The far-right accelerationist ‘Terrorgram’ network on Telegram is a neo-Nazi subculture centred on promoting white supremacist terrorism and connected to at least one deadly terrorist attack and two arrests in Europe. Terrorgram encourages violence by calling for attacks, glorifying far-right terrorists, and distributing instructional guides on bombmaking or infrastructural sabotage. The most distinct characteristic of the subculture is its unique visual style which plays a major role in its strategy of glorifying militancy and terrorism. Sharp and visually appealing aesthetics define the Terrorgram brand and build subcultural cohesion. Their in-group formation is developed through the fetishisation of the terrorist image in propaganda and ‘terrorwave’ – a visual style in which the aesthetics of the militant are worshipped. This Insight will briefly explore the importance of the aesthetics of violence in this community and how it has been incorporated into both calls for violence and real-world terrorism. Terrorwave Edited ‘terrorwave’ graphics depicting militants in conflict or post-collapse environments first emerged on 4chan around 2018 but have persisted as a common style on Terrorgram. Journalist Jake Hanrahan has described terrorwave as removing “the reality of the violence war brings” while revealing how “bored young men in the West desire a violent past they’ve no perception of.” Content is often altered with a glitchy VHS-style effect to make it resemble old film footage, or with neon colour grading, emitting a sense of nostalgia (Fig.1). Militants and scenes from decades-old conflicts in Northern Ireland, Chechnya or the Balkans are regularly repurposed for accelerationist propaganda, while images from contemporary conflicts are often edited with VHS degradation to appear older.
via gnet research: Terrorwave: The Aesthetics of Violence and Terrorist Imagery in Militant Accelerationist Subcultures