2. Jordan Peterson and Conservative Antisemitism Online: The Dethroning of an Intellectual Icon Following His Interview with Netanyahu
- Matthias J. Becker(author)
Export Metadata
- ONIX 3.1
- ONIX 3.0
- ONIX 2.1
- CSV
- JSON
- OCLC KBART
- BibTeX
- CrossRef DOI depositCannot generate record: This work does not have any ISBNs
- MARC 21 RecordCannot generate record: MARC records are not available for chapters
- MARC 21 MarkupCannot generate record: MARC records are not available for chapters
- MARC 21 XMLCannot generate record: MARC records are not available for chapters
Title | 2. Jordan Peterson and Conservative Antisemitism Online |
---|---|
Subtitle | The Dethroning of an Intellectual Icon Following His Interview with Netanyahu |
Contributor | Matthias J. Becker(author) |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0406.02 |
Landing page | https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0406/chapters/10.11647/obp.0406.02 |
License | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
Copyright | Matthias J. Becker |
Publisher | Open Book Publishers |
Published on | 2024-06-21 |
Long abstract | The age of digitalisation is characterised by an explosion of information as well as opinion exchange, but also by uncertainty and disorientation. In view of the polyphony of speakers and multitude of information, many web users tend to orient themselves to a range of new opinion leaders who could not have established their huge visibility prior to the era of the interactive web. Jordan Peterson, a former psychology professor, embodies perfectly the new ‘globalised’ public intellectual surrounded by a bevy of followers. In December 2022, Peterson interviewed Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The reactions of web users were numerous and―in stark contrast to the bulk of Peterson’s contributions―clearly negative. Peterson’s fascination with political heavyweights or strongmen is nothing new. Here, however, he provided a forum to one of the world’s best-known Jewish figures and the representative of the Jewish state. Peterson and Netanyahu’s conversation seems to have triggered various antisemitic ideas among those with a far-right worldview. However, many of the comments seem to come from the conservative online milieu to which Peterson belongs. The online thread discussing the clip thus forms a symbolic arena for proximity and friction between conservative and alt-right milieus in relation to Jew-hatred―a relationship that is not given enough space in the media and in academic analysis, as the focus is too often on the confrontation between the left and the alt-right and white-supremacy milieus. This paper qualitatively examines the commenters’ diverse reactions―of disillusionment and reorientation, but also of their devaluation and exclusion of a former idol―identified in the corresponding YouTube comments section and reconstructs the underlying concepts in a pragma-linguistic framework. |
Page range | pp. 47–74 |
Print length | 74 pages |
Language | English (Original) |
Matthias J. Becker
(author)Dr Matthias J. Becker is a linguist, with a strong focus on pragmatics, cognitive linguistics, (critical) discourse and media studies, research on prejudice and nationalism, as well as on social media studies. At Freie Universität Berlin, he read linguistics, philosophy and literature, and has worked in several research projects on the use of language in political and media campaigns. His doctoral dissertation, published with Nomos in 2018, analyses the linguistic construction of national pride, antisemitic stereotypes and demonising historical analogies in British and German discourses on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. An English version of the book (entitled Antisemitism in Reader Comments: Analogies for Reckoning with the Past) was published with Palgrave Macmillan in 2021. A consistent link between all his research activities is the question of how implicit hate speech―apparently accepted within various milieus of the political mainstream―is constructed and what conditions its production is subject to. Matthias is the creator and lead of the Decoding Antisemitism research project.
- ADL (Anti-Defamation League), 2022. “5 of Kanye West’s Antisemitic Remarks, Explained”, https://www.ajc.org/news/5-of-kanye-wests-antisemitic-remarks-explained
- Basaure, Mauro, Alfredo Joignant, and Rachel Théodore, 2023. “Public Intellectuals in Digital and Global Times”. International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, 36, 139–161, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-022-09417-y
- Becker, Matthias J., 2019. “Understanding Online Antisemitism: Towards a New Qualitative Approach”. Fathom: For a deeper understanding of Israel and the region, 09 October 2019, https://fathomjournal.org/understanding-online-antisemitism-towards-a-new-qualitative-approach
- Becker, Matthias J., 2021. Antisemitism in Reader Comments: Analogies for Reckoning with the Past. London: Palgrave Macmillan/Springer Nature, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70103-1
- Becker, Matthias J. and Matthew Bolton, 2022. “The Decoding Antisemitism Project—Reflections, Methods, and Goals”. Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism, 5 (1), 121–126, https://doi.org/10.26613/jca/5.1.105
- Becker, Matthias J. and Hagen Troschke, 2022. “How Users of British Media Websites Make a Bogeyman of George Soros”. Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism, 5 (1), 49–68, https://doi.org/10.26613/jca/5.1.100
