The United States will be minority white by 2045. Thus, due to a new-felt urgency and a shared goal across a variety of hate groups, the last several years has seen some new practices, such as seeking to undermine the government from within, forcing their ideas into the mainstream, and an obvious acceleration of violence.
Cynthia Miller-Idriss’ book, Hate in the Homeland: The New Global Far Right, primarily addresses the “where” and “when” of far-right radicalization/growth. She also asks what fuels rising extremist violence, what new tactics groups are using, and informs the reader of newer global dimensions of extremism.
In addition to reading her book, I also watched Dr. Miller-Idriss on a webinar. She said that countries in the West experienced a 250-percent increase in white supremacist incidents between 2002 and 2019, 60 percent of which incidents happened in the US. You can watch the recording of her webinar here. She testified before the House Committee on Homeland Security recently as well about the rise in domestic radicalization and terrorism.
The purpose of her book is to educate people who will interact with hate groups and anyone who is a potential victim (so it’s for teachers, policy makers, parents). She explains the global dimensions of far-right extremism, how mainstreaming happens, and how far-right youth culture and the tactics and strategies of far-right groups and movements are evolving.
A few things I learned from her book:
- The use of mainstreaming: clean look, clothing brands, “nationalist streetwear,” etc. Recruitment tools: YouTube talk shows and vlogs, clothing brands, music streaming services, and a neo-Nazi coffee company; making use of the powerful connection between food and identity
- Code words: “14 words,” “88” standing for Heil Hitler, “snowflake” as pejorative for soft from Fight Club movie, new “multiculturalists” (separating and preserving racial uniqueness), “Globalists” is coded speech for Jews, “Nipsters” = Nazi hipsters, “Conspiracism” creates a moral map/heroism; being “red-pilled” comes from The Matrix, a red X in Twitter handles signaling being “shadow banned by elites”, the OK symbol, milk emoji (belief that white people can digest milk better than other ethnic and racial groups and celebrating dairy milk over soy milk, which is viewed by the far right as emasculating)
- Theories: “The Great Replacement” conspiracy theory (international plan to replace white, Christian, European populations), “White Genocide” (immigration, abortion, violence against whites), and “Eurabia” (Muslims working to replace whites through immigration and high birthrates; fear of being subject to Sharia law and Islamic rule, conversion)
- Acceleration, Destabilization, and Apocalyptic fantasies: Apocalyptic race war leading to new world order, restored white civilization; speed up polarization, use violence to undermine social stability/accelerate inevitable collapse and start anew
- New spaces to encounter extremist ideas: commercial markets and cultural spaces, combat sports/MMA violent culture and language (brotherhood, heroism, discipline, combat training for civil war, obsession with the body and muscular aesthetic, domination). Financial implications: sponsorship of tournaments, merchandise stores, clothing brands, training camps.
- How a climate of declining public trust, anti-intellectualism, and attacks on expertise has evolved into a major strategy; creation of new institutions to cultivate “expertise”
- Internet regulation backfiring as users migrate to unregulated, alternative fringe platforms; algorithmic web searches creating “echo chambers”
Key quotations:
“The desire to establish a separate white territory or to restore a white homeland is at the root of far-right and white-supremacist extremists’ calls to end immigration, re-migrate ethnic minorities, and accelerate a race war in order to achieve rebirth and restoration of white civilization.”
“The emphasis on domination, muscularity, and physical intimidation means the MMA provides ideal sites for the construction of what scholars call “hegemonic masculinity,” a concept that explains how particular views about manhood and masculinity become culturally ideal, or “hegemonic,” during any given historical moment. MMA and combat-sports culture’s hypermasculine, muscular aesthetic, “straight edge” philosophy, and emphasis on an alternative lifestyle align well with far-right messaging about the need to resist mainstream society, the decadent left, and combat training for a coming civil war. Far-right obsessions with the body are critical here too, as cult-like obsessions with healthy living, with no drugs or alcohol and a regimented physical fitness regime, strengthen the military-like qualities of far-right ideals and evoke racialized notions of pure bodies.”
Reflections: I spent most of my time reading this book saying to myself, “they want to do what?” and “they think what?”
Restore a white homeland? How boring would that be? End immigration? How do these folks think they got here???
OK so I know what to look out for and how bad things are getting… what do we DO about it? For that, I read the next book in our series.
Laugh-out loud quotes:
“… boycotting tofu, which the far right presents as dangerous because of the potential for soy-based estrogen to emasculate young men.”
“In October 2019, the neo-Nazi podcasters Joseph Jordan and Mike Peinovich took on the “impossible burger”—a soy-based, vegetarian product from the Impossible Foods company, which now supplies products to fast-food outlets like Burger King and Red Robin. In their October 1, 2019, episode, Jordan and Peinovich argued that the soy burgers are part of a Jewish capitalist plot against white people and industrialized society, with the aim of reducing the United States ‘to the level of the Third World,”’where there will be a ‘mass of undifferentiated laborers that are eating soy burgers and riding around in little putt-putt cars.”’
“… a conspiracy theory promoted by Alex Jones that the government is using a ‘gay bomb’ designed by the Pentagon to turn people gay with chemicals.”
* * *
Missed the first post? You can read the introduction to this series here.
- Political religious extremism – what is it and why is it happening now?
- What social and psychological processes lead to altruistic evil?
- What is the first warning sign of a world order in danger of collapse?
- What does “apocalyptic politics” mean and what causes it?
- Where do we go from here?
