Cartoonists are modern jesters but, unlike those merrymen of yore, they are no longer safe. It has been traditionally accepted in modern societies that the media play a key role in the way they function. Journalists counteract the abuses of power by governments, frame political issues and are implicitly recognized as being part of the… Continue reading “In Sri Lanka, Cartoonists Take on the Alt-Right”
The Proud Boys march in Portland, Oregon in August, 2019, as well their participation in past marches like the one in Charlottesville, was a bitter reminder that racism and sexism go hand-in-hand. The emergence of groups, such as the Proud Boys, challenges us to delve deeper into how a threatened white masculinity is predicated upon… Continue reading “The Fragile, Toxic Masculinity Of White Supremacy”
In interrogating the far right’s persistent obsession with southern Africa, we can better understand what people like Trump, Hopkins, and terrorists like Roof, mean when they invoke it today. In 2018, the President of the United States Donald Trump posted a rather enigmatic tweet about“farm seizures and expropriations and the large scale killing of farmers”… Continue reading “Why Is the Radical Right Obsessed With Southern Africa?”
In this post, I discuss how the concept of “difference” is a surprising link between postmodern thought and the New Right. In New Culture, New Right: Anti-Liberalism in Postmodern Europe, Michael O’Meara (2004) lays out a searing critique of postmodernism in the process of defending the rise of a revolutionary New Right that arrived in… Continue reading “Not the Same Difference: How the New Right hijacked an essential postmodern concept”
Has the Norwegian police learned anything from its failure in the 2011 Breivik attacks? A recent terror attack at a mosque near Oslo raises important questions about the extent and range of radical right extremism and the Norwegian state response to it. On the 10th of August 2019, the young radical right extremist Philip… Continue reading “Behind Norway’s terrorist attack that was luckily thwarted”
President Trump has crossed the Rubicon from traditional Republican racism into full-blown white supremacy, and it’s a threat to our national security. Donald J. Trump describes Latino immigrants as “rapists” and drug dealers, comparing them to “vermin” who “infest” the United States. They are, he says, like “vomit” pouring across the border. Trump says black… Continue reading “Radical Right Expert: Donald Trump Is A White Supremacist Asset”
The white supremacist terrorist who targeted Hispanics in El Paso, Texas parallels rhetoric from President Trump and past white supremacist manifestos. At least 22 people were killed, with dozens injured, at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday. Patrick Crusius, a suspected white nationalist terrorist, has been taken into police custody. In a world… Continue reading “How The El Paso Terrorist’s Manifesto Echoes Trump’s Rhetoric”
John Tanton, who over 40 years almost single-handedly built the American anti-immigration movement around a core of rancid white nationalism, is dead. He was 85, and he left a legacy of racist opposition to immigration that, among other things, has been fully embraced by the president of the United States. Tanton died last week in… Continue reading “The Architect of America’s Racist Anti-Immigration Movement is Dead”
The anti-immigrant rhetoric we’re seeing in Europe and from President Trump is not only dehumanizing, it has a dangerous resonance in history. In April this year, Christian Schilcher, a local government leader for the radical right Austrian Freedom party, was forced to step down after publishing a poem titled ‘Die Stadtratte’ (‘The City Rat’). The poem compared… Continue reading “Pests, Invaders and Infestations: The Radical Right’s Dehumanization Of Immigrants”
The All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims (APPG) attempted to propose a working definition for Islamophobia. It opened submissions on the definition between May and June 2018 that addressed a range of issues. The consultation process included written submissions from academics, legal experts, and organisations, with community consultations within local communities in Manchester, London,… Continue reading “What’s in a definition? The UK’s emerging quest for a definition of Islamophobia”