Here're the takeaways from the latest "Keinen Pixel den Faschisten" ("No Pixels For Fascists") interview with cultural scientist Christian Huberts:

• "Git gud" is a worrisome tool of marginalization used to justify violence.

• Steam is a recruitment platform for roaming online bands of right-wing extremists.

• Prolonged exposure to Nazi imagery and propaganda, regardless of your innate ideological and political alignments, will cause you to absorb it via osmosis, internalize it, normalize it, and turn you into a goosestepper.

• "Hitler did nothing wrong!" is a Totally Serious Statement™ when made online.

• "Breitbart" and "The Daily Stormer" teamed up to support GamerGate.

• All gaming communities on the entire Internet should be subject to forced anti-right wing moderation and subservient to German law.

• Meritocracies are fascistic.

Be warned that this is a long, insane read and has quite a few translator's notes in order to call attention to specific nuances in the intereviewee's statements. And here we go, people...

BY TEAM - JUNE 26, 2020 - BLOG/INTERVIEW

Radicalization on Gaming Platforms: The Alt-Right Pipeline on Steam and Co.

Christian Huberts, born in 1982, studied "Cultural Science and Aesthetic Practice" at the University of Hildesheim and has been successfully working as a cultural and media science publicist based in Berlin since 2009. His content focus is digital game culture in all its facets. He regularly appears as an expert on digital games at cultural events as well as on radio and television. He is currently teaching the history and theory of games at the University of Applied Sciences Europe in Berlin. Most recently, as an associate producer, he supported the Berlin studio waza! Games with the development of the political educational app Konterbunt. He works as a project manager for "Pitch Jam: Memory Culture with Games" for the Stiftung Digitale Spielekultur (Digital Games Culture Foundation).

(TRANSLATOR'S NOTE #1: While "Cultural Science and Aesthetic Practice" is the standard translation for "Kulturwissenschaften und ästhetische Praxis" and "Praxis" the one for "practice" or "experience", a GamerGate supporter and online friend of mine, Propyne, has correctly pointed out that the term has potential Marxist associations in German because, within certain contexts, "Praxis" is a philosophical term to mean "action oriented towards changing society".

"Konterbunt" - or, more accurately said, "KonterBUNT. Einschreiten für Demokratie." ("KonterBUNT. Step In For Democracy") is a portmanteau/pun comprising the words "Konter" ("counter(attack)") and "kunterbunt" ("multicolored" or "motley"). Since it's both a proper name as well as an untranslatable, I've left the original German title here. Unsurprisingly, it's had a rather tepid reception, with ratings of 3 of 5 stars and 2 out of 5 stars on the Google and Apple app stores, respectively.)

You're a cultural scientist and do research on digital games. What does it mean to focus on games with a cultural science perspective?

Cultural science encompasses many different approaches to cultural artefacts and practices - literary science or anthropological, for example - so it can't be broken down into a single perspective. In general, it's always about the question of how societies are reflected in the objects (e.g. games) that they produce and the ritualized actions that they carry out. With regard to computer games, for example, this can mean asking what they have to tell us about our culture.

I'm currently worried about the strong performance focus of many games, which goes far beyond shared enjoyment and the overcoming of self-imposed obstacles. Whether or not we're prepared to invest a lot of time and work in a game often determines if we can even participate in it, are included in or excluded from communities, or perhaps even attacked. What culture produces such objects?

In terms of cultural history, one can clearly observe that the beginnings of the medium lay in the gimmickry of scientists and information scientists on measuring and calculating instruments. Games then had their cultural breakthrough during the neoliberal reforms of many countries. From the point of view of cultural scientists, it's no wonder that countercultures such as casual games or ambience action games have an image problem.

In your article "Mein Dampf" you talk about right-wing extremist groups on Steam - what did you find there?

