Nationalism has a way of oppressing others.
February 22, 2018 4:50 PM Subscribe
The Opportunistic Rise of Europe’s Far Right. Across the continent, racist groups have used the war on terror to gain a new platform and there is a far-right revival in Central Europe.
Guardian long read; The fascist movement that has brought Mussolini back to the mainstream.
Poland and the Uncontrollable Fury of Europe's Far Right.
The Rise of the European Far-Right in the Internet Age.
Rise of the nationalists: a guide to Europe’s far-right parties.
Guardian long read; The fascist movement that has brought Mussolini back to the mainstream.
Poland and the Uncontrollable Fury of Europe's Far Right.
The Rise of the European Far-Right in the Internet Age.
Rise of the nationalists: a guide to Europe’s far-right parties.
That's exactly what happens in fascistic movements and it's why they're referred to as suicidal: they have to keep coming up with more and more outsiders to eliminate, and once you run out of actual outsiders to the movement they naturally turn to insiders. They will shrink the boundary that indicates insider behavior, the wagons circle smaller and smaller, and those decided to be marginal are sacrificed for group solidarity.
posted by rhizome at 5:44 PM on February 22, 2018 [16 favorites]
posted by rhizome at 5:44 PM on February 22, 2018 [16 favorites]
Seriously, it's as if everyone forgets about the horrific violence that happens after revolutions. Once the "enemy" is defeated, there's always a purge within.
posted by droplet at 6:31 PM on February 22, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by droplet at 6:31 PM on February 22, 2018 [4 favorites]
Well, sure, but the other thing that happens once you start achieving your "pure" nation is you blame foreigners for any lingering difficulties. Gotta get that Lebensraum that those dirty [insert Other here] are selfishly keeping for themselves. Nothing like a war to stimulate the economy and quell internal dissent. That's one of the reasons this is all so frightening.
posted by Wretch729 at 6:35 PM on February 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Wretch729 at 6:35 PM on February 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
Unfortunately, it's not only the far right going through the outsider-condemnation exercises. The Pew Research Center has a good overview of the growing ideological divide over the last 20 years or so.
posted by phenylphenol at 6:43 PM on February 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by phenylphenol at 6:43 PM on February 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
Yep- the far left is totally seizing control of government in multiple European states by channeling anxiety over economic transformation into anti-immigrant sentiment, too.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 6:56 PM on February 22, 2018 [17 favorites]
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 6:56 PM on February 22, 2018 [17 favorites]
Honestly, the effects seen in that overview are entirely consistent with one party growing more extremist. Trying to figure out what an objectively "moderate" middle ground is is next to impossible, politics being a subjective thing.
When I was figuring my politics in high school, and they were teaching civics and all that, giving people quizzes, my views were on the left-ish side of moderate. My views haven't changed that much. I'm stubborn and I've had no great revelations. And yet in the modern political mess were in, the values and views that made me count as "moderate" make me even less forgiving of the right wing's current behavior in this country than most committed leftists.
And thinking back, there's two major political changes on the left wing I can think of. Gun control has become more of an issue for the American left, but honestly the right here has gotten ... extreme on that issue, too.
The other big political deal in America since my high school education is gay marriage. But to be honest, the moderate stance on that in America is "whatever, I don't care. Let people do what they want I guess." The fact that it's even that big an issue is that there is a large faction of religious fundamentalists who want their societal mores to be supported by the force of law. There was never any interest in compromise on that issue. For example their stated concerns could easily be addressed by "the government issues civil unions to whoever, churches marry who they please" ... a solution which never came up because that doesn't actually do anything to enforce religious morals on other people.
But to try and take this out of a derail into American politics, the rise in ethnic nationalism isn't confined to Europe. It's going strong in India and Japan, to name a couple, and the reach is global. It's not much of a stretch to lump in the terrorism committed by fundamentalist Islamic groups into the same category, either. This is not something symmetric, met by a countervailing philosophy. It's just not.
posted by Zalzidrax at 7:44 PM on February 22, 2018 [8 favorites]
When I was figuring my politics in high school, and they were teaching civics and all that, giving people quizzes, my views were on the left-ish side of moderate. My views haven't changed that much. I'm stubborn and I've had no great revelations. And yet in the modern political mess were in, the values and views that made me count as "moderate" make me even less forgiving of the right wing's current behavior in this country than most committed leftists.
And thinking back, there's two major political changes on the left wing I can think of. Gun control has become more of an issue for the American left, but honestly the right here has gotten ... extreme on that issue, too.
The other big political deal in America since my high school education is gay marriage. But to be honest, the moderate stance on that in America is "whatever, I don't care. Let people do what they want I guess." The fact that it's even that big an issue is that there is a large faction of religious fundamentalists who want their societal mores to be supported by the force of law. There was never any interest in compromise on that issue. For example their stated concerns could easily be addressed by "the government issues civil unions to whoever, churches marry who they please" ... a solution which never came up because that doesn't actually do anything to enforce religious morals on other people.
