The function of radical ideology for acceptance status and meaning

Digital far-right communities gravitating around manosphere-adjacent fitness gurus are using alternative men’s health and nutrition advice to spread their white nationalist ideology alongside ‘Great Reset’ conspiracy theories. Activists within this sphere have gained small cult-like followings and construct of heroic masculine archetypes through their online posts, podcasts and zines. The sparse research on these communities is restricted to official ideological manifestos and not on the subculture’s participants. Meanwhile, research on online extremism, in general, typically focuses on the production of extremist content, rather than on how participants interact with content in extremist subcultures, establish group dynamics, or the more banal and everyday interrelationship between participants physical and online worlds. This article will address these gaps by using a combination of netnography and visual methodologies. It will examine how group dynamics, particularly in-group cohesion and in-group hierarchies, are established and maintained through aesthetics and the performances of rituals and practices, such as the sharing of daily life routines, which aim to construct the authenticity of community members. In addition, it will highlight the synergy between top-down subcultural artefacts and the production of cultural meaning by community members.