In 2018, when I wrote the article for the WASD Bookazine, thousands of accounts, user contents and groups with National Socialist identifiers and personalities - some of them prohibited in Germany - and right-wing extremist codes as well as statements that are discriminatory and incite hatred could be found on Steam without any problems or much effort. Much of it gives the impression of being mere provocation for individual profiling, but between the obvious - and mostly also bad - satire, there were very clear right-wing extremist remarks and content to be found. Users who swear the Hitler Oath, call for the defense of the "white race", deny the Holocaust, or send invites to the Discord server of the since discontinued right-wing troll group "Reconquista Germanica". Much of it can still be found today. However, although Steam is now cracking down harder on it, the platform has made it more difficult, particularly for outsiders, to accurately assess the extent of the brutalization. Of course, this changes nothing when it come to the distribution of problematic content among users.

(TRANSLATOR'S NOTE #2: The term "volksverhetzend" is a extremely broad term that can mean anything from "seditious" to "demogogic" to "race baiting" to "incitement/instigation of the masses/people" while "Aussage" is more straightforward and means "statement", "message", "assertion", etc. In the end, I decided to translate "volksverhetzenden Aussagen" as "statements that incite hatred" in keeping with the official English translation of "Volksverhetzung" ("Incitement of the People"/"Incitement of the Masses"), the section of the German Criminal Code covering this topic (specifically Section 1, Paragraph 130).

Propyne from "Translator's Note #1" offers the following alternative translation for the opening sentence of this paragraph:

"In 2018, as I was writing for the WASD-Bookazine, it was easy and effortless to find thousands of accounts, groups and pieces of user-generated content on Steam which displayed national socialist markings and personalities - some of which illegal in Germany -, right-wing extremist codes, as well as discriminatory and inciting messages."

Also, behold the only SJW pun that's ever made me laugh. Christian Huberts' article "Mein Dampf: Die rechtsextreme Parallelwelt auf der Games-Plattform Steam" ("Mein Dampf: The Right-Wing Extremist Parallel World on the Gaming Platform Steam") is a play on the name of Adolf Hitler's book "Mein Kampf" ("My Battle"/"My Fight"/"My Struggle"), with "Dampf" being the German word for "steam".)

Are these isolated cases or is it a systematic problem?

As paradoxical as it may sound - both. These are individual cases insofar as there are no real organized structures targeted at controlling behavior here. However, there's definitely a systematic problem behind the many individual cases. Right-wing groupings like the American so-called "alt-right" have long since adapted their strategies to the new conditions of the Internet. Instead of making things impossible for themselves by drawing analogies in the public perception with bald heads and combat boots, they're now trying to hijack culture - especially pop culture - in order to spread their ideology in that way. And their methods of choice in doing so are self-minimization and satire. If one looks at Steam with this knowledge, a rather successful propaganda campaign behind the many provocative individual cases comes into view. And most users are probably not even aware of it. For them, fascism is ironic posturing. But, if repeated often enough, the ideology works its way into peoples' heads anyway and makes antifascists look like killjoys.

(TRANSLATOR'S NOTE #3: The term that's been rendered as "self-minimization" here was originally "Selbstverharmlosung", which, literally translated, means something along the lines of "the act of making oneself seem harmless". This is an incredibly loaded political term that's exclusively used as an insult by left-wing media outlets and critics when referring to the AfD (Alternative für Deutschland, or "Alternative for Germany" in English), Germany's right-wing party. The implication is, of course, that the AfD is pulling a Keyser Söze on the German populace by going out of their way to downplay themselves and appear innocuous in order to mask their true political intentions and ideological dangerousness.)

(CONTINUED BELOW)

Here're the takeaways from the latest "Keinen Pixel den Faschisten" ("No Pixels For Fascists") interview with cultural scientist Christian Huberts:

• "Git gud" is a worrisome tool of marginalization used to justify violence.

• Steam is a recruitment platform for roaming online bands of right-wing extremists.

