ABSTRACT

The use of social media by extreme right groups and the self-proclaimed formation of the ‘alt-right’ in recent years have been linked to the rise in US white nationalism. Against a backdrop of widespread concern regarding the growing nature of the ‘alt-right’ phenomenon, this article responds to the pressing need to understand its appeal. Specifically, we examine the discursive means by which a hitherto unexamined US ‘alt-right’ group, the Traditionalist Worker Party, constructs its group identity and ideology online. Corpus assisted discourse analysis of this group’s blog (c. one million words) reveals that the Traditionalist Worker Party regularly mobilises five discourses (groupness, party politics, race, religion/tradition, change) in order to assert subject positions of victimhood for its (to be) members, alongside recurrent use of explicit out-grouping strategies. The out-groups are blamed for a general malaise – an uncertain, chaotic reality that can and must be changed through affiliation with the Traditionalist Worker Party. The study also shows that the Traditionalist Worker Party constructs itself a highly entitative group as a means to enhancing its recruitment appeal.

摘要

近年来，极右团体对社交媒体的使用以及自称为“另类右翼”的形成与美国白人民族主义的兴起有关。在人们普遍关注“另类右翼”现象日益严重的背景下，本文回应了理解其吸引力的迫切需要。具体来说，我们研究了迄今为止未经审查的美国“另类右翼”团体传统主义工人党在网上构建其团体身份和意识形态的话语方式。语料库对该团体博客（约 100 万字）的辅助话语分析显示，传统工人党定期动员五种话语（群体性、政党政治、种族、宗教/传统、变革），以为其（成为）成员，以及经常使用明确的分组策略。外部群体被归咎于普遍的不适——一种不确定、混乱的现实，可以而且必须通过加入传统工人党来改变。该研究还表明，传统工人党将自己构建为一个高度实体化的群体，以此作为增强其招聘吸引力的手段。