Journal for the Study of Radicalism

Origins, Contemporary Revival, and Uses of Brown Scares

2023-12-29T13:12:36-05:00

In short, the principal argument is that despite the hyping of the fascist threat, fascism is a mostly defeated and largely marginalized force in most Euro-American societies; periodic Brown Scares have thus aimed to de-legitimize and discredit opposition to contemporary pro-globalist, pro-capitalist, and pro-multicultural elites; and Brown Scares are advanced by contemporary elites in order to cement their supposedly progressive credentials. In short, liberals and leftists once denounced abuses of civil liberties by the state and now they act as cheerleaders of arbitrary use of power, the politicization of state intelligence agencies, and “cancelling”, repressing, and abusing their right-wing and allegedly fascist and neo-fascist political opponents. In essence, we have been constantly “fighting the last war” since the end of World War Two; an anti-fascist world war that is no longer as relevant to the multiple concerns of 21st century Euro-American societies.

Key words: Brown Scares, Red Scares, fascism, neo-fascism, political religion

The Commander: George Lincoln Rockwell, Veteran and Nazi

2023-12-21T17:06:51-05:00

George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of the American Nazi Party, tried to use his time in the navy to legitimize himself as an American politician. He persistently referenced his military service in his writings in an effort to boost the patriotic and hypermasculine façade that he sought to sell to the American people. By the time of his assassination in 1967, Rockwell had become the face of American Nazism, but had failed to achieve his lofty electoral goals. Still, his influence persists in the far right, especially the diffuse White nationalist ideology that has flourished online and has motivated many of today’s worst mass shootings. This ideology, of which Rockwell’s ideas are a constituent part, has also begun to seep into mainstream Republican political rhetoric.

Twisting the Cross

2024-03-24T07:03:15-04:00

"Christian Nationalism" is no longer limited to perjorative or historical usage. In 2022, two different books were published embracing the label as self-descriptive, but their usage differs significantly. By contrast, the demographic construct "White Christian Nationalism" has only pejorative usage. Its frequent propagandistic and journalistic misuse continues to perpetuate the conflation of contemporary Christian Nationalism with the features of its antecedents. Some of these antecedents have been fascist, others have been racialist, and their diverse conceptions of the nature of the nation vary considerably.

I trace these antecedents from colonial Christian states to the contemporary period, identifying multiple transmissions of influence, examining the scope and usage of "nationalism" and "fascism," and proposing more precise and clearly defined categories and concepts for the classification of these and related worldviews. These include the "sacral state," the "fascist exclusion," and the "totalitarian gap." After this teminological and historical analysis, I contextualize and contrast both contemporary articulations of Christian Nationalism, one by Torba & Isker and the other by Stephen Wolfe. I then conclude with consideration of possible future variations pf Christian Nationalism that could be produced as a side-effect of the continued usage of "White Christian Nationalist" as an antagonist projection.

Narco-legitimacy in Latin America as a radical expression of syncretism between religious and populist narratives

2024-01-05T18:15:36-05:00

Government discourses and public policy approaches to drug trafficking in Latin America often adopt a prohibitionist and economic tone that may be understood as a normalization process related to the presence of an enemy, and which justifies errors or covers up complicity within State institutions.

Normalization takes place since, differing from other illegal criminal practices such as kidnapping, extortion and human trafficking, drug trafficking has managed to transform itself, to adapt and blend within the cultural ethos so as to become part of the social system. Within this framework, drug traffickers (Narcos) have found legitimate spaces that allow them to exert sovereignty in parallel with the State. To do so, among other strategies, they confront and interact with religious institutions and instrumentalize their practices and rites.

This article proposes that in territories where there is drug trafficking, the guarantees of minimum coexistence parameters are met without formalizing any norm. Drug traffickers make use of emotional narratives and identity bonds such as religion and populism to generate cohesion and earn credibility; that is, they take hold of tools and strategies that have let their legitimization in the social order.

