Anti-Capitalist Subcultures Online: From the Deliberative Public Sphere to Irony Politics Lucie Chateau 12288136 Completed on Thursday, 27 June 2019 MA New Media and Digital Culture University of Amsterdam Supervised by Dr. Davide Beraldo 1 Contents 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 5 2. Online Politics ................................................................................................................................. 7 2.1. The Networked Public Sphere................................................................................................. 8 2.1.1. Filter bubble and Ideological Segregation ...................................................................... 9 2.1.2. Reactionary Politics, the Meme War and the Overton Window .................................. 10 2.2. Platform Ecologies ................................................................................................................ 11 2.2.1. Platform Affordances and Subcultures ......................................................................... 12 2.2.2. Reddit, Forums and Deliberation .................................................................................. 13 2.2.3. Instagram’s Radicalisation ............................................................................................ 16 2.2.4. Tumblr’s Subaltern Counterpublics .............................................................................. 18 2.3. Concluding Remarks .............................................................................................................. 21 3. Methodology ................................................................................................................................. 21 3.1. Digital Methods and Ethnography ........................................................................................ 22 3.2. Models of Online Communication ........................................................................................ 23 3.3. Platforms ............................................................................................................................... 24 3.3.1. Reddit ............................................................................................................................ 25 3.3.2. Tumblr & Instagram ...................................................................................................... 28 3.4. Limitations............................................................................................................................. 32 4. Findings ......................................................................................................................................... 33 4.1. Reddit .................................................................................................................................... 35 4.1.1. Aesthetics and Affordances .......................................................................................... 36 4.1.2. Referrals and Intra-ideological Questioning ................................................................. 39 4.1.3. Memes and Practices .................................................................................................... 42 4.2. Instagram .............................................................................................................................. 45 4.2.1. Top vs. Recent ............................................................................................................... 45 4.2.2. Clusters and Tagging ..................................................................................................... 48 4.2.3. Post-Left Meme Pages .................................................................................................. 49 4.2.4. Memes and Practices .................................................................................................... 52 4.3. Tumblr ................................................................................................................................... 54 4.3.1. Solarpunk ............................................................................................................................ 56 4.3.2. Leftblr and Freeblr .............................................................................................................. 58 4.3.3. Libertarians and Communists ............................................................................................. 60 4.3.4. Meme Grammars ................................................................................................................ 62 4.3.5. Laborwave ........................................................................................................................... 63 4.4. The Political Compass ........................................................................................................... 64 5. Conclusion: A Critique on Three Axes ........................................................................................... 67 2 5.1. Irony, Climate Change and Capitalist Realism........................................................................... 67 5.2. “Study the Theory” .................................................................................................................... 70 5.3. Rejection of the Mainstream ..................................................................................................... 72 5.4 Final Remarks ........................................................................................................................ 74 Works Cited ........................................................................................................................................... 77 Appendix ............................................................................................................................................... 88 3 TABLE OF FIGURES FIGURE 1. FREELON'S MODEL OF DELIBERATION ONLINE COMMUNICATION (2010: 7) ............................................................ 24 FIGURE 2. SEARCH RESULTS FOR "ANTI-CAPITALISM". ....................................................................................................... 26 FIGURE 3. REDDIT SEARCH RESULTS FOR "ANTI-CAPITALISM". ............................................................................................. 35 FIGURE 4. TIMELINE OF OCCURRENCE OF THE TERM "ANTI-CAPITALISM" ON REDDIT. .............................................................. 36 FIGURES 5 & 6. THE AESTHETICS AND AFFORDANCES OF R/LATESTAGECAPITALISM. ............................................................... 38 FIGURE 7. THE HOMEPAGE OF /R/CHAPOTRAPHOUSE INCORPORATES AESTHETICS FROM ITS INSIDE JOKES. ................................. 39 FIGURE 8. INTRA-IDEOLOGICAL RECIPROCITY IN THE /R/LATESTAGECAPITALISM REFERRALS. ..................................................... 40 FIGURE 9./ R/LATESTAGECAPITALISM’S ANTAGONISTIC REFERRALS TO /R/THE_DONALD TAKING THE FORM OF “SHITPOSTING”. .... 41 FIGURE 10. INTER-IDEOLOGICAL /R/CHAPOTRAPHOUSE REFERRALS. ................................................................................... 42 FIGURE 11. DEROGATORY /R/CHAPO REFERRALS TO /R/NEOLIBERAL. .................................................................................. 42 FIGURE 12. POPULAR IMAGES ABOUT HYPOCRISY ON /R/LATESTAGECAPITALISM. .................................................................. 43 FIGURE 13. /R/LSC MEMES ABOUT HEALTHCARE AND GLOBAL WARMING. ........................................................................... 43 FIGURE 14. ANTI-IMPERIALIST /R/CHAPOTRAPHOUSE MEMES. .......................................................................................... 44 FIGURE 15. /R/CHAPOTRAPHOUSE “READ THE THEORY” MEMES. ....................................................................................... 45 FIGURE 16. "#ANTICAPITALISM" SEARCH ON INSTAGRAM. ................................................................................................. 46 FIGURE 17. THE FORMAT OF A "TOP" POST..................................................................................................................... 47 FIGURE 18. NETWORK BUILDING IN MEME PAGES FOUND IN “RECENT” THROUGH AFFORDANCES. ............................................. 48 FIGURE 19 . CLUSTERS PRESENT IN #ANTICAPITALISM CO-TAGS ON INSTAGRAM ..................................................................... 49 FIGURE 20. THE CORE ISSUES BEING STRATEGICALLY TAGGED ON INSTAGRAM. ....................................................................... 49 FIGURE 21. MONOLOGUES AND PERSONAL REVELATIONS .................................................................................................. 51 FIGURE 22. DIALOGUE AND PEDAGOGY ON INSTAGRAM .................................................................................................... 52 FIGURE 23. SOCIAL ECOLOGY AND ANARCHO-PRIMITIVIST MEMES ....................................................................................... 53 FIGURE 24. A POPULAR MEME PAGE'S MEMES REFERRING TO THE COMMUNIST MEME PAGE NETWORK. ..................................... 54 FIGURE 25. SEARCHING FOR "ANTI-CAPITALISM" ON TUMBLR, OF WHICH THE FIRST RESULT OFFERS A SOLARPUNK BLOG. .............. 55 FIGURE 26. SOLARPUNK'S PRESENCE IN #ANTICAPITALISM CO-TAG GRAPH ............................................................................ 56 FIGURE 27. A RETURN TO NATURE AND FUTURISTIC ARCHITECTURE