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Abstract: This poster session will analyze the uses and abuses of digital rhetorics by the "alt-right," and explore the question of whether we are preparing our students for a treacherous and unstable reality, or providing aid and comfort to the enemy. Proposal: This poster session will explore one of the deep and abiding fears of teachers of rhetoric: that our methodologies, datasets, theories and instruction may be put to use in the service of powerful institutions and organizations that may not share our most deeply-held values. As a discipline, we both crave and fear the validation that the use and abuse of our rhetorical products entails. Hart-Davidson and Ridolfo, in their intriguing #rhetops project (RSA 2016) describe the abuses of rhetoric in asymmetrical conflicts, citing as examples the outsourcing of social media propaganda by Daesh (ISIL/ISIS), the rise of fake news bots and their influence on U.S. politics, the looming threat of autonomous writing technologies, and the fragmentation of authorship. I will trace some of the historical antecedents of these legitimate anxieties, and add to the list another potential threat, that of the misappropriation of digital, rhetorical tools and theories by what has come to be known collectively as the “alt-right.” The line between a tool and a weapon is often tentatively determined by ideology. This poster session will analyze that line and the ethics and problems associated with arming or empowering our students with powerful digital tools. Tags: rhetops digitalrhetoric rhetoric altright fakenews
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