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?”
Answering some of the pressing, if not existential questions facing diverse, democratic societies require a clearer understanding of tolerance. Tolerance is vital to the functioning of modern, liberal democracies. In societies where individual rights and freedoms are recognized and protected, some amount of tolerance of difference is required. Diversity comes in many forms: thought… Continue reading “What is tolerance and how much of it do democracies require?”
A key under-studied area for analysis is how contemporary extreme right movements can also be seen as totalitarian. Indeed, it is not difficult to find examples of such. According to an old joke, while in a liberal democracy everything that is not forbidden is allowed, in a totalitarian system everything that has not been banned… Continue reading “Totalitarianism in the twentieth century and beyond”