Mainstreaming hate: the dynamics of out-group vilification in comments to a pro-Brexit British tabloid

In the acrimonious public debate over Brexit, the mostly right-wing British popular press has played a central role in mobilizing and polarizing national opinion. Though often dismissed as an echo chamber for angry bigots, unrepresentative of serious opinion, their ‘below the line’ comments sections have provided a channel through which vernacular voices, otherwise marginal to public discourse, have gained access to the mainstream. In the process, their non-‘pc’ marginality has become a source of strength and authenticity – an expression, at least in their own estimation, of ‘real’ Brexit Britain, in opposition to the lies and deceptions of the political ‘elite’. This paper, based on a corpus of comments posted to the pro-Brexit tabloid Express online between 2014 and 2018, will examine the construction of vernacular solidarity and its deployment in vilifying a variety of out groups and individuals: remain voters, students, prominent female politicians, foreigners. Through a set of critical case studies, it will consider the forms and strategies of animosity used and the dynamics of their relationship with the newspaper’s own journalistic practices. In contrast to the common perception that unaccountable, often hate-filled online comments pose a problem for responsible journalism, it will be suggested that, in the Express, commenters’ hatred is constantly provoked and orchestrated for particular ends. It is used to construct not just a well-defined, patriotic ‘us’ against remote ‘Eurocrats’ but an ‘us’ who are spoiling for a fight, for whom hate-driven confrontation is an everyday mode of expression, who conceive of debate as a form of warfare and of opponents as enemies to be silenced. In this way, it will be argued, hate speech below the line has begun to shift the norms of public discourse in ways that threaten the democratic process itself.