Can the Right Meme? (And How?): A Comparative Analysis of Three Online Reactionary Meme Subcultures
September 18, 2023
This report analyses memes propagated among three online socio‐political groups drawn from sample datasets pulled from social media sites often used by adherents of each group. These groups include those connected to the India‐based Hindutva, US‐based neo‐Nazis and those engaging in pro‐Rittenhouse communications in late 2020. The authors chose the groups based on similarities in ...
The Meme Is the Method: Examining the Power of the Image Within Extremist Propaganda
September 18, 2023
As contemporary society becomes immersed in a visual culture, extremist imagery is becoming progressively organized around a network of symbols, rituals, and collective meanings. The research presented here employs one distinctive meme of the Waco Siege as a template to guide the reader through three different manifestations of anti-government extremism, and provides a conceptual framework ...
On Frogs, Monkeys, and Execution Memes: Exploring the Humor-Hate Nexus at the Intersection of Neo-Nazi and Alt-Right Movements in Sweden
September 18, 2023
This article is based on a case study of the online media practices of the militant neo-Nazi organization the Nordic Resistance Movement, currently the biggest and most active extreme-right actor in Scandinavia. I trace a recent turn to humor, irony, and ambiguity in their online communication and the increasing adaptation of stylistic strategies and visual ...
Network-Enabled Anarchy: How Militant Anarcho-Socialist Networks Use Social Media to Instigate Widespread Violence Against Political Opponents and Law Enforcement
September 18, 2023
Our primary research question was whether memes and codewords, private or fringe online forums, and hybrid real-world/online militia—the three characteristic tactics that support outbreaks of extremist violence for both Jihadi and Boogaloo extremism—are also prevalent in anti-fascist and anarcho-socialist groups. To analyze the use and prevalence of memes and other coded language and activity, we ...
Make America Meme Again: The Rhetoric of the Alt-Right
September 18, 2023
As demonstrated by the 2016 presidential election, memes have become the suasory tactic par excellence for the promotional and recruitment efforts of the Alt-right. Memes are not simply humorous shorthands or pithy assertions, but play a significant role in the machinations of politics and how the public comes to understand and respond to their government ...
Memes And Symbolic Violence: #Proudboys And The Use Of Memes For Propaganda And The Construction Of Collective Identity
September 18, 2023
As a social media platform, Instagram has a strong influence on youth culture, identity, and perceptions of the world, with the application serving not only for youth to follow accounts that are aspirational but also for entertainment and identity building through memes. Meme accounts that are explicitly conservative and that espouse white supremacist, hateful ideology ...
Writing On The Walls: Discourses On Bolivian Immigrants In Chilean Meme Humor
September 18, 2023
Internet memes have become a popular form through which northern Chileans express frustrations with their marginalization on global, national, and local levels. At the same time, many of these memes criticize Bolivian immigrants for using resources and taking jobs from “true Chileans.” The humorous nature of these texts mitigates the extremity of embedded racial and ...