The radical right indulges in the erasure from its narrative of inconvenient or unwelcome facts from the accepted knowledge base of history and science. There is a general recognition that major problems and issues of our world — including understanding them and their causes and proposing remedies and coping strategies — are rarely simple in… Continue reading “Can the Radical Right’s Reductionist Narrative Withstand Real-World Complexity?”
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”
By now, the climate-change scepticism of the radical-right, populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) is well-known and has been discussed in both academic and non-academic publications. Opposition to the thesis of anthropogenic climate change – as well as scientific/public processes and responses to the phenomenon – are visible in the party’s manifesto and a range of… Continue reading “‘Protect the Environment!’ – Environmental Campaigning by the Radical Right Alternative for Germany”
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”
Although the transnational nature of radical-right environmentalism is often publicly overlooked, eco-nationalism seems to be resurfacing in this time of global climate change. The ongoing fires wreaking havoc in the Amazon appear as a painful reminder of the radical right’s negligence of the natural environment, given the incompetency of Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, and his… Continue reading “Eco-Nationalism: The Nature Within Our Borders”
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: the natural environment in justifications of terrorist violence in the Christchurch mosque shooting and the El Paso shooting”
Populist radical right parties and their leaders openly despise expertise: they often parade their ignorance and inexperience by developing, in electoral terms, propaganda depicting them shoulder-to-shoulder with ordinary citizens (“the People”) – as distant as possible from accultured, intellectual cosmopolitan elites. Mainstream political parties have, especially in recent years, often championed recourse to unelected experts… Continue reading “Expertise in politics: boon or bane?”
In 2018, following electoral gains made by Democrats during the US midterms, it took commentators a while to figure out whether or not to speak of a ‘blue wave’. In Germany, following the 2019 European Parliament elections, a ‘Green wave’ was, however, quickly identified – unsurprisingly, given that the Green Party increased its share of… Continue reading “Rethinking the ‘Green wave’? Climate change, the European Parliament elections 2019 and the German-speaking radical right”
Accusations of irrationalism, leveled against those in favor of climate change policies, make up the single most prominent argument. Research on climate change communication by radical-right actors, be they party or non-party, anti-liberal or anti-democratic, is still in its infancy. Indeed, so far only a few cases have been systematically analyzed in detail (for example,… Continue reading “What the Radical Right Thinks About Climate Change”
From the Inaugural CARR Conference For three days, the Richmond University in London was not only the site of insightful and thought-provoking presentations during the inaugural CARR conference, but also an opportunity to engage in some of the most relevant debates in the field. Its pervasiveness, reinforced in the recent European Parliament elections, allows the… Continue reading “Is the radical right really anti-climate? Some evidence from Hungary”