7 October 2026
Neutralization without Drift: The Aesthetics of Cruelty in Hateful Meme Sharing
The article examines hateful meme sharing in group-based social media and asks why users may circulate hateful content without seeing their behaviour as deviant.
Drawing on qualitative netnographic material from the ExOC project and close analysis of memes and interactions, it revisits neutralization theory. The findings suggest that sharers may not recognise wrongdoing in the first place, producing “neutralization without drift”. Humour, visual aesthetics, ambiguity and platform affordances obscure intent and support an “aesthetic of cruelty” that creates temporary group cohesion around transgressive content.