1. Every second article written about fascism starts by complaining that there is no consensus about what fascism is, then agrees with Roger Griffin’s definition of fascism as an ideology of national regeneration before going on to prove, once again, that fascism involved an ideology of national regeneration. 2. Scholars stubbornly refuse to separate regimes and movements… Continue reading “10 Things That Should Change About Fascism Studies”
What is ‘Syncretism’? ‘Syncretism’, also known as “Catch-all Populism” in the academic literature, is an ambiguous term that has often been applied to political parties that are ideologically centrist and have a loose, flexible ideology. ‘Syncretic’ political parties often have ambiguous ideological stances on the left-right ideological dimension. Compared to other types of party families in… Continue reading “‘Syncretic’ Populism in Contemporary 21st Century European Politics”
Coined in the Runnymede Trust’s seminal report in 1997, the neologism of “Islamophobia” has been endlessly used to express the irrational hostility towards Muslims and Islam. This antagonism has been a global phenomenon on the rise, especially after the 9/11 in which the Western world realised of its vulnerability to an extent never experienced before.… Continue reading “Islamophobia in Sri Lanka or the Sterilization Obsession”
Using covert speech to avoid detection and migrating to more extremist platforms underlines that censoring far-right actors from social media is not always an easy or desirable practice. Since 2016, censorship of far-right groups and individuals on social media platforms has been the subject of much public discussion. With the implementation of laws to counter… Continue reading “The effects of censoring the far-right online”
In his book “The Attack on the Family and the European Response,” Roberto Fiore launches a homophobic tantrum and distorts the science of gender. “Never has the institution of the family been put in such jeopardy as it is today. Wars, tyrannical rulers and the reducing of entire peoples into slavery, although never absent from… Continue reading “How The Radical Right Distorts The Science Of Gender”
The radical right is once again using the fact a food retailer has begun selling halal meat as an excuse to allege “creeping sharia law.” In October, M&S announced that it was to become the first major food retailer in the UK to launch a range of own-brand halal ready meals. Available in 36 stores… Continue reading “Halal Hysteria: How Outrage About M&S Ready Meals Co-opted Radical Right Rhetoric”
The continent’s radical right fringes might be able to end the month with a victory at the ballot box. February 2020 will be a busy month for some of the extreme elements of Europe’s radical right. Multiple events are expected: marches, concerts, an election in Slovakia where a radical right party is second in the… Continue reading “February 2020: a busy month for Europe’s radical right”
The annual report of “Reporters Without Borders” shows that global press freedom is in decline, even though less journalists were killed in 2019. While Mexico and Syria remain the most deadly countries for journalists (ten murdered journalists in each country) in 2019, China, Saudi Arabia and Egypt are the countries with the highest number of… Continue reading “Personal Public (Death) Threat I: How the German Far Right tries to intimidate and silence journalists”
“We all know Iran, don’t we? Or at least we think we do”. So said John Simpson, BBC World Affairs Editor, on air in the early 1990s. A veteran Iran reporter, Simpson had accompanied Ayatollah Khomeini on his return flight to Iran in 1979 from exile in France. The point he was making was… Continue reading “Radical-Right Demonization of Soleimani and Iran: Islamophobic Weaponry in the Public Sphere”
On December 7th 2019, Tom Newton Dunn, political editor of The Sun, published an editorial that promoted the conspiracy theories of the HIJACKED LABOUR (HL) project. Dunn praised the former intelligence officers behind HL for exhaustively charting Jeremy Corbyn’s “spider’s web of extensive contacts [that] stretch from Marxist intellectuals to militant groups and illegal terrorist… Continue reading “Off the Hook: How the HIJACKED LABOUR Conspiracy Theory Defends the Radical Right”