• Prolonged exposure to Nazi imagery and propaganda, regardless of your innate ideological and political alignments, will cause you to absorb it via osmosis, internalize it, normalize it, and turn you into a goosestepper.

• "Hitler did nothing wrong!" is a Totally Serious Statement™ when made online.

• "Breitbart" and "The Daily Stormer" teamed up to support GamerGate.

• All gaming communities on the entire Internet should be subject to forced anti-right wing moderation and subservient to German law.

• Meritocracies are fascistic.

Be warned that this is a long, insane read and has quite a few translator's notes in order to call attention to specific nuances in the intereviewee's statements. And here we go, people...

BY TEAM - JUNE 26, 2020 - BLOG/INTERVIEW

Radicalization on Gaming Platforms: The Alt-Right Pipeline on Steam and Co.

Christian Huberts, born in 1982, studied "Cultural Science and Aesthetic Practice" at the University of Hildesheim and has been successfully working as a cultural and media science publicist based in Berlin since 2009. His content focus is digital game culture in all its facets. He regularly appears as an expert on digital games at cultural events as well as on radio and television. He is currently teaching the history and theory of games at the University of Applied Sciences Europe in Berlin. Most recently, as an associate producer, he supported the Berlin studio waza! Games with the development of the political educational app Konterbunt. He works as a project manager for "Pitch Jam: Memory Culture with Games" for the Stiftung Digitale Spielekultur (Digital Games Culture Foundation).

(TRANSLATOR'S NOTE #1: While "Cultural Science and Aesthetic Practice" is the standard translation for "Kulturwissenschaften und ästhetische Praxis" and "Praxis" the one for "practice" or "experience", a GamerGate supporter and online friend of mine, Propyne, has correctly pointed out that the term has Marxist associations in German because "Praxis" is a philosophical term to mean "action oriented towards changing society".

"Konterbunt" - or, more accurately said, "KonterBUNT. Einschreiten für Demokratie." ("KonterBUNT. Step In For Democracy") is a portmanteau/pun comprising the words "Konter" ("counter(attack)") and "kunterbunt" ("multicolored" or "motley"). Since it's both a proper name as well as an untranslatable, I've left the original German title here. Unsurprisingly, it's had a rather tepid reception, with ratings of 3 of 5 stars and 2 out of 5 stars on the Google and Apple app stores, respectively.)

You're a cultural scientist and do research on digital games. What does it mean to focus on games with a cultural science perspective?

Cultural science encompasses many different approaches to cultural artefacts and practices - literary science or anthropological, for example - so it can't be broken down into a single perspective. In general, it's always about the question of how societies are reflected in the objects (e.g. games) that they produce and the ritualized actions that they carry out. With regard to computer games, for example, this can mean asking what they have to tell us about our culture.

I'm currently worried about the strong performance focus of many games, which goes far beyond shared enjoyment and the overcoming of self-imposed obstacles. Whether or not we're prepared to invest a lot of time and work in a game often determines if we can even participate in it, are included in or excluded from communities, or perhaps even attacked. What culture produces such objects?

In terms of cultural history, one can clearly observe that the beginnings of the medium lay in the gimmickry of scientists and information scientists on measuring and calculating instruments. Games then had their cultural breakthrough during the neoliberal reforms of many countries. From the point of view of cultural scientists, it's no wonder that countercultures such as casual games or ambience action games have an image problem.

In your article "Mein Dampf" you talk about right-wing extremist groups on Steam - what did you find there?

In 2018, when I wrote the article for the WASD Bookazine, thousands of accounts, user contents and groups with National Socialist identifiers and personalities - some of them prohibited in Germany - and right-wing extremist codes as well as statements that are discriminatory and incite hatred could be found on Steam without any problems or much effort. Much of it gives the impression of being mere provocation for individual profiling, but between the obvious - and mostly also bad - satire, there were very clear right-wing extremist remarks and content to be found. Users who swear the Hitler Oath, call for the defense of the "white race", deny the Holocaust, or send invites to the Discord server of the since discontinued right-wing troll group "Reconquista Germanica". Much of it can still be found today. However, although Steam is now cracking down harder on it, the platform has made it more difficult, particularly for outsiders, to accurately assess the extent of the brutalization. Of course, this changes nothing when it come to the distribution of problematic content among users.

