7. Cyber Creeps: The Alt-Right and the Evolution of Social Media Hatemakers

How do political communities with politics considered offensive to mainstream political discourse use linguistic and attentional tools offered in digital environments to connect with audiences? By exploiting the myth of the digital public sphere, alt-right rhetoric avoids deliberation by relying on the concept creep inherent in the fuzzy borders of the term “prejudice,” allowing them to claim victimhood and build bridges among otherwise disparate right-wing groups and digital communities at home in the forum 4chan. The alt-right deploys attentional tools in the form of memes designed to make arguments counter to their position seem absurd. In short, the alt-right has created a way of making a simple request for inclusion, say, by remembering preferred pronouns seem like an attack on freedom of speech.