Episode 85 - Rob Topinka & digital rhetoric

Show notes for Episode 85⚠️⚠️⚠️We talk about some topics and forms of language - the language of incels and the manosphere, for example - that might be considered unpleasant and upsetting for some listeners⚠️⚠️⚠️Welcome to episode 85 of Lexis in which Dan talks to Dr Rob Topinka, Reader in Digital Media and Rhetoric at Birkbeck, University of London.We talk about: Why language is important to politicsWhat rhetoric is, its characteristics and what it’s designed to doHow rhetoric works in online spacesThe kind of rhetoric used to promote extremist views onlineIncels, red pills, maxxing and NPCsWhat happened to ‘woke’ The pitfalls of ‘free speech’ and language policing Avoiding reactionary narratives and promoting progressive alternativesWhy being ‘unbiased’ is not really an optionRob’s Birkbeck page: https://www.bbk.ac.uk/our-staff/9151496/robert-topinka Rob’s ResearchGate profile: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Robert-TopinkaThe Guardian articles Rob has written: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/22/racist-meme-nigel-farage-cameos-online-far-righthttps://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2025/oct/20/boriswave-fighting-age-men-cultural-marxism-how-the-far-right-is-changing-how-we-speak https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/ng-interactive/2026/jan/31/digital-politics-the-right-internet-digital-politics-extreme-political-ideashttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/ng-interactive/2026/feb/01/digital-politics-progressives-internet-the-left-online-worldMore on NPCs: https://www.mentalfloss.com/language/slang/npc-meaning-and-history A report on Clavicular’s interview in Australia: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/clavicular-incel-60-minutes-andrew-tate-looksmaxxing-b2957021.html ‘Are You Mogging Me Right Now?’ https://bsky.app/profile/theserfstv.bsky.social/post/3mjhr6v2lek2r  Lexis is on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/lexispodcast.bsky.social ContributorsLisa Casey blog: https://livingthroughlanguage.wordpress.com/ Dan Clayton blog: EngLangBlog & Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/englangblog.bsky.social Jacky Glancey Raj RanaMusic: Serge Quadrado - Cool Guys Cool Guys by Serge Quadrado is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. From the Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/serge-quadrado/urban/cool-guys