This Insight is part of GNET’s Gender and Online Violent Extremism series, aligning with the UN’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.
Stormfront.org, called the “murder capital of the internet” by the Southern Poverty Law Centre, is the longest-standing far-right extremist forum. Founded in 1995 by white supremacist Don Black, the website has served for nearly three decades as a big-tent hub for multiple strands of the international far-right, uniting white nationalists, neo-Nazis and ultraconservatives under the belief of an ongoing “white genocide”.
This Insight examines how Stormfront’s relative ideological unity is eroding as members increasingly diverge in their conceptualisations of white women. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, we identify the emergence of a subgroup that blends incel beliefs with white supremacism. Its rise has accelerated ideological fracturing within the forum and transformed Stormfront into a breeding ground for mixed-ideology extremism.
Despite past disputes over strategy, the forum was historically bound together by a shared understanding of an existential threat, which is expressed in the classic 14 words of racial survival (Fig. 1).
Figure 1: A member with the 14 words as his post signature.
Beneath this shared understanding of the core mission, Stormfront always had a degree of fractionalisation. For example, members would engage in lengthy ideological debates about National Socialism or discuss outreach strategies. While these exchanges can be heated and devolve into name-calling, they typically do not challenge Stormfront’s core internal logic: determining who belongs to the white in-group and who is relegated to the non-white out-group.
However, we argue that the rift observed between members who hold a traditional, paternalistic view of white women as central community members, and those in a subgroup that blends racial grievances with blackpilled misogyny, constitutes an exception to this logic. Using the terms “Aryan Masculinity” and “Alt-Misogynist Masculinity” as conceptualised by Jillian Sunderland, we interpret this rift through the DIME model of collective action, which describes how movements respond to perceived failure through trajectories of disidentification, innovation, moralisation, and energisation.
Failure Leading to Mixed Ideology Extremism?
The DIME model proposes that after unsuccessful attempts at collective action, some actors might disidentify and exit the group, while others might innovate tactics or reaffirm prior convictions. Another group might double down on pre-existing attitudes, displaying heightened moralisation and energisation. Since these paths are openly contradictory, this can lead to in-group tensions and clashes. In the following analysis, we use the DIME model to illustrate how Stormfront members respond differently to the movement’s perceived stagnation: some disidentify and withdraw, others innovate by merging different ideologies, while some moralise around long-held community beliefs. Together, these different reactions explain the forum’s growing fragmentation.
The forum has persisted for more than 25 years but has achieved little tangible success in its self-declared goal of establishing white ethnostates. This has led to some members becoming openly disillusioned. For example, in one thread, an established member asked others if they had yet accepted the fatalistic blackpill (here, not referring to the well-known incel concept, but rather a general “giving up”).
Figure 2: A member losing “hope” of the salvation of the white race.
Others complained that Stormfront is all “talk” but no action, showing clear signs of disidentification from the group. While the presidency of Mr. Trump has energised some members, many others view him as a “Jewish puppet”, not helpful to the cause. Against this backdrop, a vocal minority of members following Alt-Misogynist Masculinity try to merge existing white supremacist ideology with incel thinking. They are often made up of newer members, but not exclusively. Their attempt to reinterpret the white supremacist mission through an incel lens represents a clear case of innovation in response to movement stagnation. These members have identified white women as a new scapegoat, blaming them for much of the supposed “decay” of the white race and rallying against them as a way to revitalise the cause. They are, however, openly challenged by members who follow Stormfront’s traditional understanding of gender relations, termed Aryan Masculinity.
Understanding Aryan Masculinity
Traditionally, Stormfront members shared an ultraconservative view on gender relations that strongly rejects any influences of feminism or notions of gender equality. However, women who meet the group’s ideals are often valorised as valuable compatriots in the movement. For example, a longstanding thread on Stormfront celebrates achievements of white women who contributed to white ‘heritage’ (Fig. 3).
Figure 3: The achievements of selected white women are celebrated through a white supremacist lens.
While most of the women featured here do not directly relate to the movement, other white women are glorified for their contribution to the joint cause, such as the German holocaust denier Ursula Haverbeck, who became part of Stormfront’s virtual hall of heroes (Fig. 4).
Figure 4: Ursula Haverbeck, a white woman who represents the ideals of the community.
This admiration for white women who share a white supremacist worldview is also visible when a female newcomer introduces herself on the forum. One member put his excitement into words:
“I always feel most grateful and humbled when I have the distinct privilege of welcoming a new female member into our robust white nationalist community (…). While it is men who will be the White warriors who will ultimately take the mortal fight to our enemies, it is the women in the White nationalist movement who help form the backbone to this movement (…).”
Such statements illustrate the process of moralisation, with traditional members framing white women as “pure” and gender roles as sacred and non-negotiable. In their paternalistic understanding, they view it as their responsibility to protect “their” white women against racialised others. However, we observed that this understanding of (white) womanhood is fundamentally challenged from within.
Alt-Misogynist Masculinity and the Redefinition of the Outgroup
A subgroup on the forum merges racial grievances and incel fatalism into Alt-Misogynist Masculinity. These users believe that white women have been corrupted by feminism and so-called Jewish propaganda. Interracial relationships are deemed evidence for a large-scale betrayal of white men and create visible feelings of inferiority (Fig. 5). Interracial relationships are also seen as a reason for their inability to date women, as “being an incel is an easy thing to be in a mudshark (a racist term for white women who date interracially) populated environment”.
Figure 5: A user viewing interracial dating as a cause for inceldom.
