Abstract:
This study examines 4chan’s politically incorrect (/pol) board, focusing on memes and discussions on two key topics, one backing Ukraine and the other supporting Russia in the ongoing war. We explore the presence of misogynistic, transphobic and anti-Semitic humour, revealing how the battlefield serves as a platform for expressing far-right ideologies of white supremacy and the dehumanization of enemies. The memetic targeting of trans people and women in the context of war relates to narratives of gayropa and gender ideology. We uncover how 4chan users foster a sense of superiority over out-groups through ridicule and mocking memes. Additionally, we explore how the memes and discussions around the war in Ukraine contributes to create hierarchies of masculinity, where feminization and dehumanizing serves to attack various typical groups of rightwing extremist targets. While emerging research examines the intersection of masculinity and trolling humour within the far right, our study covers an underexplored dimension – its role in the context of war. This research gap is significant because humour, when weaponized by trolls and online warriors, becomes a powerful political tool that targets already vulnerable groups, potentially legitimizing violence towards them.