UNIVERSITY of BELGRADE FACULTY of POLITICAL SCIENCES Regional Master’S Program in Peace Studies
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UNIVERSITY OF BELGRADE FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCES Regional Master’s Program in Peace Studies Master’s Thesis Understanding the rise and the internationalisation of online alt-right’s subculture: how memes are changing political culture worldwide Author: Anesa Omeragić 515/16 Mentor: Professor Marina Simić Belgrade, September 2019 1 Abstract and keywords This paper examines the creation and the development of alt-right subculture, their language and behaviour. Alt-right was mainstreamed in 2016, and it is growing fast in the post-truth environment. Alt-right fights with stigmatisation that usually far-right movement face with the ironic and subtler language, rejection of the political correctness and use of jokes, sarcastic and nihilist approach and dark humour memes to spread their ideology. Alt-right members seem young, smart and exciting. They are gathering in board-based websites and/or forums that have little or no freedom of speech control. Lack of regulation and anonymity give them the opportunity to say what they mean, to spread the message and radicalise more. Alt-right online subculture was somewhat connected with rising of white supremacy’s violence globally in the past couple of years. Alt-right online subculture was especially compared with the four mass shootings or attempted mass shootings in the past six months – In Australia, Norway and the US. There is a danger that this trend of rising alt-right violence will continue. The public is not very- well informed about the alt-right community and its language, and it is essential to educate, especially youth, because of the danger of radicalisation. Social media and internet platforms, some less, some more, work on changing their policy of free speech to make people safer and stopping the spread of violence, harassment, racism and hate speech. Keywords: alt-right, violence, white nationalism, far-right, online subcultures, memes, youth, online platforms, social media Word count: 20 020 2 Biography After completing her Graduate studies of International Relations at the Faculty of Political Science, the University of Belgrade in September 2016, she started her Master studies (Regional Master’s Programme in Peace Studies) at the same faculty in October 2016. In February 2017, she started working at the European Policy Centre as a Communication and Event Organiser Assistant. She is still working in the same organisation, now at the Communication and Event Coordinator position She is an alumna of XXIII generation of the educational programme Future Studies of Belgrade Open School, an alumna of the II generation of Human Rights Defenders School organised by Civil Rights Defenders, and an alumna of the II generation of LIBEK’s Public Policy Academy. She completed the courses Applied Rhetoric and Debate course at the Faculty of Political Sciences. In addition to Serbian, she speaks English (C1) and German (B1). 3 Academic Integrity Statement I hereby declare that I obeyed all the rules of academic integrity in the present Paper. This Paper is solely the result of my efforts. It is based on my research and everything that is someone’s else intellectual property is listed in references below. ______________________________________ Student's signature In Belgrade, September 2019. 4 Contents Abstract and key words ................................................................................................................................ 2 Biography ..................................................................................................................................................... 3 Academic Integrity Statement ...................................................................................................................... 4 List of abbreviations ..................................................................................................................................... 6 List of photos and charts .............................................................................................................................. 7 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 8 1. What is the alt-right? .......................................................................................................................... 15 1.1. History of the alt-right movement .............................................................................................. 15 1.2. Places of gathering ..................................................................................................................... 23 1.3. Most influential persons within alt-right .................................................................................... 30 1.4. Alt-right language: “shitposting”, memes, “trolling” and terminology ........................................... 33 2. Influence of the alt-right online subculture on current events ............................................................ 40 2.1. Christchurch mosque shootings ....................................................................................................... 42 2.2. Poway synagogue attack ................................................................................................................. 50 2.3 El Paso Walmart shooting ................................................................................................................ 53 2.4. Norway mosque shooting ................................................................................................................ 55 3. How well do the public know about the alt-right? ............................................................................. 59 3.1. Results of online survey “How much do you know about alt-right?” ........................................ 59 4. How social networks fight the alt-right? ............................................................................................ 62 Conclusions ................................................................................................................................................ 65 5 List of abbreviations /pol – discussion board on 4chan and 8chan website. It stands for “Political Incorrectness”. Boards are popular places of alt-right gathering. Alt-right – alternative-right, a loose group of people on the far right how to have some common traits Alt-right online subculture – alternative right members online, Daily Stormer –neo-Nazi hate-website. On 2017 it the page has been removed from Clearnet. Far-right / extreme right / extreme right-wingers – people or groups that are share radical racist, xenophobic anti- anti-democratic views Gab –social media platform, heavily used by the far-right Identitarianism – a pan-European ethno-nationalist movement that believes in preservation of European culture and identity meme – any content that is rapidly and massively shared on through the internet Reddit – Board-based website, among the most popular websites online, divided into interest-based boards SJWs – slang of alt-right, social justice warriors, meaning activists on the liberal and left spectrum /DonaldTrump board on 4chan, one of the bases for Trump’s supporter 6 List of pictures and charts List of pictures Picture 1. Trump tweeted the meme that was allegedly created on 4chan. It was 13 marked as racist and lately deleted. Picture 2. What is the alt-right? Photo credit: www.tolerance.org 24 Picture 3. Screenshot of Trump’s Twitter Page on 13.10.2015 31 Picture 4. Solider from music video Od Bihaća do Petrovca sela and “remove 33 kebab” meme. Source: Screenshot of a YouTube video Picture 5. Screenshot of Tarrant’s post on 8chan. Source: 8chan web archive 38 Picture 6. First page of Tarrant’s Manifesto. Source: The Great Replacement 39 Picture 7. Brenton Tarrant as saint. Source: screenshot from 8chan 42 Picture 8. Screenshot of John Earnest’s post on 8chan. Source: belingcat 47 Picture 9. Screenshot of Patrick Crusius message on 8chan. Source: bellingcat 48 Picture 10. Manshaus’ picture from the post on Endchan. Source: Endchan web 50 archive List of charts Chart 1. Answers to the question “Do you know what alt-right is?” - comparison 55 by age Chart 2. Answers to the question “Do you know what alt-right is?” - comparison by gender 55 Chart 3. Answers to the question “Do you know what alt-right is?” - comparison 56 by the level of education Chart 4. Answers to the question “Have you heard about 8chan website?” 56 Chart 6. Answers to the question: Have you ever heard about “remove kebab”? 57 Chart 7. Answers to the question: Have you ever heard about “Pepe the frog”? 57 7 Introduction The internet has achieved an amazing breakthrough in an incredibly short period. Research shows that currently, more than half (58.8%) of the world’s population has access to the Internet.1 Having in mind that it exists for less than 30 years (in its www. form, accessible to the broader public), the use of the internet has spread fastest than any innovation before. The internet undoubtedly made a revolution in the world and contributed significantly to globalisation. Our age is, therefore, very often called “Internet Age”2. Majority of population use it every day, everyone can interact directly with the most powerful men, and women in the world via Twitter, revolutions and coups are organised via Facebook, and the elections are won thanks to the internet, sometimes, fake news phenomena that are spreading with a help of the Internet and social networks.