On 4 December 2016, a man entered a Washington, D.C., pizza parlor armed with an AR-15 assault rifle in an attempt to save the victims of an alleged satanic pedophilia ring run by prominent members of the Democratic Party. While the story had already been discredited (LaCapria), at the time of the incident, nearly half of Trump voters were found to give a measure of credence to the same rumors that had apparently inspired the gunman (Frankovic). Was we will discuss here, the bizarre conspiracy theory known as "Pizzagate" had in fact originated a month earlier on 4chan/pol/, a message forum whose very raison d'être is to protest against "political correctness" of the liberal establishment, and which had recently become a hub for "loose coordination" amongst members the insurgent US 'alt-right' movement (Hawley 48). Over a period of 25 hours beginning on 3 November 2016, contributors to the /pol/ forum combed through a cache of private e-mails belonging to Hillary Clinton's campaign manager John Podesta, obtained by Russian hackers (Franceschi-Bicchierai) and leaked by Julian Assange (Wikileaks). In this short time period contributors to the forum thus constructed the basic elements of a narrative that would be amplified by a newly formed "right-wing media network", in which the "repetition, variation, and circulation" of "repeated falsehoods" may be understood as an "important driver towards a 'post-truth' world" (Benkler et al). Heavily promoted by a new class of right-wing pundits on Twitter (Wendling), the case of Pizzagate prompts us to reconsider the presumed progressive valence of social media protest (Zuckerman). While there is literature, both popular and academic, on earlier protest movements associated with 4chan (Stryker; Olson; Coleman; Phillips), there is still a relative paucity of empirical research into the newer forms of alt-right collective action that have emerged from 4chan. And while there have been journalistic exposés tracing the dissemination of the Pizzagate rumors across social media as well as deconstructing its bizarre narrative (Fisher et al.; Aisch; Robb), as of yet there has been no rigorous analysis of the provenance of this particular story. This article thus provides an empirical study of how the Pizzagate conspiracy theory developed out of a particular set of collective action techniques that were in turn shaped by the material affordances of 4chan's most active message board, the notorious and highly offensive /pol/.
Based on a theory of affectivity and subjectivity, this article analyzes differ- ent affective sensitivities behind authoritarian styles of politics. Following the late work of Michel Foucault, I formulate a concept of political subjec- tivity that describes the emergence of (new) forms of political articulation as a result of an interplay of individual affective sensitivities and media- technical structures of public communication. To illustrate the theoretical points, the article starts from a brief outline of affective subjectivation in the context of the discourse ethics of (German) Enlightenment. Then I will discuss the emergence of political subjectivities in the context of the elec- tion of Donald Trump as the 45th US President in 2016. As I will argue, the current rise of right-wing populism and the Alt-Right movement shows a political impulse aimed at disturbing and destroying the established politi- cal apparatus. This can be theorized as a form of authoritarian mobilization based on the activation of a cynical and destructive authoritarian sensitiv- ity. While this sensitivity must be distinguished from a civic and indignant form of authoritarian sensitivity, both forms resonated in a symbiotic af- fective interplay that emerged out of a complex strategy of media guerilla around the election of Donald Trump.
AbstractThis article examines the fascists imaginaries that are produced and circulated at 4chan /pol/. Based on analysis of memes and posts collected during a 6‐month period in 2019, it explores the diagnoses given by anonymous users to the imagining of the ultra‐nation and dehumanized others, and the prescriptions for the remedies needed to bring about its saving. It argues that the cultural practices of /pol/ where fascist fantasies of white supremacy are spread fast and anonymously in a transnational milieu through transgressive play frames are particularly powerful for the amplification of the logic of an endangered ultra‐nation that needs urgent violent defence to obtain racial palingenesis. As such cyberfascism co‐produced in a leaderless network among users scattered across continents lends itself to calls for violent action against minority communities, including terrorism.
