From having to doing vernacular security: Below-the-line commentary on the politics of extremism

This article explores vernacular discussion within below-the-line (BTL) media commentary on the politics of extremism. Through an analysis of the work done by four rhetorical devices – quotation, humour, ad hominem claims and idiom – it develops two arguments. First, BTL commentary offers a heterogeneous yet underexplored site of vernacular security discourse. Second, such discourse is important as an exercise in political argumentation as much as for the insight it provides into everyday experiences of fear and insecurity. Three contributions are made. Empirically, the article provides an original analysis of the functions of diverse rhetorical devices in a surprisingly overlooked space of vernacular security discourse. Conceptually, it draws interdisciplinary insight from rhetorical studies to strengthen understanding of the workings of everyday constructions of (in) security. Analytically, it offers a new approach to vernacular security discourse as a verb, not a noun: a form of intersubjective argumentation rather than a representation of subjective experiences and understandings.