How Alt-right ethno nationalist trolls troll web forums.
One of the most significant and pernicious ways that members of the alt-right use trolling is to create a sincerity-proof chamber of distortion surrounding what their actual message is. They do this by pretending that what they’re really doing is satirically spoofing how progressives and members of the media view conservatives.
Things get really confusing, really fast.
For example: Say I Photoshop a picture of AOC so that she’s being chased by rabid wolves. You come along and claim that my image is alarming and sexist. I might then claim that the joke’s on you, because my image was really just a way to bait and skewer liberal hysteria and “the media’s” hyperbolic, distorted image of how the alt-right treats women and AOC in particular. And by reacting to it and getting upset, you fell for it, proving that liberals are overly sensitive crybabies who habitually whine about trivial or nonexistent issues.
Consequently, you might feel like a fool for having taken the “joke” seriously. You might also be more likely to eyeroll and dismiss the next obviously sexist meme you see being shared online. You might even encourage other people to ignore it too, assuming it was crafted by someone attempting to mock liberals for taking trolls too seriously.
And all the while, my picture of Clinton and the wolves, and many more like it, continue to promote violence against women and a hatred of AOC — which was, of course, my real goal all along.
All of which is to say that it can be extremely difficult for the average person to parse alt-right trolling from “sincere” alt-right messaging. If you fall for it, you’re catering to the movement’s ostensible perception of left-leaning citizens (or even moderate citizens) as being histrionic.