"So Much for Darwin" - An Analysis of Stormfront Discussions on Race

Abstract

Even though people who actively participate in the white nationalist movement appear to be a relatively small percentage of the global population, it appears that racist and anti-Semitic attitudes continue to inform a new generation of white nationalists, many of whom populate discussion forums on Stormfront, online since 1995 and billed as the first Internet site in the hate genre. Membership in extremist groups and support for sites like Stormfront embody specific attitudes about race, the importance of the existence of biological races, intellectual superiority of whites, and justification for these beliefs that is sometimes framed with a religious perspective such as Christian Identity. This project is based on a content analysis of Stormfront discussion forums posted online between the years 2010 and 2017. The findings indicate that some discussants are willing to admit the existence of small percentages of mixed DNA without giving up their white identity. They understand the concept of mass migration and human breeding patterns. Others stand ready to argue these points and discredit DNA testing whenever possible. Hatred of Jews is a recurrent theme throughout Stormfront forums, no matter the topic of discussion and both William Pierce and Wesley Swift are gaining currency with younger discussants on the site. Additionally and maybe most importantly, a mentoring system is in place where more mature and seasoned white racialists share race science anecdotes and articles from J. Philippe Rushton and Arthur Jensen, among others. They also provide information and answer questions about Christian Identity ideology in an effort to build bridges from one generation of racists to the next.

Canada’s Right-Wing Extremists: Mapping their Ties, Location, and Ideas

“…For several reasons, Canadian RWE content is either difficult to find or hidden among larger sites targeting at US groups. Users who participate in RWE forums also tend to anonymize their identities in some cases, such as with Stormfront; however, this provides some advantage in estimating their location since anonymous identities tend to be more open with their locations (Dentice, 2019). Moreover, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other prominent social media sites have also removed extremist content (YouTube 2019, Twitter 2019, Bernal, 2019.…”

“…Other measures by web-hosting services and Internet providers to oust white supremacist and neo-Nazi propaganda from their servers, notably after a white supremacist attack occurred in Charlottesville, are further instigating, and supporting RWE migrations from mainstream platforms (Cohen-Almagor, 2018). For example, the oft-researched alt-right web forum Stormfront had trouble securing web-hosting services after this protocol was applied (Dentice, 2019).…”

Confronting scientific racism in psychology: Lessons from evolutionary biology and genetics.

“…The well-known neo-Nazi discussion board, https://www.Stormfront.org, has frequent discussions of the racial hereditarian ideas of Michael Woodley (e.g., Stormfront.org, 2018b), Edward Dutton (e.g., Stormfront.org, 2018a), and Richard Lynn (e.g., Stormfront.org, 2022). As one scholar put it, Jensen and Rushton’s words “resonate in white nationalist circles; even from the grave” (Dentice, 2018, p. 135). Although RHR authors are not responsible for murder, the 2022 accused Buffalo mass shooter cited the work of Woodley, Rushton, Lynn, and Jensen for justification of his actions in the manifesto he posted before killing 10 Black people on May 14, 2022 (Dixit, 2022; Jackson, 2022b).…”

“…We have been unable to find any comment on these collaborations in the RHR literature. Currently, RHR forms a central aspect of alt-right ideology and their radicalization and recruitment strategies in online communities both in North America and Europe (Dentice, 2018; Dixit, 2022; Panofsky et al, 2021).…”