When talking about memes in general, people often think of image macros like success kid or socially awkward penguin. When thinking of the memes of the far-right, it is hard not to think of Pepe the frog. Memes, however, also take on less obvious forms. Through the lens of values and a case study from Italy, this paper shifts the attention towards less popular yet crucial memes of the far-right. In particular, we focus on “alternative calendar commemorations”: photo-based memes used to celebrate the memory of events or figures that are key to how the far-right imagines itself. Based on established theories of values, we conduct a qualitative analysis of 50 memes featuring photos of far-right constituents on the site of a commemoration and 50 images of figures that are regarded as “mentors” or “martyrs” of the far-right.

We will present some of the findings from this paper at the AoIR 2020 Virtual Conference and at the ECPR 2020 Online General Conference.