“My freedom doesn’t care about your fear. My freedom doesn’t care about your feelings”: Postmodern and oppositional organizing in #OpenAmericaNow

Abstract

In April 2020, amid the global COVID-19 pandemic, fringe political activists, conspiracy theorists, and far-right subcultures joined together to protest stay at home orders and social distancing decrees. Largely sharing information and organizing strategies on social media, these protestors adopted the Twitter hashtag #OpenAmericaNow to activate and mobilize supporters across the United States. In this study, we examine the online organizing of #OpenAmericaNow through analysis of 17,965 tweets to understand how fringe and conspiracy subcultures organized through oppositional consciousness raising. Our findings reveal multi-level discourses, which bridge identification on the micro-level with anti-elitist and post-truth logics on the macro-level. Theoretically, our study advances theorizing on postmodern organizing and conceptualizes alt-civic engagement, while also engaging in innovative methodological strategies useful for interrogating paradoxical and multi-level discourses.