwardly cropped to omit Graebener.
At the same time, StoneToss was eager to announce his arrival to Japan in May 2019.
StoneToss looking for a Lost In Translation-style hook-up in Japan.
StoneToss was elated that he could drop racial slurs in Japan and no one would be the wiser.
Graebener appeared in the video about the business trip to Japan on the Open iT Youtube account, too.
Hans Graebener in a video on the Open iT Youtube company page.
Hans Kristian Graebener, aka “StoneToss” and “Red Panels” Graebener, being extremely paranoid about being exposed as the creator of StoneToss and Red Panels, went to great lengths to scrub his personal social media and presence on people data sites, even removing an image of his home on Google Maps. In another example, Graebener’s absence from a family obituary seemed odd but a cached copy showed that he had been deliberately edited out. Public records, however, confirm that he is located in Spring, Texas and likely works for the same Houston office.
Hans Graebener was not listed in a family obituary, but looking at an earlier archived capture of the same obituary…
…we found his name present. Hans Graebener had his name deliberately removed.
A view of Graebener’s blurred-out home on Google Maps, which Google will do upon request. Though Graebener has been promoting Nazi ideology, racism and bigotry online through StoneToss and Red Panels for years, there are indications that he has also participated with in-person meet ups of neo-Nazi groups. In leaked neo-Nazi chats, StoneToss was cited as a participant in a neo-Nazi gathering, termed a “pool party,” on December 11 in McKinney, Texas.
StoneToss listed as an attendee at an in-person neo-Nazi meetup.
StoneToss Got His Stones Tossed
Despite promoting racism, xenophobia, anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry and Nazi ideology for years through the StoneToss and Red Panels web comics, and despite his nearly pathological paranoia about being exposed, in the end Hans Graebener was not as careful as he thought. As it turned out his real identity was just a stone’s toss away, so to speak. A former security guard turned IT guy harboring an obsession with circumcision and racial hatred, Graebener created cartoons that reached everyone from casual online white nationalists to killers, politicians and spoiled billionaires.
The question is, how is that going to work out for him now?