Frogtwitter

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#Frogtwitter is a network of loosely-connected pseudonymous Twitter accounts with post-libertarian, reactionary politics. An esoteric right-wing internet avant-garde known for their use of memes and trolling, it revels in a mythic, aristocratic past and traffics in conspiracy theories, racism and bigotry.

Definitions and descriptions[]

The name itself likely derives from the Pepe the Frog meme,[1][2] although Josh Vandiver speculates that it could also derive from Aristophanes' comedy The Frogs for the circle around far right social media personality Bronze Age Pervert.[3]

Definitions and descriptions of Frogtwitter vary depending by source and perspective. BuzzFeed simply refers to it as "Alt Right on Twitter."[1] Jacob Siegel writing for The Baffler calls it a group "with a similar blend of post-libertarian, reactionary politics"[4] and interviewed an anonymous member who describes it as “a lot of it is just having fun with words on the internet . . . intellectualizing while wanting to communicate serious ideas in a very high-noise environment (...) the thesis of most of this part of the alt-right is that there’s a decadence, a decline and eventually it will be followed by something else.”[4] Ben Schreckinger writing for Politico described it as "a network of similar, pseudonymous accounts with names like Just Loki and 17thCenturyShytePost that revel in mythic, aristocratic pasts while trafficking in racism and anti-Semitism."[5] Park MacDougald of Tablet Magazine calls Frogtwitter "[the] corner of social media", notable for "[bringing] the world campy, far-right Nietzschean" "Bronze Age Pervert."[6]

Andrew Sabisky writing for International Business Times UK reported on a wave of Frogtwitter Twitter bannings in early 2017[7] and reviewed a one-time Frogtwitter art exhibition in London[8] in which he quoted "Kantbot" summarising Frogtwitter as "the last bastion of indiscriminate and all-embracing cultural criticism"; a space not for ideology, but for pure, truly unfiltered critique. It is an anti-political sphere, in many ways, or perhaps one of a politics of pure aesthetics."[8] Sabisky himself lauds Frogtwitter for "the magic of frogtwitter [that] lies in the balance between the darkness of their nihilism and the joyous, majestic, life-affirming vitality with which they express it, buttressed by a fierce intelligence."[8] Ben Sixsmith writing for The American Conservative notes that trying to define Frogtwitter could lead to embarrassment, but he tries by calling " its inhabitants tend to be young, male, white, and nationalistic, but also less fixated on race than the alt-right and more cynical, literary, esoteric, and mischievous. They love to walk the line between satire and seriousness, to get a reaction as with other trolls, but also to deconstruct what they see as artificial forms of social meaning."[9] Dan DeCarlo writing for Claremont Institute's American Mind sums up Frogtwitter as a short lived, bizarro right wing avant-garde, and lauds it as a nihilistic collective art project that struggles with the end of liberalism and "a spiritual mutiny against the religion of progressive liberalism."[10]

According to popular member "Bronze Age Pervert", as quoted by Tara Isabella Burton for Vox, Frogtwitter does not advocate for a particular political project but is rather a “dissatisfaction with modern life in many ways for the same reasons liberals were dissatisfied before... It’s a world that’s tightly controlled, repressive, ugly, extremely polluted.”[11] Jacob Siegel notes that Frogtwitter limits its 'activism' to tweets alone,[4] but that may not be without consequence, troll and noted 2016 election influencer[12] "Ricky Vaughn" is being sued for the spreading of misinformation and election interference.[13]

Themes[]

Ben Schreckinger did a brief survey of some of the themes occupying the minds of Frogtwitter: "Figures in this space frequently refer to their belief that elite media is preparing Americans for a future in which their quality of life is greatly diminished and people are reduced to eating insects for protein".[5] And "because this corner of the internet fixates on population genetics and has a high affinity for Slavic and northern European cultures, there is a fascination with the Udmurt people, a small ethnic group that lives mostly in Russia, and the fact that a high proportion of its members have red hair."[5] The accounts also "oppose mass migration, echoing the themes of the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory (...) [which] claims that European elites are secretly conspiring to replace their countries’ white majorities with immigrants from Africa and the Middle East."[5]

