Everyone loves memes right?
A Report from the Media and manipulation project at the data society, an independent nonprofit research organization, credits the rise of the alt right to gamergate. “gamergate” started in 2014 when a few women, most notably Zoe Quinn, in the industry started calling out casual sexism withing videogames. These article where then used by a small group of people on the 4chan website to effectively wind up the gamer community and prove how in there eyes all feminists are evil. This small group used the the Gamer identity of a geeky, uneducated, unemployed male who may have trouble finding a romantic relationship, to perpetuate this anger at feminists in general.
Although gamer gate finished in 2015, the seeds had been sown and internet culture had its first taste of being politicised. It also was a key moment for alt right leaders, who saw the power of gamer and meme culture to infiltrate communities and divide, in this case by gender.
The common feeling between gamers and the alt right, is that of oppression. During gamer-gate gamers were made to feel like they were oppressed as Journalists were attacking there games for sexism. This is the same feeling of Neo-nazis and white supremacists. The alt right used this feeling to radicalize gamers and those in the online world.
A key problem is the blurring of the line between a joke and something serious.
The alt right infiltrate these servers and start posting things.
Another common tactic is hijacking memes such as pepe the frog, for many this is where the lines blur. The pepe the frog meme was once a harmless joke, but a white supremacist campaign which started on 4chan. The joke is used by both the alt right and the average internet user, so it is very hard to tell who is who. Therefore you cannot tell who is alt right and who isn’t.
Just a few years ago we saw the devastating impacts of radicalization during the Charlottesville unite the right rally, we saw a huge gathering of alt right members some of which dressed as.the “pepe the frog” meme and also “the based stick man” meme. There was 1 dead at the Charlottesville rally, the perpetrator was a known gamer. He had a prior criminal record involving violence towards his mother, when she asked him to stop playing games.
With the rise of Qanon, they are also targeting young people on social media, but they are using aesthetic to lure them in with the hashtag #savethechildren both president trumps campaigns have been shrouded with alt right activity for example the proud boys.
Like all young internet users I look at memes and enjoy them, just because they are used by the alt-right should not mean a full on ban of memes, that would be absurd. But legislation on the internet is outdated and has to be updated.
