EVIE PORTER - YEAR 12
With recent headlines asking ‘How are children falling victim to far-right extremists?’, with conservative social media figures trending and after the riots that swept the UK last summer after the Southport murders, we can be sure that the re-emergence of far-right extremism is dominating the zeitgeist. So what is it? How has it come about? And what will the consequences be?
Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, is an umbrella term that encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by radical conservatism, authoritarianism, ultra-nationalism, and nativism.
Over the recent years, this ideology has been creeping out of the murky channels of counter-culture and making its way into the public eye, with far-right-extremist attacks more than quadrupling between 2016 and 2017. Historically, organised hate groups such as the Klu Klux Klan, have existed for centuries, but these required physical meetings to spread their agenda.
We live in the digital age, relying increasingly on the same internet which has become a safehouse for radicalisation. We all have experience with the mechanics of Social Media algorithms: engaging in one post feeds you a stream of similar posts, gradually transitioning into a depth far removed from the original. Social media feeds you what you want to see, it wants to reaffirm your perceptions so that it becomes a comfortable place for you, so that you continue scrolling. All it takes is liking one tiktok edit of Donald Trump dancing, to rapidly be exposed to more Trump propaganda and increasingly radical ideas. Without the need for face-to-face relationships, it is far less daunting to begin exploring far-right hate groups and also more difficult to detect.
The underground nature of this form of radicalisation is particularly appealing to those who sway toward the far-right. This is because in our socially-conscious age, while still connected to society, those vulnerable are all too aware that publicly expressing anything remotely neo-nazi would result in alienation from their peers. As a result, they turn to the easily accessible digital universe and steadily get sucked down into the never-ending black hole of extremism.
And this isn’t scare-mongering of a modernising world, this is our reality. Far-right attacks are mostly by lone perpetrators, rather than groups - validating that internet isolation is a driving force behind far-right extremism. In 2019, right-wing extremists perpetrated ⅔ of the violent attacks or plots in the US, and over 90% of them in 2020 between January and May.
But is it just the internet to blame?
In the past, times of economic hardship have become a breeding ground for extremism. If we look to 1930s Europe, The Great Depression and economic stagnation coincided with rising popularity for far-right parties, most notably the Nazi party.
In recent years, the global financial crisis, Brexit, the Covid-19 pandemic, conflicts in the Middle East and the Russia-Ukraine war have demolished global economies and fertilised seeds of xenophobia. Populist, anti-system parties and counterculture movements seem to offer easy solutions to difficult problems. People want a change. They want a way out.
While in the UK we’ve seen the Reform Party top opinion polls, in Germany the election on the 23rd February left the AfD as the second strongest party. 80 years after Auschwitz was liberated, a party which has constantly reaffirmed anti semetic ideologies and has long presented the Jewish community as the antithesis of the Volksgemeinschaft (a homogenous national community) has gained dangerous traction.
Figure 1 shows the regional distribution of AfD vote share, demonstrating much more significant popularity in Eastern states. Coupled with figure two, the negative correlation between states with higher AfD support/ more right-wing violence and share of population with migrant background is evident. Although initially counter-intuitive, when applying the isolation theory, this time in terms of social groups rather than internet use, it makes sense.
The eastern population are feeling increasingly disconnected from the centrist West, whose wages are still higher after 35 years of reunification and who are still leaps and bounds ahead in terms of economic and employment prosperity. The switch from communism to the far-right is a symptom of the undercurrent of dissatisfaction permeating the region, and with less than 10% of the population coming from a migrant background, it is so much easier for voters to dehumanise those people through the unfamiliar threat perception effect. Not only this, but the economic benefit which immigration brings is lost to much of the East, who have not benefited for the €35 bn contributed to Germany’s GDP annually or the crucial role played in supporting the aging population. While the federal tax system in Germany does attempt to redistribute wealth, frustration at continued reliance on distribution through federal
mechanisms and effects like ‘The Brain Drain’, mean that eastern voters do not recognise the value immigration has brought to the German economy - resulting in an echo chamber of nativism.
For many, the crowning jewel of western democracy is its representation of the masses. But when the masses are calling for radical change, is the credibility of such an establishment under threat?
Liberalism’s democratic tolerance and adversity to censorship may bear partial blame in enabling the growth of extremist ideologies, a realisation that has caused further disillusionment with the current system: a recent survey suggested that over 50% of over 25s believe that Britain should be ruled by a dictator. This is yet another indicator of the thirst for change in the west. Living in a society under the thumb of late-stage capitalism means that provision for basic human needs like connection, empathy and third spaces has become a luxury. While time to pursue non-monetary assets is no longer affordable, our needs as non-bionic beings remain. Fighting to survive in a system built for robots has resulted in frustration and fatigue in all corners of a rapidly eroding society.
In conclusion, the rise of the far-right is part of a familiar trend where declining economic, social and political conditions motivate a call for change. But with the unchartered territory of a barely explored metaverse, those in authority are left weak against a pandemic of isolation and thus radicalisation. The resurrection of a community where ignorance and hatred are given no oxygen seems only possible if we distance ourselves from the self-interested mindset of capitalism.
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