Recent progress in genomics has enabled an emerging market for "direct-to-consumer" genetic testing. Nowadays, companies like 23andMe and AncestryDNA provide affordable health, genealogy, and ancestry reports, and have already tested tens of millions of customers. At the same time, far-right groups have also reportedly taken an interest in genetic testing, using them to attack minorities and prove their genetic "purity." In this paper, we present a quantitative measurement study shed- ding light on how genetic testing is being discussed on Web communities in Reddit and 4chan. We collect 1.3M comments from both platforms, posted over 27 months, using a set of 280 keywords related to genetic testing. We then use NLP and computer vision tools to identify trends, themes, and topics of discussion. Our analysis shows that genetic testing attracts a lot of attention on Reddit and 4chan, with discussions often including highly toxic language expressed through hateful, racist, and misogynistic comments. In particular, on 4chan's politically incorrect board (/pol/), content from genetic testing conversations involves several alt-right personalities and openly antisemitic rhetoric, often conveyed through memes. Finally, we find that discussions build around user groups, from technology enthusiasts to communities promoting fringe political views.
Rapid progress in genomics has enabled a thriving market for "direct-to-consumer" genetic testing, whereby people have access to their genetic information without the involvement of a healthcare provider. Companies like 23andMe and AncestryDNA, which provide affordable health, genealogy, and ancestry reports, have already tested tens of millions of customers. At the same time, alas, far-right groups have also taken an interest in genetic testing, using them to attack minorities and prove their genetic "purity." However, the relation between genetic testing and online hate has not really been studied by the scientific community. To address this gap, we present a measurement study shedding light on how genetic testing is discussed on Web communities in Reddit and 4chan. We collect 1.3M comments posted over 27 months using a set of 280 keywords related to genetic testing. We then use Latent Dirichlet Allocation, Google's Perspective API, Perceptual Hashing, and word embeddings to identify trends, themes, and topics of discussion. Our analysis shows that genetic testing is discussed frequently on Reddit and 4chan, and often includes highly toxic language expressed through hateful, racist, and misogynistic comments. In particular, on 4chan's politically incorrect board (/pol/), content from genetic testing conversations involves several alt-right personalities and openly antisemitic memes. Finally, we find that genetic testing appears in a few unexpected contexts, and that users seem to build groups ranging from technology enthusiasts to communities using it to promote fringe political views.
Background My thesis's impetus is the rise of reactionary discourse on the internet, collectively known as the alt-right. As with the traditional right, the alt-right is anti-feminist, anti-immigration, and anti-political-correctness, but unlike its predecessor, is also anti-establishment, anti-religion, pro-Donald Trump, and thoroughly engaged with and immersed in the meme-based political discourse of digital media. Hypothesis I argue against the cyber-utopianism proposed by Douglass Rushkoff and other early internet theorists; I argue that, while the internet has made memes central to political discourse, the rise of laissez-faire social media platforms has not made the digital generation more enlightened, or tolerant, or multicultural; it has instead fostered tribalism, anti-intellectualism, and reactionary politics, manifesting in right-wing populist movements across the Western world. Methods Drawing on contemporary meme-theorists such as Ryan Milner and Whitney Philips, and citing news articles, memes, and social-media posts extensively, I argue that the internet meme-scene is a war between ideas, guided in the 2010s by far-right online meme-centers such as 4chan and Reddit. Their ideas spread via resonance through the alt-right and its various splinters, such as Gamergate, which defends "gamer identity" from the encroachment of feminism and multiculturalism. Results The mainstream media cannot understand the rise of Trump or the alt-right because they are ignorant of who produces memes, and where (i.e, 4chan and Reddit); furthermore, the media have erased their role in creating the Trump media cult of the 1980s and 90s. Conclusion The fight against the alt-right is to fight against the ignorance and misinformation encouraged by mindless repetition of memes. Keywords: Memes, 4chan, Gamergate, Reddit, Trump, critical theory, cultural studies, internet, alt-right, social media
Recent progress in genomics has enabled the emergence of a flourishing market for direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing. Companies like 23andMe and AncestryDNA provide affordable health, genealogy, and ancestry reports, and have already tested tens of millions of customers. Consequently, news, experiences, and views on genetic testing are increasingly shared and discussed on social media. At the same time, far-right groups have also taken an interest in genetic testing, using them to attack minorities and prove their genetic "purity." In this paper, we set to study the genetic testing discourse on a number of mainstream and fringe Web communities. We do so in two steps. First, we conduct an exploratory, large-scale analysis of the genetic testing discourse on a mainstream social network such as Twitter. We find that the genetic testing discourse is fueled by accounts that appear to be interested in digital health and technology. However, we also identify tweets with highly racist connotations. This motivates us to explore the connection between genetic testing and racism on platforms with a reputation for toxicity, namely, Reddit and 4chan, where we find that discussions around genetic testing often include highly toxic language expressed through hateful and racist comments. In particular, on 4chan's politically incorrect board (/pol/), content from genetic testing conversations involves several alt-right personalities and openly anti-semitic rhetoric, often conveyed through memes.
