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Paper Short Abstract:

Based on digital ethnographic fieldwork among far-right trolls and digital activists this paper examines how actors deploy or (strategically) exploit the “play frame” in order to forge communities of hate and push the metapolitical boundaries of what can be said and how.

Paper Abstract:

The question “Is this play?” is an anthropological classic. In A Theory of Play and Fantasy (1955), Gregory Bateson structures his argument around what he calls the metacommunicative frame “this is play.” Turned into a question, “is this play?”, allows to examine more complex, or ambiguous forms of play and fun such as trolling, participatory “fun fascism” and transgressive humor online. Such ambiguous forms of playing that lean over the frame, establish the frame only partially or applied outside the context of entertainment have been conceptualized as “deep play” (Geertz 1973) or “dark play” (Schechner 2003).

“It is fun to be a hater,” one of my interlocutors summarized the answer to my question why he participated in racist troll attacks online. However, how can we theorize hate and racism disguised as fun or play without either being paternalistic nor falling for the strategic self-trivialization of far-right activists? Based on digital ethnographic fieldwork among far-right trolls and far right activists this paper examines how play and fun are deployed by actors engaging in trolling, harassing and racism online. The thesis put forward in this paper is that we see the emergence of a new ludic, participatory and memetic fascism online, that accompanies and smoothens the mainstreaming of far-right political positions in Germany. Trolls, political influencers and young gamers form an extremely successful alliance online, making use platforms such as X (formally Twitter), discord or Telegram.