The discourse of right-wing radicals in online communities (using the example of the VK social network)

Shchekotin Evgenii Viktorovich ORCID: 0000-0001-7377-0645 PhD in Philosophy Associate professor, Siberian State University of Water Transport 630099, Russia, Novosibirsk region, Novosibirsk, Shchetinkina str., 33 evgvik1978@mail.ru

The article presents the results of a study of the discourses of supporters of radical right-wing political movements. The study of the discourse of right-wing radicals is an urgent scientific and practical task. With the beginning of a special military operation in Ukraine, supporters of right-wing radical ideology began to pose a special danger to the national security of the Russian Federation. A comprehensive study of the discourses of supporters of this ideology can contribute to understanding this phenomenon and, as a result, more effective counteraction to right-wing extremism.

This article develops and, in a certain sense, summarizes the results of a large-scale study of media images of right-wing radicals in the VKontakte social network, which were previously presented in the author's series of publications. The study covers the period from October 2020 to September 2021. At the initial stage, 47 right-wing communities representing various right-wing movements were selected. The list of communities is presented in ^[1]. At the second stage, media images used by right-wing radicals in these communities were analyzed, and manipulative techniques used by right-wing radicals were analyzed ^[2]; ^[3]. The purpose of this article is a thematic classification of discourses that stand out in the previously identified communities of right-wing radicals on the VKontakte social network, as well as an analysis of the frequency distribution of words found in these communities.

The study of supporters of right-wing radical ideologies of various orientations in the online space is actively developing in modern political sociology ^[4]; ^[5]; ^[6]; ^[7]. Communities of right-wing radicals on social networks and various aspects of their behavior have become a very important object for researchers dealing with this issue ^[8]; ^[9]; ^[10]; ^[11]; ^[12]; ^[13]. One of the relevant activities of right-wing radicals in the online space is the analysis of the discourse broadcast in the communities of their supporters ^[14].

The communities of right-wing radicals selected for the study are well grouped according to their ideological preferences. There are several varieties of right-wing ideology, which is adhered to by one or more communities and whose discourses practically do not overlap within the same community.

1) racist discourse. This kind of right-wing radical ideology is supported by the communities of the so-called "new" and "alternative" right (the Project of the PP and the Alt-Right). They are characterized by a pronounced racist discourse, an anti-migrant orientation, therefore, images of Africans, Caucasians, etc. are used in memes of this community. Libertarian ideas are also supported, which manifests itself in the "exposure" of leftist ideology, the analysis of the "horrors of socialism" and the virtues of capitalism. The difference between the PPO Project and Alt-Right groups is that the former is dominated by domestic themes and, accordingly, critical discourse is directed at natives of Central Asia and the Caucasus, while the Cleaver acts as a positive hero. In the Alt-Right community, the emphasis is on the intra-American agenda and therefore the subject of criticism are African Americans, BLM, "leftists" (represented as supporters of the US Democratic Party), feminists, sexual minorities, etc. D. Trump's activities are positively assessed in this community.

2) anti-Soviet discourse. This form of right-wing radical ideology is exploited by adherents of the "old", imperial right (White Resistance and the RND | Russian National Movement). Their media activity is very well described by the concept of "historical war", since the critical discourse of these communities is directed exclusively at Russia's past. Anti–Soviet discourse draws its inspiration from monarchism and Nazism, "communists" (Bolsheviks, Soviet people, USSR, etc.) act as enemies. The spectrum of heroes is very heterogeneous and contradictory - these are tsars and politicians of the Russian Empire (mostly close to the Black Hundreds), participants in the White Movement, Vlasovites and collaborators, dictators extremely right-wing orientation (such as Mussolini, Pinochet), etc. The lion's share of the content consists of posts on historical subjects that extremely distort historical facts and are directed against the USSR. These communities respond very rarely to the current agenda, as a rule, the reason is cultural and historical events (the opening of monuments to tsars, actions in memory of White Guard figures, etc.) or information about cases of vandalism (as a rule, in relation to monuments to V.I. Lenin, for example, heroes of the Red Army, etc.). An interesting term is used in these communities "belosovok", which denotes that part of the nationalists who support the struggle of the White Guards against the Bolsheviks, but are critical of the Vlasov and collaborators of the Great Patriotic War.

3) anti-Semitic discourse. This discourse is marginally represented in communities with anti-Soviet discourse, but there are individual communities where this type of discourse is dominant

4) social-populist discourse. It dominates communities dedicated to acute social issues.

These four types of discourse stand out well in the communities we have selected and allow us to identify communities where these discourses prevail.

With the help of the PolyAnalist program, several pairs of terms related by semantic relations in the texts of posts were identified in the discourse of right-wing radicals. The most common pair of terms is "the opposing nation", which is quite obvious for right-wing radical discourse. Further, in descending order, the terms "freedom-deprivation", "police-employee", "victim-repression", "power-Bolshevik", "state-head", etc. are contrasted, which generally reflects the content of the discourse of right-wing radicals.

The PolyAnalist program has identified 6 thematic clusters (presented in descending order of their size), combining individual words in the texts of posts:

1) president, choice, migrant, country, declare, vaccination, video, right, ban, politics

2) Russian, holy, church, god, people, temple, great, orthodox, monument, faith