Banal Fascism Online

Meredith L. Pruden is an Assistant Professor of Communication and Media at Kennesaw State University and an affiliate with the Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life, member of Media and Democracy Data Cooperative and Coalition for Independent Tech Research, and Fellow with Institute for Research on Male Supremacism.Ayse D. Lokmanoglu is an Assistant Professor of Emerging Media Studies in the College of Communication at Boston University. She studies the dynamics of information integrity, the politicization of science, and visual communication in the digital public sphere.Hanah Stiverson is the Director of the Democracy Protection Program at Human Rights First where she leads an advocacy and research team focused on exposing authoritarian practices, defending the right to dissent, and protecting civic freedoms.Meghan Conroy is a threat intelligence analyst with over ten years of experience investigating extremism and online harms. She currently works in tech, where she focuses on proactive threat detection and policy development for criminal exploitation of social media platforms.

• Section 1: Conceptualizing "Banal Fascism"/The Inherent Banality of Fascism 1. Introduction 2. Introducing Banal Fascism Section 2: Tech and Fascism 3. Fascism and the Machine: Reflections on the Banality of Surveillance Capitalism and Other Developments 4. Red, White, and Gloom: The Inherent Banality of Fascist Tactics 5. From Pixels to Prejudice: Visual Framing and Intersectional Targeting in Parler Memes Section 3: Politics and the Internet 6. The Fascist Feminine: White Motherhood and the Parental Rights Movement 7. Effectiveness of Banal Fascism in Shaping Political Engagement: The 2022 Marine Le Pen Presidential Campaign on Facebook 8. Christian Nationalism and Far-right Rhetoric and Iconography in Recruiting and Mobilizing Out-group Members on Gab 9. Maintaining Frame: US News Media Coverage of Misogynist Incels 10. Recruiting for The Base Across Platforms: Modes and Methods of Online Engagement and Identity Shaping 11. The Morphology of Banal Fascism: Investigating Fascist Lies During 2020 Section 4: Fascist Lifestyle Trends on Social Media 12. Illustrating Chaos: banal fascism in Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life 13. Eating the Empire: The Construction of the Fascist Diet 14. “Kill Your Local Drug Dealer”: Framing the Opioid Crisis Across the Online White Supremacist Landscape 15. Milk Parties, Soyjaks and Reactionary Trolling: Theorizing the Reactionary Right’s Metapolitical Appropriation of Dairy Milk Section 5: Conclusion and Praxis 16. Conclusion