Mainstreaming violent extremism through language play in the Halle manifesto

In 2019, a perpetrator opened fire outside the local synagogue in Halle, Germany. Prior to the terrorist attack, he had posted several documents and links on social media, including a manifesto. These documents draw on participatory practices familiar to mainstream participatory communities, while deemphasizing the ideological motivation of the attack. Through an interdisciplinary approach combining media studies with linguistics, this article analyses the multi-document manifesto posted by the perpetrator ahead of the attack and considers how these documents engage with mainstream participatory culture through language play. Most significantly, the three documents engage in language play addressing its intended audience through fan practices, humor, and memetic gamification of his terrorist plans. The analysis demonstrates how far-right terrorists are not just “lone-actors” motivated by extremist ideologies, they are also eclectically intertwined with different mainstream practices, thus underlining the importance of ingroup interaction and incitement in cases of far-right terrorism.