Us and (((them))) Extreme memes and anti-Semitism on 4Chan

Responding to Pohjonen and Udupa’s (2017) call to develop an ethnographic reading of the situational features of ambiguities regarding online vitriol, this paper considers the use of Internet memes and slang expressions on a notorious fringe webforum associated with the rise of the so-called “alt-right”. The paper looks at how the emergence of political memes, once theorized as progressive expressions of dissent, are used to express antagonism on 4chan/pol/, a forum devoted to “politically incorrect” discussion. Against the context of 4chan’s technical affordances and its “play frame”, the paper considers how memes, such as Pepe the Frog, are subject to dynamics of abstraction, self referentiality, and dark humor, which push them towards the extreme.