(TRANSLATOR'S NOTE #2: The term "volksverhetzend" is a extremely broad term that can mean anything from "seditious" to "demogogic" to "race baiting" to "incitement/instigation of the masses/people" while "Aussage" is more straightforward and means "statement", "message", "assertion", etc. In the end, I decided to translate "volksverhetzenden Aussagen" as "statements that incite hatred" in keeping with the official English translation of "Volksverhetzung" ("Incitement of the People"/"Incitement of the Masses"), the section of the German Criminal Code covering this topic (specifically Section 1, Paragraph 130).

Propyne from "Translator's Note #1" offers the following alternative translation for the opening sentence of this paragraph:

"In 2018, as I was writing for the WASD-Bookazine, it was easy and effortless to find thousands of accounts, groups and pieces of user-generated content on Steam which displayed national socialist markings and personalities - some of which illegal in Germany -, right-wing extremist codes, as well as discriminatory and inciting messages."

Also, behold the only SJW pun that's ever made me laugh. Christian Huberts' article "Mein Dampf: Die rechtsextreme Parallelwelt auf der Games-Plattform Steam" ("Mein Dampf: The Right-Wing Extremist Parallel World on the Gaming Platform Steam") is a play on the name of Adolf Hitler's book "Mein Kampf" ("My Battle"/"My Fight"/"My Struggle"), with "Dampf" being the German word for "steam".)

Are these isolated cases or is it a systematic problem?

As paradoxical as it may sound - both. These are individual cases insofar as there are no real organized structures targeted at controlling behavior here. However, there's definitely a systematic problem behind the many individual cases. Right-wing groupings like the American so-called "alt-right" have long since adapted their strategies to the new conditions of the Internet. Instead of making things impossible for themselves by drawing analogies in the public perception with bald heads and combat boots, they're now trying to hijack culture - especially pop culture - in order to spread their ideology in that way. And their methods of choice in doing so are self-minimization and satire. If one looks at Steam with this knowledge, a rather successful propaganda campaign behind the many provocative individual cases comes into view. And most users are probably not even aware of it. For them, fascism is ironic posturing. But, if repeated often enough, the ideology works its way into peoples' heads anyway and makes antifascists look like killjoys.

(TRANSLATOR'S NOTE #3: The term that's been rendered as "self-minimization" here was originally "Selbstverharmlosung", which, literally translated, means something along the lines of "the act of making oneself seem harmless". This is an incredibly loaded political term that's exclusively used as an insult by left-wing media outlets and critics when referring to the AfD (Alternative für Deutschland, or "Alternative for Germany" in English), Germany's right-wing party. The implication is, of course, that the AfD is pulling a Keyser Söze on the German populace by going out of their way to downplay themselves and appear innocuous in order to mask their true political intentions and ideological dangerousness.)

What role do digital games and their shared spaces play in radicalization?

Within the framework of the new radical right-wing movements, the radicalization processes are often designated the "Alt-Right Pipeline". The affected go through three phases: normalization, acclimatization, and dehumanization. For gaming culture, the first phase is especially relevant. If users on Steam can spread right-wing extremist symbols and slogans undisturbed or even openly demand the killing of all Jews, even if only for "fun", this at the very least normalizes a specific type of radical speech. Once right-wing extremist identifiers and phrases belong to the "normal" conversational tone, clear cut examples of Nazis appearing out in the open won't even attract attention anymore. The boundaries become blurred. This, in turn, makes allowance for the step of acclimatization: Nazis and their ideology are something that one has now gotten used to. This can be very well observed on much more extreme platforms like 4Chan and 8Chan. Then it comes very easy to join up with a right-wing extremist clan, the Steam Group of the identitarian movement, or the Telegram group of Oliver Janich. Eventually, none of this arouses suspicion anymore. Then, in the last step, dehumanization follows: in the newly founded peer group, an enemy image is conveyed and internalized. Women, Jews, refugees - someone is to blame for everything, and, in case of doubt, can only be stopped with violence.

