Authoritarianism helped Putin keep Russia from the collapse. Questions remain whether he can unify his disparate nation. In July 2019, mass demonstrations of citizens for fair elections were held in Moscow. According to various estimates, from 15 to 50 thousand people attended a rally on August 10 at A. Sakharov Square in the Russian Capital.… Continue reading “Why Russia Wants To Be An Empire Again”
While racism and xenophobia are central tenets of the radical right, so is homophobia – in spite of efforts to appear as allies to the LGBTQ community. The June 2019 Pride month celebrations worldwide also signaled the 50 year anniversary of the Stonewall uprising. While there may be a sense of progressive evolution towards more… Continue reading “The Pride of Prejudice: The Radical Right And The LGBTQ+ Community”
Electoral Breakthroughs Following the electoral breakthrough of the populist radical right (PRR) in continental Europe in both recent national parliamentary elections covering the 2015–2018 refugee crisis period and the 2019 European Parliament elections, many of these parties are no longer on the periphery and have become influential. Furthermore, a number of mainstream parties have avowedly… Continue reading “From ‘Challengers’ to ‘Incumbents’: The Populist Radical Right in Government”
The murder of 51 people in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March 2019 has led to, for example, a gun reform bill in New Zealand and renewed interest in the notion of ‘the great replacement’. Given longstanding debates in the United States, gun reform seems unlikely to happen following the mass shooting in El Paso, United… Continue reading “Eco-fascism encountered/t resurgence: the natural environment in justifications of terrorist violence in the Christchurch mosque shooting and the El Paso shooting”
The institution of the police may be considered a key indicator in the empirical measurement of democratization processes. The institution that creates and maintains domestic security — and that can ultimately guarantee it during emergencies — is the police. However, a comparative look at the historical development of various political systems shows that, in the… Continue reading “A Healthy Police Force Is a Sign of a Healthy Democracy”
Understanding how hate groups cohere in online spaces is essential toward understanding their growth and capacity to radicalize. Online radical-right extremist groups exhibit a massive range of ideological stances and approaches, which vary from country to country. These include the affirmed political stances of alt-right groups, the social movement-like practices of groups like Generation Identity,… Continue reading “Understanding Digital Hate Culture”
Though estimating the vote share of radical right parties in advance of an election is politically important, it is always a challenge. This can be due to sampling bias in the polling, in which the sample may not represent the population of radical right party supporters, or critical events, such as scandals about radical right… Continue reading “Estimating vote share of radical right parties with “Wisdom of Crowds””
Shortly before opening fire at the Gilroy Garlic Festival on July 28th, the now deceased gunman posted two photos to a recently created Instagram account. Although the posts were quickly removed after being linked to the attack, screen captures had already made their way onto other parts of the web. One of the photos was of the… Continue reading “The Influence of Might is Right in the Gilroy shooting”
Trump refers to Hispanic migrants as if they are an infectious disease while he detains them in inhumane detention centers. We must learn from history. In an article published in 2007, Andreas Musolff, a scholar working in ‘critical discourse analysis’, showed how the metaphors employed by Hitler in Mein Kampf advanced the idea that the German nation was an… Continue reading “Holocaust Historian: Trump Needs To Stop Speaking Like A 20th Century Fascist”
The inability of the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to identify potential perpetrators, much less anticipate their attacks, provides support for Louis Beam’s “leaderless resistance” tactic. During the 1980s, Louis Beam — a Vietnam War veteran, Klansman and Aryan Nation activist — wrote what became an influential observation about ways in which racial supremacists… Continue reading “Lone Wolf Attacks Prove Louis Beam Was Right About “Leaderless Resistance””