In Plain Sight: How White Supremacy, Misogyny, and Hate Targeted the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy and…
By: Rewriting Ripley
Tags: Fandom, Alt Right, Star Wars, The Last Jedi

Bannon found the key to enacting political change in online gaming communities, which would become the stage for Bannon’s so-called 21st century war on culture. More specifically, he found the base he would need to fuel traffic for Breitbart in the infamous attack on women in the video game industry known as Gamergate. Bannon tells author Joshua Green in his book Devil’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump and the Storming of the Presidency, “You can activate that army. They come in through Gamergate or whatever and then get turned onto politics and Trump.”

What is Gamergate?

In August 2014, game developer Zoe Quinn’s ex boyfriend, Eron Gjoni, released a blog post accusing Quinn of receiving positive reviews on their game Depression Quest from Nathan Grayson, a writer for Kotaku, because the two were in a relationship. Gjoni accused Quinn of cheating on him and released personal information about her in the post. The clear angry attack of a disgruntled ex boyfriend was quickly transformed into a frenzy against “ethics in gaming journalism.”

As the attacks against Quinn spread online, Gjoni continued to post personal information about their whereabouts. At one point he anonymously posted on 4chan reports of the hotels Quinn had stayed at. He also gave the legal complaint Quinn had filed against him to “Roosh”, an online personality described as a “male supremacist extremist” by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The legal complaint was used to attack Quinn on his website “Return of Kings.”

The misogynistic attacks against Quinn spread to other influential people in the video game industry including feminist YouTuber, Anita Sarkeesian.

Sarkeesian is most known for her YouTube channel “Feminist Frequency,” where she critiques video games through a feminist lens. Her platform primarily calls for less sexualization and murder of women in games. These critiques led to bomb threats against her life, which required her to cancel public speaking engagements at Utah State University.

Other women attacked included Brianna Wu, a game developer who posted a meme mocking the group of gamers who were threatening women’s lives. After threats against her life, she was forced to go into hiding.

This event developed the current playbook of how to weaponize the internet to carry out mass threats, doxxing, and abuse against women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ+ community. The goal of these tactics is always to stop unwanted progress of diversity into culture that these groups have identified as their territory.

Paul Booth, a professor at Depaul University, explains that, “today, angry internet mobs routinely use the threat of rape, bombings and assassinations as a way to lay claim to whatever it is they think they’re losing to what they describe as political correctness. And along the way, they’ve adopted new approaches that combine old-school write-in campaigns with internet terror efforts like publishing people’s private information online, with the intent of bringing chaos and fear into their lives.”

Vox describes these “angry internet mobs” as “mens’ rights activists, white nationalists, and neoreactionaries” that Gamergate united “around indignation over the inroads that women and minorities had made into video game culture, previously dominated by young white men.”

One of the best examples of this is the rise of male supremacist ideology in gaming spaces during Gamergate led by Mike Cernovich, a 1st amendment lawyer who became associated with the event after he offered legal services to Gjoni.

Cernovich has a history of anti-women and anti-trans beliefs. He wrote on his blog “Crime and Federalism*” in 2010 that, “it is now beyond debate that the culture has shifted. It is — or will soon be — a woman’s world. Women earn 3 college degrees for every 2 that men earn. Women are overrepresented in managerial capacities. Women have taken over.”

He frequently wrote about how to avoid “false” rape claims and that women exist “for [man’s] sexual pleasure.” The SPLC has documented many examples of this including a tweet where Cernovich states “after abusing a girl, I always immediately send a text and save her reply.”

Using the following he built up through Gamergate, Cernovich published Gorilla Mindset, which propelled male supremacist ideas into the mainstream by detailing how men should embrace their “gorilla nature” to find “dominance and power.”

Cernovich went on to push the “pizzagate” conspiracy, a conspiracy created in the lead up to Trump’s 2016 election as President of the United States that democrats were operating a child sex ring inside a DC pizzeria called Comet Ping Pong. The conspiracy developed into domestic terror threat QAnon, a conspiracy theory, which alleges that Satan-worshipping pedophiles hold high positions of power within government and threatened former president Donald Trump.

