Equivocation and doublespeak in far right-wing discourse: an analysis of Nick Griffin's performance on BBC's Question Time

Bull, Peter; Simon‐Vandenbergen, Anne‐Marie

doi:10.1515/text-2013-0035

Cited by 13 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…All users might, however, not be familiar with these and other similar expressions. The jargon then functions as a set of code words which pass over the heads of those who do not share the same far-right affiliations while being easily decoded by other far-right sympathizers (Åkerlund, 2021; Bhat & Klein, 2020; Bull & Simon-Vandenbergen, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence Without Metrics: Analyzing the Impact of Far-Right Users in an Online Discussion Forum

Åkerlund

2021

Social Media + Society

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The study presented in this article explores the processes through which influence takes shape in eclectic online forums with few vanity metrics. Using a dataset of 7.5 million posts in the large Swedish online discussion forum Flashback, it explores who becomes influential, their strategies for appealing to the community, and others’ support of them. While it has been known that Flashback hosts far-right users and content, the current study shows that these sentiments are not fringe or obscure, but instead seemingly widely supported and influential in the forum. It illustrates that the influential users—those who are supported and acknowledged by others as important—exclusively and continuously expressed far-right ideas and displayed an embeddedness within the far-right, as well as in the forum’s culture. The study finds that despite few visible markers, many users learned to recognize influential users and their far-right content as worthy of support. In the absence of built-in functions, some users engaged in manual “liking” and “sharing” of influential users’ content via their replies, acknowledging it as a way to legitimize them. At the same time, the analysis showcased how a lack of vanity metrics countered potential echo chamber effects in the forum as disliked users—advocating progressive gender and immigration ideas—were unintentionally amplified by those who attempted to silence them. The article also discusses the role of Flashback as a platform in the proliferation of hate.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence Without Metrics: Analyzing the Impact of Far-Right Users in an Online Discussion Forum

Åkerlund

2021

Social Media + Society

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“…Golding is being careful not to be self‐incriminating; he is being vague and avoiding saying how Britain First will take action as this has potentially negative consequences. Bull and Simon‐Vandenbergen () identified that the BNP portrayed vague messages with suggestions over its antiimmigration stance, a discursive strategy termed “calculated ambivalence” by Wodak (, p. 142).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The discursive “othering” of Jews and Muslims in the Britain First solidarity patrol

Burke

2018

Community & Applied Soc Psy

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In this paper, critical discursive psychology is used to analyse the Islamophobic discourse by the far‐right party Britain First in its “solidarity patrol” video. Britain First patrolled in Golders Green, North London, to show support for Jewish communities following the ISIS shooting at the kosher supermarket in Paris on January 9, 2015. The Charlie Hebdo shooting and the shooting at the kosher supermarket (as well as other attacks by members of the Islamic State) have led to Muslims being seen as a threat to Britain and exposed to Islamophobic attacks and racial abuse. This presents far‐right parties in the United Kingdom with the dilemma of appearing moderate and mainstream in their anti‐Islamic stance. The analysis focuses on how Britain First used the shooting at the kosher supermarket in order to construct Jews as under threat from Islam. The analysis also includes visual communication in the solidarity patrol video that was used to provide “evidence” that Britain First supported Jewish communities. Results are discussed in light of how Britain First used aligning with Jews in order to appear as “reasonable” in projecting its anti‐Islamic ideology and how critical discursive psychology can be used to show how conflicting social identities are constructed.

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“…It is a communicative strategy that a speaker might use to create a connection between two distinct things like concepts, ideas, views, events, etc. (Perelman & Olbrechts-Tyteca, 1969;Bull & Simon-Vandenberg, 2014). In reality, this connection is at the heart of the speaker's rhetoric while arguing to prove that a given conclusion is true.…”

Section: Association (Equivocation)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, the pragmatic perspective is explored to show how politicians use implicitness and explicitness to persuade their public and maintain control over them (Bull & Simon-Vandenberg, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Doublespeak: The Empowerment of the Self and the Dis-Empowerment of the Other

Khalifa¹

2019

ASSC

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Regarding the ability doublespeak offers to its users to distort and mislead, the question about how power is (re)produce, distributed, and enacted becomes of great concern. Within this context, the present paper seeks to study how the use of doublespeak serves for the empowerment of the self and the dis-empowerment of the other. The study of this topic consists in the analysis of some examples that are taken from political speeches delivered by the US presidents; Bush, Obama, and Trump. To analyze these examples, a combination of three theories—theories of discourse analysis, theories of power, and theories of politics—is used. The application of this theoretical combination is based on the use of a simple method of research. This method follows three successive steps. First, the traces of doublespeak are detected and classified. Second, interest is given to the study of how each of the traced uses of doublespeak serves for empowerment. Third, interest shifts to the interpretation of the obtained results to highlight the political ends standing behind any struggle for power. The paper ended by offering a multi-disciplinary approach to the study of empowerment in the political uses of doublespeak as well as a simple method of research. Also, it proved that the use of doublespeak represents a strategy of empowerment that the speakers resorted to while seeking to get more power to dominate and to achieve personal goals. The paper might show as well some limitations like the uses of examples from other political contexts. However, this did not affect the quality of the research nor the results that are sought to be reached, instead, it represents a good start for future researches to look into other contexts.

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Equivocation and doublespeak in far right-wing discourse: an analysis of Nick Griffin's performance on BBC's Question Time

Cited by 13 publications

References 9 publications

Influence Without Metrics: Analyzing the Impact of Far-Right Users in an Online Discussion Forum

Influence Without Metrics: Analyzing the Impact of Far-Right Users in an Online Discussion Forum

The discursive “othering” of Jews and Muslims in the Britain First solidarity patrol

Doublespeak: The Empowerment of the Self and the Dis-Empowerment of the Other

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