Rob Topinka

Do you know about shitposting? It’s cheap humour, rage bait – and now, it seems, US government policy | Robert Topinka Donald Trump’s White House reveals a new ‘portrait’ of Joe Biden – and in his world, if you don’t laugh, the joke’s on you, says Robert Topinka of Birkbeck, University of London

happy to report that the world is now so stupid that my knowledge of shitposting has become valuable enough to publish in the Guardian.

My favorite part is I got to call JD Vance a try-hard who can't even shitpost properly in print.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Everyone always asks me what my favourite conspiracy theory is but medbeds is for sure the saddest, I really can't think about it for too long. Just openly preying on the hopes of very desperate people

If Palantir secures the contract for the digital ID rollout, will that make it more or less likely that the Antichrist will help me pay my council tax?

Tuesday briefing: The online origins of ‘Boriswave’, the right’s favourite new phrase In today’s newsletter: How a term created by the extremely online right made it into the mainstream press – and a major speech by Nigel Farage

Last week I had a bit in @theguardian.com about how rhetoric provides a vocabulary for people to think/argue with. Here's my colleague @robtoes.bsky.social explaining how exactly that was done by online reactionaries inventing 'Boriswave'. Read & learn.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

Petty, powerful, and pathologically online Read to the end for an academic paper on puppygirls

First Thiel, then Trump: the American project has failed because the libs were too mean in a celebrity gossip blog

'One Trump appointee recently told Semafor that they were "radicalized" by "being booted out of the Gawker comments section, way back in the day."'
www.garbageday.email/p/petty-powe...

media studies: media effects model used to be the "hypodermic needle" but ofc that is way too simple

psychologists: Just as the hypodermic needle is the delivery mechanism for drugs like heroin, the smartphone is the modern-day hypodermic needle, delivering digital dopamine for a wired generation.

Together with Marc Tuters and @robtoes.bsky.social I wrote an essay on the Charlie Kirk assassination, the Groypers - Nick Fuentes connection and the state of memetic political violence today oilab.eu/frozen-antag...

The BBC apologised for livestreaming Bob Vylan's chants.

BBC News at Ten played a video of Elon Musk telling protestors to 'fight back or die' and calling for the dissolution of parliament.

The NYTimes is out here defending the Great Replacement Theory as 'normal'

I've been calling this ambient extremism - a once obscure French far-right conspiracy is now so ambient that one of the last avatars of the liberal order defends it, mistakenly attributing its origin to American politics.

Martyrs of Gaza @GazaMartyrs This is my will and my final message. If my words reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice. First, peace, mercy, and blessings be upon you. God knows that I have given all my effort and strength to be a support and a voice for my people since I opened my eyes to life in the alleys and streets of Jabalia refugee camp. My hope was that God would grant me life to return with my family and loved ones to our original town of Ashkelon (Al-Majdal), occupied land. But God's will was swifter, and His decree is binding. I lived pain in all its details, tasted grief and loss repeatedly, yet I never hesitated to convey the truth as it is—-without distortion or falsification— hoping God would bear witness against those who remained silent, those who accepted our killing, those who besieged our breaths, and whose hearts were not moved by the shattered bodies of our children and women, nor did they stop the massacre our people have faced for more than a year and a half.

I entrust you with Palestine, the jewel of the Muslim world and the pulse of every free heart in this world. I entrust you with its people, with its innocent children who were not granted the time to dream or live in safety and peace. Their pure bodies were crushed under thousands of tons of Israeli bombs and missiles, torn apart, their remains scattered on the walls. l urge you not to let chains silence you, nor borders restrain you. Be bridges toward liberating the land and the people until the sun of dignity and freedom rises over our stolen homeland. I entrust you with my family. I entrust you with the apple of my eye, my beloved daughter, Sham, whom fate did not allow me to see grow as I dreamed. I entrust you with my dear son, Salah, whom I wished to support and accompany until he grew strong, carrying my burden and continuing the mission.

I entrust you with my beloved mother, whose prayers were the reason I reached where I did. Her supplications were my fortress, and her light my path. I pray God to ease her heart and reward her abundantly on my behalf. I also entrust you with my lifelong companion, my beloved wife, Umm Salah Bayan, from whom war separated us for long days and months, but who remained faithful, steadfast like an olive tree trunk that never bends, patient and devout, carrying the trust in my absence with strength and faith. I urge you to gather around them and be their support after God Almighty. If I die, I die steadfast on my principles, bearing witness to God that I am satisfied with His decree, believing in meeting Him, and certain that what is with God is better and everlasting. O God, accept me among the martyrs, forgive my past and future sins, and make my blood a light that illuminates the path to freedom for my people and family.

Forgive me if I fell short, and pray for me mercy, for I have remained true to the covenant, never changing or betraying it. Do not forget Gaza... And do not forget me in your good prayers for forgiveness and acceptance. Anas Jamal Al-Sharif 06.04.2025 This is what Anas ordered to be published upon his martyrdom.

