Irony and satire are favoured devices of this alt-right discourse
which has animated a toxic online counterculture and increasingly
infiltrated more mainstream media and political communications. Meme
culture has been central to this....
Their anonymity and potential to go viral has allowed them to become
engines of racism, xenophobia and misogyny.
Key to this deployment is that memes blur the boundaries between
whether something is intended as satire or not. They offer an ironic
veil for abuse - if challenged, the creator can just say "lol" or
"it's just a joke".