Atomwaffen Division (AWD) was an American neo-nazi extremist organization active between 2015 and 2020. Even after its disbanding, AWD’s influence can be felt in the symbols and media produced by other organizations in the white power space. This paper contributes to the ongoing study of violent extremism and media by categorizing, defining, and analysing AWD’s official video releases and visual/audio style. First, we explore the history and significance of AWD’s video media output, noting how AWD took advantage of existing internet aesthetics to connect their messaging to its target audience. Then, we analyse AWD’s official video releases, showing how they express white power ideology in ways which have continued to be influential after the group’s dissolution, along with ongoing implications. Atomwaffen Division (AWD) was an American neo–nazi extremist organization active between 2015 and 2020. It was connected to 5 homicides from 2017-2019, as well as planning (ultimately thwarted; unsuccessful) larger-scale attacks against public infrastructure like dams and electrical substations (Thompson & Winston, 2018; Ware, 2019), and threats against journalists (AP & Herald Staff, 2020). The prosecution and investigation of a number of AWD members are ongoing, which continues to demonstrate the move from online propaganda to offline, real-world behaviours such as “swatting” where law enforcement and emergency responders are sent to a target’s home (see Barakat, 2020). While AWD’s violent plans were mostly thwarted by a combination of law enforcement intervention and their own operational incompetence, their propaganda operations both on and offline represent the kind of virtual/physical hybridity that typifies contemporary white nationalist propaganda efforts (see Reid & Valasik, 2020; Perliger, 2020; Miller-Idriss, 2020 for related discussions). Blending an awareness of internet culture with traditional white nationalist rhetorical and visual tropes, AWD’s propaganda efforts found success among an online cohort organized on Iron March, a now-defunct fascist internet forum (also see Scrivens, Wojciechowski, & Frank, 2020). Despite their organizational failings, AWD’s aesthetic contributions to the white nationalist movement continue to be seen in the propaganda efforts of groups like the Order of the Nine Angels (O9A), the National Socialist Order (NSO), and AWD affiliates in over a dozen countries (The Soufan Center, 2020).
via tandfonline_ The visual and rhetorical styles of Atomwaffen Division and their implications
