The Diffusion Equation of Meme-ified Extreme Discourse: Is "It's Just a Joke" a Get-Out-of-Jail-Free Card? — How Extreme Content Spreads in Everyday Life

The Diffusion Equation of Meme-ified Extreme Discourse: Is "It's Just a Joke" a Get-Out-of-Jail-Free Card? — How Extreme Content Spreads in Everyday Life

2025年09月07日 11:21

How Hashtags and Humor Dissolve "Extremes" into Everyday Life—The New Mechanism of Diffusion Demonstrated by "HYPE Space"

Key Points

  • Conspiracy theories and hate speech now blend with "memes," "jokes," and "everyday posts," spreading in ambiguity.

  • The "bundling" of hashtags connects unrelated conspiracy theories, accelerating visibility by riding the algorithmic wave.

  • Depending on how traditional media handles it, there is a danger that extreme senders might "borrow" legitimacy.Phys.org

1. Current Position Outlined by Research: "Hybridization" and "HYPE Space"

A research team from the University of Copenhagen points out the hybridization of extreme online discourse, mixing "conspiracy theories," "personal grievances," "pop culture fragments," and "humor." They have named this hybridization as HYPE (Hybridized Prefatory Extremism) Space, formulating it as a participatory space born from the overlap of three domains: (1) actors, (2) practices, and (3) content. It is a circuit where prefatory and exploratory extremism is socially connected, which cannot be captured by the conventional measure of "pure ideology vs. extreme methods."Københavns Universitets ForskningsportalResearchGate


This blueprint also aligns with the summary introduced by Phys.org on September 5, 2025. The article illustrates with specific examples how extreme content on social media blends with memes, everyday posts, and hashtags, making discernment difficult.Phys.org


2. Hashtags Become "Bridges": #flatearth and Its Companions

The investigation observed that searching for **#flatearth on Instagram reveals a reality where tags of different nature and origin, such as #chemtrails, #thegreatreplacement, #COVID, #redpill, are bundled together, forming a "tag cluster" that can interact with each other. Even if the post itself is unrelated to conspiracy theories, a "diffusion logic" works by laying related tags at the base through associative interests to earn engagement. This is isomorphic to the tactics used by fashion influencers to maximize exposure and is not exclusive to extreme expressions.Phys.org


When tags become bridges, fragments flow to viewers who originally have no interest in extreme ideologies, lowering the threshold of contact. The danger of HYPE space lies here.Phys.orgKøbenhavns Universitets Forskningsportal


3. Humor as Lubricant: Is Laughter a "Buffer" or "Accelerator" of Diffusion?

At the core of hybridization is humor. Jokes, sarcasm, and meta-humor visibly weaken aggression while "piercing" the defenses of the receiver. Another study observed that those denying misinformation used humor in **33% of cases, surpassing the 8% of those spreading misinformation (tweet analysis). Humor can be a weapon for counterarguments or a "loophole" for extreme expressions, serving as an ambiguous medium.EurekAlert!


4. Seeping Offline: Two Cases in Denmark

  • The incident where former Health Minister Magnus Heunicke was insulted as "Murderer!" at a school. An example of how vaccine conspiracy theories expanded on social media and flowed into everyday settings.Phys.org

  • The case of sculptor Aske Krygergaard, who was forced to temporarily leave the country due to conspiracy-related associations (pedophilia, devil worship) surrounding his "nursing male statue" originating from the U.S. Art was caught in the "tag circuit" and absorbed into a political narrative.Phys.org

5. Media Can Become "Accomplices": The Issue of Borrowing Authority

The research team warns that by inviting conspiracy theorists to the studio under the guise of "presenting both sides," TV and newspapers risk allowing the borrowing of authority. Exposure becomes the best material for followers, fueling the HYPE space through clipping and redistribution. It is not about choosing not to report, but about redesigning how to report.Phys.org


6. The "Natural Voice" of SNS: Reading the Tone of Online Reactions

A cross-sectional view of SNS reactions directly related to this topic can be broadly categorized into the following three types.

  1. Empathy and Relatability Group
    General users' experiential discussions, such as "Propaganda and misinformation have always existed, but have become an unignorable flood on SNS." Concerns about radicalization and voices pointing to the amplification by algorithms are prominent.Reddit

  2. Freedom of Expression and Over-Regulation Concern Group
    A lineage that worries about the side effect of "stifling humor and sarcasm" and throws cautious opinions on platform and media intervention. The concern is that if the HYPE concept is taken too broadly as "pre-extreme," it might tighten the gray areas. ※This article only introduces the ideological conflict.

  3. Counter-Humor Group

    As a response
    to misinformation, the practice of hitting back with memes and parodies. Prior observations also report a tendency for the rebuttal side to use humor more often.EurekAlert!


Supplement: The above is not a quote from specific posts, but a summary of trends extracted from discussions on public threads and bulletin boards, as well as research insights.


7. What Needs to Be "Redesigned"—Practical Suggestions

Platforms

  • Visualizing the associative diffusion by "tag clusters" (presenting the "distance" of related tags in the UI).

    • Preparing a
  • flag hierarchy

    that makes it easier for human review to intervene, rather than mechanically judging "jokes," "context," and "sarcasm" in one go.

    • Indicating how many generations a reproduction (repost, remix) is, making the
  • chain of responsibility

    visible.

    Media

Studio appearances and solo interviews should come with a

redistribution design
    (no clipping allowed/delayed release/embedding rebuttal links).

  • Redesign program production with the premise that "

    authority is granted just by visibility
    • ."

  • Phys.org

    Education and Civic

Use "tag bundling" and

headline dynamics
    as teaching materials for
  • media literacy

    . Learn the duality of

    buffering/accelerating
    • through humor (what your "laughter"
  • justifies

    and who it excludes).EurekAlert!

    8. Conclusion: Facing What Spreads in Gray, as Gray
What HYPE space indicates is the fact that things that cannot be judged in black and white spread faster than black and white in this era. Beyond the dichotomy of regulation or laissez-faire, society must build up
diffusion design

and the

ethics of visualization

. Research provides us with the concepts and words for that purpose.Phys.orgKøbenhavns Universit

← Back to Article List