The next session at the Weizenbaum Conference starts with the great Curd Knüpfer, with an article on what he calls the logic of connective faction (see what he did there?). He begins by noting that online spaces empower some people more than others; they also enable networked propaganda, connect problematic groups through ‘deep stories’, and provide digital surrogate networks – often especially benefitting right-wing actors.
In other words, then, there is a logic of connection faction here, facilitating specific network ties based on communicative acts; this takes on quasi-organisational functions, and enables organisations to connect in digital surrogate networks; and such ties then unfold new logics of inter- and intra-organisations behaviour. What once was a unitary political party thereby fractures into subclusters that intersect with other such subclusters in other organisations.
How might we measure and observe this, then? One approach is to highlight forms of such connectivity that intersect with institutional power, and produce discursive power.
An example for this is the emergence of the conservative panic about “Critical Race Theory” (CRT), which ultimately also resulted in the Trump administration’s war on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Curd’s project explored this through a dataset of articles from right-wing news sites, congressional newsletters, and social media posts; this shows the transition of the CRT discussion from right-wing news sites to elites, and eventually to mainstream news coverage.
There appeared to be a coordinated push especially amongst Republican politicians to engage with CRT, though not all of them embrace it equally; there are CRT Republicans and non-CRT Republicans, as it turns out. The two groups are significantly different across other issues as well – support for Speaker McCarthy, engagement with far-right news sites, sharing of problematic information, presence on alt-right social media platforms, etc. This engagement also earns them greater media attention from right-wing news sites, in turn.
