Reading #Breitbart (& Spiked, InfoWars etc)

Media texts are a form of discourse that are not simply reflective of reality, but a primary vehicle for the articulation & reproduction of dominant structures of power.

Once you see this, you can't unsee it.

tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…
Breitbart's (& in the UK, Spiked's) "discourse of binary opposition focused on ‘us versus them’ dyads that use precisely the language of the culture wars of the 1980s & 1990s, is sufficient to demonstrate the persistence of culture wars discourse in contemporary media discourse."
Through their coverage of news & politics, they create "a self-referential ‘communication world’ in which certain ‘truths’ about the binary nature of issues are parsed as an agonistic struggle between the ‘us’ of (common sense) conservatism & the ‘they’ of (woke) ‘Liberalism’."
'Politics' is increasingly framed by digital networked media & ‘mediatised’, such that ‘disparate social & cultural processes’ are transformed ‘into forms or formats suitable for media representation’ & increasingly, media-based ‘logics & norms’ redefine what counts as politics.
For the alt-right, this mediatisation of politics involves the construction of a binarist identity system & communication world, predicated in extreme levels of polarisation that gradually introduce proto-fascistic themes to debate.
Bannon & co believe Western society is in steep decline & national borders must close, ‘illegal’ immigrants must be expelled, & its greatness rebuilt by ‘deconstructing’ its Govt. Like Mussolini, Bannon sees his revolution as a quest to return the West to its ancestral culture.
This involves semantic & actual violence, evidenced in the continuum between Breitbart & other factions of the alt-right & white supremacist/far right, & the language of a divisive & conclusive ‘culture struggle’, played out in documents such as the ‘Guide to the alt-right’.
Breitbart’s commentary & coverage of events operates as a form of far right trolling: it uses digital media to provoke & create opportunities for cultural disruption & to normalise extremist & divisive discourse; it privileges mischief & sees politics as a game that must be won.
We should reassess the legacy of the culture wars. Sites like Breitbart, Spiked & infowars are often dismissed because of the ways in which they caricature argument & trade in false oppositions. But the divisive impact of such partisan talk highlights the fragility of democracy.

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More from @docrussjackson

18 Dec
Seeing as #Foucault is trending, I have some quotes:
"If you are not like everybody else, then you are abnormal, if you are abnormal, then you are sick. These three categories, not being like everybody else, not being normal and being sick are in fact very different but have been reduced to the same thing."
"One has to distinguish between different things in the analysis of an institution. First, there is what can be called its rationality, or its aim, that is, the ends it has in view and the means it possesses for attaining those ends... Second, there is the question of results...
Read 25 tweets
17 Dec
"Brexit is a national tragedy built on a chimera. The UK is about to discover that it has traded the real power to shape its destiny for an illusion drenched in nostalgia."

ft.com/content/f5cf57…
"The UK will need 50,000 or more new customs agents to cope with the bureaucracy being injected into once-frictionless trading arrangements. The bargain under discussion is the first trade agreement in history consciously to raise protectionist barriers."
"UK citizens will forfeit the right to travel & work without hindrance across the EU. Service industry workers will lose automatic recognition of their skills & qualifications... In return, British citizens will be able to indulge their nostalgia with a new, blue-hued passport".
Read 4 tweets
17 Dec
Worryingly, far right parties are influential in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia & Switzerland.

THREAD summary of this article:

annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.11…
Far right parties are either radical or extremist in their ideology. Radicalism calls for “root and branch” reform of the political & economic system but does not explicitly seek the elimination of all forms of democracy. In contrast, extremism is directly opposed to democracy.
Far-right parties often have incentives to hide their extremism to avoid legal repercussions.

Radical parties are inherently “anti-system,” & In Europe, this system is typically a combination of liberal democracy & capitalism.

Radicalism & extremism occur on the left & right.
Read 66 tweets
16 Dec
Presumably Claire Fox is on #newsnight because Tommy Robinson, David Starkey, Darren Grimes, Katie Hopkins, Nigel Farage, Laurence Fox, Allison Pearson, Isabel Oakeshott, Richard Tice, Tim Martin, Toby Young, Brendan O'Neill & that Scottish bloke from 'Coast' are all unavailable.
People asking why I included Coast Guy:

1 For bigging up David Starkey after his racist outburst

2 For saying young people shouldn’t go to university because Universities have succumbed to a "Maoist" cultural revolution

3 For RTing unhinged hard-right crank Paul Joseph-Watson
4 Saying #BlackLivesMatter is essentially a plot by anarchists & communists to undermine the fabric of the British nation

5 Amplifying the antisemitic conspiracy theory about 'Cultural Marxism' which inspired Anders Breivik..

Just do your own research👍

thenational.scot/news/18560680.…
Read 4 tweets
16 Dec
THREAD

Debate around 'grooming gangs' reminds me of the poor quality of debate about UK 'gang violence'.

Now I'm NOT saying 'gangs' or 'grooming gangs' don't exist, or that there isn't any crime associated with gangs - gangs are undeniably a real & serious problem.

However...
There are some searching questions about what we might mean by the term 'gangs', which raise issues around the consequences of suggesting they are a serious threat to society.

Simon Hallsworth & Tara Young have undertaken extensive research, & I want to outline some of that.
If we study the thesis that Britain saw a tremendous upsurge in gang activity throughout the noughties - an idea of 'gangland Britain' - it appears to be based on a series of opinions & conjectures, which taken together attempt to define & explain the problem of 'urban violence'.
Read 30 tweets

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