I've been researching the extreme far right for close to 4 years now, and I have yet to come across a good term for groups like the Proud Boys, identitarians, and Nazis.
"White supremacists" is the convention, but it obscures the fact that our whole society is white supremacist.
"White supremacists" is the convention, but it obscures the fact that our whole society is white supremacist.
I tend to go with "organized white supremacists," but the reality is that structural white supremacy is very much organized, too.
I also think the fact that framing them solely in terms of race elides the centrality of patriarchal & anti-trans gender politics for them.
I also think the fact that framing them solely in terms of race elides the centrality of patriarchal & anti-trans gender politics for them.
I'll use some version of that for Proud Boys and the like, but what I'm really longing for is an umbrella term that encompasses the extreme white supremacist far right, including its (pseudo)intellectuals and politicians.
https://twitter.com/Geiiga/status/1490000167105404928?t=jNveZIfFs4-o9iKFs5dK9Q&s=19
"Fascism" is the closest I think we come, but it's a complicated term, and doesn't encompass the historical arc of the contemporary US extreme white supremacist movement. I wouldn't argue that the Reconstruction-era KKK or Jim Crow laws were fascist, for example.
And even "extreme" is a misnomer. I use it to try and communicate virulence, but none of this is actually that extreme. It tracks completely with our history.
(Also, the police use "extreme" to criminalize aberrant political thought, which makes it a problematic term anyway)
(Also, the police use "extreme" to criminalize aberrant political thought, which makes it a problematic term anyway)
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
