The European radical right seems to have failed to develop coherent responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Europe’s radical-right parties have quickly understood the benefit they can derive from criticizing their respective governments in managing the COVID-19 health crisis. Their communication focuses on three main areas. First, they question the animal origin of the epidemic through… Continue reading “Europe’s Far Right Fails to Capitalize on COVID-19”
The extreme right is not a single entity but rather is a highly diverse, polycratic movement set across countless small organizations, or groupuscules. While this article is not about the extreme right’s responses to COVID-19, thinking about this issue briefly does give us a clear example of what it does focus on: the groupuscular dynamics… Continue reading “Understanding the Dynamics of the Far Right”
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”
Germany’s far-right group PEGIDA is mobilizing weekly ‘virtual marches’ livestreamed on YouTube. On a Monday evening in early April 2020, around 1,000 users are waiting for a YouTube livestream, hosted by Lutz Bachmann, co-founder of the Dresden-based protest movement ‘Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the Occident’ (PEGIDA). For the second time already, Bachmann’s YouTube… Continue reading “Under lockdown, Germany’s PEGIDA goes to YouTube”
Throughout ideological contradictions and changing perception of events on the ground, the Oath Keepers’ messaging remained consistent around one key element: the existence of a deep-state plot against US President Trump. By mid-April 2020, protests against government-imposed lockdowns began springing up across the United States. At their center was a pronounced distrust of the government… Continue reading “ANTI-GOVERNMENT IDEOLOGY IN THE TIMES OF COVID-19”
“Five, 10 years from now—different party. You’re going to have a worker’s party.” These words, uttered by Donald Trump in the May of 2016, might at first appear prophetic given the current bout of protests that have taken off throughout the US. In these protests, the star-spangled banner is strewn across various cityscapes as largely… Continue reading “Contesting Class in the Lockdown Protests”