But to try and take this out of a derail into American politics, the rise in ethnic nationalism isn't confined to Europe. It's going strong in India and Japan, to name a couple, and the reach is global. It's not much of a stretch to lump in the terrorism committed by fundamentalist Islamic groups into the same category, either. This is not something symmetric, met by a countervailing philosophy. It's just not.
posted by Zalzidrax at 7:44 PM on February 22, 2018 [8 favorites]
Yep- the far left is totally seizing control
Huh?
posted by splitpeasoup at 8:05 PM on February 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
Huh?
posted by splitpeasoup at 8:05 PM on February 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
We are experiencing a similar thing in Australia with the so called United Patriots Front. To the point where many Australians are now ashamed of our flag and any kind of nationalism.
posted by temerity at 8:22 PM on February 22, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by temerity at 8:22 PM on February 22, 2018 [4 favorites]
I bet it wouldn't take long before, absent their traditional targets, they started to turn on each other over differences that got progressively tinier and more inconsequential.
It doesn't. That's the history of Europe in a nutshell. It's why Brexit is so depressing. It's why the troubles in NI are stirring again. It's why eastern Europe exploded into genocides when the USSR failed.
posted by fshgrl at 9:08 PM on February 22, 2018 [2 favorites]
It doesn't. That's the history of Europe in a nutshell. It's why Brexit is so depressing. It's why the troubles in NI are stirring again. It's why eastern Europe exploded into genocides when the USSR failed.
posted by fshgrl at 9:08 PM on February 22, 2018 [2 favorites]
What were the genocides in Eastern Europe? The only European genocidal war I can think of is breakup of Yugoslavia and that had almost nothing to do with the USSR failing. Except maybe losing the threat that the USSR would invade. Yugoslavia was always a strange country from its creation after WWI and the Balkans had been screwed up since at least the Ottoman conquests.
posted by DoveBrown at 11:10 PM on February 22, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by DoveBrown at 11:10 PM on February 22, 2018 [3 favorites]
I mean the shame for the Australian flag and nationalism is partly driven by the UPF and the bigotry often displayed side-by-side with it, but general disgust at our colonialist state usually plays into it for me.
posted by AnhydrousLove at 11:58 PM on February 22, 2018
posted by AnhydrousLove at 11:58 PM on February 22, 2018
We are experiencing a similar thing in Australia with the so called United Patriots Front. To the point where many Australians are now ashamed of our flag and any kind of nationalism.
OTOH, the national paper of record (The Australian, one of Murdoch's) still rails about “Cultural Marxism” in its editorials. (When they were thundering about the “Safe Schools” programme teaching kids that gay people exist, I'm wondering if they borrowed that other Third Reich jargon term, “Sexual Bolshevism”.)
Australia seems quite polarised, and everything is a symbol, to be kicked like a football. On one hand, there are the university-educated inner-city Green voters who want refugees resettled in Australia and constitutional recognition of Indigenous sovereignty, and wouldn't be caught dead with anything with the flag on it lest someone mistake them for a neo-Nazi or a Liberal voter. OTOH, a significant proportion of the country is rolling coal, literally and metaphorically. They'd want to pull down the wind turbines (out of faux-concern for those afflicted with “wind turbine syndrome”, a culture-bound syndrome affecting only self-identifying Australian conservatives like a sort of reverse fan death), and spend tax money subsidising the digging up and burning of coal just to make those smug inner-city pinko commo lesbo greeno hipsters cry into their overpriced avocado lattes. The main voice of this group is, of course, the arch-troll Tony Abbott, though there's a lot of lesser Abbotts emerging from the woodwork.
For what it's worth, there is an interesting book about the (mostly right-wing) extremist fringes in Australia titled “Depends What You Mean By Extremist”, by John Safran (who's sort of the local Jon Ronson/Louis Theroux).
posted by acb at 4:17 AM on February 23, 2018 [3 favorites]
OTOH, the national paper of record (The Australian, one of Murdoch's) still rails about “Cultural Marxism” in its editorials. (When they were thundering about the “Safe Schools” programme teaching kids that gay people exist, I'm wondering if they borrowed that other Third Reich jargon term, “Sexual Bolshevism”.)
Australia seems quite polarised, and everything is a symbol, to be kicked like a football. On one hand, there are the university-educated inner-city Green voters who want refugees resettled in Australia and constitutional recognition of Indigenous sovereignty, and wouldn't be caught dead with anything with the flag on it lest someone mistake them for a neo-Nazi or a Liberal voter. OTOH, a significant proportion of the country is rolling coal, literally and metaphorically. They'd want to pull down the wind turbines (out of faux-concern for those afflicted with “wind turbine syndrome”, a culture-bound syndrome affecting only self-identifying Australian conservatives like a sort of reverse fan death), and spend tax money subsidising the digging up and burning of coal just to make those smug inner-city pinko commo lesbo greeno hipsters cry into their overpriced avocado lattes. The main voice of this group is, of course, the arch-troll Tony Abbott, though there's a lot of lesser Abbotts emerging from the woodwork.
