Why did the movie become a new cultural touchstone for the alt-right? The far right has long used popular culture as a means of promoting their own ideals. It is a common misconception that extremists live and act within their own, fringe cultural sphere. Whilst much of far right literary and musical culture is produced… Continue reading “Joker, the far right and popular culture”
It’s become clear that racism isn’t a side effect of far-right ideology, it is a foundational quality of radical right parties in the US and Europe. Is racism a necessary component of the radical right’s appeal? When I was conducting my research on the radical right in the late 1990s and early 2000s, I tried… Continue reading “Racism Is A Core Component Of The Radical Right”
“We may only be at the beginning of the populist radical right surge in European politics.” Electoral Oblivion The Netherlands, Hungary, France, Germany and Sweden: what do all of these countries, stretching across both Western and Central-Eastern Europe, have in common? They share one core uniform feature; namely, widespread patterns of electoral volatility, with a… Continue reading “The Decline of the Left and the Populist Radical Right Surge in the Refugee Crisis”
Tommy Robinson has been transformed into a truly global figure, a purported martyr for the dispossessed and the most influential radical-right leader in Britain since Sir Oswald Mosley. Following Tommy Robinson’s imprisonment in May for contempt of court, the #FreeTommy campaign demonstrated just how much the British radical right has changed in a short space of time. It has… Continue reading “Tommy Robinson and the Transformation of the British Far Right”
With the media on their side, the SD has managed to persuade many unionised women in the health service that it is the only party for them. Does the mainstream know why? One of the three biggest parties in Sweden, the nativist Sweden Democrats (SD) has become a force to reckon with. More scarily still,… Continue reading “Does Sweden’s mainstream have to talk to the Sweden Democrats?”
This interview by SSRCorg with Cynthia Miller-Idris is on her latest book, The Extreme Gone Mainstream: Commercialization and Far Right Youth Culture in Germany (2018). Professor Cynthia Miller-Idriss is Head of Outreach at CARR, and Professor of Education and Sociology at American University.
It is impossible to understand the Brexit vote and the political culture that has emerged in its wake without appreciating Britain’s lurch to the right. Earlier this year, an intriguing lens was cast on the nature of radical and far-right ideas in post-Brexit Britain. At the center was a graphic tweeted by Leave.EU — the… Continue reading “The Underlying Radicalism of Brexit”
Turning previously radical ideas, originally confined to the fringes of the party-political narratives and social attitudes, into mainstream orthodoxies is not as difficult as it is often assumed. The flutter of a butterfly’s wings can, in some cases, cause a hurricane somewhere else, over a period of time and through a random chain of unpredictable… Continue reading “The (un)intended consequences of the UK’s ‘hostile environment’ to immigration”
Over the last twenty-years, we have seen how damaging extreme rhetoric can be – from the rise of so called Islamist terrorist groups to the successful recruitment of individuals into these groups from across Western countries. When governmental leaders are seen to make decisions that are perceived as misjudged, or to not take charge of… Continue reading “Why They Thrive: Risk, Uncertainty and Radical Right Propaganda”
© Willy Pragher In opening this longish Insight text, I want to dwell on another text delivered 85 years ago this week by one the greatest minds of the twentieth century. This was entitled ‘The Self Assertion of the German University’, and was given on the occasion of Martin Heidegger’s appointment as chancellor of Freiburg… Continue reading “Heidegger and intellectual applicability: the good, the bad and the ugly”