While many on Stormfront share their disdain for interracial relationships, the central difference is that these users do not contain their anger to alleged “racetraitors”. Inceldom is reframed into a collective white grievance, for which white women are responsible. The term incel is being understood as a deliberate attack on white men (Fig. 6). This represents an innovative, ideological merger, establishing a new “stab-in-the-back myth” of in-group betrayal.
Figure 6: In heated debates, the two groups clash over the meaning of the term incel.
A thread titled “How do we save our women and children” serves particularly well to illustrate the division within the community. While a first commenter stressed the importance of training mind and body as “our women and children are the future”, the thread was quickly hijacked by users aligning with incel thought, who saw white women as beyond saveable.
A Clash Over the Ingroup and the Outgroup
During our fieldwork, we observed that members aligning with Stormfront’s traditional Aryan Masculinity would continuously clash with Alt-Misogynists in such heated arguments. As suggested by the DIME framework, in the light of failure, incel aligning members proposed a radical, innovative solution that meant excluding white women from the movement. They confront the movement for failing to hold women accountable for their “whorish ways”, and give the 14 words a new spin: “Protect White men! Protect the future!” At the same time, members not subscribing to their views are attacked and accused of “being the reason the white race is dying” (Fig. 7).
Figure 7: Harsh confrontations between Alt-Misogynists and those subscribing to traditional Aryan Masculinity.
However, members aligning with traditional Aryan Masculinity view this emerging mixture of incel and white supremacist beliefs as strategically dangerous. To secure the existence of the white race and establish white ethnostates, white women are of central importance. This is why these members energise, redouble their efforts, and try to enforce ideological purity, for example, by openly calling for banning “incel-adjacent whining” from the website (Fig. 8). They view incels as “gender divisive idiots” or (worse) as Jewish infiltrators (“Schlomo”), who are deliberately trying to drive a wedge into the community.
Figure 8: A member aligning with Aryan Masculinity calling for incels to be banned from Stormfront.
A Forum in Decline?
The fractures observed on Stormfront have direct implications for content moderation on mainstream social media spaces. In 2005, Stormfront was once ranked within the top 1% of frequented websites and had been actively used by “heroes of the movement”, such as Anders Breivik. Now, however, it is stagnating, with user numbers a common source of concern for established members.
We suggest that the decline is closely tied to Stormfront’s inability or unwillingness to enforce its own rules. To illustrate: While we saw a user getting banned for insulting Tsar Nicholas II, Alt-Misogynists routinely violate Stormfront’s official policy on the treatment of the sexes, but rarely face repercussions. While moderators would warn against infighting, and other users would challenge Alt-Misogynists in the comments, incel-aligning thought is spreading on the website.
This tolerance of internal fragmentation likely reflects more than moderation fatigue. Confronted with dwindling user numbers, moderators appear hesitant to exclude any user who actively contributes to the conversation. While this conflict energises the movement and generates traffic, prioritising visibility over ideological consistency has eroded community cohesion and alienated members of both camps. The conflict has led to a further moralisation of members aligning with Aryan Masculinity, which, in the absence of formal moderation, challenges Alt-Misogynists. Over time, this may lead to some of the ‘ideological innovators’ being driven from the platform towards mainstream social media spaces. We believe that the tensions regarding the role of women in white supremacy show how disillusionment, innovation, moralisation and energisation interact to produce unstable and mixed ideologies.
Implications For Mainstream Platforms
For mainstream platforms, this dynamic has multiple implications. First, the case of Stormfront illustrates that even long-established extremist spaces are not immune to further fractalisation. Here, the platform – despite its age – can serve as an early warning system for content moderation systems. Mixed and unstable ideologies pose a challenge to moderation frameworks, as they exploit gaps between automated and human systems: automated classification systems are often trained to detect stable categories, but those do not reflect the contradictory and highly affective mixture between white supremacism and incel ideology. During our fieldwork, for example, we documented the evolution of blended terminology among Alt-Misogynists, including cross-ideological references such as “WN (=white nationalist) chads” and “WN normies.” Moderation systems must be able to detect and monitor this convergence between misogynistic and white-supremacist vocabularies as a manifestation of a broader extremist logic.
Finally, spillover into mainstream platforms is often facilitated through a process of “normiefication”, in which explicit language is dropped, and radical concepts are “mainstreamed” to further obfuscate detection efforts. Once “normiefied”, the merge between racial grievances and blackpilled misogyny does not just create a hateful and highly contradictory worldview, but one that is potentially difficult to detect. Therefore, understanding these early fractures in fringe spaces like Stormfront is essential to anticipate future moderation challenges. They offer early signals of emerging extremist vocabularies and grievances that may diffuse into mainstream platforms.
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Christopher V. David is a researcher and PhD candidate at the Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences, Germany. His work examines online extremism through a socio-technical lens, with a particular focus on how extremist communities communicate, learn, and adapt across digital environments. Holding degrees in Psychology (M.Sc.) and Peace and Security Studies (M.A.), his interdisciplinary background bridges behavioural science, information systems, and security studies. Before entering academia, he worked with political foundations in Berlin and Brussels, informing policy dialogue on digital security and hybrid threats. BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/dsrc.bsky.social
Marten Risius is Professor for Digital Society and Online Engagement at Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences, Germany and Adjunct Senior Fellow at the School of Psychology at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. His work focuses on online Trust & Safety issues such as online extremism, disinformation, and hate speech. His position receives generous funding support from the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts through the Distinguished Professorship Program as part of the Bavarian High-Tech Agenda. He has been recognized with various national and international awards such as the Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award, the Early Career Award from the Association of Information Systems, and the German Academic Association for Business Research Young Talent Award. BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/risius.bsky.social
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