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Its all going off in the US, thats for sure. But something that has been bugging me, and many others, is the use of the term alt-right. This seems to be aterm to describe the rise of the right amongst social media and popular culture that we have seen over the last ten years or so. What this does, however, is lend an air of credibility to the views, people and outlets that is unwarranted.

The intro on Wikipediais perhaps worth posting here:

Thealt-right, oralternative right, is a loosely defined group ofpeoplewithfar-rightideologieswho rejectmainstream conservatismin favor ofwhite nationalism, principally in theUnited States, but also to a lesser degree inCanadaandEurope.[1][2][3][4]Paul Gottfriedis the first person to use the term alternative right, when referring specifically to developments within American right-wing politics, in 2008.[5]The term has since gained wide currency with the rise of the so-called alt-right.White supremacist[6]Richard Spencercoined the term in 2010 in reference to a movement centered onwhite nationalism, and has been accused by some media publications of doing so to excuse overtracism,white supremacism, andneo-Nazism.[1][7]The term drew considerable media attention and controversy during and after the2016 US presidential election.[8]

Alt-rightbeliefshave been described asisolationist,protectionist,antisemitic, and white supremacist,[9][10][11]frequently overlapping withNeo-Nazism,[12][13][14]nativismandIslamophobia,[15][16][17][18][19]antifeminismandhomophobia,[12][20][21][22]right-wing populism,[23][24]and theneoreactionary movement.[9][25]The concept has further been associated with multiple groups fromAmerican nationalists, neo-monarchists,mens rights advocates, and the2016 presidential campaignofDonald Trump.[15][24][25][26][27]

The alt-right has its roots onInternetwebsitessuch as4chanand8chan, where anonymous members create and useInternet memesto express their ideologies.[9][14][28]It is difficult to tell how much of what people write in these venues is serious and how much is intended to provoke outrage.[23][29]Members of the alt-right use websites likeAlternative Right,Twitter,Breitbart, andRedditto convey their message.[30][31]Alt-right postings generally support Donald Trump[32][33][34][35]and opposeimmigration,multiculturalismandpolitical correctness.[13][20][36]

The alt-right has also had a significant influence on conservative thought in the United States, such as theSailer Strategyfor winning political support, along with having close ties to theTrump Administration. It has been listed as a key reason for Trumps win in the 2016 election.[37][38]The Trump administration includes several figures who are associated with the alt-right, such as White House Chief StrategistSteve Bannon.[39]In 2016, Bannon described Breitbart as the platform for the alt-right, with the goal of promoting the ideology.[40]

This reminds me of how UKIP ended up coming to prominence its a sort of evolution of ideas. I wrote about this back in 2014:

And what happened was this. UKIP busted the political landscape apart. They stole votes off most everyone and they went from zero to, well, hero in one night.

But how can a party which is effectively predicated upon fear of the foreigner and thinly, so very thinly, veiled racism become so successful in such a short time? This is my theory.

Firstly, there is the power of themere exposure effect. This is the fundamental concept of advertising whereby the brain finds things acceptable or even desirable through merely being exposed to the ideas. The more exposed, the more acceptable. UKIP have had a tremendous amount of airtime, with leader Nigel Farage doing the rounds on panel shows, radio shows and many news items. This is how creationism has prevailed, using the Wedge Strategy to get a foot in the door, get airtime, social media time, oxygen. That oxygen facilitates acceptability and then desirability. That was one of the arguments against having Bill Nye argue against Ken Ham about creationism.

Secondly, their success comes down to the evolution of ideas. Memetics is the theory that ideas are analagous to the evolution of biological organisms, with success of the organism surviving in its environment most successfully when it adapts characteristics to its environment. This survivability works just as well with ideas. Ideas which prevail have survival mechanisms and adapt to their environments. Think Christianity here. It has thoroughly evolved over 2000 years to adapt to society, morality, technology and economics. Islam, on the other hand, has developed the characteristic of threatening apostates with death. That works well, too.

Well, the history of the far right in Britain has gone from the National Front through to being reinvented into the British National Party (BNP) through to another reinvention (though the BNP still exist) in the form of UKIP (UKIPers might not like that realisation). What was going on in the early days of the right-wing extremist movement was that the ideas were not adapting well enough to the environments; they were too distasteful. The right-wing extremist ideology was just too much in the National Front to gather any traction with the general public. Then the BNP came along, and tried to be more respectable and appeal more widely. Some might say it was a slightly more (!) chilled version of the NF, appealing to more of the wider population. Ideas adapting. But still not becoming successful or acceptable enough.

And then UKIP, with its pseudo-political approach of getting out of Europe, has finally nailed it. Its just acceptable enough for people to not be afraid of saying in public, Yeah, I voted UKIP. I think we need to get out of Europe as a way of saying, Yeah, Polish, Romanian and those sodding Muslims can do one!

