What’s the importance of radical right leadership? A discussion of Olaf Sundermeyer’s, Gauland. Die Rache des alten Mannes [Gauland – The Revenge of the Old Man], Beck: Munich (2018). Among political analysts, it has for a long time been commonsense to highlight the importance of individual leaders’ public appeal. In an extreme form, the likes of Jörg Haider… Continue reading “Understanding Gauland – how to think about radical right leadership”
In early September 2018, I wrote a blog post about Jair Bolsonaro, at that moment the frontrunner in the Brazilian presidential election, defending that he could be considered a populist radical right politician. He was elected and has been in power since January 1. In this post, I discuss the adaptation of Bolsonaro’s radical appeal… Continue reading “Bolsonaro’s first days of government: a threat to liberal democracy”
Recently, Dr. Louie Dean Valencia-Garcia addressed the ethical challenge researchers face when purchasing extremist materials. In buying books from publishers, subscribing to podcasts, or paying for membership in web forums, researchers are indeed helping to fund these extremist projects. While that support may be small, Valencia-Garcia points out, its ethical implications must be reckoned with.… Continue reading “Examining ethical practicalities raised by Valencia-Garcia’s “The Ethics of Consuming Fascism””
On February 1st 2019 a workshop was organized by the Zentrum für zeithistorische Forschung (ZZF) (Centre for Contemporary History) in Potsdam, with Frank Bösch, Yves Müller, Dominik Rigoll, Sarah Schulz, Julia Kleinschmidt, Christoph Schulze, Anke Hoffstadt, Henrike Voigtländer and Sebastian Bischoff, to name only those present on stage. The purpose of this workshop with approximately… Continue reading “Conference Report: “Right-Wing Extremism as a research object in Contemporary History””
There is a certain irony of anti-European far-right groups in the UK utilizing and reproducing the promotion of French nationalism through the symbolic yellow vests. The so-called yellow vests, or the gilets jaunes — the original name given to the protesters adorned in high-visibility jackets who have been marching and rioting across France since November 2018 — have… Continue reading “Yellow Vests: The Irony of Transnational Nationalism”
Roughly 80 Jewish graves were vandalised in Quatzenheim, France, this week. Eight British MPs left the Labour Party complaining of an entrenched culture of antisemitism. In the United States, where memories of the Pittsburgh Synagogue shooting are still fresh, vandals broke the windows of a synagogue in Brooklyn this week and the antisemitism scandal surrounding… Continue reading “Antisemitism: A Social Barometer of Historical Proportions”
Özil, like many others, has repeatedly stated that he would prefer to play for both national football teams if international football regulations made it possible. The recent case of Mesut Özil has shown a severe rupture in relations between German-Turks and German natives, which has been a long time coming, but went unrecognized while the… Continue reading “Radical-right backlash against Games of Belonging: the case of Mesut Özil”
This blog post draws on content from a chapter for a forthcoming report from VOX-Pol (voxpol.eu) In the last three decades, the emergence of digital communications has had a significant impact on how the radical right communicates, both between members and toward external audiences. For the most part, we tend to think about digital communications… Continue reading “Radical Right Digital Communications: Webforums, Political Blogs, and the Swarm”
At the 1952 Republican national convention – which nominated General Dwight Eisenhower as its presidential nominee and throughout the subsequent election campaign – Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy delivered speech after speech accusing the incumbent Democratic administration of ‘20 years of treason’. At the convention itself, McCarthy even claimed he had located a cabin in the… Continue reading “Treason and Party Politics in the United States”
To date, the notion of gateway organizations has in the most part been used to help explain processes of radicalization in relation to Islamic extremist Islam. Since September 11, 2001, the radical right has been on the rise in terms of popularity and reach across Western states. The 9/11 attacks, the subsequent war on terror… Continue reading “Gateway Organizations: Understanding the Lure of the Radical Right”