scholarly journals Information disorder, the Triumvirate, and COVID-19: How media outlets, foreign state intrusion, and the far-right diaspora drive the COVID-19 anti-vaccination movement

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 16-45
Author(s):  
Aman Bajwa
Keyword(s):  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Foreign State ◽  
The Social ◽  
Information Operations ◽  
Critical Media ◽  
Vaccine Debate

Information disorder has become an increasing concern in the wake of the 2016 US presidential election. With the state of the COVID-19 pandemic rapidly evolving in all facets, the vaccination debate has become increasingly polarized and subjected to a form of politics based around identity markers such as nationality, ethnicity, gender, and ideology. At the forefront of this is the COVID-19 anti-vaccination movement that has gained mainstream attention, leading to conflict with pro-vaccinationists. This has paved the way for exploitation by subversive elements such as, foreign state-backed disinformation campaigns, alternative news outlets, and right-wing influencers who spread false and misleading information, or disinformation, on COVID-19 in order to promote polarization of the vaccine debate through identity politics. Disinformation spread sows confusion and disorder, leading to the erosion of social cohesion as well as the potential for real-world conflict and violence. As a result, the article below will generate further understanding of the modern-day spread of disinformation, the strategies and tactics utilized by state and non-state actors, the effects of its exposure, and the social-psychological processes involved in its spread and resonance. Furthermore, in countering this phenomenon, this article recommends a collaborative framework involving emphasis on critical media literacy skills, citizen participation, and development of counter-offensive capabilities towards state-backed information operations.

scholarly journals Political exile in the post-2019 Brazilian context: history of exile and work-existence/resistance of a Brazilian intellectual

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 307-324
Author(s):  
FERNANDA TARABAL LOPES ◽  
ALESSANDRA DE SÁ MELLO DA COSTA
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Psychological Function ◽  
Far Right ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Exile ◽  
University Professor ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject

Abstract Recent years have witnessed the rise of far right-wing leaders in various parts of the world. Stanley (2019) recognizes the particularities of the different nations where this phenomenon is observed but advocates for generalizing it. The author uses the label “fascism” to refer to a variety of ultranationalism. When analyzing the current Brazilian situation, Souza (2019) also refers to fascism, exploring its irrational origins and particularities in Brazil, noticing the emergence of a neo-fascism. Against this backdrop, there are cases of people leaving their countries due to the increasing violence experienced. This study explores this particular situation, presenting the history of Tiburi’s exile, a philosopher, writer, university professor, and Brazilian politician. Concerning the theoretical discussion of the case, the study recalls, among other contributions, the debate about the centrality of work and its psychological function and how it presents itself as a form of existence and resistance for political exile. The article also discusses solidarity and the ‘public space of word’, a possibility that ceases in the country of origin and is sought in expatriation, primarily through work as a mode of existence and resistance. This study uses life history research, which is a rich possibility of apprehending the social experience and the subject in their practices. It is a method particularly fruitful in the study of phenomena such as migration. It is also essential through this research to register and reflect on work in the context of the recent Brazilian political exile.

On the Subject of Far-Right-Wing Politics

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 763-777 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Short
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
World War ◽  
Far Right ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Second World ◽  
Insight Into

This paper explores how to consider the far right in historical-material and psychoanalytic perspective in the current conjuncture. Since the early post-Second World War interventions in this register, both the social relations of capitalism and psychoanalytic theory have evolved, while the problematic of the far-right had been somewhat marginalized as an object of research. This discussion revisits these broad concerns with attention to developments in the characterization of contemporary character structures and social relations. It examines two psychoanalytic approaches – drawn from Kohut and Lacan – that have been mobilized to examine the dominant character structures of late capitalism to consider their complementarity (and differences) with respect to certain psychological functions – defenses, affect and identification – that may offer insight into the far-right in the contemporary moment.

scholarly journals Who Is a Right-Wing Supporter? On the Biographical Experiences of Young Right-Wing Voters in Poland and Germany

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 212-235
Author(s):  
Adam Mrozowicki ◽  
Vera Trappmann ◽  
Alexandra Seehaus ◽  
Justyna Kajta
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Market Competition ◽  
Political Support ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Old People ◽  
Far Right ◽  
The Right ◽  
Larger Sample

This article explores the selected cases of the biographies of right-wing supporters from a larger sample of narrative interviews with young (18-35 years old) people in Poland and Germany. In the existing literature, we can find the socio-economic explanations of the sources of the right-wing turn (related to economic deprivation, precarisation, social exclusion, labor market competition with immigrants and others), as well as cultural explanations connected with new identity politics, symbolic exclusion and divide between society and political elites, the disembedding from previously solid communities, and the fear of new risks related to the inflow of cultural Others. Despite notable exceptions, it is rather uncommon to discuss in this context the actual biographical experiences of right-wing and far-right supporters. In the article, we take a closer look at four biographical cases of people declaring their political support for far right parties. The analysis of the cases leads to the distinction of socio-economic and socio-political pathways to right-wing populist support.

