Some of the best satire on the Internet climbs up from the depths of ClickHole, an Internet-skewering spinoff that parodies journalism and clickbait-oriented websites such as BuzzFeed. ClickHole just elevated its game with a new brand, ResistanceHole, that mocks anti-Trump folks on Twitter, as well as their associated websites, op-eds and journalism.
A spinoff from satirical news site the Onion, ClickHole launched ResistanceHole with a Twitter account on May 9, blasting the pop culture-fueled hashtag-activism often seen on social media. The account’s first tweet pretty much summed up the exact kind of liberals the site is skewering: Those who are more worried about retweets than actually, like, doing anything.
We are working on a reaction GIF from Riverdale that could take down the entire Trump administration…STAY TUNED
— ResistanceHole (@ResistanceHole) May 9, 2018
The site’s tagline riffs on former first lady Michelle Obama’s famous quote from the 2016 presidential election, “When they go low, we go high,” further crystalizing the online community ClickHole is targeting with the new parody: “When they go low, we go viral.”
“Hashtag activism,” the idea that some people view sharing political stories and “raising awareness” about issues as being just as important and effective as actual organizing, lobbying, fundraising, protesting or voting, isn’t a new thing. But the concept has taken on a new dimension since Trump’s election. Trump’s unpopularity among much of the country has been largely built and organized online, but it also encourages equating voicing an opinion on the current political landscape in America to actually doing something about it.
Here’s the joking way ResistanceHole puts it:
To the brave women and men of the #Resistance: we call upon you to like and share our content so that we can get the web traffic we need to IMPEACH President Trump.
— ResistanceHole (@ResistanceHole) May 9, 2018
ResistanceHole perfectly hammers the tendency of the online #Resistance to reduce real political issues to pop culture references. The site repeatedly refers to Trump as “Drumpf,” mocking John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight” bit in which he tried to get America to use the Trump family’s original German name to make fun of him (with zero real-life effect).
Many in the online anti-Trump community have a particular affinity for using “Harry Potter” as a metaphor for current politics, so the first story ResistanceHole published after the piece announcing its creation went after the “Harry Potter” nerds.
Take That, Drumpf Lovers! A Research Team At MIT Has Conclusively Proved That Trump = Voldemort https://t.co/zrTsrhtNui pic.twitter.com/ErN3zLZMMy
— ResistanceHole (@ResistanceHole) May 9, 2018
This isn’t ClickHole’s first venture into the world of politics. To go with a site to pillory liberals, there’s also PatriotHole, ClickHole’s answer to extreme Internet conservatives like Alex Jones of InfoWars. That site is marked with ranting videos featuring a character called Doug Baxter, who takes cues from Jones, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck.
Among PatriotHole’s great ideas: Toilet Armor, meant to protect users at their “most vulnerable,” helping them fend off attacks from “terrorists, illegal immigrants, or leftist antifas.” It even gets right the part where conservative pundits use their podcasts and radio programs to try to sell inane products.
Just as ResistanceHole expertly skewers hashtag activism, PatriotHole is a perfect takedown of conservative talking points, leaning hard into scary buzzwords about terrorism and leftists. It also uses Twitter just as well as ClickHole and ResistanceHole do, mimicking the style of conservative social media sharing while making fun of it.
BEWARE OF THIS LIBERAL CONSPIRACY! https://t.co/QaanaUMnws pic.twitter.com/UsQiUUSOjB
— PatriotHole (@PatriotHole) April 23, 2018
ResistanceHole is funny, just like PatriotHole, because it’s so damn accurate. It continues to solidify ClickHole as the best satire of the Internet that currently exists, specifically because it understands the Internet so well.