Many different things are happening all at once that have made radical right and right-wing extremist ideologies more appealing to a wider range of people.
On the one hand, the extreme right-wing has become more mainstream, in part through new groups that appear less extreme aesthetically (e.g., wearing suits or khakis/polo shirts, working through electoral systems instead of against the government, and softening language to talk about ‘European heritage’ instead of race). This can help right-wing extremist ideas seem less extreme than they really are.
But it’s not just that the extreme has gone mainstream; it’s also that the mainstream has moved more toward the extreme. We have mainstream, elected political leaders in the United States and Europe using derogatory language about immigrants and Muslims, reinforcing anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, and referring to migrants and refugees with language about invasion, infection, and disease. This kind of legitimation gives urgency to extremist claims and can push the violent fringe toward what they perceive as heroic action to save their (white) people.
But, as a phenomenon that has been spread within men, why are we so recently seeing more and more women join the far-right? It is simple, uncertainty. The issue with the left is how recent it has been properly implemented, and whilst the left has a long list of opinions and ideologies, a majority of conservative and far-right ideologies have the same base ideas. The new flow of migrants towards Europe has also acted towards people starting to lean far-right, as we currently are seeing in Italy for example, nationalists wishing to “protect their land” going beyond necessary measures to ensure what they believe to be national integrity.
Now, going back to the initial idea of why women have joined the far-right movement, this started as a matter in order to combat far-left extremism, with more extremism. Women who are also nationalists, and more often than not conservatives, have taken power especially in the digital world in other to influence others, more exclusively women, to join the ideology. And it’s worked, Eviane Leidig and Christine Clark have been able to gain major success within this field and have been a major part in women turning to the far-right. When chaos abrupts in the world, we tend to go to these “safe areas” where we know we are protected which made people more easily influenceable, but more importantly post-pandemic.
Overall, when discussing such issues we should take in consideration that at the end, we are all humans and we want the best for ourselves. We shouldn’t combat extremism with extremism, but rather find common ground and appreciate our differences. Or at least, whilst we still can.
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