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言不讳和咄咄逼人。这通常与网络“钓鱼”联系在一起，但问题远不止于此。互联网降低了进入公共领域的成本，通过图文结合的平台向新的受众介绍新的政治声音(匿名的线下评论，140个字符的推文，建立党派受众的博客)。其结果是，意识形态格局正在发生变化，立场似乎更加鲜明。就像印刷术的出现一样，全国性的报纸、广播和电视改变了人们可以想什么和说什么的形态。今天政治传播的变化(以及政治传播的方式和方式)也在影响政治思维的形式和内容。我们认为，尽管不关注数字技术就无法理解所有这一切，但仅从技术角度也无法完全理解这一点。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，另一方面也与更长的思想理论和实践历史联系在一起。例如，一些“巨魔”和相关形式的政治沟通中断(如有组织的在线攻击)是更广泛的“另类右翼”和相关政治团体网络的一部分，这些网络对美国以及越来越多的英国和欧洲的保守主义产生了明显的影响。追随者和参与者在网上传播思想，与反对者争论，有针对性地在网上参与，并干预更传统的政治行动。他们创造并传播了充满意识形态色彩的政治词汇，包括开始进入主流的“文化马克思主义”、“乌鸦保守主义”和“认同主义”等术语，改变了保守党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沟通方面的一般变化的研究，这些运动的重点是一系列政治立场和团体，包括反国家的极端自由主义者、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”的倡导者。该项目结合了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，旨在：1)发展概念，以了解数字文化中政治思维和意识形态发生了什么。2)发展和应用政治思想史、政治学和(数字)人文科学相结合的方法。3)通过对另类右翼的案例研究(采访另类右翼/保守思想家和活动家，研究该运动的历史和意识形态谱系，分析在线论坛、形式和视觉风格如何促成和构成其修辞形式和意识形态内容)来提炼和测试这些内容。因此，该项目改进和结合了理解和分析政治沟通和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”的意识形态和政治的研究。作为该项目的一部分，我们将组织跨学科研讨会，最终出版一本编辑过的书。我们将把该项目的主要成果出版成一本关于意识形态和在线交流的书，并在该项目涉及的各个领域的期刊上发表学术文章。此外，该项目还将创建一本《网络攻击和互联网辩论词典》(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，探索政治意识形态、修辞、形象和论点的另类右翼和更广泛的变化。

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.