The “will of the people” is one of the central argumentative patterns in the radical right. Often, when right-wing extremists demands are made, they invoke an alleged “will of the people.” Allegedly, so the statement goes, elected governments do not represent the “will of the people”. With this strategy, which of course never really defines… Continue reading “The Will of the People”
A counter-extremism coordinator in the UK highlights how those who are working to counter extremism are becoming targets themselves. In 2008 it all seemed so simple. My job as Prevent Community Engagement Officer was to work with local communities to highlight the risks of radicalization and to build confidence in the alternative, a safeguarding response… Continue reading “What It’s Like To Lead Counter-Extremism Efforts In The UK”
This might be effective to counter frontmen like Tommy Robinson, but is it enough to tackle the wider ideology of the radical right? On Friday 13th September, radical right activist Tommy Robinson was released from prison after serving 9 weeks for contempt of court. Robinson was first jailed for this offence last year, when he… Continue reading “Will online takedowns defeat the offline radical right?”
Since the May 2019 European Parliament election’s ‘Green wave’ in Germany, where the Green party increased its share of the vote by 9.8 to 20.5 per cent and came second after the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, climate-change policy has played a particularly prominent role in public debate. As one of the most outright climate-change… Continue reading “Something new under the sun? The Alternative for Germany’s recent discussion of climate change and homeland protection”
Radical-right radicalization appears to be focused on global and increasingly existential scenarios rather than on domestic or national issues. Radical-right radicalization has quickly moved from being a fringe domestic phenomenon to a mainstream global movement. The radical right, albeit always internationally connected and aligned across individual states, has over the last decade moved to increasingly… Continue reading “Radical-Right Radicalization, From the Domestic to the Global”
The world is watching over a billion hours of video content per day on YouTube, and easy-to-use recording and streaming tools can turn anyone with a smartphone into a broadcaster. Social media platforms are rewarding this new crop of “content creators” with the ability to become a household name and earn money from their videos.… Continue reading “Alt-Tech & the Radical Right, Part 2: Inside the Radical Right’s Video Addiction”
The Proud Boys march in Portland, Oregon in August, 2019, as well their participation in past marches like the one in Charlottesville, was a bitter reminder that racism and sexism go hand-in-hand. The emergence of groups, such as the Proud Boys, challenges us to delve deeper into how a threatened white masculinity is predicated upon… Continue reading “The Fragile, Toxic Masculinity Of White Supremacy”
Although the transnational nature of radical-right environmentalism is often publicly overlooked, eco-nationalism seems to be resurfacing in this time of global climate change. The ongoing fires wreaking havoc in the Amazon appear as a painful reminder of the radical right’s negligence of the natural environment, given the incompetency of Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, and his… Continue reading “Eco-Nationalism: The Nature Within Our Borders”
Demographic conspiracies should not be seen as fringe enterprises restricted to gullible extremists – they have an increasingly mainstream appeal. Enoch Powell’s 1968 ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech has infamously seared itself into the British public’s mind for its apocalyptic hyperbole and guttural prejudice but less so for its conspiratorial nature. Powell warned of the demographic… Continue reading “The great replacement theory: a historical perspective”
Armed robberies were often the first crimes nascent right-wing extremist organizations carried out after deciding to take the terrorist “option.” Little research has been done on the financing of radical-right terrorist groups, especially when it comes to Germany. However, the finding within terrorism research that “money is the lifeblood of any organization, including the ones… Continue reading “How Crime Helps Finance Radical-Right Terrorism”