“Let the tournament for the woke begin!”: Euro 2020 and the reproduction of Cultural Marxist conspiracies in online criticisms of the “take the knee” protest
Exploring online criticisms of the “take the knee” protest during “Euro 2020”,
this article examines how alt- and far-right conspiracies were both
constructed and communicated via the social media platform, Twitter. By
providing a novel exploration of alt-right conspiracies during an international
football tournament, a qualitative thematic analysis of 1,388 original tweets
relating to Euro 2020 was undertaken. The findings reveal how, in criticisms
levelled at both “wokeism” and the Black Lives Matter movement, anti-white
criticisms of the “take the knee” protest were embroiled in alt-right
conspiracies that exposed an assumed Cultural Marxist, “woke agenda” in the
tournament’s organisation and mainstream media coverage. In conclusion, it
is argued that conspiratorial discourses, associated with the alt-right,
provided a framework through which the protest could be understood. This
emphasises how the significance of conspiracy functions to promote the
wider dissemination of alt-right ideology across popular cultural contexts,
such as sport.
Metadata
Item Type:
Article (Published)
Refereed:
Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords:
Conspiracy; Twitter online hate; Black lives matter; anti-white racism; Football
Tackling Online Hate in Football (TOHIF) project. Funded by AHRC UK-Ireland Collaboration in the Digital Humanities Research. AHRC Reference: AH/W001624/1.
ID Code:
29535
Deposited On:
02 Feb 2024 12:00 by
Gary Sinclair
. Last Modified 02 Feb 2024 12:00