The Memeification of Violence: Far-Right Mass Shooter Manifestos as Ideologically Oriented Memes

• In Event: Media Frames, Cultural Criminology, and Narratives of Crime

Abstract

Ideologically oriented, far-right mass shooters typically write and release a manifesto to coincide with their acts of violence. These manifestos frequently contain copied passages from previous shooters’ documents as well as images, memes, and hyperlinks related to movement ideology that have led many to critique them as copycat phenomena. This type of analysis treats the authors of these manifestos as individual criminal actors instead of viewing them as part of a wider social movement with its own approach to engaging with culture. Using a cultural lens, this paper analyzes the content of far-right mass shooter manifestos produced since 2015 to understand how they are part of a wider movement culture. The similarities in content and copied passages are less a form of copycat behavior than a means of producing and reproducing movement ideology and culture. The manifestos themselves serve as a meme that reproduces previous movement work and is reproduced by other movement members. By copying structure and content from past manifestos, mass shooters situate themselves within the culture of the movement and its strategies for activity.

Author

• Stanislav Vysotsky, University of the Fraser Valley