On 25th – 27th April 2019, the inaugural conference of the Center for Right-Wing Studies took place at the University of California, Berkeley. This was a refreshing exchange between early career researchers and more established scholars that provided some international perspectives on right-wing movements: from conservatism to fascism, from the past to current developments. Around… Continue reading “Conference Report: Inaugural Conference on Right-Wing Studies”
The Jewish Octopus trope has 19th century roots but was most fully exploited in Nazi Germany. This article is dedicated to the memory of Paul R. Weinstein. A January issue of The Times of Israel reproduced, as an example of “recent anti-Semitic memes around George Soros,” a caricature of Soros as a tentacled monster hovering over North… Continue reading “George Soros Targeted By Anti-Semitic Meme That Predates The Nazis”
Recently, the comedian posted a crude drawing of fascist leader Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci – disfigured and hung upside down as they were in their deaths. For years now, Jim Carrey, known for his cartoon-like facial expressions and raucous and pointed comedy, has been sharing his own satirical art on Twitter.… Continue reading “Jim Carrey, Mussolini and the politics of comics”
Linking hate speech or extreme language with humor looks disturbing, since it is assumed that prejudice, intolerance and fanaticism are humorless per se. Memes have a frequent presence in our daily lives. They flood our timelines on different social media platforms, usually to provide us with a smile. Originally, the term “meme” was coined by… Continue reading “Memes of Hate: Countering Cyber Islamophobia”
Decent people everywhere are still reeling from the tragic, senseless violence of Christchurch massacre. It appears that the accused killer was a product of the violent, hateful meme culture of the radical right online. Furthermore, he chose to livestream his rampage on a favorite platform used by anti-Muslim extremists: Facebook. Unfortunately, for many of us… Continue reading “Analysis of Anti-Muslim Images and Text on Facebook”
While the bodies of victims from the Christchurch shooting last Friday were still warm, including those of 3 and 4-year-old children, social media platforms were busily taking down livestreamed footage from the alleged killer. Due to morbid curiosity and maddening algorithms that saw the terrorist propaganda ‘trending’, Facebook alone removed the video 1.5 million times in 24 hours.… Continue reading “On Lone wolf terrorism, past, present and future”
This blog post draws on content from a chapter for a forthcoming report from VOX-Pol (voxpol.eu) In the last three decades, the emergence of digital communications has had a significant impact on how the radical right communicates, both between members and toward external audiences. For the most part, we tend to think about digital communications… Continue reading “Radical Right Digital Communications: Webforums, Political Blogs, and the Swarm”
At what rates and in what capacity do women participate in radical right communities? Gathering precise demographic details – such as gender, age or location – for members of clandestine or extremist groups can be difficult. However, in the wake of the deadly “Unite the Right” event in Charlottesville, Virginia, one expert claimed that 20%… Continue reading “Women of the radical right on Facebook”
In October 2018, the Democratic Football Lads Alliance (DFLA) took to the streets of London in their thousands to protest against issues such as “returning jihadists” and “rape gangs”. Keen to stress they are not racists but concerned members of the public, a grassroots movement who simply want to be heard, they claim the voice… Continue reading “Catalyst or Catharsis: Inside the DFLA Secret Facebook Groups”
The movement to change India’s national symbolism under the BJP deliberately targets the principal ideas underpinning the vision of India as a secular state. On October 16, 2018, Swami Adityanand, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and well known Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Hindu-right hardliner, announced a change of name of one of north India’s… Continue reading “What Is Behind India’s Politics of Renaming?”