scholarly journals Limits of the Human Rights Vocabulary in Addressing Inequalities

Intersections ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eszter Kováts
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Gender Ideology ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
European Continent ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Us ◽  
Material Conditions ◽  
The Right

As early as 1995, Nancy Fraser problematized the shift of justice claims from redistribution towards recognition (Fraser, 1995). Since then, this shift has proven even more pronounced, displacing redistribution claims and reiterating identities (Fraser, 2000). At the same time, we can see how recognition claims in the form of identity politics became overall present in the social justice activism of the Anglo-Saxon countries, stirring heated controversies there, not only from the Right, but from Marxist, liberal and feminist points of view, too. On the European continent, these debates take the form of mostly right-wing movements mobilizing against ‘gender ideology’ and ‘political correctness’, portrayed as imminent danger coming from the US and/or the West. In my paper I critically engage with the widespread matrix of visualizing political positions and fault lines as being on two axes: economic (left and right) and cultural (liberal and authoritarian), and discuss why placing the attitudes towards ‘oppressed minorities’ on the cultural axis cuts the related issues from their embeddedness in material conditions. I point out that the cultural axes, the recognition shift, and the human rights paradigm type of articulation of injustices are going into the same direction, namely a culturalist interpretation of oppressions. Empirically based on the controversies around the Istanbul Convention (2017) and the Gender Studies MA programs (2017-2018) in Hungary and theoretically on Fraser’s concept of ‘perspectivic dualism’ as outlined in her debate with Axel Honneth (Fraser and Honneth, 2003), I argue that this culturalist interpretation both of prevailing injustices and of the right-wing contestations actually reinforces the cultural war framework of the Right rather than overcoming it.

Entry into the Extreme Right

2019 ◽  
pp. 104-127
Author(s):  
Arie W. Kruglanski ◽  
David Webber ◽  
Daniel Koehler
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Social Connections ◽  
Social Aspect ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Extreme Right ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Specific Analysis ◽  
The Social ◽  
Network Component

Chapter 6 examines what motivated the interviewees to join extreme right-wing groups and organizations. Analyses revealed that the most common soon-to-be-extremist was someone who was socially frustrated, although there were no consistent culprits responsible for their distress. It turns out that individuals joined the extreme milieu because they viewed it as place where they could find significance and acceptance—where they could be seen as idealistic revolutionaries and belong to a group that gave them purpose. Analyses further revealed the social network component of radicalization, in that the vast majority of those interviewed were introduced to Far Right organizations through various social connections. Specific analysis is applied to understand how the social aspect of radicalization occurred and the role of the hate music scene in facilitating this process. Connections are drawn to previous work with both Far Right and other extremists that addressed those processes.

Nation branding and the social imaginary of participation: An exploratory study of the Swedish Number campaign

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 561-574 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Pamment ◽  
Cecilia Cassinger
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Participatory Culture ◽  
Nation Branding ◽  
Social Imaginary ◽  
Media Technologies ◽  
The Social ◽  
Nation Brands

The Swedish Number is a 2016 marketing campaign by an independent tourist association that relies heavily on a developing heritage of Swedish nation branding initiatives. It uses media technologies to encourage citizen participation in promoting Swedish values, partly for the purpose of showing the country’s authentic side and partly for generating publicity. This article conducts a case study of the campaign in order to explore the ways in which media technologies were used to circulate tropes originating in the official nation brand in the service of a commercial interest. We argue that Brand Sweden has established a set of national identity resources that may be leveraged through public participation, vast publicity drives via media technologies and through mimicry of the national interest. Such a study supports a closer analysis of the ways in which nation brands influence identity politics via media technologies. This article will be of much interest to scholars of nation brands, cultural studies, participatory culture, national identity and transmedia engagement. This article forms part of the ‘Theorizing Media in Nation Branding’ Special Issue.

scholarly journals Producing Antipetismo: Media activism and the rise of the radical, nationalist right in contemporary Brazil

2019 ◽  
Vol 82 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart Davis ◽  
Joe Straubhaar
Keyword(s):  
Press Coverage ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Media Activism ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Press ◽  
News Networks ◽  
The Right

When examining the decline of the leftist Partido dos Trabalhadores and the ascension of the right-wing extremist Jair Bolsanaro of the far-right Partido Liberal Social to the 2018 presidency, political scientists David Samuels and Cesar Zucco have argued that this shift is best understood not through positive characteristics of Bolsonaro’s candidacy but through antipetismo [‘anti-PT-ism’], an intensely personal resentment of the Partido dos Trabalhadores. We assert that popular right-wing Facebook groups and networks formed around the communication network WhatsApp-fueled antipetismo by channeling anger originating in the 2013 nationwide protests away from a variety of social, political, and issues and toward a villainous depiction of Partido dos Trabalhadores leaders and valorization of anti-Partido dos Trabalhadores activists like Bolsanaro, as well as some focus on his own conservative, nationalist agenda. To interrogate this assertion, we propose two specific lines of research. The first is a qualitative textual analysis of the social media accounts of two of the most active anti-Partido dos Trabalhadores groups: Vem Pra Rua and O Movimento Brasil Livre. Through close reading of the materials distributed on these sites, we will illustrate how they channeled general unrest into a specifically partisan attack. The next line of research and case will be an examination of the role of mainstream news networks (namely TV Record) and WhatsApp by those campaigning for recently elected president Bolsonaro for a continued negative campaign against left candidates, specifically the Partido dos Trabalhadores, using fake news items like the supposed ‘gay kit’ that was being circulated in schools by the Partido dos Trabalhadores and others on the left to persuade children to become gay. When possible, we will analyze examples of the materials that were circulated that have emerged in the press coverage and will examine the processes that were used to target and persuade people to forward the materials created for the campaign.

