Irony poisoning is the process or altered state wherein one genuinely echoes provocative sentiments they once held ironically. [1] Appearing in The New York Times in 2018, the term is often used to describe the normalization of extremist views through the use of humor, particularly in online spaces. [1] [2] [3]
The New York Times used the term to describe the chain of events that led up to the attempt of German man Dirk Denkhaus to set fire to a house sheltering refugees after exchanging racist memes and Nazi greetings online. [4] [1] In 2022, the Canadian Anti-Hate Network accused Diagolon of using irony poisoning to desensitize users to hateful rhetoric through the use of online jokes and memes. [5]
The Turner Diaries is a 1978 novel by William Luther Pierce, a neo-Nazi and the founder and chairman of National Alliance, a white nationalist group, published under the pseudonym Andrew Macdonald. It depicts a violent revolution in the United States which leads to the overthrow of the federal government, a nuclear war, and ultimately a race war which leads to the systematic extermination of non-whites and Jews. All groups opposed by the novel's protagonist, Earl Turner—including Jews, non-white people, "liberal actors," and politicians—are murdered en masse.
The Zionist occupation government, Zionist occupational government or Zionist-occupied government (ZOG), sometimes also referred to as the Jewish occupational government (JOG), is an antisemitic conspiracy theory claiming Jews secretly control the governments of Western states. It is a contemporary variation on the centuries-old belief in an international Jewish conspiracy. According to believers, a secret Zionist organization is actively controlling international banks, and through them governments, in order to collude against white, Christian, or Islamic interests.
Stormfront is a neo-Nazi Internet forum, and the Web's first major racial hate site. The site is focused on propagating white nationalism, Nazism, antisemitism and Islamophobia, as well as anti-feminism, homophobia, transphobia, Holocaust denial, and white supremacy.
Racism on the Internet sometimes also referred to as cyber-racism and more broadly considered as an online hate crime or an internet hate crime consists of racist rhetoric or bullying that is distributed through computer-mediated means and includes some or all of the following characteristics: ideas of racial uniqueness, racist attitudes towards specific social categories, racist stereotypes, hate-speech, nationalism and common destiny, racial supremacy, superiority and separation, conceptions of racial otherness, and anti-establishment world-view. Racism online can have the same effects as offensive remarks made face-to-face.
Post-irony is a term used to denote a state in which earnest and ironic intents become muddled. It may less commonly refer to its converse: a return from irony to earnestness, similar to New Sincerity.
/pol/, short for Politically Incorrect, is an anonymous political discussion imageboard on 4chan. As of 2022, it is the most active board on the site. It has had a substantial impact on Internet culture. It has acted as a platform for far-right extremism; the board is notable for its widespread racist, white supremacist, antisemitic, Islamophobic, misogynist, and anti-LGBT content. /pol/ has been linked to various acts of real-world extremist violence. It has been described as one of the "[centers] of 4chan mobilization", a title also ascribed to /b/.
Pepe the Frog is a comic character and Internet meme created by cartoonist Matt Furie. Designed as a green anthropomorphic frog with a humanoid body, Pepe originated in Furie's 2005 comic Boy's Club. The character became an Internet meme when his popularity steadily grew across websites such as Myspace, Gaia Online, and 4chan in 2008. By 2015, he had become one of the most popular memes used on 4chan and Tumblr. Different types of Pepe memes include "Sad Frog", "Smug Frog", "Angry Pepe", "Feels Frog", and "You will never..." Frog. Since 2014, "rare Pepes" have been posted on the "meme market" as if they were trading cards.
The alt-right is a far-right, white nationalist movement. A largely online phenomenon, the alt-right originated in the United States during the late 2000s before increasing in popularity and establishing a presence in other countries during the mid-2010s, and has been declining since 2017. The term is ill-defined and has been used in different ways by academics, journalists, media commentators, and alt-right members themselves.
Triple parentheses or triple brackets, or an echo, often referred to in print as an ( ), are an antisemitic symbol that has been used to highlight the names of individuals thought to be Jews, and the names of organizations thought to be owned by Jews. This use of the symbol originated from the alt-right-affiliated, neo-Nazi blog The Right Stuff, whose editors said that the symbol refers to the historic actions of Jews which have caused their surnames to "echo throughout history". The triple parentheses have been adopted as an online stigma by antisemites, neo-Nazis, browsers of the "Politically Incorrect" board on 4chan, and white nationalists to identify individuals of Jewish background as targets for online harassment, such as Jewish political journalists critical of Donald Trump during his 2016 election campaign.
