Abstract
The incoherent legend of an aspirational, all-conquering, white masculinity is perpetually born and reborn, leading an alt-right movement yet also chasing its meandering development, all whilst never really existing at all. A ghostly presence, sensed but not seen, pieced together via memes and chat rooms and backyard-brawl videos and marches and speeches and Championship Fights and Super Bowls. The spectre of an idealised, performative masculinity, itself set within an increasingly complex and fiercely defended fantasia, haunts the browsing history of the west. He’s gone before his essence can be captured but his myth continually shapeshifts and builds. The Capitol Hill riot was as much protest as it was a mass audition; individual contestants making their claim to represent and embody the spectre of uber-masculine spectacle.
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Barber, P. (2023). SAVE ME WHITE JESUS! Conspiracy and the Spectre of a Folkloric, Alt-right Masculine Ideal. In: Fowler-Watt, K., McDougall, J. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Media Misinformation. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11976-7_7
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