| In the 2016 presidential election,the alt-right,which originated in the Internet subculture community,became the "fringe factor" that Hillary Clinton said would take over the Republican Party because of its strong political mobilization ability and inseparable relationship with Trump.At the beginning of 2021,the U.S.Congress was hit by the worst violence in its history,and a mysterious group called Anonymous Q was repeatedly mentioned by congressional investigation teams and the FBI in the investigation of the incident.Also in January,a retailer took on Wall Street in what the media called "Occupy Wall Street 2.0".In retaliation for shorting by Wall Street hedge funds,the online community called "Wall Street Bets" bought shares of the old gaming retailer "GameStop",causing the stock price to skyrocket and causing huge losses for financial institutions.The above case illustrates that online communities can also generate great political energy.What are the characteristics of online communities and how do they mobilize politically?What are their effects on American politics?Under what conditions do these effects occur?Through further analysis of the above cases,this paper finds that these online communities all originated from online forums and have their own unique online language symbols and community culture.Influenced by the Internet environment,online communities are usually networked,in which individuals have strong autonomy,but are still divided into hierarchies based on influence.In political activities,the core goal of online communities is to compete for the control of traffic and hearts and minds,so there are three main ways of mobilization.The first is to create political icons and strengthen community identity through fan politics;the second is to create pictures and language stems to promote political participation inside and outside the community;and the third is to bypass mainstream media and create an exclusive communication matrix to expand political propaganda.This paper discusses the impact of online communities on American politics from three directions:party politics,populist politics,and diplomacy.The polarization of political parties is one of the important features of the current American party politics,which has its institutional and social causes.The rise of Trump and Sanders around 2016 is the result of a resurgence of populism in the United States,which in turn exacerbated populism in American society.Both the right-wing populist and left-wing populist camps have seen the successive emergence of political stars who rely on online media to rise to power,and online communities,as political resources,have become the forces they compete to draw on.Online communities have helped populist politicians to mobilize online,and they themselves have increased their influence in the process of interaction.As a gathering place for people and often a gathering place for discontent,hatred,and anger,online communities tend to trigger hooliganism and transform populist sentiment into political activity,bringing about an impact on American politics.The rise of public power in the information age has implications for the channels and forms through which U.S.diplomacy is conducted,as well as the feedback mechanisms between the public and the government.By serving as the front line of opinion warfare and ideological infiltration,and by promoting public-centric digital diplomacy,online communities in turn have an impact on U.S.diplomacy. |
