This page relies on the detailed analysis of Viveca Greene, Deplorable Satire: Alt-Right Memes, White Genocide Tweets, and Redpilling Normies. Shorter, more accessible accounts can be found in George Hawley, Making Sense of the Alt-Right (especially, 70-75) and Cynthia Miller-Idriss, Hate in the Homeland (especially, 65-67).

In Their Own Words

“In an age of nihilism, absolute idealism must be couched in irony in order to be taken seriously.”

  • Andrew Anglin, “A Normie’s Guide to the Alt-Right”

One of the most straightforward accounts of white nationalist humor, “A Normie’s Guide to the Alt-Right,” was written and posted by Andrew Anglin, editor of the enormously popular Daily Stormer website, in August, 2016. Anglin’s essay describes the ironic, and, as he terms it, “malicious” humor that grew out of white nationalist trolling culture. Anglin’s self-exposé is itself an exercise in the ironic style of much contemporary white nationalism. According to Anglin, a light-hearted tone can be more effective as an aggressive weapon than displays of threatening anger because of its “subversive power.”

“Whereas older white nationalists came across as bitter, reactionary, and antisocial, much of the Alt-Right comes across as youthful, light-hearted, and jovial—even as it says the most abhorrent things about racial and religious minorities.”