- Becker, Matthias J., Hagen Troschke, and Daniel Allington, 2021. Decoding Antisemitism: An AI-driven Study on Hate Speech & Imagery Online. Discourse Report 1. Technische Universität Berlin. Centre for Research on Antisemitism, https://doi.org/10.14279/depositonce-14976
- Becker, Matthias J., Hagen Troschke, Matthew Bolton, and Alexis Chapelan (eds), 2024. Decoding Antisemitism: A Guide to Identifying Antisemitism Online. London: Palgrave Macmillan, https://link.springer.com/book/9783031492372
- Bolton, Matthew, 2024. “Evil/The Devil”. In: Matthias J. Becker, Hagen Troschke, Matthew Bolton, and Alexis Chapelan (eds). Decoding Antisemitism: A Guide to Identifying Antisemitism Online. London: Palgrave Macmillan, https://link.springer.com/book/9783031492372
- Chapelan, Alexis, 2024. “Repulsiveness and Dehumanisation”. In: Matthias J. Becker, Hagen Troschke, Matthew Bolton, and Alexis Chapelan (eds). Decoding Antisemitism: A Guide to Identifying Antisemitism Online. London: Palgrave Macmillan, https://link.springer.com/book/9783031492372
- Chapelan, Alexis, Laura Ascone, Matthias J. Becker, Matthew Bolton Pia Haupeltshofer, Jan Krasni, Alexa Krugel, Helena Mihaljević, Karolina Placzynta, Milena Pustet, Marcus Scheiber, Elisabeth Steffen, Hagen Troschke, Victor Tschiskale, and Chloé Vincent, 2023. Decoding Antisemitism: An AI-driven Study on Hate Speech and Imagery Online. Discourse Report 5. Technische Universität Berlin. Centre for Research on Antisemitism, https://doi.org/10.14279/depositonce-17105
- Dahlgren, Peter, 2012. “Public Intellectuals, Online Media, and Public Spheres: Current Realignments”. International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, 25 (4), 95–110, https://doi.org/10.14279/depositonce-17105
- Ebner, Julia, 2023. Going Mainstream: How Extremists are Taking Over. London: Bonnier Books
- Finlayson, Alan, 2021. “Neoliberalism, the Alt-Right and the Intellectual Dark Web”. Theory, Culture & Society, 38 (6), 167–190, https://doi.org/10.1177/02632764211036731
- Fleishman, Cooper and Anthony Smith, 2016. (((Echoes))), “Exposed: The Secret Symbol Neo-Nazis Use to Target Jews Online” [archive]. Mic, 1 June 2016, https://www.mic.com/articles/144228/echoes-exposed-the-secret-symbol-neo-nazis-use-to-target-jews-online
- Kelsey, Darren, 2020. “Archetypal Populism: The ‘Intellectual Dark Web’ and the ‘Peterson Paradox’”. In: Michael Kranert (ed.). Discursive Approaches to Populism Across Disciplines. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 171–198, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55038-7_7
- Königseder, Angelika, 2022. “Arthur Langerman’s Collection of Visual Antisemitica at the Center for Research on Antisemitism, Technische Universität Berlin”. In: Dossin, Kazerne (ed). #FakeImages. Unmask the Dangers of Stereotypes, Metropol, 108–112
- Lynskey, Dorian, 2018. “How dangerous is Jordan B Peterson, the rightwing professor who ‘hit a hornets’ nest’?”. The Guardian, 7 February 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/feb/07/how-dangerous-is-jordan-b-peterson-the-rightwing-professor-who-hit-a-hornets-nest
- Mayring, Philipp, 2015. “Qualitative content analysis: Theoretical background and procedures”. In: Approaches to Qualitative Research in Mathematics Education. Dordrecht: Springer, 365–380, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9181-6_13
- Miller, Noam, 2020. “Public Intellectuals in the Digital Age”. The Prog, 11 January 2020, https://theprincetonprogressive.com/public-intellectuals-in-the-digital-age
- Nagle, Angela, 2017. Kill All Normies: Online Culture Wars from 4Chan and Tumblr to Trump and the Alt-Right. Winchester: Zero Books
- Peters, Michael A., 2022. “Public intellectuals, viral modernity and the problem of truth”. British Journal of Educational Studies, 70 (5), 557–573, https://doi.org/10.1080/00071005.2022.2141859
- Rich, Dave, 2016. The Left’s Jewish Problem. Jeremy Corbyn, Israel and anti-Semitism. Hull: Biteback Publishing
- Schwarz-Friesel, Monika, 2019. “‘Antisemitism 2.0’—The Spreading of Jew-hatred on the World Wide Web’. In: Lange, Armin et al. (eds). Volume 1: Comprehending and Confronting Antisemitism: A Multi-Faceted Approach. Berlin: De Gruyter, 311–338, https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110618594-026
- Schwarz-Friesel, Monika and Jehuda Reinharz, 2017. Inside the Antisemitic Mind: The Language of Jew-hatred in Contemporary Germany. Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, https://doi.org/10.26530/oapen_625675
- Solomon, Daniel, K., 2023. “Kanye and the new Far West of American Antisemitism”. La Revue, 05 January 2023, https://k-larevue.com/en/kanye-and-the-new-far-west-of-american-antisemitism
- Trachtenberg, Joshua, 2002. The Devil and the Jews: The Medieval Conception of the Jew and Its Relation to Modern Anti-Semitism. Philadelphia, PA: Jewish Publication Society
- Troschke, Hagen, 2024. “Disloyalty, Dual Loyalty”. In: Matthias J. Becker, Hagen Troschke, Matthew Bolton, and Alexis Chapelan (eds). Decoding Antisemitism: A Guide to Identifying Antisemitism Online. London: Palgrave Macmillan, https://link.springer.com/book/9783031492372
- Troschke, Hagen and Matthias J. Becker, 2019. “Antisemitismus im Internet. Erscheinungsformen, Spezifika, Bekämpfung”. In: Jikeli, Günther/Glöckner, Olaf (eds). Das neue Unbehagen. Antisemitismus in Deutschland heute. Hildesheim: Olms, 151–172
- Wendling, Mike, 2018. Alt-Right: From 4Chan to the White House. London: Pluto Press
- Wilson, Jason, 2022. “Kanye’s Antisemitic Hate Speech Platformed by Enablers in Tech, Media, Politics”, Southern Poverty Law Center, 7 December 2022, https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2022/12/07/kanyes-antisemitic-hate-speech-platformed-enablers-tech-media-politics