The Dark Subcultures of Online Politics - Joshua Citarella

Quick Overview

Joshua Citarella analyzes the evolution of dark online political subcultures, tracing their origins from niche, mimetic activity among teenagers in 2018 to mainstream relevance, arguing that the collapse of the post-1989 liberal democracy consensus and increased access to information fuel this chaotic ideological experimentation, leading to the current rise of right-wing populism and new forms of online political organization that bypass traditional media gatekeepers.

Key Points: Citarella's early work focused on the mimetic activity of teenagers aged 12 to 17 on the 'post-left,' encompassing eco-anarchy and anarco-primitivism, which laid the foundation for current media ecosystems. He identifies the end of the post-1989 consensus on liberal democracy as a key factor, stating, "now that has been like completely thrown to the wind and so there's a period of I think renegotiation that we're going through." A major current trend Citarella tracks is the rise of right-wing populism across advanced nations, noting that constituencies that once voted labor now support these candidates, leading to "this new international nationalism." Citarella details extreme rabbit holes, mentioning following young left-leaning posters from meme-making to joining a small Discord distributing writings from active eoterrorist groups alongside IED instructional manuals. He attributes the intense engagement of young people with extreme politics to three factors: access to the internet's infinite information archive, the historical grounding of having no political answers (unlike previous generations), and the tendency for teenagers to exaggerate or post ironically. Citarella argues that mainstream media opportunistically uses the 'pipeline' metaphor to lump disparate groups together, asserting that claims of popular podcasts being a direct pipeline to real-world violence are a "gross gross mischaracterization" by those trying to claw back lost media monopoly. Online political communities are manifesting in the real world, evidenced by Destiny mobilizing more canvassers for the Georgia Senate runoff than the Democratic Party, marking a turning point where media entity calls to action surpass political parties.