For what it's worth, there is an interesting book about the (mostly right-wing) extremist fringes in Australia titled “Depends What You Mean By Extremist”, by John Safran (who's sort of the local Jon Ronson/Louis Theroux).
posted by acb at 4:17 AM on February 23, 2018 [3 favorites]
Trump Steers Right-Wing Summit on Populist Path Blazed in Europe
"Bloodlands"*
posted by kliuless at 4:37 AM on February 23, 2018
"Bloodlands"*
posted by kliuless at 4:37 AM on February 23, 2018
The only European genocidal war I can think of is breakup of Yugoslavia
Maybe not quite Europe but there was also Chechnya.
posted by srboisvert at 6:42 AM on February 23, 2018
Maybe not quite Europe but there was also Chechnya.
posted by srboisvert at 6:42 AM on February 23, 2018
Great, I've been haltingly trying to get through "Human Smoke" and "The Bitter Road to Freedom" since late 2016 and now I can add "Bloodlands" to the list...
I'm starting to feel like I need to read some Evola and Dugin for myself, but I sure as hell don't want to buy anything from these....people.
Maybe reading some of Senholt's work is enough, if available elsewhere.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:22 AM on February 23, 2018
I'm starting to feel like I need to read some Evola and Dugin for myself, but I sure as hell don't want to buy anything from these....people.
Maybe reading some of Senholt's work is enough, if available elsewhere.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:22 AM on February 23, 2018
I'm fairly sure that Evola's long dead. Not sure if he's still in copyright, or if the copyrights are held by actual Nazis.
posted by acb at 9:38 AM on February 23, 2018
posted by acb at 9:38 AM on February 23, 2018
Yeah, Evola ought to be easy to find. I don’t think there are any Dugin translations except for theirs though.
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:41 AM on February 23, 2018
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:41 AM on February 23, 2018
Dugin's main work is available at (where else?) Amazon.
posted by theorique at 9:44 AM on February 23, 2018
posted by theorique at 9:44 AM on February 23, 2018
Yes, from Arktos.
posted by snuffleupagus at 10:52 AM on February 23, 2018
posted by snuffleupagus at 10:52 AM on February 23, 2018
This is a point that Tomi Reichental makes in the documentary Condemned to Remember (might not be avail outside Ireland in which case you can see the trailer here).
He is a survivor of Bergen-Belsen, and in that documentary he travels through Europe, revisiting where his family once lived, but also to show that society as a whole is letting horrific events happen, that the far-right are becoming more mainstream, and that if we really object to this we have to do something.
What that something is I don't know, in the documentary they play footage from a radio show where Reichental said he wanted Ireland to allow in Syrian refugees (I think 10 thousand), and immediately the response was "no, that is none of our business."
It depresses me to see this, and to not know what to do. I mean I can donate some money, I can say what I believe, but how can I actually make a difference?
posted by Fence at 5:58 AM on February 24, 2018
He is a survivor of Bergen-Belsen, and in that documentary he travels through Europe, revisiting where his family once lived, but also to show that society as a whole is letting horrific events happen, that the far-right are becoming more mainstream, and that if we really object to this we have to do something.
What that something is I don't know, in the documentary they play footage from a radio show where Reichental said he wanted Ireland to allow in Syrian refugees (I think 10 thousand), and immediately the response was "no, that is none of our business."
It depresses me to see this, and to not know what to do. I mean I can donate some money, I can say what I believe, but how can I actually make a difference?
posted by Fence at 5:58 AM on February 24, 2018
What annoys me - among the other annoyances that are numberless as the stars at night - is that while it's possible, plausible and I believe correct to link the new nationalisms into a cohesive movement with common causes and resources, there's nothing like that on the left. In part that's because the left always suffers from the fact that mobsterism benefits from fascism and is also lucrative, in part because the rules say that you don't mess with other national politics and the other side doesn't follow the rules. (Although they are quick to claim infractions when you do get someone like Soros who has and uses resources for democratic ends.)
Where there are effective transnational alliances, of course, they are constantly attacked, and as they tend to work by consensus they tend to be vulnerable.
These aren't new observations, of course, but I'd like to think we could use some of the new tools and techniques that the bastards have slimed across.
posted by Devonian at 8:24 AM on February 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
Where there are effective transnational alliances, of course, they are constantly attacked, and as they tend to work by consensus they tend to be vulnerable.
