This article explains the story that right-wing extremists worldwide are telling — so they keep gaining power

Near the beginning of this article it says this:

The radical right has developed a global narrative that, by uniting virulent racists and commonplace conservatives, mass shooters and populist politicians, is already injecting fringe ideas into mainstream culture.

A paragraph soon after says this:

The radical right’s story is rooted in the most basic plot of all: us versus them. Its main nemesis is determined, so the tale goes, to storm the battlements of the “civilized world” and, in what’s called a “great replacement,” oust its innocent inhabitants.

Soon after, it says this:

The idea of “the great replacement” is based on the fantasy that “they” (especially migrants and Muslims) are intent on replacing “us” (whites, Christians). Some versions of the narrative have an anti-Semitic slant as well, with Jews lurking in the shadows of this fiendish plot. For racists, the Others, of course, have darker complexions. For Islamophobes, the outsiders practice the wrong religion.

 

The article says most mainstream people don’t hear about this, but “The Great Replacement” theme is present everywhere in right-wing extremist websites, tweets, manifestos, and so forth. We do see it in the anti-immigrant xenophobia, in Trump’s rhetoric and policies, in Europe’s anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant movements, etc. The article also says that this attitude – this story-telling – has crept into mainstream culture, so it is not only in the right-wing extremist hate groups.

The article also says the “Third Way” politics of Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, etc., abandoned the working class as their political base and supported neoliberal Big Business politics instead. When neoliberal politics hurt the working class it became possible for racists, anti-semites, and xenophobes to recruit working class people into their political analysis.

It also briefly discusses the breakup of multi-cultural Yugoslavia.

The article says we need to re-define the “us” vs. “them” model by recognize that the climate crisis has made everyone on planet earth a new “us.” The climate crisis has made the fossil fuel industry and the financial sector the new “them.”

 

Read the article at this link:

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176618/tomgram%3A_john_feffer%2C_the_far_right%27s_war_on_culture/#more

 

 

 

 

 

About GlenAnderson 1498 Articles
Since the late 1960s Glen Anderson has devoted his life to working as a volunteer for peace, nonviolence, social justice, and progressive political issues. He has worked through many existing organizations and started several. Over the years he has worked especially for such wide-ranging goals as making peace with Vietnam, eliminating nuclear weapons, converting from a military economy to a peacetime economy, abolishing the death penalty, promoting nonviolence at all levels throughout society, and helping people organize and strategize for grassroots movements to solve many kinds of problems. He writes, speaks, and conducts training workshops on a wide variety of topics. Since 1987 he has produced and hosted a one-hour cable TV interview program on many kinds of issues. Since 2017 he has blogged at https://parallaxperspectives.org He lives in Lacey near Olympia WA. You can reach him at (360) 491-9093 glen@parallaxperspectives.org