Radical right governments are exploiting COVID-19 as an excuse to expand their power. There are few worse culprits than Hungary’s Viktor Orbán. In his televised 9 April Easter message, the Catholic Church’s spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Bucharest, Father Francisc Dobos, said that the disciples of Jesus ‘feared the Jews, and here in the bracket… Continue reading “COVID-19 Could Be A Harbinger Of Authoritarianism”
Throughout ideological contradictions and changing perception of events on the ground, the Oath Keepers’ messaging remained consistent around one key element: the existence of a deep-state plot against US President Trump. By mid-April 2020, protests against government-imposed lockdowns began springing up across the United States. At their center was a pronounced distrust of the government… Continue reading “ANTI-GOVERNMENT IDEOLOGY IN THE TIMES OF COVID-19”
In the immediate aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing, the threat posed by military personnel in radical right groups quickly became apparent to policy makers and military leaders worldwide before being eclipsed by the event of September 11 and the resultant ‘Global War on Terror.’ While this phenomenon has attracted little scholarly attention, with the… Continue reading “An Overview of the German Military Counterintelligence Service Report on Extremism Within the German Federal Defence Force”
Introduction In April 2020, the German radical right party ‘Alternative for Germany’ (AfD) lost more than 4% in the opinion polls compared to January. Its popularity this month was at the level of 9-10% (down from a record of 18% nationally in 2018 and 25% in the eastern state polls). There are two reasons for… Continue reading “Will be the world more tolerant after the Covid-19 Pandemic?”
In this article I intend to combine two concepts: the extreme right and the squatters’ movement. Initially, they both seem like incompatible concepts since we might think that squatters are better linked to anarchism and social movements of the extreme left. This may be so, but the practice of squatting is not exclusive to a… Continue reading “The squatters’ movement in the extreme right: the case of Hogar Social Madrid (I)”
Almost four months after the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in China, we can state with confidence that coronavirus pandemic has the potential to radically change the world and society that we live in. As part of mainstream narratives on the consequences of the pandemic has been the idea that globalisation will be reversed, and… Continue reading “The ‘other’ in a time of a crisis: Europe’s Populist Radical Right Response to Covid-19”
Isolation and fear are being used by the radical right to connect and indoctrinate people by spreading racist narratives about the virus. In the last four months, Coronavirus (COVID-19) has spread across every populated continent and infected more than two million people, with estimates of many more to come. More than just a tragic outbreak… Continue reading “The radical right is weaponising COVID-19 online”
From lies about 5G to vast conspiracies of a Bill Gates vaccine plot, COVID-19 has sparked an avalanche of conspiracy theories. Here’s how to spot them. Did you know that the anagram of “Carnivorous” spells “Coronavirus?” Think about it!!!!!!! (a Facebook post) This was posted by a vegan who peddles all types of conspiracies about… Continue reading “How To Debunk Coronavirus Conspiracy Theories”
In January 2020, there was a flash of social media outrage around a piece on immigration and its impact by the BBC News. Though there were general concerns about the red colouring used on the map to show immigration numbers in different parts of the UK due to it potentially presenting a sense of threat… Continue reading “Swamping and the Migration Debate: The Sound of Silence?”
From the wide range of studies, reports and publications, from such bodies as SETA[1],[2] and academics [3](many of them CARR Fellows), it is evident that Islamophobia in both Britain and Europe has accelerated over the past 15 years to the extent that is has become as normalized in society as has anti-Semitism. Normalization is as… Continue reading “Impacts of Islamophobia on Some Muslims in Two Western Countries”