League of the South's Internet Rhetoric: Neo-Confederate Community-Building Online

Abstract

A nationwide backlash against the Confederate flag and other Confederate symbols occurred after the deadly June 17, 2015, church shootings in Charleston, South Carolina, when images of the alleged gunman displaying a Confederate flag surfaced. This backlash sparked a reactionary movement among pro-Confederate supporters who viewed the attacks on Confederate symbols as an affront to their Southern heritage. Some neo-Confederate groups exploited the backlash, and the pro-Confederate sympathy it generated, as an opportunity to build their communities. This essay examines how the neo-Confederate group League of the South (LOS) used its website to attract members to its community in the week before the Confederate flag’s removal from South Carolina’s state capitol on July 10, 2015. Analysis reveals LOS may have aided its community-building efforts by attempting to foster a sense of shared identity within the pro-Confederate community and employing fear-raising rhetoric relating to the backlash against Confederate symbols. The relevance of examining U.S.-based hate groups’ Internet rhetoric has substantially increased in recent years as the United States has witnessed a series of deadly mass shootings perpetrated by various extremists, some of whom were apparently motivated by rhetoric they accessed on U.S.-based extremist sites.

Keywords

• confederate
• pro-confederate
• neo-confederate
• community building
• internet