Does the New World Order Worship Satan? Using Rational Choice to Understand QAnon

2023-12-22T07:23:34-05:00

The economics and sociology literature that deals with churches and sects could provide a valuable framework when considering certain conspiracy theories. This paper will look at two aspects of the so-called “QAnon” conspiracy theory: First, Q’s theory on the elites; Second, Q's followers -the Anons - and their social structure. For the first, I will examine the historical precedent for Q's theory and show how Iannaccone's "sacrifice and stigma" model can help frame the ideas in the theory.[i] Concerning the second, I will look to Iannaccone's church-sect model to explain how rational individuals can join and be involved in conspiratorial social network groups at both the church and sectarian levels.[ii]

Is It Just about a Renewed Conspiracy?

2023-12-21T14:05:55-05:00

Conspiracy thinking strongly sprung up during the COVID-19 pandemic. Portugal presents itself as an important context to analyze such relation because it attracted a diverse array of protests and mobilizations inspired on such conspiracy theories and performed in the country ’s main cities (i.e., Lisbon, Porto, and Coimbra) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Social media has been a privileged avenue to disseminate such protests through Facebook groups, and other social networks, while several conspiracy theories have occupied the forefront of diverse Facebook posts in order to make sense of the pandemic’s causes and related sanitary control measures (e.g., lockdown, social distancing, mask use, testing, vaccination). This article delves into three concrete endeavors: 1) an incursion on the links between modern conspiracy theories, health concerns, and popular/civic protests; 2) a problematization of protests and mobilizations against COVID-19 control measures beyond the lay people conspiracy hypothesis, but rather as the constitution and expression of an ideological space prone to the contemporary renewal of a spurious far right alternative subjectivity; 3) a content analysis of the social media platform related with the organization and dissemination of several protests and mobilizations, whilst taking the timeline of June 2020 until August 2021 in Portugal. Based on such analysis, some more detailed accounts on the contemporary articulation of such ideological space, within the context of COVID-19 pandemic, are finally suggested.

Editors' Introduction

2024-02-11T16:18:31-05:00

In this introduction, editors Dr. Josh Vandiver and Dr. Arthur Versluis discuss the framing of this special issue on topics related to themes of radicalism, religion, and the political right. Article topics range from the "Brown Scares" regarding fascism in the contemporary era, the QAnon phenomenon, to the influential figure George Lincoln Rockwell, to Narcotrafficking and the history of Christian Nationalism. The issue also features book reviews on related subjects.

Conspirituality

2024-01-28T18:39:37-05:00

Conspirituality. Derek Beres, Matthew Remski and Julian Walker. New York, NY: Public Affairs. 2023. 370 pages, $30.00 (hardcover), ISBN 9781541702981.

New Media and Revolution and Afterlives of Revolution

2024-01-28T14:29:23-05:00

Book Reviews --

New Media and Revolution: Resistance and Dissent in Pre-Uprising Syria, by Billie Jeanne Brownlee. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2020. 270 pp.

Afterlives of Revolution: Everyday Counterhistories in Southern Oman, by Alice Wilson. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2023. 312 pp.

Reviewed by Steven C. Dinero, Independent Scholar, Wytheville, Virginia, 24382. USA

Insurrection: The Bloody Events of May 1937 in Barcelona

2024-01-29T10:16:34-05:00

The new authoritarians: convergence on the right

2024-01-28T14:00:42-05:00

The US Antifascism Reader

2024-02-11T17:03:14-05:00

This review asseses the U.S. Antifascism Reader by Bill Mullen and Chris Vials by providing brief assessments of notable chapters with a particular emphasis on examining the way the chapters focus on liberatory strategy from multiple angles. As the review notes, the volume is divided into five chronological eras, US Anti-fascism in the Time of Dictators (1932-1941), Anti-Fascism and the State (1941-1945), Antifascism, Anticolonialism, and the Cold War, (1946-1962), The Politics of Backlash and a New United Front (1968-1971), and finally Anti/Fascism in the Age of Neoliberalism. These eras each usefully index significant moments in the history of U.S. leftism. This review ultimately notes that this volume is valuable for its account of organizing debates that have colored leftist organizing such as popular versus united front models, as well as its inclusion of chapters feature black as well as queer anti-fascism.