The Alt-Right and Video Games
The Alt-Right and Video Games
by Akira Albar-Kluck
by Akira Albar-Kluck
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The “alt-right” is one of the most dangerous social movements of the new century. The alt-right can best be defined as an ideological movement, primarily online rife with white nationalism, misogyny, racism, and homophobia. The alt-right has spawned terrorist attacks that have killed or injured over 100 people according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. This violence has started online, on websites like 4chan, 8chan, and Reddit. While these communities are often violent and spread dangerous ideology, they do not appear harmful at first. They lure young, angry, white, men with memes and video games, they build a community off of those shared interests. As time and investment in the community grow, so does the toxicity and bigotry. This process has been called the “alt-right pipeline.”
There is no correlation between video games and violence, however, the violent communities that have seen that video games are the newest and one of the largest forms of entertainment have used that to their advantage. According to the Pew Research Center, 97% of boys and 83% of girls play video games. While video games have been around since the 1980s, the current culture of video game communities is new, and parents do not know how to monitor how their children interact with those communities. White supremacists saw those weaknesses and have worked to exploit that in recruitment. It is common for kids to meet other people while playing and make friends with them. They will talk privately in apps like Discord. They will seem like normal friends, and talk to them about their problems and offer them simple solutions. These solutions can be white supremacy and misogyny.
This tactic of offering disaffected teenage boys simple solutions for their problems works extremely well given the climate of our times. Millennials and Gen Z face more mental health issues and stress from headline issues, according to the American Psychological Association. Instead of the excess of guns in America being the cause of mass shootings, white nationalism presents a few examples of Muslim perpetrators and says it is immigration’s fault. Problems in dating that were just normal teenage boy problems turn into the idea that all women are shallow and selfish. They are entitled to society and women, that this is their birthright, and feminism and multiculturalism are what is preventing them from what they deserve. These recruiters will often start by saying slurs to see if they are shut down, or whether this is not a good mark. They will say racist and bigoted jokes in an “ironic” way, opening the door to unironic racism. This is especially true of the Hitler memes of the 2010s, which can directly be tied to the rise of Neo-Nazism. There are a number of ties to the gaming community by Neo-Nazi communities.
Pewdiepie, real name Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, is not just a popular gaming Youtuber. He had the most subscribers on YouTube for quite some time. He gained popularity for his “Let’s Play” videos, where he played games like Five Nights at Freddy’s. He was known for more personal videos where he seemed more like a friend than someone just showing the world like other Youtubers. He has had a number of controversies. He has been seen in videos wearing nazi memorabilia and has said a number of racial slurs while playing games. He had planned to donate to the Anti-Defamation League and organization against antisemitism but rescinded his donation after a backlash from anti-semitic fans. He is one of the easiest and most common starting points for the alt-right pipeline. He has recommended openly neo-nazi Youtubers and encouraged racism directly. As previously stated he is the most subscribed to YouTube channel, in 2017 when Indian music video channel T-Series was projected to get more subscribers he stirred up a battle between the two channels. This led to lots of racist sentiment towards South Asians. “Subscribe to PewDiePie” was turned into a rallying cry by white supremacists, and had deadly consequences. It was spraypainted on World War II memorials. It came to its end when a man in Christchurch New Zealand said “subscribe to PewDiePie” before murdering 49 people, including children in a Mosque. While Kjellberg denounced this action, he had stoked the flames of this hatred for a very long time.
Many young people in the alt-right started watching PewDiePie videos, then watch similar if a little more extreme videos, (often recommended by YouTube itself) and continue watching more extreme videos about anti-feminism and white nationalist talking points. They will go onto websites like Reddit, then 4chan, where they will be “red-pilled.” This is the term they use when they are “awakened” to the “reality” of the alt-right and what is wrong with the world. It is taken from The Matrix, where the main character sees past the lies of the world. These communities have continued to grow, especially during the pandemic, the Black Lives Matter protests and the 2020 election. The alt-right was one of the largest groups present on January 6, 2021, at the Capital Insurrection. Their influence remains unmatched, and extremely concerning. Radicalization from the internet will be one of the biggest issues facing this decade. We have already seen the deadly consequence from the last, but tech companies have made a few steps to curb radicalization. They have made baby steps, but at the rate we are going they are going to need to be prepared to run a marathon.
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