Far right politics as content: online hate and how we study it

: (Alternative Format Thesis)

Abstract

This project explores the ethics of researching the far right and the far right online, with a focus on researcher safety and metapolitics respectively. Whilst a substantial body of literature on the latter exists, this project specifically considers how far-right politics can be mainstreamed using populist discourse and performance. It focuses on the strategic use of transgression to understand how counter-elite identities can be asserted by comparatively privileged figures advancing far-right politics. Conversely, researchers suffer from a lack of evidence and literature on the risks involved in researching the far right, and what can be done about them. The literature that exists focuses on addressing the immediate and urgent issues, providing guidance or establishing the existence of risks. This thesis broadens and deepens the focus to firstly consider how risks and risk mitigation is experienced by early career researchers, then considering how the existing advice can be implemented, and finally how it interacts with the academic environment.

To explore these two topics, two methods are employed. To investigate the ethics component, 21 interviews with researchers of the far right and manosphere are analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. To investigate the far-right component, the discursive-performative approach to populism is used as the methodological core. Tim Pool – a far-right YouTuber – is used as a case study, with analysis of his ‘news’ content yielding valuable insight into how privilege can be concealed and far-right politics mainstreamed. The thesis helps further the understanding of how conspiracy theories can be disseminated on mainstream platforms, and the role that ‘alternative’ media played in the lead up to the attempted insurrection on January 6th 2021.

In the first portion of this thesis, I argue that researcher safety is based on what is known about risk and what is possible to mitigate, introducing a matrix to understand stakeholder roles and capabilities. The findings highlight the need to move away from responsibilising the individual, instead considering how contextual factors impact their ability to stay safe. I also argue that there is an experienced gap between the aims of institutional ethics processes and the experiences of researchers, highlighting the need for more expertise and constructive dialogue. Finally, I argue that the current approach to researcher safety has material impacts on what knowledge is produced and who can produce it, in turn affecting what is known about the far right and manosphere.

In the second portion of the thesis, I argue that Pool uses strategic transgression to carve out a space as an anti-elite, and even revolutionary, producer of objective content under the guise of citizen journalism. Analysis of his content and performance highlights the importance of a far-right creator’s ‘stage’ (in this case YouTube) in building this image. It further details how Pool rearticulates the social and political landscape, focusing on the consumption of news to position far-right politics as of ‘the people’.

Together, the analysis presented in the thesis highlights the need to centre and critically interrogate the role of power and privilege in research on the far right.

Date of Award	26 Mar 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bath
Supervisor	Aurelien Mondon (Supervisor) & Fran Amery (Supervisor)