American populism, Glenn Beck and affective media production

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 375-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivier Jutel
Keyword(s):  
Social Transformation ◽  
Media Production ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Political Ontology ◽  
Tea Party Movement ◽  
Fox News ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Right

This article examines the centrality of affective media production to contemporary American populism with a case study of the right-wing broadcaster Glenn Beck. The rise of far-right media and Donald Trump in social media spaces demonstrates the convergence of the economic and political logic of affect. In soliciting the affective and collaborative labour of users, affective media necessarily deploys discourses of social transformation, autonomy and critical knowingness. Beck’s show exemplifies this logic with Beck functioning as a leader of the Tea Party movement who perform ‘free labour’ for Fox News and Beck’s own media empire, while experiencing this as a form of revolutionary education. Where this audience movement speaks to the political ontology of affective media is in the return of a fetishistic ‘symbolic efficiency’. In foreshadowing Trump, Beck articulates an antagonistic division of the social with a populist community of jouissance and individuation both threatened and constituted by the rapacious enemy.

scholarly journals The Post-Depressive Constellation: From Political Effervescence to the Rise of Right-Wing Authoritarianism in Brazil

2021 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-64
Author(s):  
Arthur Bueno
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Social Transformations ◽  
Authentic Self ◽  
Right Wing Authoritarianism ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Clinical Diagnoses

On the basis of an analysis of Brazil’s political history from 2013 to the present, this essay advances the idea that the current rise of the far right – in that country and possibly elsewhere – can be understood as one among various political expressions of a ‘post-depressive constellation.’ Such a diagnosis takes its cue from analyses which, in the 1990s and 2000s, recognised in the rapid increase in the depression rates an index of major social transformations occurring in the last decades of the 20th century. The foregrounding of depression in clinical diagnoses was considered, then, the sign of a new social order: one in which individuals were faced with ever stronger requirements of self-responsibility and authentic self-realization (i.e., the demand of ‘being oneself’) in a context of declining social support and escalating inequality, competition and precariousness. Today, however, we seem to have reached a point at which the tensions of this order – which can be designated, metonymically, as the ‘depressive society’ – intensified to such an extent that its persistence appears to be seriously compromised. It is in this sense that we may speak of a post-depressive constellation: a situation in which the social psychological tensions of the depressive order have reached a peak, leading to a variety of reactions and struggles but not yet to the establishment of a new consensus and a stable institutional framework. While suggesting that such a diagnosis might be significant for understanding contemporary political processes in many parts of the world, this essay will focus on how these dynamics have unravelled in Brazil’s recent political life – from the mass demonstrations of June 2013 to the rise of new right-wing movements that culminated in the election of Jair Bolsonaro. The Brazilian case seems, indeed, particularly well-suited to examine the contours and outcomes of this possibly broader process. It allows, in particular, for the distinction of two political forms that have taken centre stage in the past years and can be understood as reactions to core tensions of the depressive order: ‘post-depressive effervescence’ (as it emerged in key moments of the June 2013 protests and their continuation in the following months) and ‘post-depressive authoritarianism’ (as it has progressively built up from the 2013 demonstrations to the election of Bolsonaro).

Religious practice versus subjective religiosity: Catholics and those with ‘no religion’ in the French 2017 presidential election

2019 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 164-181
Author(s):  
Claude Dargent
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Election ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Alternative Measure ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Far Right ◽  
The Social ◽  
Electoral Behaviour ◽  
Rural Character ◽  
Contemporary Catholicism ◽  
Insight Into

Since the 1930s, the frequency of mass attendance has been the most widely used indicator of involvement in Catholicism in France. Yet its validity is sometimes debated: to what extent can subjective religiosity constitute an alternative measure? Both indicators seem closely related. However, the social distributions they perform diverge at the margin. And the large sample on which this research is based reveals changes in contemporary Catholicism – particularly with regard to the urban rather than rural character of today’s practitioners. Electoral behaviour is also used in this article as a touchstone for the comparison of the two indicators. Previous research has established the strong link between Catholic religious practice and right-wing – but not far-right – voting. Despite the singularity of the 2017 election, the analysis establishes that this still holds true – and that the combination of these two indicators allows for subtler insight into this link.

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