Now I didnt want to caricatureallUKIP voters in this way, but I stand by the idea that UKIP became the acceptable face of racism and xenophobia, playing into peoples fears.

In the same way, in the US, media outlets like Breitbart, TheBlaze, Circa, The Daily Caller and any other number of outlets are presenting themselves as fertile ground out of which confidence and brazen admitting of nefarious view can bear fruit. It is little surprise, then, that after years of allowing such outletsfree reign to spread their hate, the hate manifests itself in real ways. Thats the regrettable corollary of freedom of speech.

The terrible sights of Charlottesville over the last few days show that the old school far right has not died off, but has been simmering, and some have renamed it the alt-right. This merely disguises the ugly reality of the traditional far right and dresses it up in an air of acceptability and modern credibility.

This is unwarranted.

Dont be fooled by new-fangled terminology. The is the far right, and so many of these outlets peddle such extremist views.

I am disheartened by the sheer scope and spread of such views and how they have been able to gain footholds in modern popular culture. The internet is great, but it also houses torrents of distaste and hate.

Alt-right? Nah. Its still the far right, the dangerous extreme. Lets not give it more oxygen than it deserves.

See original here:

Alt-Right? No, the Far Right. - Patheos (blog)

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Fox Weekly

The Most Influential Memes on the Internet Fox Weekly Dawkins theory of the meme gave rise to the field of memetics in the 1990's which seeks to link the scientific concept of the meme with identifiable evidence using the scientific method. The popular Internet meme is something people can imitate in ...

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The Most Influential Memes on the Internet - Fox Weekly

On July 19, the Anti-Defamation League kicked the pro-Trump media hornets nest with the publication of a new report cataloging the factions of the alt-right and their key voices. It also prompted the question: How do you classify a hate group in 2017?

Titled From Alt Right to Alt Lite: Naming The Hate," the ADL report attempts to define those movements, noting the meaningful differences between the two and listing 36 personalities closely associated with them. For example, the moniker alt-lite was coined by the alt-right in order to differentiate itself from those in the pro-Trump world who denounce white supremacist ideology.

The report's publication sparked near-immediate outrage from some of those who were included. New Right personality Mike Cernovich lambasted the ADLs report as a hit list of political opponents," alleging that by including him on a list of hate leaders, the organization had made him and his family targets of an intolerant and violent left that murder[s] those the ADL disagrees with politically." Jack Posobiec, a pro-Trump Twitter personality, took an equally combative stance. On vacation in Poland, he tweeted a short video from Auschwitz. "It would be wise of the ADL to remember the history of what happened the last time people started going around making lists of undesirables," he said, panning the camera across the concentration camp.

Over the next few days, the controversy gathered considerable momentum on Twitter. Cernovichs followers tweeted prayers for the safety of him and his family, and condemned the ADL. Gateway Pundit founder Jim Hoft called the organizations report a death list, while his White House reporter, Lucian Wintrich, decried the ADL as a liberal terrorist organization. Rebel Medias Gavin McInnes named on the list along with Wintrich threatened to sue the living shit out of everyone even remotely involved. The hashtag #ADLterror trended for a few hours. Last week, Republican Senate candidate and Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel jumped into the controversy, siding with Cernovich and chastising the ADL.

But beneath all the murk and outrage and alt-right/alt-lite/New Right semantics was a reasonable question: In the Trump era, where is the line between hate speech and the extremist, often outlandish, conspiracy-propagating messaging of those movements?

For Cernovich who played a role in the Twitter propagation of the #Pizzagate conspiracy and has a history of tweeting incendiary opinions from everything from date rape and immigration (much of which he has argued was clear satire) the line doesn't fall anywhere near him. He argues that, while his statements might not be politically correct or always in good taste, they aren't hate speech, and certainly dont make him a member of a hate group.

What does the ADL have on me? Some satirical tweets, hell, even some mean tweets and stuff I'm not proud of? Cernovich told BuzzFeed News in response to the report. I have a lot of liberal friends. Many of them in high places. They think I'm an asshole, but 'hate group' has them livid.

Cernovich insists hes being unfairly targeted for his pro-Trump views. "This tweet mining bullshit is only used on the right," he argued. In his view, the New Right is a movement defined not by discrimination or hateful rhetoric, but by pugnacious political commentary and debate. It is nothing, he says, like the alt-right of Richard Spencer, which hews toward a race-based white nationalism. As with Trump himself, the New Rights true ideology isnt always clear, and the group tends to behave more as a pro-Trump media arm than as an ideological group. Its main target isnt a protected race or religion, but the mainstream media. It doesnt behave quite like any traditional hate group. So can it be called one?