Gab is an American alt-tech microblogging and social networking service known for its far-right userbase. Widely described as a haven for neo-Nazis, racists, white supremacists, white nationalists, antisemites, the alt-right, supporters of Donald Trump, conservatives, right-libertarians, and believers in conspiracy theories such as QAnon, Gab has attracted users and groups who have been banned from other social media platforms and users seeking alternatives to mainstream social media platforms. Founded in 2016 and launched publicly in May 2017, Gab claims to promote free speech, individual liberty, the "free flow of information online", and Christian values. Researchers and journalists have characterized these assertions as an obfuscation of its extremist ecosystem. Antisemitism is prominent in the site's content and the company itself has engaged in antisemitic commentary. Gab CEO Andrew Torba has promoted the white genocide conspiracy theory. Gab is based in Pennsylvania.
The NPC, derived from non-player character, is an Internet meme that represents people who do not think for themselves or do not make their own decisions; those who lack introspection or intrapersonal communication. The meme gained further viral status on TikTok, with the surge of "NPC Streamers". In terms of politics, it's often been used by those with anti-establishment views to describe those who fail to question authority, "groupthink", or a stance that would display conformity and obedience. The NPC meme, which graphically is based on the Wojak meme, was created in July 2016 by an anonymous author and first published on the imageboard 4chan, where the idea and inspiration behind the meme were introduced.
The Base is a neo-Nazi accelerationist paramilitary group and training network, formed in 2018 by Rinaldo Nazzaro. It is active in the United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa, and Europe, and designated as a terrorist organization in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.
The boogaloo movement, whose adherents are often referred to as boogaloo boys or boogaloo bois, is a loosely organized far-right anti-government extremist movement in the United States. It has also been described as a militia. Adherents say they are preparing for, or seek to incite, a second American Civil War or second American Revolution which they call "the boogaloo" or "the boog".
Iron March was a far-right neo-fascist and Neo-Nazi web forum. The site opened in 2011 and attracted neo-fascist and Neo-Nazi members, including militants from organized far-right groups and members who would later go on to commit acts of terror. The forum closed in 2017. Subsequently, former users moved to alternative websites and social networking services, such as Discord. In 2019, an anonymous individual leaked the database that hosted all Iron March content.
Kyle Chapman, also known by the nickname Based Stickman, is an American white nationalist and alt-right activist. He earned his nickname and prominence in the alt-right movement after he was recorded beating an anti-fascist counter-protester with a stick at the March 2017 March 4 Trump rally in Berkeley, California. Shortly after, he founded the Fraternal Order of the Alt-Knights (FOAK), a paramilitary group that is considered a partner or subgroup of the far-right, neo-fascist Proud Boys organization. He led the FOAK until later that year, when he faded from his leadership position following an assault conviction related to the March 4 Trump rally. In November 2020, Chapman announced an attempted takeover of the Proud Boys organization, as well as a plan to reform the group as an explicitly white supremacist organization. The attempted coup was not successful.
iFunny is a humor-based website and mobile application developed by Cyprus-based FunCorp, an entertainment technology company, that consists of memes in the form of images, videos, and animated GIFs submitted by its users. The mobile version of the site once featured a built-in meme creator tool. The app describes itself as a "community for meme lovers and viral memes around the internet."
Nationalist Social Club-131, or NSC-131, is an American neo-Nazi organization; the numbers 131 stand for ACA or "Anti-Communist Action". It was founded in 2019 in eastern Massachusetts by Chris Hood, who had previously tried other neo-fascist groups such as Patriot Front, the Proud Boys, and the Base. The group first attracted the attention of anti-extremism researchers during the George Floyd protests in mid-2020, which NSC-131 members hoped to leverage to increase their recruiting. Along with Patriot Front, NSC-131 is one of the most active white nationalist groups in New England as of 2022.
The alt-right pipeline is a proposed conceptual model regarding internet radicalization toward the alt-right movement. It describes a phenomenon in which consuming provocative right-wing political content, such as antifeminist or anti-SJW ideas, gradually increases exposure to the alt-right or similar far-right politics. It posits that this interaction takes place due to the interconnected nature of political commentators and online communities, allowing members of one audience or community to discover more extreme groups. This process is most commonly associated with and has been documented on the video platform YouTube, and is largely faceted by the method in which algorithms on various social media platforms function through the process recommending content that is similar to what users engage with, but can quickly lead users down rabbit-holes.
Diagolon is a Canadian alt-right organization, conceived by podcaster Jeremy MacKenzie. The US Department of State's Bureau of Counterterrorism has called it a far-right extremist group. It was mentioned in news coverage of the Canada convoy protest.
Jeremy Mitchell MacKenzie is a Canadian right-wing activist, military veteran, Plaid Army podcaster, the founder of far-right group Diagolon, and a Canada convoy protester.
But for some, the jokey memes became a bridge to a formal association with white nationalism. In other words, when users post so many genocide and rape jokes, they become so detached from reality that they become susceptible to the messages of bonafide hate groups, a transformation referred to in forums as "irony poisoning."