How did the far-right use memes to code and cloak their hateful ideologies?

Memes are some of the most used and ubiquitous images on the internet. If you’ve used the internet over the last decade, there's no chance you’ve not seen one.

Political parties and groups of all persuasions have jumped on the meme culture bandwagon, but none more so than the far-right, who have weaponized irony to cloak their hateful ideologies and spread their memes far and wide into non-political spaces.

Not content with poisoning the online discourse, far-right memes have also breached the physical space, playing a part in an escalation of far-right violence across the globe.

But how did this happen? How did a cartoon frog and a simple hand gesture impact world politics and normalise hate speech?

Correction: Monday 9 August An earlier version stated that Charlottesville is in North Carolina instead of Virginia.

Check out the VICE World News playlist for global reporting you won't find elsewhere: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDbSvEZka6GFihCoWW8PuacmuaeCrKrnU

Watch more from this series:

Poland’s Far Right Are Attacking Everyone They Hate https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB2XRK_Xb6g

The Rise of Italy's Far Right https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBR4AxCZbt0

The Far Right Used the War In Ukraine as Training https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC1oCpnDURc

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