Political Ideology, Rhetoric and Aesthetics in the Twenty-First Century: The Case of the 'Alt-Right'

公共政治话语的语气和风格似乎变得更加直率和咄咄逼人。这通常与网络“钓鱼”有关，但问题远不止于此。互联网降低了公共领域的“进入成本”，通过将图像和文本结合起来的平台（匿名的线下评论、140字的推文、建立党派受众的博客），向新受众介绍了新的政治声音。因此，意识形态格局正在发生变化，立场似乎更加尖锐。正如印刷术、全国性报纸、广播和电视的出现改变了政治上的思想和言论（以及如何和由谁）的形态一样，今天政治传播的变化也影响着政治思想的形式和内容。我们认为，如果不关注数字技术，所有这些都无法理解，但仅参考技术也无法完全理解。政治思维、辩论和交流的新形式和新风格，一方面与民主政治的深刻变化（如政党和相关社会政治机构的“空心化”）有关，另一方面也与意识形态理论和实践的更悠久历史有关。例如，一些“拖钓”和相关形式的政治沟通中断（例如有组织的在线攻击）是“另类右翼”和相关政治团体更广泛网络的一部分，这些团体对美国的保守主义产生了明显的影响，在英国和欧洲也越来越明显。追随者和参与者在网上传播思想，与对手争论，有针对性的在线参与和干预更传统的政治行动。他们创造并传播了一种充满意识形态的政治词汇，包括“文化马克思主义”、“保守主义”和“身份主义”等术语，这些术语已经开始进入主流，改变了保守派和右翼政治思想和修辞的形态。我们将通过对这些运动的案例研究来发展我们对政治思维和交流的一般变化的研究，这些运动的重点是一系列政治立场和团体，包括反国家极端自由主义者、白人民族主义者、男性权利活动家和一种被称为人类生物多样性（HBD）的“科学种族主义”形式的倡导者。结合当代文化和政治理论、政治学和政治社会学、修辞学以及对视觉和数字文化的研究，该项目旨在：1)发展概念，以理解数字文化中政治思维和意识形态的变化。2)开发和应用结合政治思想史、政治学和（数字）人文学科的方法。3)通过对“另类右翼”的案例研究（采访另类右翼/保守派思想家和活动家，研究该运动的历史和意识形态血统，分析在线论坛、格式和视觉风格如何促成并构成其修辞形式和意识形态内容）来完善和测试这些方法。因此，该项目提炼和结合了理解和分析政治传播与意识形态之间关系的理论和方法，并通过案例研究丰富了对“另类右翼”意识形态和政治的研究。作为该项目的一部分，我们将组织跨学科专题讨论会，出版一本编辑过的书。我们将把项目的主要发现作为一本关于意识形态和在线交流的书，以及作为学术文章在项目所涉及的各个领域的期刊上发表。此外，该项目还将创建一本“网络挑衅和网络辩论词典”（将在网上提供，并分发给政治评论员和活动家）和一个播客系列，探讨另类右翼和政治意识形态、修辞、形象和辩论的更广泛变化。

The tone and style of public political discourse have, it seems, become more blunt and aggressive. Often this is associated with online 'trolling' but the issue is broader than that. The internet has reduced 'entry costs' to the public sphere, introducing new audiences to new political voices using platforms (anonymous below-the-line comments, 140 character tweets, blogs building partisan audiences) which combine image and text. As a result the ideological landscape is changing and positions seem to be held more stridently. Just as the advent of printing, national newspapers, radio and television changed the shape of what could be thought and said politically (and how and by whom) changes in political communication today are also affecting the form and content of political thinking. We argue that while all of this cannot be understood without attending to digital technologies it cannot be fully understood with reference to technology alone. New forms and styles of political thinking, arguing and communicating are also linked with, on the one hand, deep changes in democratic politics (such as the 'hollowing out' of political parties and related social-political institutions) and, on the other hand, to much longer histories of ideological theory and practice. For example, some 'trolling' and related forms of political communicative disruption (e.g. organized online attacks) are parts of a wider network of 'alt-right' and related political groups which have had a recognizable impact on Conservatism in the USA and, increasingly, in the UK and Europe. Adherents and participants engage in online dissemination of ideas, arguments with opponents, targeted online engagements and interventions into more traditional political action. They have created and distributed an ideologically charged political vocabulary, including terms such as 'cultural Marxism', 'cuckservative' and 'identitarianism', which has begun to enter the mainstream, changing the shape of Conservative and right-wing political thought and rhetoric. We will develop our study of general changes in political thinking and communicating through a case-study of these movements focusing on a range of political positions and groups including anti-state ultra-libertarians, white nationalists, men's rights activists and advocates of a form of 'scientific racism' known as Human Bio-Diversity (HBD). Combining contemporary cultural and political theory, political science and political sociology, rhetoric and research into visual and digital cultures the project aims to: 1) develop concepts for understanding what happens to political thinking and ideology in digital culture. 2) develop and apply methods combining history of political thought, political science and (digital) Humanities. 3) refine and test these through a case-study of the 'alt-right' (interviews with alt-right/conservative thinkers and activists, study of the movement's historical & ideological lineage and analysis of how online forums, formats and visual styles contribute to and constitute its rhetorical form and ideological content). The project thus refines and combines theories and methods for understanding and analyzing the relationships between political communication and ideologies and, through the case study, enriches research into the ideology and politics of the 'alt-right'.As part of the project we will organise cross-disciplinary symposia leading to the publication of an edited book. We will publish the main findings of the project as a book about ideology and online communication and as academic articles in journals from across the fields with which the project is engaged. In addition the project will lead to the creation of a 'Dictionary of Trolling and Internet Argumentation' (to be made available online and disseminated to political commentators and activists) and a podcast series exploring the alt-right and wider changes to political ideologies, rhetoric, image and argument.