The Radical Right During Crisis

ibidem-Press, Stuttgart

Contents

Preface

Authoritarianism Revisited

The Psychology of a Fascist Leader: Hitler’s “Blond Beast” Reinhard Heydrich

Hegel and Fascism

The ‘Silent Majority’: Populist Cliché or Warning?

How Fascists Have Used Panics to Consolidate Power

Can the Radical Right’s Reductionist Narrative Withstand Real-World Complexity?

Alternative Epistemologies of the Radical Right: How Grand Narratives and the Quest for Truth Offer Recognition and a Sense of Belonging

Radical Right Voters and Democratic Support

Nationalism and Memory

Grieving Greater Hungary: Trianon, Orbán, and the Hungarian Radical Right

An “Ambivalent Day”: How the AfD Attempts to Re-frame the 8th May as Day to Commemorate German Victimhood

Putin’s Amendments to Russia’s Constitution Sparks Debate About Russian Nationalism

Eco-fascism “Proper”: The Curious Case of Greenline Front

Terrorism and Political Violence

A New Wave of Right-Wing Terrorism

Germany’s Terrorist Attack: Migrant Communities Have Lost Trust

Far-Right Terrorism is Global, But Coverage is Not: Hindu Nationalist Violence in India

In Germany, Anti-semitism on Social Media Can Be Linked to Offline Violence

Does Norway Have a Neo-Nazi Terrorist Problem?

Canada Filed the First Incel Terrorism Charge. How Do We Combat This Threat?

The COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19 Could Be a Harbinger of Authoritarianism

Anti-government Ideology in the Times of COVID-19

The Radical Right is Weaponizing COVID-19 Online

Under Lockdown, Germany’s PEGIDA Goes to YouTube

Europe’s Far-Right Fails to Capitalize on COVID-19

Quo Vadis, Europe? Coping with Old and New Crises

COVID-19 Will Have Long-lasting Consequences for International Migration

How COVID and Syria Conspiracies Introduce Fascism to the Left: The Red-Brown Media Spectrum

QAnon: A Conspiracy for Our Time

Black Lives Matter, Policing, and Military Presence

I Predict a Riot: An Analysis of White Supremacist Propaganda in the Wake of the George Floyd Murder

“Get in the Bin!” The Far-Right “Guarding” British Monuments

Contemporary Tensions Between Blacks and Jews in America: July Fireworks and Why They Matter

Is America Edging Toward a “Racial Holy War”?

Nuancing “Chan-Culture”: /K/ and the Visual Culture of Weapons Boards

The Other Epidemic: White Supremacists in Law Enforcement

No Bargain: Why Don’t Bad Cops Get Fired? The Power of Police Unions

‘Press the Reset Button’: Right-Wing Extremism in Germany’s Military

Investigating the Radical Right’s Presence in the Canadian Military

Alt-Tech

The Social Media Platform That Welcomes QAnon with Open Arms

The Transnationalization of White Supremacist Discourse: The Hundred-Handers and the It’s Okay to Be White Campaign

Networked Hate: White Supremacist Activity on Telegram

Why Do Hate Groups and Terrorists Love Telegram?

Ideology, Intellectuals, and Metapolitics

Did a French Far-Right Thinker Predict 2020?

Why Did Heidegger Emerge as the Central Philosopher of the Far-Right?

Sweden Heading Towards “Academic Freedom” as Battlefield of the Radical Right

Why is the Brazilian Right Afraid of Pablo Freire?

The Right’s War on Science & Experts Escalates Amid COVID-19

What WhatsApp Conversations Reveal About the Far-Right’s Ideology

Racist Occultism in the UK: Behind the Order of Nine Angles (O9A)

Sexuality and Gender

The New Man and Fascism

Incels: Alienated Men and Violence in the Digital Age

The Proud Boys Are Standing By

Marching On, But Not Together: The Georgian Far Right versus Guram Kashia

The “Rainbow Nation” is Not Immune to Anti-gender Activism: Attacks on Queer Bodies and Knowledge in South Africa

Turning Family Into a Political Weapon

Islamophobia in Sri Lanka, or the Sterilization Obsession

The Radical Right is Exploiting a Swedish Teen’s Murder

New Voter Strongholds

When Ethnic Minorities Vote for Right-Wing Populism

In Bed with the Far Right in Thuringia: A Watershed Moment for Muslim CDU supporters?

The German AfD Makes Appeals to Russian-Germans

The Radical Right in Turmoil

Disunity within the Ranks? Party Expulsions in the European Radical Right: 2000-2020

Is Italian Right-Wing Populism in Decline?

The Dusk after the Dawn: Fall of a Greek Neo-Nazi Party

Countering the Radical Right

Collecting Hate: The Ethics of Archiving and Researching on the Radical and Far-Right

The Many Faces of the Radical Right and How to Counter Their Threat: CARR’s Report “Faces” of the Radical Right

Treating “White Men” as a New “Suspect Community” is Not the Answer

Tackling Online Radicalisation at Its Offline Roots

Moving Away from Islamist Extremism: Assessing Counter Narrative Responses to the Far-Right Online

How to Counter Radical Right Narratives Head on

Can Anything Be Done Against Radical Right Misinformation?

The Effects of Censoring the Far-Right Online

Is Antifa the Answer to Today’s Fascism?

Remembering Kevin Coogan

How to Laugh Away the Far-Right: Lessons from Germany

CARR 2020 Bibliography

To say that 2020 was a memorable year would be an understatement. While the COVID-19 pandemic overshadowed all else and would quickly have a lasting impact on our daily lives, other events related to the radical right soon surfaced.

The year started off with tragedy as a shooter in Hanau, Germany opened fire targeting Turkish “immigrants” (although in reality German citizens). Driven by racist and misogynist conspiracy theories, the terrorist uploaded a manifesto and YouTube video shortly before carrying out the attack. Only a few days later, riots broke out in New Delhi, India, as Hindu nationalist mobs descended onto Muslim neighbourhoods in brazen acts of violence that left dozens dead and hundreds injured. The riots were incited by far right politicians who equated protesters—of a newly passed bill that discriminates citizenship based on religion—as anti-national and worthy targets of murder.

Soon after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic in March, we witnessed radical right leaders enact sweeping authoritarian powers, weaponizing upon societal instability to bolster their agendas. Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party in Hungary passed legislation that would allow the prime minister to rule by decree indefinitely, thus further contributing to erosion of democracy. Meanwhile, Russia’s constitutional referendum outcome secured Vladimir Putin power in office until 2036. Other radical right world leaders who later tested positive for COVID-19, such as Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro, continued to promote falsehoods steeped in anti-science and anti-expert claims. Fear of democratic backsliding became entrenched as panic surrounding the coronavirus spiked across the world.

While anti-mask protests gained strongholds in North America and Europe, another social movement started taking to the streets. The gruesome murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota mobilized a summer of Black Lives Matter protests in the U.S. and those in international solidarity. Championing the call for police reform, however, soon faced backlash from far right counter-protestors. Militia groups such as the self-described Boogaloo Bois, and male supremacist organizations like the Proud Boys, began roaming the streets intimidating BLM protestors, at times with direct violence. Coupled with mounting unemployment levels and economic hardship as a consequence of the pandemic, and social media disinformation circulating at unprecedented rates, 2020 witnessed the height of political polarization.