Gaslight, Gatekeep, Grapple.

Online Communities, Real Life, and Culture

There has been much discussion of late over the nature of “The Internet Isn’t Real Life,” as if it is 1997 and you just won a free 500 minutes of Internet from your box of Special K. Jeers and taunts such as “Log Off,” “Touch Grass,” and “Seek Canadian Healthcare” abound in a collective digital noosphere. It is commonly understood that most people on social media have a pretty good idea of what is meant by such terminology. The Internet is a battleground, just as much for professional propagandists and intelligence agencies as it is for the mentally ill with an axe to grind against various forums and political commentators.

From Anita Sarkeesian and Sargon, Keffals and Kiwi Farms, the Texas government against #FreePalestine, or more recently the “woke mob” versus Warhammer 40K, the Internet is certainly going to bleed into, and get its fluids all over, whatever it is you enjoy.

For most people, especially anyone under 55, the Internet has always been a ubiquitous part of their lifestyle. It is required at almost every white-collar job, and even America’s poorest can access the online world via their phones and affordable data plans. This doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of how many illegals have been given phones and other handouts by this administrative state. For the younger generations — Millennials, Zoomers, and Alphas — they’ve been online since the inception of the Internet or have grown up directly in an already-digital, ever-changing landscape.

I’m not here to wax nostalgic for the dial-up days, or to take my axe upon my modem like St. Boniface to the tree, but rather to acknowledge the basic political realities of digital-meatspace hybrid life. After all, when the global average Internet user is spending a little more than six hours a day online, it’s time to face facts.

Gatekeeping: Our Difficult Task

The online spaces — from fandoms to niche political interests all the way down to coffee enthusiasts — have an incredibly difficult time gatekeeping. As Robert Conquest’s Three Laws of Politics tell us, it is incredibly hard to gatekeep to keep it right-wing. This is due to a variety of reasons, primarily: resources, lack of unit cohesion, power, and liberal presuppositions.