Andrew Sabisky describes a viral tweet, retweeted by Ann Coulter, by user 'menaquinone4' as typical Frogtwitter output which affirmed yet at the same time mocked the "Deep State" conspiracy theory by contrasting two pictures, one of a movie star playing a spy holding a sniper rifle next to a picture of former CIA member and 2016 presidential candidate Evan McMullin eating a snack, headed by the caption: "deep state: what you think ur getting vs. what you're actually getting".[7]

An IRL troll moment that exemplified more esoteric Frogtwitter themes was "Kantbot"'s viral moment in late 2016, which Jacob Siegel goes on to describe at length in The Baffler: "you may have encountered the viral video of a portly, curly-haired young man in glasses and peacoat going on about Thule. He is holding forth at an anti-Trump rally to an amused reporter and an agitated crowd, explaining that president [Trump] is going to resurrect the lost city of Atlantis and do what Hegel and Fichte could not, by completing the system of German idealism."[4]

Notable members and adjacencies[]

Prominent members of Frogtwitter mentioned in the media are/were:

Anarchist Cody Wilson is said to engage with Frogtwitter,[4] and, according to Jacobin, Frogtwitter is adjacent to incel subculture.[17] The Baffler brings up Frogtwitter's adjacency to the neoreactionary movement.[4] Supposedly[according to whom?], Tucker Carlson's writers keep up with frogtwitter.[14]

References[]

  1. ^ a b "A Normal Person's Guide To How Far-Right Trolls Talk To Each Other". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 2021-11-11.
  2. ^ Nuzzi, Olivia (2016-05-26). "How Pepe the Frog Became a Nazi Trump Supporter and Alt-Right Symbol". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2021-11-11.
  3. ^ a b Vandiver, Josh (2022). Contemporary far-right thinkers and the future of liberal democracy. A. James McAdams, Alejandro Castrillón. Abingdon, Oxon. p. 248. ISBN 978-1-003-10517-6. OCLC 1243906350.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Siegel, Jacob (2018-04-30). "Send Anarchists, Guns, and Money | Jacob Siegel". The Baffler. Retrieved 2021-11-11.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Schreckinger, Ben (2019-08-23). "The alt-right manifesto that has Trumpworld talking". POLITICO. Retrieved 2021-11-11.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  6. ^ a b "The Battle on the New Right for the Soul of Trump's America". Tablet Magazine. 2020-02-05. Retrieved 2021-11-11.
  7. ^ a b c Sabisky, Andrew (2017-02-27). "Silence of the Frogs: Why is Twitter censoring harmless Pepe accounts?". International Business Times UK. Retrieved 2021-11-11.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  8. ^ a b c d e f Sabisky, Andrew (2017-05-12). "Inside frogtwitter's dark artistic mind". International Business Times UK. Retrieved 2021-11-11.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. ^ Sixsmith, Ben. "Andrew Yang and His Gang". The American Conservative. Retrieved 2021-11-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  10. ^ a b DeCarlo, Dan. "An Epic Pervert". The American Mind. Retrieved 2021-11-11.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  11. ^ Burton, Tara Isabella (2018-06-01). "The religious hunger that drives Jordan Peterson's fandom". Vox. Retrieved 2021-11-11.
  12. ^ O'Brien, Luke (2018-04-05). "Trump's Most Influential White Nationalist Troll Is A Middlebury Grad Who Lives In Manhattan". HuffPost. Retrieved 2021-11-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  13. ^ "Social Media Influencer Charged with Election Interference Stemming from Voter Disinformation Campaign". www.justice.gov. 2021-01-27. Retrieved 2021-11-15.
  14. ^ a b "Government by the Very Online". The Spectator World. Retrieved 2022-02-18.
  15. ^ a b Taranto, James (2016-09-15). "Regression to the Meme". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2021-11-11.
  16. ^ Gilmour, David (2019-06-24). "Twitter lifts 'permanent' suspension of activist Barrett Brown". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 2021-12-31.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  17. ^ Gabert-Doyon, Josh. "A Portrait of the Breakdown of Hope and Meaning in America". jacobinmag.com. Retrieved 2021-11-11.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

External links[]

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