Cernovich was not the only alt-right associated leader to rise in power during Gamergate. Milo Yiannopoulos, an infamous provocateur known for shameless misogyny, antisemitism, and racism, was given the green light by Bannon as an editor at Breitbart to use the anti-feminist sentiment growing within gaming spaces to increase traffic for Breitbart’s far-right agenda.

Breitbart covered Gamergate extensively, increasing the size of the site’s audience that would soon push white supremacy into the mainstream and be instrumental in the election of Donald Trump.

One 2015 article* applauds Gamergate as the heroes fighting valiantly against the “authoritarian left.” Yiannopoulos writes,

“Gamers have been there and back again. What Bokhari calls the cultural libertarian revolt against the authoritarian left is now underway. I believe GamerGate bears more responsibility for that tectonic shift than any other event in the past few decades. To put it another way, even the smallest people can change the course of the future. Gamers have done something no one else could. They’ve done it fearlessly and brilliantly, even in the face of bomb threats provoked by their enemies. (Okay, so that Washington DC bomb threat turned out pretty awesome for some of us.). They have proved that if you just ignore the scary bad guys with the big media platforms who are calling you names, nothing bad happens.”

Arguably, nothing bad did happen. Mainstream coverage around this event varied from a critical discussion around misogyny and culture wars on MSNBC to a dismissive interview with Brianna Wu by CNN. Ultimately, threats on women’s lives were given a slap on the wrist and Gamergate faded from public attention.

It should also be noted that during this same year, a chlorine bombing attack at Mid-West Fur Fest linked to Nazi radicalization in the furry community put 19 people in the hospital. When the story broke, the coverage of the event was met with laughter instead of addressing the seriousness of a fascist terrorist event on domestic soil.

Indeed, alt-right radicalization within fandom spaces is typically not discussed as a major threat to society, whether it be small, zealous communities of gamers, furries, or science fiction writers. Yet, this extremist radicalization is an important variable in explaining how the United States in particular experienced an attack on democracy in early 2021. This is partially because society still looks at people in fandom communities as inconsequential nerds. This is also because actions of white men are protected. “Boys will be boys,” as we have always said.

Even now after a racist, tyrannical leader has risen to power in the White House and the United States has drifted towards fascism at an alarming rate with malicious anti-immigration policies and racist riots led by self-proclaimed neo-nazis, these “fan” communities who contribute to far right extremism are still discarded as “trolls” or “manbabies” stewing in their mother’s basement.

The lack of attention given to these groups gave Steve Bannon the perfect opportunity to push the limits of racism, misogyny, and hate long held in America’s culture without most people noticing.

And in October 2015, as the anti-feminism built up in Gamergate raged on in the pages of Breitbart, the right-wing’s organized attack on progressive culture was about to enter a new battlefield.

White Nationalism Targets the Star Wars Franchise

On October 19th, 2015 4chan trolls and members of 4chan’s /pol/ board, a Gamergate forum, began the #BoycottStarWarsVII hashtag. A self-appointed troll under the username DarklyEnlighten (now suspended) tweeted that “the new Star Wars movie (#StarWarsVII) barely has any whites in it. #BoycottStarWarsVII.” The tag was meant to direct hate towards people of color cast in the upcoming film The Force Awakens including Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, and John Boyega, with the brunt of the attack focused on Boyega.

The Twitter event spurred dissent from liberals and progressives “expressing outrage” against the hashtag. Analytics firm Fizziology reported that 6% of tweets were considered racist and even then they were simply ‘trying to get people mad.” Mashable concluded that the tag wasn’t an “actual racist movement.”

However, as mainstream coverage was writing off the racist hashtag as the work of trolls, a white supremacist hate group was taking credit for the tag.

On October 20th, 2015, Michael Thompson (who operates under the pseudonym “Paul Kersey”), a noted white nationalist and founder of the blog “Stuff Black People Don’t Like” published an article* claiming credit for the hashtag. This article was published to VDARE, a designated hate group by the SPLC. VDARE is most noted for using Breitbart to spread anti-immigration sentiment with the goal of achieving public approval for White House advisor Stephen Miller’s Trump era immigration reform.

The day before the hashtag trended, Thompson tweeted on his account @BWLH_ “no plans to see Star Wars VII. Why no white males (young white males) cast in lead roles? #StarWarsTheForceAwakens.” The racist hate was picked up from the main Star Wars hashtag and spread through 4chan and Twitter.

