Bad Religion and the Burlesque: Framing Extremist Rhetoric in “The Kids are Alt-Right”

Abstract

ABSTRACT The music video for Bad Religion’s 2018 satirical song, “The Kids are Alt-Right” is an appropriate text to be analyzed through Burke’s burlesque poetic category and Appel’s “five tokens of burlesque drama.” In calling attention to this growing ideological threat, Bad Religion frames the alt-right as a movement that identifies progressivism, technology, and minorities as enemies to their populist message. “Alt-Right” portrays the movement’s participants as having been indoctrinated into an ideological system that has been adapted for the 21st century, resulting in a cautionary tale of a violent effort without redemption, one destined for destruction.