The far-right has always created “alt-histories” and used historical revisionism to protect their power. President Trump is no different. In 2017, Kellyanne Conway, counselor to US President Donald Trump, coined the phrase ‘alternative facts’ to describe why the Trump administration had differing figures about the size of the audience at the newly elected president’s inauguration… Continue reading “Amid COVID-19, Trump Attempts To Rewrite History”
President Trump, Republican lawmakers, and right-wing pundits’ blame of China for COVID-19 has resulted in a surge of anti-Asian hate crimes in America. The Center for Immigration Studies bills itself as an “independent, non-partisan, non-profit, research organization.” Its executive director, Mark Krikorian, has consistently denied accusations of racism, saying his organization’s opposition to most immigration… Continue reading “Anti-Asian Racism Amid COVID-19 Echoes US History Of Blaming Immigrants For Disease”
Perhaps the most bizarre thing about Black Hebrew Israelism is the way it mirrors, with only a change in color, the ideas of Christian Identity. Yet another apparent anti-Semitic multiple murder has hit the United States with Tuesday’s killing of four people and the subsequent deaths of the two attackers in a Jersey City, N.J.… Continue reading “The Strange History of the Group Tied to Jersey City Murders”
Throughout world history, women have not only been targets of the radical right, they have also been one of the leading forces combatting them. In July of 2019, Donald Trump launched an attack on four female congresswomen who have consistently challenged his use of rhetoric that has time and time again risked inflaming racial tensions… Continue reading “Women’s History Of Combatting The Radical Right”
At the age of twelve, my classics class at the high school devoted an entire week to the ancient war between the Persian Empire and Athens. We were told that the battle of Marathon and Salamis (490 and 480 BCE) represented civilisational encounters between Europe and the ‘barbarians’, west and east. The unlikely victory of… Continue reading “The far right’s weaponisation of history”
The far right recognizes the value, both in training and in terms of access to arms and equipment, that active and former soldiers bring to its organizations. In early October 2018, a photo emerged that showed former leader of the English Defence League, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (aka Tommy Robinson) posing with a group of Army Cadets.… Continue reading “The Far Right Has a History of Infiltrating the British Army”
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””
The German terror group “National Socialist Underground“ is unprecedented – radical right terrorism is not A marathon trial in Germany has come to an end. On 11 July 2018, more than five years after the trial had begun, the higher regional court in Munich handed down the sentences against five members and supporters of the… Continue reading “The Under-Discussed Recent History Of The Radical Right Terrorism In Germany”
The false anxiety that whiteness is under siege fueled the rise of Trump, but it isn’t new. You can trace white supremacist culture throughout American history. In the context of contemporary politics in America and the rise of the radical right, whiteness feels like it is having its moment in the sun. The election of… Continue reading “From The Plantation To The Caravan: America’s History Of White Nationalism”
In his recently published Alt-Right (London: Pluto Press, 2018) Mike Wendling provides a detailed analysis of the alt-right as it exists almost exclusively in cyberspace. The alt-right achieved prominence during the 2016 presidential election campaign thanks largely to Breitbart and its then editor Steve Bannon. Wendling calls attention to the phenomenon of ‘trolling.’ Anonymous ‘trolls’… Continue reading “Trolling Has Been Part Of Right-Wing Movements Throughout History”