#secondcivilwarletters from the front: Discursive illusions in a trending Twitter hashtag

Abstract

When conservative media personality and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones warned of an impending Second Civil War to be initiated by Democrats, he instigated a viral hashtag on Twitter – #secondcivilwarletters – which drew tweets of political commentary and critique in a style mimicking war letters from the American Civil War. Using a sample of these tweets, this article explores the evocation of discursive illusions already established within mainstream and alternative media discourse about contemporary partisan politics in America – that is, the divide between the Republicans and the Democrats and how they categorise each other. To do this we adopt Bhatia’s framework of the discourse of illusion and its three main components of linguistic and semiotic action, historicity and social impact. The analysis reveals the extent to which this illusion has permeated the consciousness of the users as they present their ideological beliefs and positions in this new media context.

#HaStatoPutin Affinity Space: From Political Work to Autotelic Humor

“…To capture the totality of tweeters engaged with a chosen hashtag, previous studies have invoked the notion of a "hashtag community" (Bruns & Burgess, 2011) or an "ad hoc community" (Ross & Bhatia, 2019). Referring to previous research, Zappavigna (2018, p. 122) observes that "hashtags are instrumental in forming communities" acting both as virtual sites and as markers of community membership.…”

“…A contribution is thus made to the research on distinctive politically loaded hashtags (e.g., De Cock & Pizarro Pedraza, 2018;Hayes, 2017;Johansson et al, 2018;Ross & Bhatia, 2019;Zappavigna, 2018) that evince humorous potential and that epitomize the contemporary participatory culture as facilitating civic engagement (Jenkins, 2009). In the light of this empirical analysis, it is argued that Italian Twitter users build an online affinity space (Gee, 2004(Gee, , 2005(Gee, , 2007 based on their mutual learning and sharing of compatible tweets.…”

“Ruled Britannia”: Metaphorical Construction of the EU as Enemy in UKIP Campaign Posters

“…In the context of UKIP’s campaign discourse, we noticed multiple delineating categories, revolving primarily around “us” (UK) and “them” (EU) demarcations (Ross and Bhatia 2019). It can be argued then, that the various social categories that emerge from discourses such as the UKIP posters act as a lens through which UKIP aims its target audiences to view the world, one aligned with their own sociopolitical agenda.…”

“…The progression from the range of sociohistorical influences that affect an individual’s reality can perhaps best be understood through the work of Bourdieu (1990), and especially the notion of habitus which helps explain the connection between these influences and the cognitive development of a conceptualization of reality. Specifically, Ross and Bhatia (2019) describe habitus as “the individual and collective practices that emerge from socialization and historical experience” (p. 2226). Being guided by prior life experiences in this way highlights the link between an individual’s habitus and their values, beliefs and ideological positions.…”

“…Following on from this discussion of habitus, the concept of “discursive illusions” has been proposed by Bhatia (2015). According to Ross and Bhatia (2019), a discursive illusion develops from “the power invested in the subjective nature of reality conceptualisations” (p. 2226, emphasis in original). Bhatia (2015) posits that within public discourse, and especially in the political context, discursive illusions reveal themselves when there is broad acceptance of, and participation in, the belief that an individual’s ideologically guided and subjective interpretation is the only socially acceptable possibility or conclusion.…”