By Emma Weidmann | Staff Writer
A TikTok-adept Baylor student drew attention to a phenomenon dubbed the “alt-right pipeline,” a seemingly algorithmic push of right-wing political content to audiences of young men on the internet. According to two Baylor professors, the figureheads of this movement take advantage of their fans for money and fame — at great cost.
Dr. Chris Pieper, undergraduate program director and senior lecturer in the sociology department, said he has conducted studies on social media and device addiction, and he manages the department’s social media. He said social media is just an accelerant of the larger issue.
“Gasoline doesn’t cause fire,” Pieper said. “But without gasoline, you can’t make a big fire.”
Pieper said people — specifically young men who feel unheard or outcast — are using social media to find their sense of identity and belonging. He said they turn to platforms like 4Chan and Reddit, which can quickly become echo chambers of sexism. However, according to Pieper, the meaning of life can’t be found on the internet.
“It gives them a sense of, ‘Why am I here? What is my life for? Who am I for?’” Pieper said. “Folks are losing their attachment to traditional morality, a sense of moral compass, guidance in their life … The search [for meaning] becomes meaningful, and that breeds addiction … The digital world really can’t provide those deep-seated needs in the way that human beings are meant to experience them.”
Houston sophomore Jacob Reiger said he created a TikTok account and set the age and sex to a 12-year-old boy. Within an hour, he said the content he saw on his “For You” page went from seemingly innocent back-to-school videos to clips of Ben Shapiro — a popular conservative political pundit. The full TikTok can be viewed on Reiger’s page.
This phenomenon existed long before TikTok conquered the social media landscape. As the New Yorker wrote, Jordan Peterson gained a large audience of young men on YouTube through video game streamer PewDiePie.
Most recently, Andrew Tate rose to fame on YouTube and TikTok but was later banned from several platforms due to concerns about his content and impact on fans.
Dr. Ann Ward, professor of political science teaching feminist political theory, said misogyny has existed as long as there have been men and women. But according to Ward, before the internet caused “disembodied communication” and a feeling of unaccountability, people felt answerable to their community.
“You would never see misogynistic things like this in newspapers or on television, at least not outright,” Ward said. “The feeling was that this was your community, and there are certain standards that the community has to uphold.”
Ward also said social media “atomizes” its users. She said people who interact with certain types of content aren’t seen as human beings worthy of respect. Rather, Ward said they are a means to harness political power and expand the reach of “Big Tech.” Like an atom is isolated and split for nuclear power, social media users can be exploited for political ends.
“It looks at us — both humans and the world we live in — as calculable units of matter from which energy can be extracted to further technological advance,” Ward said. “Human beings are looked at as a resource.”
According to Pieper, people like Tate, Joe Rogan and others use their fans to get rich, mining personal gain at the expense of young men and the women they degrade.
“If you elevate violence and you’ve got this hatred toward women or some other group, you might find a way to prove yourself to others,” Pieper said. “Violence isn’t the display of power but the manifestation of the lack of it.”
Pieper said the solution is better role models and a healthy amount of empathy.
“It’s a failure of compassion in every respect,” Pieper said. “It may be difficult to think of these young men as objects of compassion, but what’s going on here is that they feel invisible. They feel unloved … What clearly needs to be occurring is a countermovement of models for young men and women who are not insane and don’t have violence and destruction or profit at the center of their identity.”
