“Alex, DO NOT BACKPEDAL ON SANDY HOOK!”: Reactionary Fandom, Cancel Culture, and the Possibility of ‘Audience Capture’ on YouTube

Abstract

“Cancel culture” has gained tremendous attention in contemporary political discourse. On platforms like YouTube, reactionary ideological entrepreneurs often employ what Ng terms second-order discourses on cancel culture, that is, portraying call-out practices such as shaming public figures as left-wing censorship efforts stifling free speech. This article argues that such call-out practices, generally ascribed to progressive communities, also occur internally within reactionary communities where fans hold ideological entrepreneurs accountable for adhering to potentially extreme political canons. Adopting a fan studies perspective, this exploratory investigation used “close” and “distant” readings on 1.8 million comments from the now-canceled “The Alex Jones Channel” on YouTube (2017–2018). Focusing on Jones’ recantation of the “Sandy Hook Hoax,” the authors show that, akin to traditional fandom conceptions, radical audiences engaged in call-out practices demanding “character” and “narrative” fidelity. This contribution, theorized as “audience capture,” emphasizes the bottom-up efforts of audiences to maintain the radical views of ideological entrepreneurs.