White supremacists like Richard Spencer advocate for ‘peaceful ethnic cleansing’ of people of color. President Trump’s policies serve that objective. In September, reports hit major news outlets that, Bee Love Slater, a transgender woman of color, was found ‘burned beyond recognition’—the eighteenth transgender woman murdered in the US this year. The veneer of tolerance, the… Continue reading “This Is What ‘Peaceful Ethnic Cleansing’ Looks Like”
According to a report released this week by The Soufan Center, Ukraine is “emerging as a hub in the broader network of transnational white supremacy extremism.” But Ukraine, in particular the capital Kyiv, also appears to be emerging as a centre for something else: neo-Nazi concerts. Over the past year, as a journalist who focuses… Continue reading “Kyiv, Ukraine: a new hub for international neo-Nazi concerts”
Analysis of statistical data shows that, on the whole, the positive trend in the deradicalization of Russian society is likely to continue. Russia has published the full results of opinion polls regarding xenophobia, including attitudes toward LGBTQ people in 2018 and the first half of 2019. If we supplement it with data on hate crimes,… Continue reading “How Tolerant Is Russian Society?”
Authoritarianism, a characteristic of the far-right, has developed anew in the 21st century and has presented itself in multiple guises and in multiple loci to an extent that poses an increased threat and risk to democratic societies. For good or ill, I choose to label this phenomenon as the Alternative Right (Alt-Right), although recognizing that… Continue reading “The New Authoritarianism and the Glorification of Amoral Calculation”
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”