I know most people that were on reddit at the time are fully aware of this and won’t be surprised but don’t dismiss the findings out of hand. It’s important that studies are being conducted and the fact that the finding match our lived experience is still noteworthy.
To all the people rushing to sarcastically comment how surprised they are: Yes, we all saw it happen. But…
It’s important that studies are being conducted and the fact that the finding match our lived experience is still noteworthy.
This is why OP posted it. Science isn’t feelings, you need data.
Science is feelings
Typo? 🤣
Yes
Seriously 😮💨 science is literally the opposite of something vague like “feelings”
Literally everyone on Reddit could see this except spez, who is a greedy little pigboy
Oh he could see it too and didn’t care because he’s a self proclaimed libertarian.
What’s a right wing libertarian other than a fascist so selfish they aren’t concerned or swayed by ideas of nationalism or “heritage”. But they’ll happily enable and march with the ones who are. When their self interest aligns. They just want to be the ones on top.
They’re mostly just conservatives who like drugs.
Be fair. They’re also conservatives who are more open about not wanting the age of consent to be a thing. Which also explains the sub spez used to moderate.
There are only three kinds of libertarians:
- Likes drugs and naive about economics.
- Hates minorities and understands economics but naive as fuck about NAP.
- Pedophile.
Extremists are engagement.
I really wonder if the nouveau rich tech startup boys look around and realize that their greed is directly responsible for the 2016 election and by extension, the state of US domestic politics today, and feel even a tiny bit of guilt over it.
Probably not.
But that’s not true I’ve heard it straight from the tech-bros mouth. They build these technologies to help us, the little people. To spread peace and love and build deeper connections with the people that we love. I’m sure that they feel pain and guilt that they have to deposit those large checks into their bank accounts. /s
I don’t think that’s how they’re wired. If anything, they’d be excited to learn they’re a couple of million dollars of AI astroturfing from being able to choose the president.
Why would they feel guilt regarding something they wanted to do?
See, I don’t think that. I think they are power hungry, sure. But I don’t think they ever realized the power that their product would grant them. It’s totally unprecedented. They get right into our brain and tickle our dopamine receptors while they mess with everything else.
I don’t think they expected or were prepared to yield that type of power, at all. I really feel like Zuck et al accidentally stumbled into being a supervillain. Like some sick Mr. Bean skit.
Remember when they lifted the no racism rule? I do.
It was a hilarious mask of movement. They did it to “own” /r/Sweden in the subwars and obviously got their asses handed to them.
Yes. And I really should have left Reddit then and never looked back.
Reddit or the sub?
The Donald.
deleted by creator
To add on to the people pointing out that science is data:
Yes, it is incredibly obvious that the turmp fanclub subreddit would radicalize people to become white nationalists.
What is not obvious is that this is happening everywhere. And, if you get a hold of one of the “leaked” white supremacist recruiting guides from the 80s and 90s, that is by design.
South Park Libertarians and all but it really is telling how many people, to this day, insist that the f-slur for gay people is really “Oh, we took that back. it means obnoxious motorcycle drivers”. Let alone statements like “har har, you are so butthurt” that (regardless of what urban dictionary says) are on the same level as “ha ha, you are gay”
We see it every day. And it makes communities hostile. And if you call it out, you get driven out. Which means there are fewer people around to say “… what the fuck? How can we think this is acceptable?”. And then someone whose entire vocabulary is “lolzors go woke go broke pepe pepe” gets rightfully made fun of elsewhere and now they are a victim and all those “for the lolz” become their identity.
Yes, it is incredibly obvious that the turmp fanclub subreddit would radicalize people to become white nationalists.
They’re polarizing and definitely hateful.
But as the volume got cranked higher and higher, I think it encouraged more silent disgust than popular approval.
You just couldn’t see it under all the pro-Trump spam.
And then someone whose entire vocabulary is “lolzors go woke go broke pepe pepe” gets rightfully made fun of elsewhere and now they are a victim and all those “for the lolz” become their identity.
The online Shoot And Cry strategy. Always be the victim.
the f-slur can’t be reclaimed for me, personally, I’m happy for those who do reclaim it but its just too painful as it’s what I got called when I was badly hurt and was worried I would die as a 12 year old.
However, those who do reclaim it then use it around me, which just makes me think about what happened - involuntarily - and ruins my day (or part of it).
It’s also tricky being a bi man in a het relationship in this regard, as if someone knows that it’s hard to overcome their feelings that due to my partners existence, I now no longer have a say in these matters.
I don’t know what they mean. I hung about in there for three years and I never picked up any white nationalist vocabulary.
This article sounds like (((globalist))) propaganda to me!
Edit: Incidentally, I was perma-banned from reddit for making a similar joke there.
While it certainly is a bit of a captain obvious moment that exposure to far-right echo chambers helped radicalise vulnerable people into the far-right, but I can see the merit in having empirical evidence supporting what we see (as OP said) - it is a lot easier to dismiss an andecdote than statistical evidence
If you ever want to observe or engage (be ready for the pile-up) with these same folks, r/ShitPoliticsSays contains the exact same user-base of extremists. These are dyed-in-the-wool folks because they use this as a launching-point for brigading other subs comment threads. Lots of Canadian righties there, too. The only credit I’ll give is unlike r/conservative that they never censored so you could pretty much discuss and test argumentative points to your heart’s content.
