Extreme right images of radical authenticity: Multimodal aesthetics of history, nature, and gender roles in social media (original) (raw)
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Social Sciences, 2021
This article is an empirical investigation into the visual mobilization strategies by far-right political parties for election campaigns constructing Muslim immigrants as a “threat” to the nation. Drawing on an interdisciplinary theoretical approach of social movement studies and research on media and communication, I focus on the far-right political party Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has produced several widespread inflammatory series of visual election posters featuring anti-Islam rhetoric, combined with provocative images of gender and sexuality. By approaching visual politics through a perspective on actors constructing visual forms of political mobilization, I show how far-right populist “movement parties” are supported by professional graphic designers commercializing extremist ideologies by creating ambivalent images and text messages. My findings on the AfD’s visual campaign politics document the instrumentalization and appropriation of the rhetoric of women’s empowe...
"Do You Want Meme War?" Understanding the Visual Memes of the German Far Right (2019)
2019
Far-right groups use internet memes to mobilize supporters, to employ troll tactics and to disseminate hate messages to a wider public. Drawing on methodological tools from visual culture studies, we analyze memes by the German online network Reconquista Germanica, asking: What visual language, narratives and strategies do far-right memes employ to appeal a broad spectrum of potential supporters? We observe that RG´s memes use ironic ambiguity, ‘hipsterish’ aesthetics or references to popular culture to contemporize their ideological roots and to appeal multiple audiences and not-yet politicized users, while circumventing censorship. Although, at first sight, memes appear to be harmless instances of everyday visual culture, they still manage to convey neo-Nazi symbolism and key ideological narratives of hate and bigotry. Therefore, we argue for taking the calculated ambivalence of visual memes seriously instead of reducing them to a merely illustrative role.
Do You Want Meme War?" Understanding the Visual Memes of the German Far Right
Edition Politik, 2018
Far-right groups use internet memes to mobilize supporters, to employ troll factory tactics and to disseminate hate messages to a wider public. Drawing on methodological tools from visual culture studies, we analyze memes by the German online network Reconquista Germanica (RG), asking: What visual language, narratives and strategies do far-right memes employ to appeal a broad spectrum of potential supporters? We observe that RG's memes use ironic ambiguity, »hipsterish« aesthetics or references to popular culture to contemporize their ideological roots and to appeal multiple audiences and not-yet politicized users, while circumventing censorship. Although, at first sight, memes appear to be harmless instances of everyday visual culture, they still manage to convey neo-Nazi symbolism and key ideological narratives of hate and bigotry. Therefore, we argue for taking the calculated ambivalence of visual memes seriously instead of reducing them to a merely illustrative role.
White Femininity and Trolling Historicizing Some Visual Strategies of Today's Far Right
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Given the rise in extremist radicalization using digital media, antifascist education must develop its own philosophy of digital technologies. The first half of this paper turns to Leo Lowenthal and Norbert Guterman's theory of the American agitator as well as Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno's notion of fascist projection and paranoia to provide groundwork for this project. Though written in the 1940s, Frankfurt School essays on agitation and projection can be thought of as early indications of the importance of affect in fascist politics, which has only become intensified with the advent of digital media. The paper then proceeds to apply the critical concept of "agitational aesthetics" to chan culture in the present day, highlighting the affective economy of memes in the radicalization process. In conclusion, a series of questions are posed to educators to help them think through the complexities of intervening before, during, and after the online agitation of proto-fascist tendencies in youth.
Post-Digital Cultures of the Far Right (2019)
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The ideologues and ideologies of the radical right: an introduction
Patterns of Prejudice, 2016
T he essays brought together here were originally delivered as presentations at the 'Fascist Ideologues: Past and Present' conference, held at Teesside University in July 2013. The collection addresses the ideas and myths common to historical fascist movements, postwar neo-fascist and neo-Nazi movements, as well as present-day radical-right movements. Yet, in doing so, it also reveals the extraordinary diversity of key themes in the far-right arsenal, both past and present. This ideological complexity is not only apparent between various different movements and regimes, but also within them. While the far right has long been characterized by ideological pluralism, complexity, contradiction and even conflict, this special issue of Patterns of Prejudice charts some of the commonalities, as well as salient changes, on both sides of the 1945 divide. Ideology and culture The complexity and contradictions of fascist ideology are aptly illustrated by Gregory Maertz's lead essay for this special issue, 'Modernist art in the service of Nazi culture: Baldur von Schirach and Junger Kunst im Deutschen Reich'. As Maertz argues, Baldur von Schirach, a leading Nazi banished to Vienna as Gauleiter during the Second World War, promoted an 'independent cultural policy that clashed significantly with the direction set for the visual arts' by Berlin. This sharp contrast with Adolf Hitler's rather conventional, not to say old-fashioned, aesthetic tastes-which dominated both cultural expression in, and subsequent historiography of, arts in the Third Reich-from exhibitions of 'degenerate art' and the promotion of 'natural', representational painting and sculpture, to a rather heavy, stripped-down neo-classical style in the regime's architecture. Thus were Hitler's personal prejudices translated into the official, anti-modernist ideology of Nazi Germany. Yet, in 1943, von Schirach nevertheless managed to stage an exhibition of artistic 'abominations' in the second capital of the Reich. As a result, he inevitably fell out of favour with Hitler. 1 But this kind of aesthetic-cum-ideological The editors would like to thank Fabian Seiber for his assistance in preparing this volume for publication, as well as the anonymous reviewers who markedly improved the collection.
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In this article I examine language used to define, express, and exploit “National Socialism”. These different uses vary in time and purpose and need to be understood in context. The Nazis did not create much of the language most closely associated with National Socialism, but their use of certain language, symbols, and images has been so firmly established that we immediately recognize them even when partially spoken or indirectly referenced. This easy recognition, combined with the emotional charge of anger and horror, lends itself to commercial and political exploitation. I discuss this with examples from scholarly publishing and current events, and also discuss possibilities for crowd manipulation made possible by the political use of interactive social networks.