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The Growing Threat of Far-Right Extremism

Podcasts Mar 2, 2021 Cynthia Miller-Idriss and Elmira Bayrasli

With the encouragement of leaders like Donald Trump, far-right extremism has gone mainstream in recent years. To mitigate the growing danger far-right groups pose, policymakers need to deepen their understanding of how these groups recruit members and mobilize supporters.

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A transcript of this podcast follows:

Elmira Bayrasli: Welcome to Opinion Has It. I’m Elmira Bayrasli. Far-right extremism has gone mainstream.

Archive Recording: This country has seen a rise in violence by white supremacists.

Archive Recording: Far-right attacks in Europe jumped 43% between 2016 and 2017.

Archive Recording: This month, FBI director Christopher Wray raised racially and ethnically motivated violent extremists to the same threat level as ISIS.

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Cynthia Miller-Idriss

Cynthia Miller-Idriss, Professor of Education and Sociology at American University, is Director of Research at the Center for University Excellence, where she runs the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab.

Elmira Bayrasli

Writing for PS since 2016
3 Commentaries

Elmira Bayrasli is the co-founder and CEO of Foreign Policy Interrupted and the author of From The Other Side of The World: Extraordinary Entrepreneurs, Unlikely Places.

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Curtis Carpenter Mar 16, 2021

The American right has always had tendencies toward "fascism with American characteristics." Consider, for example, the famous pronouncement by the late Sen. Barry Goldwater in the 60's that "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue" -- the subtext of which asserts that only right-leaning people like the Goldwater can really understand "liberty" and "justice" and define it in static terms for the rest of us.

To my view, in that vein, the current manifestation of far-right extremism is only a continuation of a historical trend that reflects, at a deeper level, the continuing development of American (and in broader terms, Western) culture. Some will call it a decline, others will call it an awakening -- but either way, it reflects what we have increasingly become.

The notion that the right-extreme is driven by a sense of pending loss is useful, I think, as it points toward what will be required to moderate it. Not "facts," new laws or government action (because the fact is that we are in a period of demographic and environmental change that WILL produce losses for many), but an alternative to the "pending loss" narrative. The future will be different, with different power distributions and dynamics, but not worse -- even for unhappy under-educated white males.
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d clark Mar 7, 2021

Caution. It is so easy for an article (or interview), whether put forward by a rightist extremist, or in this case, by leftist extremists, to take an wild off-the-cliff view, throw out over the airy gap terms that no one can define, dig deep into bottomless media manure searching for smelly nuggets that can be manipulated into trying to persuade the uninformed reader, especially those of distant shores.

Such unearthed leftist gold, taken by the tail and swung around can be let go in any direction, especially when politics take primary place. With developed skill, the heaver drops the load at the feet of the naive targeted audience, which if not careful will attempts unthinkingly step into the mess. That’s what we have here. Articles don’t always have a responsibility to list the pros and cons of their points of view. But in this case, such lack destroys the article’s credibility for the obviousness of its ultra-extreme promotion of leftism by attempting to link non-leftists with right extremism. Though the piece might suggest breadth, its sharpened focus targets America.

Not a word can be found of the ubiquitous leftist violence in America, in 2020 and prior years, of the Marxist Black Lives Matter and anti-societal Antifa organizations that have destroyed many more lives and much more property than the sum of the so-called rightist extreme groups in America. Furthermore, without mentioning that ugly truth, the article omits the truth that such violence was condoned by our leftist politicians and groups, proved by their near silence.

The “storming” of the Capitol? Not one gun was involved by the protestors. “[V]eterans and active-duty service members”? Just like leftist veteran John Kerry protesting the Vietnam war 50 years ago, in America, today’s veterans and off-duty active-duty service members are citizens too, who have protesting rights.

“White supremacist extremism”? Such a bizarre term that the article associates with the mainstream traditional-valued Trump that half of America’s population supports? Laughable. Reader beware. Beware of what is found bottom-dredging. Know pollution when you read it.
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jonathan Story Mar 5, 2021

Donald Trump saw a sharp uptick in Black votes as well as Mexican American votes. Obama in his first presidential election won 60% of the "white" vote. Millions of Americans were delighted that the US had elected its first Black President. The evidence does not endorse this article.
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Peter Schaeffer Mar 2, 2021

In an era where the PC mythology of 'white racism' and 'white supremacy' dominates the media, universities, the government, corporate America, etc. suppposedly the real threat is 'far-right extremism'. Of course, we have been here before.

Under Stalin, mythical Trotskites were responsible for everything bad.
Under Hitler, the Jews were responsible for all evils.
Under Mao, 'capitalist-roaders' were supposedly sabotaging China's economy (and much more).

Now we have 'far-right extremists' and 'white' people as the devils and demons of our time.
- P. Kamath Mar 2, 2021
  
  You say,”. Now we have 'far-right extremists' and 'white' people as the devils and demons of our time....”. It i true that in America, There is great deal of truth in this assertion, but not 100%. One has to b very vigilant to spot this menace and metastasis of this sickness!
  - Ralph Musgrave Mar 5, 2021
    
    I have actually worked out the difference between different types of "far right extremism". My point was that if someone writes an article which is supposedly about far right extremism they really ought to include something about ALL the main types of far right extremism.
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Ralph Musgrave Mar 2, 2021

I didn’t notice any mention in the above article of the far right religious / political movement which goes in for beheadings, flying airliners into sky-scrapers and killing 3,000 in one go, wife beating, female genital mutilation, homophobia, Halal animal cruelty, killing cartoonists and authors, etc etc etc. But then like many people, I wouldn’t expect objectivity from a sociology professor.
- Michael Seleanu Mar 5, 2021
  
  You are mixing up the home-grown - far-right, fundamentalist evangelical, conspiracy-addled, white male entitled but aggrived, and armed-to-the-teeth - highschool-educated nutters with the offshore jihadists. The prof is right, and you confuse things. On purpose?
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The Growing Threat of Far-Right Extremism

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