And the games themselves?

It's much harder to say what role digital games themselves occupy. There's no simple causality here from playing a game to right-wing extremist positions. However, it can be said that some games are very well suited for the appropriation of right-wing extremist propaganda due to their frantic attempts to appear politically neutral. "Hearts of Iron IV" may not be openly advertising National Socialism, but though the omission of the Shoah and the depoliticization of the Nazi regime, the game easily makes the relativization of National Socialist crimes possible: "Hitler did nothing wrong!", as the oft-echoed meme in right-wing networks goes. If you look at the - since discontinued - Neo-Nazi forum "Iron March", users there were even able to get something out of the new "Wolfenstein" games. The Nazis in the game admittedly get a proper punch in the face, but their modern, high-tech, and pop culturally appealing alternate history regime is also popular with real fascists. However, these are only superficial. A structural problem can perhaps most easily be identified by falling back on the performance focus of many games mentioned in the introduction. A phenomenon like "GamerGate" has impressively shown how the arbitrary performance requirements of computer games can be instrumentalized to marginalize entire groups of users and justify violence. Here, Breitbart and The Daily Stormer only had to pick up the bruised egos of those who felt robbed of the interpretational sovereignty they had gained through gaming skills. Computer games are a paradise for such meritocratic power structures, which are also very popular with fascists. The (allegedly) better and more useful ones should rule.

What measures can we take to counter this? And which actors do you see as responsible?

Platforms like Steam would definitely have an obligation to more strictly enforce their own community standards. Because, according to them, hate messages are also forbidden even if they're only meant as a joke. In addition, everywhere that gaming communities are made possible, moderation must also take place. They must additionally be up to date when it comes to right-wing language codes and propaganda strategies and must not allow themselves to be led around by the nose with feigned satire or alleged ambiguity. Everywhere that a clear violation of German law takes place, such as denial of the Holocaust for example, there should also be unbureaucratic and uncomplicated reporting mechanisms with the relevant authorities. But the forums must also not be allowed to become zones devoid of fun: right-wing extremists are waging a culture war today and this can only be countered with creative and involving strategies. It requires attractive and authentic counteroffers to the unfortunately very effective, ironic posturing of the Nazis. Here, game developers also have a responsibility to no longer allow their creations to remain compatible with the farther reaches of the right-wing spectrum due to misconstrued neutrality and thereby relinquish it as a playground for right-wing propaganda. It's time to, at the very least, take a clear position against the right wing and also clearly make this position visible to the outside world. For this to happen, broad alliances in civil society are still required. Fascism's also a problem of gaming culture, but, above all, it's a problem in society as a whole that extends beyond national borders.

Where can one get more information about these topics?

Andrea Nagle's 2017 book "Kill All Normies" is somewhat older and should be enjoyed with caution. She agrees a little too uncritically with right-wing narrative patterns about left-wing politics for my tastes, but delivers an analysis of the culture war from the right wing that's worth reading. In the past few months, some new books on online radicalization have been published, all of which I can very highly recommend: Schwarz's "Hasskrieger" ("Hate Warriors") (2020), Stegemann and Musyal's "Die rechte Mobilmachung" ("The Right-Wing Mobilization") (2020), Ebner's "Radikalisierungsmachinen" ("Radicalization Machines") (2019), Quent's "Deutschland rechts außen" ("Germany on the Extreme Right") (2019). The latter two are currently also very cheap to order from the Federal Agency for Civic Education. Innuendo Studios is offering