Attempts to ban and censor the group have only given it more power and helped usher in a new era of the far right. On 12 August, Donald Trump endorsed a congressional candidate from Georgia, the victor in a Republican primary runoff held the previous day. Like an alarmingly increasing number of congressional hopefuls and… Continue reading “QAnon has gone from fringe conspiracy to full-blown cult”
Has Donald Trump sought to promote a politics of inter-group hatred to advance his career and improve his chances of reelection? Over the course of his 2016 campaign and his subsequent presidential term, Donald Trump has sought to exploit popular fears of foreigners and certain American ethnicities to his political advantage. His verbal attacks have… Continue reading “Donald Trump and the “Kung Flu””
Dr. Valerio Alfonso Bruno argues that far-right leaders have shown a disdain for experts and the wider role of science, despite the worsening COVID-19 global pandemic. They argue that the far-right strategy towards experts is often based on (a) silencing and (b) discrediting. They argue that the downplaying of expertise by the far-right has worrying… Continue reading “The Right’s War On Science & Experts Escalates Amid COVID-19”
With the US facing widespread polarization and divisiveness, and President Trump’s rhetoric growing increasingly violent, the question must be asked. Advocates of democratic elections have often maintained that the ballot box is really a substitute for the gun and the bomb. Open and competitive elections offer citizens a means of determining who governs and for… Continue reading “Could There Be Violence In The 2020 Election?”
Hardly new concepts, anarchism and antifascism are often mistakenly associated with chaos and violence. In the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic and antiracist protests, US President Donald Trump, whom scholars and journalists alike are finally coming around to openly discuss as fascist, declared that the United States “will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization.” Trump blamed the looting… Continue reading “Is Antifa the Answer to Today’s Fascism?”
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?”
Calls to sacrifice lives for the economy. Funding protests that endanger public health. The radical right is highlighting their “pro-life” hypocrisy. The so-called “anti-lockdown” protests around the USA have brought together a motley of groups and interests, from Proud Boys to pro-gun enthusiasts and Trump supporters. But the extremist element is the most consistently flamboyant and loud in exposing… Continue reading “Nihilism And Hypocrisy Is The GOP’s COVID-19 Response”
President Trump, GOP governors, and members of his base who are pushing to reopen too soon while Dr. Fauci warns of “needless suffering and death.” In an interview on Fox News (“ Tucker Carlson Tonight”) back on March 23, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick expressed his willingness to give up his life in exchange for… Continue reading “Right-Wing Push For Premature Reopenings Will Prolong Pandemic”
The vicious cycle of suppression, spikes in migration, renewed hostilities and reintroduction of restrictive policies could continue for years after the pandemic. A dangerous cycle for immigrants has begun. On April 20, President Donald Trump announced that he would sign an executive order to temporarily halt immigration into the United States in order to curb the spread of… Continue reading “COVID-19 Will Have Long-Lasting Effects on Migration”
The radical right has always been good at spreading misinformation; now they might be spreading Covid-19. It is easy to look at the core ideology of the radical right—nativism, white supremacy, homophobia, misogyny—and call it ignorant and uninformed. This labelling is problematic because it is lazy; it assumes an either/or approach to knowledge and does… Continue reading “Is the radical right spreading the coronavirus?”