These aren't new observations, of course, but I'd like to think we could use some of the new tools and techniques that the bastards have slimed across.
posted by Devonian at 8:24 AM on February 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
Devonian, have a look at what DiEM25 are attempting to put together.
In other, perhaps heartening news: Hungary: surprise defeat for Viktor Orbán in bellwether byelection.
posted by progosk at 7:39 AM on February 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
In other, perhaps heartening news: Hungary: surprise defeat for Viktor Orbán in bellwether byelection.
posted by progosk at 7:39 AM on February 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
The outgoing head of counter-terrorism policing in the UK has used his valedictory speech to warn against the rise of the far-right as he revealed four extremist rightwing plots were thwarted in 2017.
posted by adamvasco at 2:24 PM on February 26, 2018
posted by adamvasco at 2:24 PM on February 26, 2018
An interesting take on the flipside of the current wave of nationalisms: The Rise of Virtual Citizenship (J. Bridle, The Atlantic)
“If you believe you are a citizen of the world, you are a citizen of nowhere. You don’t understand what citizenship means,” the British prime minister, Theresa May, declared in October 2016. Not long after, at his first postelection rally, Donald Trump asserted, “There is no global anthem. No global currency. No certificate of global citizenship. We pledge allegiance to one flag and that flag is the American flag.” And in Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has increased his national-conservative party’s popularity with statements like “all the terrorists are basically migrants” and “the best migrant is the migrant who does not come.”
Citizenship and its varying legal definition has become one of the key battlegrounds of the 21st century, as nations attempt to stake out their power in a G-Zero, globalized world, one increasingly defined by transnational, borderless trade and liquid, virtual finance. In a climate of pervasive nationalism, jingoism, xenophobia, and ever-building resentment toward those who move, it’s tempting to think that doing so would become more difficult.
But alongside the rise of populist, identitarian movements across the globe, identity itself is being virtualized, too. It no longer needs to be tied to place or nation to function in the global marketplace.[...] Virtual citizenship is a commodity that can be acquired through the purchase of real estate or financial investments, subscribed to via an online service, or assembled by peer-to-peer digital networks. And as these options become available, they’re also used, like so many technologies, to exclude those who don’t fit in. [...] The virtualization of citizenship mostly benefits those whose individual, state-sponsored sovereignty doesn’t match their personal wealth. At the same time, the same mechanisms that allow Chinese citizens to establish businesses in Estonia and legal residency in Cyprus, and thus the EU, also disempower and marginalize the stateless populations of Emirati Bidoon and Syrian refugees.
So as renascent ultra-nationalism is being sold to the poor/undereducated/powerless in a variety of packages (e.g separatism, jingoism, ethnic and religious superiority), the wealthy and technically adept have various forms of post-nationalist life to try on.
In other news, Steve Bannon is on a political visit in Rome today...
posted by progosk at 7:32 AM on March 1, 2018
“If you believe you are a citizen of the world, you are a citizen of nowhere. You don’t understand what citizenship means,” the British prime minister, Theresa May, declared in October 2016. Not long after, at his first postelection rally, Donald Trump asserted, “There is no global anthem. No global currency. No certificate of global citizenship. We pledge allegiance to one flag and that flag is the American flag.” And in Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has increased his national-conservative party’s popularity with statements like “all the terrorists are basically migrants” and “the best migrant is the migrant who does not come.”
Citizenship and its varying legal definition has become one of the key battlegrounds of the 21st century, as nations attempt to stake out their power in a G-Zero, globalized world, one increasingly defined by transnational, borderless trade and liquid, virtual finance. In a climate of pervasive nationalism, jingoism, xenophobia, and ever-building resentment toward those who move, it’s tempting to think that doing so would become more difficult.
But alongside the rise of populist, identitarian movements across the globe, identity itself is being virtualized, too. It no longer needs to be tied to place or nation to function in the global marketplace.[...] Virtual citizenship is a commodity that can be acquired through the purchase of real estate or financial investments, subscribed to via an online service, or assembled by peer-to-peer digital networks. And as these options become available, they’re also used, like so many technologies, to exclude those who don’t fit in. [...] The virtualization of citizenship mostly benefits those whose individual, state-sponsored sovereignty doesn’t match their personal wealth. At the same time, the same mechanisms that allow Chinese citizens to establish businesses in Estonia and legal residency in Cyprus, and thus the EU, also disempower and marginalize the stateless populations of Emirati Bidoon and Syrian refugees.
So as renascent ultra-nationalism is being sold to the poor/undereducated/powerless in a variety of packages (e.g separatism, jingoism, ethnic and religious superiority), the wealthy and technically adept have various forms of post-nationalist life to try on.
In other news, Steve Bannon is on a political visit in Rome today...
posted by progosk at 7:32 AM on March 1, 2018
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posted by The Card Cheat at 5:03 PM on February 22, 2018 [20 favorites]