Racist tweets against Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens by “Paul Kersey’s” Twitter account under the username BWLH_ including the tweet that started the #BoycottStarWarsVII hashtag

On VDARE, Thompson writes, “say what you will, getting people to think in the terms a movie is “anti-white” is a huge positive, because it allows them to consider the notion of their own dispossession — especially if they’ve never even thought of this reality before.”

On Twitter, people were considering these white supremacist ideas including user @AngryGOTFan who tweeted that weekend in support of the hashtag:

“THE #BOYCOTTSTARWARSVII PEOPLE HAVE A POINT. #PROBLEMATIC”

The text was included above a picture that insinuated that the new Star Wars film was “anti-white” because people of color were being portrayed as the good guys and white actors were playing the bad guys.

This image would also appear on the website* of white nationalist podcast and banned Youtube channel Red Ice. Similar to Thompson’s article on VDARE, the white supremacist site claimed that “#BoycottStarWarsVII has opened minds to the concept of White Genocide.” The site continues with anti-semitic conspiracies claiming that “Star Wars: The Force Awakens is being called ‘anti white propaganda’ and Twitter is ablaze with users calling J.J. Abrams a ‘Jewish activist.’ Abrams, and most of the cast of Star Wars, are Jewish. Does Star Wars propaganda connect with The Protocols of the Elders of Zion?”

The boycott would also draw the attention of Holocaust-denying publisher Chuck Johnson on the former site Got News* where he wrote, “is the very white Star Wars being culturally appropriated by the Jewish J. J. Abrams?…Star Wars is a productive [sic] of a white America whether or not we want to accept it. The action figures that made George Lucas a billionaire were purchased by suburban white families.”

Less than a year after supporting the racist hashtag on Twitter, @AngryGOTFan would be sitting next to neo-nazi figurehead Richard Spencer, VDARE’s founder Peter Brimelow, and Jared Taylor, founder of the white nationalist group American Renaissance, at the 2016 Republican National Convention.

Soon after, @AngryGOTFan would change his twitter name to @JackPosobiec and rise to fame as an alt-right leader pushing dangerous conspiracy theories such as pizzagate alongside Mike Cernovich. Posobiec currently serves as a host on far-right media network One America News Network.

It should also be noted that Posobiec would establish a direct connection to Thompson during the publication of No Campus for White Men: The Transformation of Higher Education into Hateful Indoctrination. No Campus for White Men is a book written by Scott Greer, a friend of Thompson’s, and former editor and columnist at The Daily Caller. The book’s forward is written by Yiannopoulos while Cernovich takes center stage on the book’s jacket. According to Right Wing Watch, Posobiec and Thompson may have also been connected through MAGA3X, a group of white nationalists who tried to manipulate social media to influence Trump’s candidacy.

Posobiec would also play an important role in the next iteration of the 21st century online culture wars: The spread of hate against Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi.

The New Gamergate: The Rise of Alt-Right Ideology in Star Wars Fandom

Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi released on December 15, 2017 to universal acclaim from critics and a glowing audience score from CinemaScore, the only statistically sound audience score available to the general public. The movie would go on to gross 1 billion dollars in less than three weeks and become one of the most successful movies of all time.

Yet, even with its obvious success, the narrative surrounding the film claimed that the movie was “one of the most polarizing Star Wars movies ever released.” This narrative was overwhelmingly driven by the film’s Rotten Tomatoes’ audience score (that currently sits at a “rotten” 42%) and calls from vocal “fans” on Twitter to fund a remake of The Last Jedi.

According to @RMTheLastJedi, the account behind the campaign to remake The Last Jedi, the film was bad because the creatives behind the film “lost their way from the hero archetype.” There isn’t much explanation on what this means beyond Kelly Marie Tran’s Rose Tico failing to live up to this fan’s expectations of being a “badass pilot.” In fact, many complaints against the film are aimed at its female characters. One fan illustrated this when he released an edit of The Last Jedi with all women removed.

Yet even as sexist motives behind the backlash were revealed and as an alt-right Facebook account claimed credit for the review bombing of The Last Jedi on Rotten Tomatoes (more on this one later), no one could escape the narrative that The Last Jedi was divisive.

