I really wish people publishing professional documents would spend a little more time on proper typography. It's not hard to avoid justified text for long runs of text (or use a proper typesetting engine like LaTeX), add a little leading, and use a more suitable font (even Microsoft Office has decent serifs available).
It’s not funny anymore. Far-right extremists’ use of humour
31–40 of 81 posts
Re: It’s not funny anymore. Far-right extremists’ use of humour
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you believe that manipulation and misinformation on the internet is not an actual problem then I don't know what to say It affected shitton of people about covid/vacciness related stuff It's one of the biggest challenges nowadays
Iran regime just passed a law "to protect internet users", which pretty much censors everythings, makes VPN use even more difficult, etc. They are pretty much using your own arguments: "misinformation on the internet is an actual problem, let's PROTECT our citizens from it". :)
Yes I get it, as always, censorship is good when it's the left, and it's bad when it's Iran and Putin.
Re: It’s not funny anymore. Far-right extremists’ use of humour
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
how's that bullshit? memes have strong power, especially if you can vote them to the front page there has been shitton of them before 2016 election and during Pandemic they were used for both - good and bad. From looking cost efficency perspective memes are insanely good. edit Trump -> 2016
Basic history classes should have made it clear that trying to censor sarcasm not only doesn't work, but is counter-productive. All regimes have tried various things to prevent them, but they just gave their opponents even more topics to make fun of. That dates back to drawings mocking the king being circulated in underground newspapers, to using "Non-Playable-Characters" online on Twitter.
Literally nobody is trying to, or has in any way suggested, "censoring sarcasm".
This is a document that describes, accurately, how the far right uses humour. That is a useful thing to document and be aware of when trying to combat radicalisation.
Re: It’s not funny anymore. Far-right extremists’ use of humour
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
how's that bullshit? memes have strong power, especially if you can vote them to the front page there has been shitton of them before 2016 election and during Pandemic they were used for both - good and bad. From looking cost efficency perspective memes are insanely good. edit Trump -> 2016
Basic history classes should have made it clear that trying to censor sarcasm not only doesn't work, but is counter-productive. All regimes have tried various things to prevent them, but they just gave their opponents even more topics to make fun of. That dates back to drawings mocking the king being circulated in underground newspapers, to using "Non-Playable-Characters" online on Twitter.
The paper doesn't seem to recommend simply censoring though. It proposes sensible means of engagement (and disengagement) on page 12 and 13.
Re: It’s not funny anymore. Far-right extremists’ use of humour
#35I'm so pissed off that my European tax money is wasted on financing bullshit like that. But be aware, this is maybe the first sign that "humor" will be the next victim of the "cancel culture" and the current trend in "free speech censorship"...
It's responsible research intended to give police, politicians, and citizens a clue about the new communication techniques of the hard-right. > Thinking of far-right extremism, we might associate this with backward-looking, stiff and formal zealots who act on the fringes of the political spectrum. Yet, the skinhead image has long been overcome and, in fact, also more recent phenomena like the Identitarians have lost…
Talking about which, did those "conspiracy theories" (the alt-right killing a cop using fire-extinguisher in the capitol, or Trump being a KGB agent), falls in the category of "misinformation", or is the left somehow excluded from that list ?
Re: It’s not funny anymore. Far-right extremists’ use of humour
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
how's that bullshit? memes have strong power, especially if you can vote them to the front page there has been shitton of them before 2016 election and during Pandemic they were used for both - good and bad. From looking cost efficency perspective memes are insanely good. edit Trump -> 2016
Basic history classes should have made it clear that trying to censor sarcasm not only doesn't work, but is counter-productive. All regimes have tried various things to prevent them, but they just gave their opponents even more topics to make fun of. That dates back to drawings mocking the king being circulated in underground newspapers, to using "Non-Playable-Characters" online on Twitter.
I meant putting money into researching how does internet, internet communities, memes, social medias are used to manipulate, radicalize, create misinformation yada yada.
Re: It’s not funny anymore. Far-right extremists’ use of humour
#37I haven't read the whole thing. However in the recommendations for action section of the document (page 13) isn't anything new in my opinion.
> Debunk the harmful content of extremist humour, but only once a certain tipping point has been crossed
Debunking from "official" sources is already a meme online known as "Deboonking" and is heavily mocked already.
Also Debunking a meme is kinda pointless everyone knows that a meme is exaggerated and is supposed to be humourous. Social media platforms have been "fact checking" memes already. It is like fact checking a joke. It misses the point entirely.
> Quarantine extremist humour — and therefore extremist ideas. The first priority is to not amplify messages that might harm broader communities or even directly benefit far-right campaigning.
So basically censorship.
The issue is that thorny issues aren't being discussed. Censorship will make things worse as it will make it "forbidden knowledge".
> Understand the motivations behind why people are sharing certain toxic content, in order to determine points of intervention.
Because even good faith discussions around thorny political topics are frequently conflated, obfuscated or censored by governments in Europe.
> Build up effective partnerships with social media influencers and progressive communities, which have a strong influence on the views of their followers and supporters. Such alliances serve as much more effective multipliers of their message than trying to inflate content on its own.
This is already the norm on social media.
> Civic education should also play a key role in terms of dispelling and confronting many of the myths that circulate within these online communities — and beyond.
This reads like propaganda. The worst thing you can do to people is propagandise them. If they find out the propaganda is false (and that typically happens sooner or later) they will resent you for it.
Re: It’s not funny anymore. Far-right extremists’ use of humour
#38I'm so pissed off that my European tax money is wasted on financing bullshit like that. But be aware, this is maybe the first sign that "humor" will be the next victim of the "cancel culture" and the current trend in "free speech censorship"...
It's responsible research intended to give police, politicians, and citizens a clue about the new communication techniques of the hard-right. > Thinking of far-right extremism, we might associate this with backward-looking, stiff and formal zealots who act on the fringes of the political spectrum. Yet, the skinhead image has long been overcome and, in fact, also more recent phenomena like the Identitarians have lost…
The "hard-right" is normally bored teenage boys that are trolling for laughs and don't actually believe any of this stuff.
There is a meme online currently that says "My political opinions are based on who I am trolling".
As for Pepe being a far-right meme. It never has been one. That was misinformation to stir up a moral panic and push for censorship.
The Pepe has also been used by Hong Kong protesters, (IIRC) the yellow vest protesters in france and loads of other pro-democracy freedom groups outside of the west.
e.g.
https://www.ynetnews.com/PicServer5/2019/10/03/9521875/95218...
Re: It’s not funny anymore. Far-right extremists’ use of humour
#39Ctrl + f microaggressions. So...it's that kind of paper.
Yes, there is one mention of microaggressions in the paper
> Not only repeated exposure but also a lack of resistance within the chan communities reinforces such microaggressions.
What is your comment supposed to mean? Is it mentioned too often/too little so the rest of the paper to loose legitimacy, or what is your point?
Since I've never heard the term before, I looked it up
> Microaggression is a term used for commonplace daily verbal, behavioral or environmental slights, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative attitudes toward stigmatized or culturally marginalized groups.
Seems highly relevant to a paper about extremists use of humor.
Re: It’s not funny anymore. Far-right extremists’ use of humour
#40didn't the use of humour playbook have its roots in anti oppression movements in eastern Europe?
It's way older. There are collections of jokes from Germany stemming from the WW1 era and from the Nazi regime, for example.