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Articles by Robert Topinka
‘Big Chungus’ and racist meme coins: Nigel Farage’s cameos are rife with the language of the online far right
Farage at Reform UK’s 2026 Scottish conference in Bishopton, 19 March 2026. Photograph: Andrew MacColl/Shutterstock Nigel Farage has spent the past five years upending politics, breaking the two-party hold on parliament, and apparently sending several Cameo videos a day to his paying customers, charging £374,893 overall.
How the left can win back the internet - and rise again
There is politics before the internet, and politics after the internet. Liberals are floundering, the right are flourishing, and what of the left? Well, it’s in a dire state. This is despite the fact that the key political problems of the last decade – rising inequality and a cost of living crisis – are problems leftists claim they can solve. The trouble is, reactionaries and rightwingers steal their thunder online, quickly spreading messaging that blames scapegoats for structural problems.
How the right won the internet
The internet has totally changed the way in which politics is conducted. As established in the first piece in our series, liberals have totally failed to grasp this fact. The right, however, are thriving in this new world. Future historians studying the role that fringe online ideas played in the US republic’s demise will be spoiled for choice.
How liberals lost the internet
There’s a strange tendency to describe social media as something other people use – those young people on TikTok, that conspiratorial uncle on Facebook, the rightwing trolls on X. In truth, we’re all online now. The number of global social media users surpassed 5 billion in 2024. To put that into perspective there are 8 billion people on the planet. The internet has totally transformed the ways in which we communicate and share information. First the internet came for print.
Do you know about shitposting? It’s cheap humour, rage bait – and now, it seems, US government policy
An image of an autopen signing former US President Joe Biden's signature is displayed in place of a portrait Biden at the White House in Washington. Photograph: Ken Cedeno/Reuters On 24 September, a White House communications adviser posted a video on X of a new presidential Walk of Fame, captioned: “Wait for it”, with a pen and eyes emoji. The video pans over a succession of presidential portraits to reveal – in place of Joe Biden’s portrait – a framed photograph of an autopen signing his name.
‘Conspiracy theories should be called spoiler alerts’: Conspiracy, coronavirus and affective community on Russell Brand’s YouTube comment section
Get full access to this article View all access and purchase options for this article. References Argentino MA (2021) Pastel QAnon. GNET, 17 March. Available at: https://gnet-research.org/2021/03/17/pastel-qanon/ (accessed 2 March 2023). Barkun M (2013) A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Belew K (2019 [2018]) Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement in Paramilitary America. Boston, MA: Harvard University Press.
‘Conspiracy theories should be called spoiler alerts’: Conspiracy, coronavirus and affective community on Russell Brand’s YouTube comment section
Get full access to this article View all access and purchase options for this article. References Argentino MA (2021) Pastel QAnon. GNET, 17 March. Available at: https://gnet-research.org/2021/03/17/pastel-qanon/ (accessed 2 March 2023). Barkun M (2013) A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Belew K (2019 [2018]) Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement in Paramilitary America. Boston, MA: Harvard University Press.
The software says my student cheated using AI. They say they’re innocent. Who do I believe?
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The politics of the NPC meme: Reactionary subcultural practice and vernacular theory
Abstract The acronym ‘NPC’ originates from videogame culture, where it refers to computer-controlled drones whose behaviour is dictated by their programming. By 2018 the term had gained traction within right-wing subcultural spaces as shorthand for individuals apparently incapable of thinking for themselves. By the autumn of 2018, these spaces were awash with NPC memes accusing liberals and leftists of uncritically accepting progressive doxa and parroting left-wing catchphrases.
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