Read on Twitter
I've been on the Internet for many years, and spent more than a fair amount of time watching fringe communities. The mechanism that led to the events of last week seems very familiar to what happened in the run-up to mass shootings and other events of the sort.
(Thread)
(Thread)
The fundamental problem is simple: mainstream cultural movements usually take pride in policing the discourse that happens within the group. Countercultural movements, on the other hand, often put a price on being edgy, just to buckle the status quo.
The edginess seldom starts with hate; more often, it begins with irony. It is the Holocaust denial joke that's laughed at not because people don't believe in the Holocaust, but precisely because it is such a surreal and inappropriate thing to say.
But this ambiguity leads to deniability for the real Nazis who sooner or later shows up - and find an outlet where they can finally speak their mind. If called out, they always have the rebuttal of "lighten up, it's just a joke".
With extremist memes normalized, for the rest of the community, the Overton window shifts: "sure, we do not believe the most extreme stuff, but it's fair game to talk about the role of Jews in the upper echelon of the US government?"
(While I do not want to make false equivalence in the context of recent events, this is not exclusively a far-right phenomenon; the memes about "killing the rich" and "seizing the means of production" are common, too.)
Either way, the environment creates a world where, after a while, nobody knows what's real and what is not. You're talking and then meeting up for an insurrection, but it's... probably... just a joke? Just like the Area 51 thing last year?
The DC attack did not strike me as a carefully-planned paramilitary operation: it was the organic consequence of shitposting in a handful of communities, including The_Donald, with the obligatory "...in Minecraft" appended at the end of some of the more incendiary statements.
This is not to say that it should be dismissed as the delusion of an unhinged mob. The purpose of coups is not to take over buildings; it's to force the masses to take sides they were not ready to take before.
And if this stochastic coup succeeded, it doesn't matter if all the "wink wink nudge nudge" politicians didn't really want bloodshed or a revolution.
It would have forced their hand to act, possibly leading to terrible outcomes.
It would have forced their hand to act, possibly leading to terrible outcomes.
The problem is, I'm not sure there's a neat fix. Deplatforming people, or focusing on the actual Nazis in the crowd, is a reductionist approach that probably won't help much.
And with no clear solution in sight, I worry that this is just a prelude to shitty things to come.
And with no clear solution in sight, I worry that this is just a prelude to shitty things to come.
