Abstract
This article is based on a case study of the online media practices of the militant neo-Nazi organization the Nordic Resistance Movement, currently the biggest and most active extreme-right actor in Scandinavia. I trace a recent turn to humor, irony, and ambiguity in their online communication and the increasing adaptation of stylistic strategies and visual aesthetics of the Alt-Right inspired by online communities such as 4chan, 8chan, Reddit, and Imgur. Drawing on a visual content analysis of memes ( N = 634) created and circulated by the organization, the analysis explores the place of humor, irony, and ambiguity across these cultural expressions of neo-Nazism and how ideas, symbols, and layers of meaning travel back and forth between neo-Nazi and Alt-right groups within Sweden today.
Highlights
“Humor is essential for us to be able to address a younger audience and to de-dramatize the repressions activists in the Nordic Resistance
Rather the meme campaign dovetails with a larger trend among extreme right movements in Europe and globally in which the symbols and icons that once anchored such communities have shifted from the tropes of National Socialism to re-coded hipster emblems (Miller-Idriss 2019) and humorous memes (Bogerts and Fielitz 2019; Schwarzenegger and Wagner 2018)
The memes provide a window onto considering the range of racist ideas and discourse openly on display in and beyond the online universe of the neo-Nazi movement in Sweden today
Summary
Our battle is taxing and tough, but it should be about camaraderie, pleasure, and fun” (2018-02-04, author’s translation) These are the words of the host of Mer än Ord [More than Words], one the latest additions to the long list of podcasts distributed by the militant neo-Nazi organization, the Nordic Resistance Movement (NRM) as he reflects on his aspirations for the new show. The memes showcase ambiguity and ambivalence around the violence with which such a white sanctuary will be brought about, modes which are used strategically in ways that seem to allow them to push the boundaries of how far they dare to go, to blur the boundaries between the extreme, meta-political, and populist right and to circumvent the lines of legality regulating hate speech It is towards these ambivalences and “humorous ambiguities” (Bogerts and Fielitz 2019) that this article directs attention
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