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With the leverage of digital reproducibility, historical messages of hate are finding new recipients with breathtaking speed and scope. The rapid growth in popularity of right-wing extremist groups in response to transnational economic crises underscores the importance of examining in detail the language and political mobilization strategies of the New Right. In Europe, for example, populist right-wing activists organized around an anti-immigration agenda are becoming more vocal, providing pushback against the increase in migration flows from North Africa and Eastern Europe and countering support for integration with a categorical rejection of multiculturalism. In the United States, anti-immigration sentiment provides a rallying point for political and personal agendas that connect the rhetoric of borders with national, racial, and security issues.
Digital Media Strategies of the Far Right in Europe and the United States is an effort to examine and understand these issues, informed by the conviction that an interdisciplinary and transnational approach can allow productive comparison of far-right propaganda strategies in Europe and the United States. With a special emphasis on performing ideology in the far-right music scene, on violent anti-immigrant stances, and on the far right’s skillful creation and manipulation of virtual communities, the contributions foreground the cultural shibboleths that are exchanged among far-right supporters on the Internet, which serve to generate a sense of group belonging and the illusion of power far greater that the known numbers of neo-Nazis in any one country might suggest. Moreover, with attention to transatlantic right-wing movements and their use of particularly digital media, the essays in this volume put pressure on the similarities among the various national agents, while accommodating differences in the virtual and sometimes violent identities created and nurtured online.
With the leverage of digital reproducibility, historical messages of hate are finding new recipients with breathtaking speed and scope. The rapid growth in popularity of right-wing extremist groups in response to transnational economic crises underscores the importance of examining in detail the language and political mobilization strategies of the New Right. In Europe, for example, populist right-wing activists organized around an anti-immigration agenda are becoming more vocal, providing pushback against the increase in migration flows from North Africa and Eastern Europe and countering support for integration with a categorical rejection of multiculturalism. In the United States, anti-immigration sentiment provides a rallying point for political and personal agendas that connect the rhetoric of borders with national, racial, and security issues.
Digital Media Strategies of the Far Right in Europe and the United States is an effort to examine and understand these issues, informed by the conviction that an interdisciplinary and transnational approach can allow productive comparison of far-right propaganda strategies in Europe and the United States. With a special emphasis on performing ideology in the far-right music scene, on violent anti-immigrant stances, and on the far right’s skillful creation and manipulation of virtual communities, the contributions foreground the cultural shibboleths that are exchanged among far-right supporters on the Internet, which serve to generate a sense of group belonging and the illusion of power far greater that the known numbers of neo-Nazis in any one country might suggest. Moreover, with attention to transatlantic right-wing movements and their use of particularly digital media, the essays in this volume put pressure on the similarities among the various national agents, while accommodating differences in the virtual and sometimes violent identities created and nurtured online.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Digital Media Strategies of the Far Right in Europe
and the United States
Patricia Anne Simpson and Helga Druxes
I. Extremisms and the Internet
Swastikas in Cyberspace: How Hate Went Online
Chip Berlet and Carol Mason
The Lone Wolf Comes From Somewhere, TooØyvind Strømmen and Kjetil
Stormark
Mobilizing on the Fringe: Domestic Extremists and Antisocial
Networking
Kyle Christensen, Arian Spahiu, Bret Wilson, and Robert D.
Duval
Hijacking Academic Autonomy: Neo-Aryanism and Internet
Expertise
Alexandar Mihailovic
II. Far-Right Politics and Internet Identities
Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty: The Transnational Linkages of
Radical Nationalist Political Parties in the European Union
Glen M. E. Duerr
Manipulating the Media: The German New Right’s Virtual and Violent
Identities
Helga Druxes
The Imitated Public Sphere: The Case of Hungary’s Far Right
Domonkos Sik
Right-Wing Campaign Strategies in Sweden
Lara Mazurski
The Identitarian Movement: What Kind of Identity? Is it Really a
Movement?
Fabian Virchow
III. Homophobia, Race, and Radicalism
Singing for Race and Nation: Fascism and Racism in Greek Youth
Music
Alexandra Koronaiou, Evangelos Lagos, and Alexandros
Sakellariou
“The Order of the Vanquished Dragon”: The Performance of Archaistic
Homophobia by the Union of Orthodox Banner Bearers in Putin’s
Russia
Alexandar Mihailovic
Pure Hate: The Political Aesthetic of Prussian Blue
Patricia Anne Simpson
The New “Great White Hope?” White Nationalist Discourses of Race,
Color, and Country in the Career of Mexican Boxer Saúl “Canelo”
Álvarez
Justin D. García
The Roots of East German Xenophobia
Freya Klier
About the Contributors
Index
Patricia Anne Simpson is professor of German studies at Montana
State University in Bozeman.
Helga Druxes is professor of German at Williams College.
Simpson and Druxes’ edited collection provides a timely exploration
of the role of digital media in political radicalism across Europe
and North America. Drawing on an impressive array of rigorously
researched studies, the volume considers not only Internet
extremism, but the media strategies of contemporary far right
parties and movements as well as how homophobia, racism, and
radicalism are transmitted through a range of popular cultural
forms. Avoiding the temptation to ascribe agency to the Internet
itself, this book constitutes a rounded and nuanced contribution to
the debate about how digital media is employed by the far right
today.
*Hilary Pilkington, The University of Manchester*
This is a truly impressive volume. The range of topics covered
provides substantial breadth while each chapter offers a richly
textured level of analysis. For scholars of social movements,
political extremism, and digital culture this volume is a must
read.
*Pete Simi, University of Nebraska, Omaha*
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