From Hitler in Germany to Mussolini in Italy, fascists used leisure activities to recruit and indoctrinate the next generation of fascists. ‘Summer camps … helped to integrate enthusiastic young people more firmly into the movement, shaping their lives by giving them an unforgettable summer and convincing them that by becoming fascists they were helping both… Continue reading “How Fascists Used Summer Camps To Recruit Young People”
‘Greeks for the Fatherland’ seems to be here to fill the gap left by the legal troubles of Golden Dawn. The emergence of a new party was announced by Elias Kasiadiaris one of the main defendants in the ongoing Golden Dawn trial. Nikolaos Michaloliakos, the leader of the party since its emergence in the mid-80s, along… Continue reading “In Greece, a new far right movement is taking the stage”
Why a 1972 concept from the sociology of religion could be more important than ever for the study of the contemporary radical right. In 1972, British sociologist Colin Campbell introduced the concept of the “cultic milieu” to describe the social and philosophical environment in which contemporary cultic beliefs and organizations arise. Cultic, in Campbell’s usage,… Continue reading “The Radical Right in the Cultic Milieu”
In her quest to find spiritual roots for Nazism, Savitri Devi hijacked the beliefs of both Hinduism and Pharaoh Akhenaton. Decades after her attempt, the quest to find spirituality in Nazism has not disappeared from the ranks of the radical right. Why does the alt-right seems fascinated with Savitri Devi, a fascist devotee who made… Continue reading “Savitri Devi And The Radical Right’s Fascination With Esoteric Nazism”
Heidegger’s philosophy has legitimised the far right’s regional environmentalism, populism and cultural racism. On 28 May 2020, Björn Höcke, the leader of Germany’s far-right party Alternative für Deutschland in the state of Thuringia published a glossy picture of himself on his Facebook profile. On the photo, one can see him sitting on a park bench… Continue reading “Why did Heidegger emerge as the central philosopher of the far right?”
The recently deceased Kevin Coogan helped create the scholarly groundwork for preventative measures against the rise of the Alt Right. Born on October 8, 1952, Coogan was raised in an Irish family in Philadelphia where he grew up in a loving and intellectually stimulating community. “Our grandparents ran a boarding house for Irish immigrants,” his… Continue reading “Remembering Kevin Coogan”
For some decades now, it has been a tradition that Swedish parties have chosen a flower for their logo. In 2006, Sverigedemokraterna (SD, Sweden Democrats) changed their party symbol from a flaming torch in the form of a Swedish flag to a flower, Hepatica nobilis. The change marked a symbolic transformation from the parties Neo-Nazi… Continue reading “Review of Sverigedemokraterna och nazismen [”The Sweden Democrats and Nazism”] by Maria Robsahm (2020)”
The radical populist right’s appeal to emotions has been one of the main reasons for its staying power over the span of more than four decades. The triumph of Nazism in the years following the election of 1933 that brought Adolf Hitler to power represents arguably the greatest human catastrophe of the 20th century —… Continue reading “When Emotion Trumps Dispassionate Politics”
In his recently published Alt-Right (London: Pluto Press, 2018) Mike Wendling provides a detailed analysis of the alt-right as it exists almost exclusively in cyberspace. The alt-right achieved prominence during the 2016 presidential election campaign thanks largely to Breitbart and its then editor Steve Bannon. Wendling calls attention to the phenomenon of ‘trolling.’ Anonymous ‘trolls’… Continue reading “Trolling Has Been Part Of Right-Wing Movements Throughout History”
© 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”