In an interview with BuzzFeed News, the ADL argued that it most certainly can. I don't think irony and self-promotion is an excuse for bigotry of any kind, whether its misogyny or any other form of bigotry, said Oren Segal, who runs the ADL's Center on Extremism. Doing it in a way that's more modern or tech-y doesn't make it OK nor does it make it any less difficult for those who've been impacted.

"I don't think irony and self-promotion is an excuse for bigotry of any kind."

Segal noted that the alt-lite or New Right while not particularly well-defined as a movement includes individuals with extremist views. "These are people who are on the record with anti-Muslim bigotry and hatred and misogyny people who support trolling, he said in defense of the ADLs report.

Jeff Giesea, an entrepreneur and consultant who helped organize the pro-Trump DeploraBall an inaugural ball to celebrate the work of the pro-Trump internet sees the ADLs decision to categorize the New Right as hate group personalities as a bridge too far. Based on the ADL's logic, all 63 million Americans who voted for Trump should be on their hate list. If everyone is an extremist, no one is, he told BuzzFeed News.

Giesea argues that, historically, Cernovichs views are quite moderate. Perhaps more importantly, he contends that the New Rights strategy to promote a pro-Trump agenda via an ongoing, meme-fueled assault on the mainstream media is a new kind of political discourse.

"By being so quick to label something 'bigotry,' the ADL is getting in the way of the healthy exchange of ideas, Giesea said. It pushes people further right by pathologizing common sense. It is a mode of social control that simply doesn't work in the age of social media."

Based on the ADL's logic, all 63 million Americans who voted for Trump should be on their hate list."

Since the beginning of the 2016 election our political discourse has become increasingly fraught, muddied by misinformation and trolling from the fringes of both sides of the aisle. And within this morass, a reflex has emerged on both sides to reflexively label political disagreements as signs of hate. Back in April, the internet erupted over Cernovich and another pro-Trump reporter flashing the "OK" sign at the podium in the White House Briefing Room. A number of news outlets misidentified the sign as a white power symbol, falling for a trap laid by pro-Trump trolls who had been trying to trick the media into thinking the meaningless symbol had nefarious origins. The incident sparked a defamation lawsuit filed by one of the pro-Trump reporters, as well as an existential argument around when exactly a symbol morphs from an ironic troll to a real sign of hate.

Giesea has run this over in his mind frequently, and argues that theres more nuance and craft to the pro-Trump movements tactics. "Memetics is a form of art," he said. Shock and controversy is what makes memes effective. They push moral boundaries. Sometimes this is healthy and can challenge certain narratives, other times it can feel toxic and juvenile. Think about it - what memes would Voltaire share?" Giesea concedes that there are moral considerations to social media behavior, but suggests that the ADL list feels like an act of political warfare, rather than a good faith attempt to discuss these issues."

Ultimately, the problem appears to be definitional. For Heidi Beirich, the director of the Southern Poverty Law Centers Intelligence Project, the alt-right and alt-lite movements may be fluid, but the definition of hate is not. Beirich says the SPLC follows roughly the same standards for defining hate groups as the FBI uses for hate crimes. In a recent op-ed for Huffington Post, SPLC President Richard Cohen defined a hate group as those that have beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics.

We don't care as much about the pro-Trump stuff, Beirich told BuzzFeed News. It's the specific policies we're worried about whether it's anti-Muslim or anti-immigrant. For example, she noted that despite articles with anti-immigrant sentiment, we're not going to list a publication like Breitbart as a hate group unless they publish much more stuff thats much further over the line.

In trying to categorize the Cernoviches and Posobiecs of the world, Beirich said its best to categorize them on a case-by-case basis, remembering that hate speech isn't necessarily the only (or most) relevant category. Take Pizzagate, she said. We've written about anti-government conspiracy theorists since the 1990s and that's a different thing than our hate lists it doesnt excuse the behavior, but its different.

The ADL sees no such difference and, on its Naming the Hate report, is standing its ground. To Segal, the fact that the behavior of the New Right doesnt follow the established patterns of other fringe movements is reason enough to worry about its evolution and growth. In a sense this rhetoric is potentially more harmful because it's not so clearly being promoted as hate, he told BuzzFeed News. I think we can see through that. If they call it a joke, we're not laughing.

Charlie Warzel is a senior writer for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York. Warzel reports on and writes about the intersection of tech and culture.

Contact Charlie Warzel at charlie.warzel@buzzfeed.com.

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The Pro-Trump Media Is Full Of Offensive Memes And Trolls, But Is It A Hate Group? - BuzzFeed News

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It doesn't matter whether the Game of Thrones, Success Kid or Awkward Penguin is your favourite meme - they are changing the way we communicate.

The meme's story began long before the internet was a thing though.

Richard Dawkins coined the phrase meme to cover how ideas, behaviours, or styles spread from person to person within a culture.

