The glorification of perpetrators is an increasingly important element of violent online subcultures.

Jungle World recently interviewed ISD’s Jakob Guhl about this phenomenon, which Jakob explains is typical of the digitally active, violence-oriented far-right milieu.

Jakob describes the emergence of certain online subcultures, especially from the end of the 2010s, characterized both by far-right extremist ideology and by actual calls for violence. In these communities, the celebration of perpetrators plays a very important role.

Jakob adds that this glorification is also common within incel subcultures. Members of these communities often revere Elliot Rodger — who murdered six people in a misogynistic terrorist attack in Isla Vista, California, in 2014 — regarding him as a founding father of the movement and even a “saint.”

The full article is available on Jungle World.