From a data analyst’s perspective, there isn’t much that is divisive about an exit review poll of an “A” and a movie that grosses as much money worldwide as the much-anticipated final installment of the Harry Potter franchise. Nay-sayers will claim that the movie is a failure because it didn’t gross as much as The Force Awakens, but benchmarking a second film in a franchise whose value is partially tied to the fact that the franchise had produced no content in more than 10 years is not the best approach. However, the debate raged on.

So, for the sake of argument (once again — no metric that isn’t an internal brand tracker or segmentation within Disney will be as statistically accurate as the CinemaScore), I wanted to conduct a sentiment analysis on two major social media platforms: Twitter and YouTube. If this movie was truly polarizing, there should be a positive to negative sentiment ratio of 1:1. This means that for every positive tweet or YouTube video, there should also be a negative tweet or YouTube video.

Additionally, if The Last Jedi truly divided fans, we should see a similar mix of the types of accounts spreading positivity or negativity about the movie. In other words, tweets getting the most likes or YouTube videos receiving the most attention in the search algorithm should proportionally come from people with similar backgrounds. “Backgrounds” here is defined as affiliations people have with a certain profession, such as a journalist, or community online, such as YouTubers. We should also see both positive and negative sentiment from average fans rising to the top of the conversation.

Was The Last Jedi Polarizing?: A Twitter Analysis

To get a strong idea of sentiment on Twitter, I analyzed over 1 million tweets from December 2017 to November 2018 collected at various times between 2019 to 2020 (please see the methodology section at the bottom of this article for full details). I used two different methods to analyze sentiment: 1) the positive to negative sentiment ratio of top words by volume and 2) positive to negative sentiment ratio of top tweets (defined as any tweet with > 1,000 engagements).

Both methods allow for manual correction of what constitutes a tweet as “positive” or “negative.” This means that the analysis is not left up to simple matching of positive or negative words. The keyword matching method can be misleading because, for example, a tweet containing the word “liked” would be classified as positive when matching positive keywords in a set to positive keywords in the data. However, most tweets using the word “liked” include the text “I liked a video on YouTube.” This tweet is actually neutral and can skew the model. Furthermore, tweets that are positive can use negative keywords and vice versa.

Method 1: Top Words by Volume

A common practice in text analysis is to see which words are used the most within a sample. In this case, I was looking for words that were used more than 10,000 times. In order to accept my hypothesis that the positive to negative sentiment ratio would be 1:1, I expect to see a word like “love” used as often as a word like “hate.” However, that is not what I observed in the sample.

After removing positive keywords that could be attributed to neutral conversations such as “liked” or “like”, remaining positive keywords used for the sentiment ratio consist of the following: “love”, “favorite”, “enjoyed”, “great”, “best”, “good”, and “amazing.” Negative keywords used for the sentiment ratio include “worst”, “hate”, “shit”, and “bad.”

Most-used positive keywords make up 143,548 total tweets while most-used negative keywords make up 67,246 tweets. This is a positive to negative sentiment ratio of 2.1:1, meaning that conversation about The Last Jedi on Twitter likely leans positive.

Wordcloud of top words used in tweets mentioning “The Last Jedi” from December 2017 to November 2018 (min. frequency = 10,000)

It is important to note, however, that tweets with negative keywords are more likely to have positive connotations. Tweets with positive keywords are mostly positive, barring several tweets that could be considered good-hearted fun vs. a positive statement about the film.

For example, the two visualizations below show all tweets mentioning “The Last Jedi” with top positive keywords (Visualization A) and top negative keywords (Visualization B), respectively. The tweets have been separated into two groups: 1) Tweets that are at or above the number of average engagements per tweet and 2) Tweets that are below the number of average engagements per tweet. There are no statistically significant differences between average engagements (replies + comments + likes) per tweet for top positive vs top negative keywords. Both keyword groups have about 10 average engagements per tweet.

Tweets with negative keywords consist of a handful of tweets that have engagements significantly above total engagements of other tweets. The majority of these tweets are not negative towards The Last Jedi, but instead are mostly tweets in defense of the film that contain negative keywords.

Visualization A: Tweets mentioning “The Last Jedi” with Top Positive Keywords by Number of Total Engagements