Just read the thread covering this very article about T_D lol
Of course I still think a sizable chunk of these folks operate in discord channels and astroturfed Sanders subs (especially the 2020 election), ChapoTrapHouse, etc.
Weak, all of them
It’s all about living in a silo. Surround yourself with one side, and there’s no other direction to go but further down your side.
This won’t make Spez any more uncomfortable when he wants to sleep at night. According to him, that subreddit was “valuable discussion”.
insert shocked pikachu here I mean, is this really surprising? That place was a cesspool disguising as irony. But news flash, it stops being ironic after a certain amount of time.
disguising as irony.
About this. It was legitimately funny at first, when the Orange One had no chance.
The thing that turned it so fast from absolute satire into not at all satire was the immediate, within seconds, banning of anyone who called it out as a joke. The speed of those bans convinced me that someone was being paid to steer the narrative in their desired direction 24/7.
It was a masterclass in modern propaganda, and I’m glad it’s being studied.
I learned personal lessons from it. I’m absolutely more PC now, because you never know who’s going to take your absurd joke seriously. As Waddle said, if you say something ironically enough, it stops being ironic.
a cesspool disguising as irony
See also: various still-existing places such as PoliticalCompassMemes
Who was that other dude? Think idubbz interviewed him.
Was doing the same thing trying to hide behind layer of “meta irony” or whatever water muddying bullshit they wanted to call it.
People who shoot crooked just don’t need to be trusted period
Sam Hyde?
That’s the one
It’s not about how expected this was. It’s about the fact that we have data to prove it, and it is definitely a probable phenomenon.
Incidentally, I’d be fascinated to see the data the alphabet agencies have doubtlessly gathered on what major players on /r/TheDonald are affiliated with foreign agents (primarily Russia, though China and Israel absolutely had a hand in it too), or just straight up foreign agents themselves. I hear they’re going to release a big report about that on February 31st.
Agreed, it’s such a dereliction of duty to not report on this.
As well as letting all the kompromized 4th of July legislators, et. al., and one former commander in chief in particular continue their treasonous subversion.
We are heading right off the rails.
I mean… it’s basically one entire party.
Remember when they popped the DNC’s email server and released stuff tactically at just the right moments to have the most damaging effect on Hillary?
It’s kind of an open secret that they popped the RNC’s email server too… and then didn’t release anything. Ockham’s razor might suggest there wasn’t anything there, but if you believe that, I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn I’ve been looking to sell. FancyBear/FSB/Russian Mafia/whoever is kinda obviously blackmailing like at least half of the Congressional Republican caucus, as evidenced by the entirely astroturfed opposition to Ukrainian military aid and extremely peculiar Russophilia.
Exactly.
And again, when TF are the TLA’s going to do something about this? They better do something soon or else they might be mistaken for Christo-fashists.
I would be extremely interested if things changed after the sub went private.
And today the front page is still being used to push fanatical American extremism, just in a different guise. American progressives are just alternative Trumpists. It’s horrifying
,
I would’ve been curious to see what kinds of words got counted as “far-right vocabulary” but it appears that research has recently gone back to being effectively concealed behind paywalls for those of us not in academia.
It’s 2024, anyone feigning ignorance about what constitutes a “far-right vocabulary” is just being disingenuous.
That’s not really true. Anyway, the “supplementary material” provides a few examples at least. We can only assume that they should be representative and that care was taken in drawing the boundary between that sort of thing and less objectionable but culturally adjacent terms.
Good find, thanks.
“Gamer precursor” is a bit of a surprise. I know gaming communities can be toxic, but it seems like the odd one out in a list with “conspiracy, racist, violent, sexist, and offensive.”
“Gamer precursor” is a bit of a surprise.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamergate_(harassment_campaign)
Yes lol I’ve heard of Gamergate. But I still don’t think “far right” when I hear “gamer.” It wouldn’t shock me to learn that they correlate to some degree, but whereas the other precursors sound per se characteristic of the far right to me, “gamer” seems like an odd fit.
Like lots of people from a broad range of backgrounds would describe themselves as gamers, and that’s generally uncontroversial. Not the same for any other precursor in that list.
Hence, surprised.
Oh, hey! Come on now!
They could just be really, really stupid.
Speaking of online extremism, imagine calling someone stupid for wanting to read a scientific paper before forming an opinion about it.
One can assume, yes. But that’s not especially scientific, is it? What’s the point of the research if you can’t look at the methodology?
Someone else defended the post from people saying “well d’uh” by saying we need to corroborate our theories and not just assume they’re correct. Kind of hard to do when research is hidden behind paywalls.
Why are we downvoting this comment? It’s a perfectly reasonable thing to wonder about the study, and I had the same thought.
Not because I can’t possibly imagine what could constitute “far right vocabulary…” But just cause I’m interested in the study methodology.
Like yeah, any of us can often identify far-right language when we see it… But how did the researchers approach that systematically? Are there any surprises there, like phrases that I wouldn’t recognize? Did they include patterns like “randomly capitalizing words for emphasis?” That would be interesting to know.
Or maybe I misunderstood, and the people downvoting are just pro-paywall, idk.
Some people seem to be more concerned with this study “feeling” correct more than it actually being verifiably correct.