Anas Al Sharif had these words to publish if he was martyred which he was tonight as Israel starts the invasion of Gaza City

Portrait of a Young DOGE Coder Dismantling America’s Institutions Luke Farritor could have been an artist, or a builder, or someone dedicated to seeing a great historical mystery through. Instead he wound up at the Department of Government Efficiency, slashing, dism...

THIS is the kind of journalism I believe we need more of to understand & fight fascism. It's what I call empathy for the devil: illumination of the path by which a brilliant kid descended into the darkness of Muskism, likely resulting in real death in the world. www.bloomberg.com/features/202...

Some snaps from the @birmac.bsky.social / Media & Democracy / Qualitative Methods Group workshop 'Exploring Quali-Quantitative Approaches in Social Media Research', where me, @robtoes.bsky.social & participants explored methods for approaching the messy, contradictory phenomena that is social media

YouTube video by Channel 4 News Trump says Epstein case is a 'scam', lashing out at his supporters

I was on TV (not really just Channel 4 online) to talk Trump, MAGA meltdown and the Epstein files.

my body goes into powersave mode on Zoom calls but I managed to explain that Trump screwed up, the Dems are still hopeless, and true believer posters will go on posting
youtu.be/Zbdr-C2h6uA?..

YouTube video by Jarman Lab 2025 Amiel & Melburn Panel Event: Resisting the Rise of the Radical Right

From Kier Starmer acquiescing to Tommy Robinson over grooming gangs, to the NYTimes sourcing Zohran Mamdani hit pieces from eugenicists, extremism is now ambient, and it directly shapes mainstream culture. Had a chance to talk about it at the Amiel & Melburn Trust lecture...
youtu.be/3c7W2AyGIk8?...

The Amiel & Melburn Annual lecture is happening this Wednesday!

A stellar lineup discussing how the Left can resist the Rise of the Radical Right, hosted at Birkbeck.

@kojokoram.bsky.social, @irrnews.bsky.social @afoggyplace.bsky.social @bethanyrielly.bsky.social @robtoes.bsky.social

Thanks Arife! Great to hear it was useful.

Ambient Extremism in Reactionary Digital Politics In this second talk of ACES’s “Diagonalism” series, Robert Topinka engages with the idea of “ambient extremism.” This type of contemporary digital reactionary politics entails a dissolution of distinc...

In Amsterdam today to talk ‘ambient extremism,’ the incoherence of reactionary digital politics and the rhetoric of outrage, a more free floating and more readily purged passion than ressentiment. Streaming fom 5pm CET www.spui25.nl/programma/am...

Palantir shakes off defence spending concerns with boost to revenue outlook Data intelligence group’s shares fall 9% after hours even as it reports forecast-beating first quarter

oh, cool, the evil company founded by a comic-book villain reports surprise profits because they're good at using AI for warfare on.ft.com/42HX1TA

Sentencing guidelines delayed after 'two-tier' row It comes after the government said it would pass an emergency law to override the guidance.

Buried in this story is a link to official figures showing white people get shorter prison sentences, but fascists kept posting 'two-tier Keir', so the 'row' becomes the story, redressing racist sentencing becomes 'special treatment' and the BBC gives Tommy Robinson a W www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1.

The most serious Nazi shit in this extremely Nazi shit executive order may be the idea, just slipped in there, that one of the "divisive narratives that distort our shared history" is that "race is not a biological reality but a social construct." www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

NEW: Archived tweets for Gavin Kriger, Musk's 20-something DOGE employee wreaking havoc inside USAID, shows that Kriger has retweeted multiple neo-Nazis including Nick Fuentes, leader of the so-called Groyper movement, and another popular explicit Nazi account recently unmasked by @travisbrown.dev

Has Musk Won? Reactionary Digital Politics In this episode, Alan Finlayson joins Jeremy for a 3-hour discussion of the genesis, reality and possible futures of the online right. We cover the history of reactionary digital politics, the chan…

New podcast! @profafinlayson.bsky.social and I spend 3 hours discussing reactionary digital politics, the history of the online right and the politics of the platform economy. We also have a row about Bitcoin. It's all here, and in the feeds: culturepowerpolitics.org/2025/01/15/h....

Alex Jones posts a photo of Governor Newsom with a feather in his mouth alongside a claim that he caused the California wildfires

checking into the shared X account I made for students in my digital method class.

The account only follows the Met Office. Haven't clicked or searched on a thing.

Here's the first post in my For You page.

The 'this is fine' dog in the fire memes are getting too literal

A list of suggested accounts to follow on X

created a research account on X for a digital methods class I'm teaching, and these are the top suggestions. what a time to be alive and posting.

My video concludes with reference to @robtoes.bsky.social /Robert Topinka’s brilliant study of heterotopia rauli.cbs.dk/index.php/fo...

very cool! thanks for the shout-out Katie!