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Techno-Neurotic's avatar

Really good thoughts re: etymologynerd. I haven't read Algospeak and in general it seems like he has a good grasp of the McLuhanist internet language process but I agree with you that he totally missed the mark on the spread of Incel slang.

I actually think if he used his normal line of linguistic reasoning he would have arrived at the correct conclusion that you outlined: these words help people describe something real and experienced in their life. They are, mostly, acquired to either describe that experience literally or hyperbolically. In an age of 'acceptance', a lot of people come/came up against the still-powerful beauty & dating norms and incelspeak reflects a language-set developed to describe that. Add to that your additional notes which get at a more accurate understanding of internet radicalization.

What happened, imo, is that he imported a dangerously unhelpful liberal theory: Mainstreaming. Mainstreaming, for some reason, is still a dominant explanation in the academy for how radical ideas spread outside of their initially niche communities. It basically asserts a 100% intentional, self-aware, and propagandistic technique whereby niche communities package their ideas into a friendly form or intentionally confine their ideas to the most palatable then send them out to win converts.

It's not wrong, exactly, and it describes some instances of the more formal propaganda of earlier eras well (even up to and including TV, I remember Tucker being so popular among old and at-the-time normal white conservatives despite the 4chan freaks he had on writing staff in part because they knew how to write to an audience). It completely and utterly vaporizes on impact when applied to the internet though and I have no clue why he relied on it. He might not have even realized.

I have other thoughts on that video because I think it's actually pretty bad but that's one big one.

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