He came up with the word in his 1976 book called The Selfish Gene. Long before the internet. Just like with hashtags, it's another thing the internet has

The history of the internet podcast has dedicated its second episode to what Dawkins described as the 'hijack' of his word.

Search 'History of the Internet' wherever you listen to your podcasts to subscribe in your app.

Dawkins' original theory, as his book title suggests, began in the way genes mutate by random change and spread by a form of Darwinian selection.

The reason Dawkins describes it as a hijack is because internet memes make no attempt at the accuracy of copying. It's a a key part of his definition and Internet memes are deliberately altered.

The academic and everyday literacies blogger, Michele Knobel, first studied internet memetics back in 2005. When she first looked at them they were very marginal.

In this documentary, she gave a new reflection the way we talk online.

"Humans communicate on so many different dimensions. Memes add layers of meaning to a medium that can otherwise be rather flat.'

The way our online conversations have evolved has normalised the use of internet memes.

Victoria Emma who wrote her PHD on them thinks we need to pay more attention to them:

'If millions of people use them to communicate every day, there must be something to them. We can't just dismiss them as internet cats.'

There is a reason I reply in a gif, emoji or memes online more often than just text.

Yes, admittedly, it's partly because I like to be king of the gif game.

However, it's also because they say so much more when our body language can't carry my words online in the same way they do IRL.

That's why memes are so fascinating, and shouldn't be underestimated.

Subscribe to podcast documentary series the History of the Internet to listen to more about why the meme is changing the way we are developing as humans, on Apple Podcasts, with RSS, audioBoom, or wherever you listen to your shows.

OH, and btw my fave internet meme features the best two characters ever created

Buzz and Woody, you always say it best:

P.S that's why we used their picture forepisode one about hashtags - read about that here

Original post:

Internet Memes Are Changing The Way We Communicate IRL - HuffPost UK

More and more often now, I hear the word meme working its way into casual conversation. I saw this meme on Facebook, a relative tells me. Let me show you this meme on my phone, says a co-worker. Our friend group needs better memes, bemoans a friend. On more than one occasion, I have been shown memes that havent quite been memes. Now, Im not a prescriptivist (that is, I dont elevate one ideal use of language over other uses). I am fascinated with weird and wild ways language and culture evolve, and Im not foolish enough to presume that evolution can be successful policed. When strange, alien noises like meme start entering the everyday lexicon, however, I think theres little harm in trying to figure out where they came from, and why. With the word meme in particular, its a rather interesting history.

The word meme was first coined by scientist Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book, The Selfish Gene. The word was originally modeled after gene, drawing on the Greek mimeme, or that which is imitated. The word described practices, traditions and ideas that spread through culture, much like genes are capable of replicating and spreading. Dawkins aimed to explain how evolutionary principles, looked at through the lens of memes, could be applied to cultural development, an idea that would go to be developed into the field of memetics. Memetics as a field of studies has been met with contention; some feel the ambiguity of what qualifies as a meme and the chaotic nature of their spread makes studying them pseudoscientific.

Of course, in day-to-day parlance, meme doesnt seem to refer to anything so broad or theoretical. I almost exclusively hear the word in the context of internet memes. The internet is by its very nature a means for sharing ideas, which lends itself to the replication and repetition of ideas. Going viral is common online terminology, and anything that has gone viral that is, spread like a disease is by definition a meme.

I imagine its hard to use or interact with the internet at large and not encounter some form of meme, though also incredibly easy to be blissfully unaware that you have. New memes spawn on a daily basis and can be specific to any of a thousand online subcultures. I initially mentioned the dilution of the words meaning. Ive seen the word used to describe any weird or funny online image. Its understandable why such images would be called memes, as memes are often weird and funny images. However, such usage strips the word of some intrigue and nuance the replication, repetition and modification of a pre-existing idea or form.

Memes are not always funny images. In fact, given the repetition en masse, most memes quickly become unfunny. Ive occasionally seen complaints that present day internet meme culture develops too quickly. A new meme can suddenly become overplayed in the course of a single day, if not hours. In part, this comes about because memes themselves have developed their own online culture. An expectation exists that any funny or mildly unclever thing will become a meme, which leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy and a short meme lifespan.

If memes so quickly become unfunny, one might ask, Why all this hubbub about memes and internet and subculture? It wouldnt be too difficult to hammer out a think piece about internet memes as an apocalyptic harbinger of a conformist youth culture. But memes arent some wholly new concept. The Kilroy was here graffiti is a meme dating back to before World War II. Knock-knock and numerous other well-known jokes are memes. Urban legends, aphorisms and fairy tales are all concepts that spread memetically. Rather than just a current fad, meme is a relatively new word for something ancient. The language and words we use to communicate are constantly developing, and memes are just another form of language or perhaps language is a form of meme.

Evan Orbeck is a Messenger staff writer.

Originally posted here:

The Meme-ing of Life - Aitkin Independent Age