Authoritarian leaders have historically fear-mongered and exploited public panics in order to exert more control over their countries. Sometimes it is okay to panic. Or at least, some situations demand radical solutions. But when you are up to your eyeballs in judgment against your neighbor for hoarding toilet paper or the government for jeopardizing your… Continue reading “How Fascists Have Used Panics To Consolidate Power”
The pattern of leadership squabbles, purges, and brutal attempts to crush dissent dominates the history of the radical right. Such episodes are extremely instructive in the week following UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson’s, expulsion of 21 Conservative MPs. The question this therefore begs is: why right-wing leaders so consistently felt the need to expel troublesome… Continue reading “Purifying the Party: Lessons from 20th Century Radical Right Parties”
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 creation of new symbols and rituals to evoke belief in a higher cause are central to the concept, ‘political religion’, prevalent in fascism studies for at least two decades. ‘I’m beginning to comprehend, I think, some of the reasons for Hitler’s astounding success. Borrowing a chapter from the Roman church, he is restoring pageantry… Continue reading “Political religions and fascism”
Those of us living in Britain today, whether we originally hail from these shores or not, are only too aware that we are living through a major historical moment. Those of us involved in analysing the radical right are also very conscious of the fact that, whatever deal is (or isn’t) reached between Britain and… Continue reading “Nazi Analogies Won’t Help Counter Radical Right Agendas in Post-Brexit Britain”
Is it possible to engage with the radical right without inadvertently supporting its intolerant ideology? In 1939, a Book of the Month Club (a US-based literary subscription service) edition of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf was published “for the political understanding of the American people.” As indicated in the pamphlet insert, the edition was sponsored for… Continue reading “The Ethics of Consuming Fascism”