This language often takes the form of memes, which can be defined as ‘cultural units of meaning that develop and spread virally by copying or combining with other units’. Bogertz and Fielitz explain that many recent extreme-right terrorists have not been members of political organisations or militias, but participants in ‘digital hate communities’ that have used specialised visual language to communicate ideas. Īn important part of this radicalization process is the ‘sense of belonging’ that alt-right adherents find online. For the purposes of this analysis, radicalisation can be loosely defined as ‘the process of developing extremist ideologies and beliefs which may or may not result in a terrorist attack. For instance, the impact of memetic visual culture on alt-right radicalisation inevitably does not take place in a vacuum and is intertwined with other elements. At the outset of this article, it is necessary to consider Gill et al’s assertion that it is difficult to tell where the internet stops as ‘there is no clear dichotomy between online and offline radicalization’.
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