Affective Practice of Soldiering: How Sharing Images Is Used to Spread Extremist and Racist Ethos on Soldiers of Odin Facebook Site

Kaarina Nikunen,Jenni Hokka,Matti Nelimarkka

doi:10.1177/1527476420982235

Abstract

The paper explores how visual affective practice is used to spread and bolster a nationalist, extremist and racist ethos on the public Facebook page of the anti-immigrant group, Soldiers of Odin. Affective practice refers to a particular sensibility of political discourse, shaped by social formations and digital technologies—the contexts in which political groups or communities gather, discuss and act. The study shows how visual affective practice and sharing and responding to images fortify moral claims, sense exclusionary solidarity and promote white nationalist masculinity which legitimizes racist practices of “soldiering.” By examining both the representations and their reactions (emoticons), the study demonstrates how ideas and values are collectively strengthened through affective sharing and are supported by platform infrastructures. Most importantly, it demonstrates that instead of considering the affect of protecting the nation as a natural result of “authentic” gut feeling, we should understand the ways it is purposefully and collectively produced and circulated.

Highlights

In recent years, the rise of political populism and anti-immigrant movements and the so-called European refugee crisis in 2015 have resulted in increased political and social tensions
We explore the formation of visual affective practice and analyze the ways affects are purposefully and collectively produced and circulated among a farright Facebook group, Soldiers of Odin Finland
By exploring the images shared on the Soldiers of Odin Facebook site as well as the reactions which these images evoke within the group, we identify practice and patterns, the repeated use of particular images, repertoires and style, and their responses

Summary

Introduction

The rise of political populism and anti-immigrant movements and the so-called European refugee crisis in 2015 have resulted in increased political and social tensions. In the European context, the New Year’s events in Cologne, Germany, in 2015 have been viewed as a turning point which recontextualized the refugee crisis “in terms of body politics, and the emergence of a “sexual nationalism” where Europe’s young and innocent (body) women were assaulted by the evil other” (Triandafyllidou 2018, 209) Such “politics of fear” have been furthered by the circulation of images of threat, accompanied by a voiced need to protect (white women) against racialized perpetrators (Keskinen 2011; Wodak 2015). While extreme nationalism and anti-immigrant movements have deep historical roots, the digital media environment has increased the public presence and networking of these movements across the globe (Castle and Parsons 2017; Pal 2015; Pohjonen and Udupa 2017) To understand how these groups operate and address their followers, we need to explore the emotional and affective structures which drive their social media presence. This aim is connected to larger questions of how emotions drive participation in Television & New Media 22(2)

Methods

Conclusion