This paper presents a dataset with over 3.3M threads and 134.5M posts from the Politically Incorrect board (/pol/) of the imageboard forum 4chan, posted over a period of almost 3.5 years (June 2016-November 2019). To the best of our knowledge, this represents the largest publicly available 4chan dataset, providing the community with an archive of posts that have been permanently deleted from 4chan and are otherwise inaccessible.We augment the data with a set of additional labels, including toxicity scores and the named entities mentioned in each post.We also present a statistical analysis of the dataset, providing an overview of what researchers interested in using it can expect, as well as a simple content analysis, shedding light on the most prominent discussion topics, the most popular entities mentioned, and the toxicity level of each post. Overall, we are confident that our work will motivate and assist researchers in studying and understanding 4chan, as well as its role on the greaterWeb. For instance, we hope this dataset may be used for cross-platform studies of social media, as well as being useful for other types of research like natural language processing. Finally, our dataset can assist qualitative work focusing on in-depth case studies of specific narratives, events, or social theories.
"Recent years have seen a revival of the heated culture wars of the 1990s, but this time its battle ground is the internet. On one side the alt right ranges from the once obscure neo-reactionary and white separatist movements, to geeky subcultures like 4chan, to more mainstream manifestations such as the Trump-supporting gay libertarian Milo Yiannopolous. On the other side, a culture of struggle sessions and virtue signalling lurks behind a therapeutic language of trigger warnings and safe spaces. The feminist side of the online culture wars has its equally geeky subcultures right through to its mainstream expression. Kill All Normies explores some of the cultural genealogies and past parallels of these styles and subcultures, drawing from transgressive styles of 60s libertinism and conservative movements, to make the case for a rejection of the perpetual cultural turn"--Provided by publisher
Im Internet tobt ein neuer Kulturkampf. Auf der einen Seite steht die Alt-Right, die von einst obskuren neoreaktionären und rechtsextremen Bewegungen über nerdige Subkulturen wie 4chan bis hin zu Milo Yiannopoulos reicht; auf der Seite der Linken dagegen lauert hinter der therapeutischen Sprache von »Triggerwarnungen« und »safe spaces« eine Kultur der Kampf- und Kritiksitzungen und des demonstrativen »Gutmenschentums«.Angela Nagle erkundet die kulturelle Genealogie dieser Ästhetiken und Subkulturen und zieht Parallelen zu vergangenen politischen Phänomenen. Die emphatische Botschaft: Der permanente cultural turn - die Verlagerung von Politik ins Kulturelle in Form von Kulturkämpfen, die die ganze Gesellschaft spalten - muss aufgehalten werden!Angela Nagles Buch, im englischsprachigen Original mittlerweile ein Bestseller, wurde vom britischen Guardian zu den Büchern des Jahres 2017 gezählt.
Cover -- Inhalt -- Einführung - Von der Hoffnung zu ›Harambe‹ -- Kapitel 1 - Die führerlose digitale Gegenrevolution -- Kapitel 2 - Die Politik der Transgression -- Kapitel 3 - Gramsci und die Alt-Light -- Kapitel 4 - Konservative Kulturkämpfe von Buchanan bis Yiannopoulos -- Kapitel 5 - Von Tumblr zu den Campus-Kriegen: Knappheit schaffen in der Tugend-Ökonomie -- Kapitel 6 - Eintritt in die Mannosphäre -- Kapitel 7 - Massen von Normalos -- Fazit - Nicht mehr witzig: Der Kulturkampf geht offline