Monday, January 27, 2020

Twenty-first century right-wing movements

We live in interesting times, with multiple right-wing governments around the world. Among these are: the US, India, the UK, Brazil, Poland, Hungary, the Philippines, and Turkey.

Here are some characteristics that I have distilled from reading the news and watching events unfold. See if the right-wing movement you are thinking about has  these features. 
  1. Majoritarianism
    • Hatred of minorities, immigrants
    • Depicting majority group as victim and decrying its weakness
    • Claiming minorities are particularly favored or pampered
    • Fear of being outnumbered by immigration or by rapid population growth of minorities
  2. Intimidation of and violence against minorities and opponents. Usage of state machinery for these purposes.
  3. Virulent nationalism, constant invocation of external enemy and local fifth column.
  4. Repeated public exaltation of military strength.
  5. Veneration of a glorious past.
  6. Sexual anxiety: fears of miscegenation, of women of the majority being enticed by minorities, dislike of LGBTQ people.
  7. Heavy use of Propaganda. Reliance on short slogans, repetition of blatant lies, coded phrases and dog whistles.
  8. Intolerance of dissent. Opponents described as anti-national or labeled traitors.
  9. Pronounced anti-intellectualism, disregard for facts and data.
  10. Reverence for authority, personality cult.
Please use comments to provide examples, as well as to suggest additions and changes to the list.

Update (January 28, 2020): Two additions suggested by my friend Namit Arora:
  1. The need to radically rewrite history and find new national heroes and sources of pride. Equating history of nation with the sanitized history of one community while denigrating the history of other communities.
  2. Emphasis on patriotism and various public tests of patriotism (or lack thereof).

4 comments:

RMR said...

I am pleasantly surprised by characteristic #6. Are you then, characterizing the current prevailing strain of Feminism as being fascist?

VP said...

I don't follow your logic.

How does "fears of miscegenation, of women of the majority being enticed by minorities, dislike of LGBTQ people" characterize any strain of Feminism?

RMR said...

I recognize that miscegenation automatically eliminates any women from this category of fascists. My point is that unfortunately, Feminism (like any other -ism) has its adherents who espouse all the majoritarianism characteristics of fascism - including (and particularly) the dislike of LGBTQ. While any example of Feminists espousing such views will be dismissed as a few extremists, so can other fascist movements dismiss extremist views as "some bad apples". There appears to be a deeper malaise that needs to be addressed. The starting point is to identify characteristics in the manner that you have listed out. I am personally not inclined to exclude women from such tendencies - particularly those from the West.

VP said...

As far as I can see, there is nothing in the post that excludes women. Indeed, I can think of prominent women in right wing movements around the world, who display many of these characteristics: Ann Coulter (US), Sadhvi Pragya (India), Marine Le Pen (France).

I am curious though about examples of feminists who show some of the characteristics I have listed. I promise I won't dismiss them. Also, curious as to why you say "particularly from the West".