Recent jrws items

Introduction—When the Radical Becomes Ordinary: A State of the Field of the Far Right in US History

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction—When the Radical Becomes Ordinary: A State of the Field of the Far Right in US History

"Chased from the Mainstream": Tito Perdue and Far-Right Fiction Read via Bourdieu's Field Theory

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

"Chased from the Mainstream": Tito Perdue and Far-Right Fiction Read via Bourdieu's Field Theory

Mapping the Influence of Conservative Catholic Political Thought on the American Right

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Mapping the Influence of Conservative Catholic Political Thought on the American Right

The Klandidate: Senator Earle B. Mayfield and the Ku Klux Klan in Federal Politics

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Klandidate: Senator Earle B. Mayfield and the Ku Klux Klan in Federal Politics

3.2 letter from the editor

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

3.2 letter from the editor

God's Soldiers: Clerico-Fascism and the Deep History of Christian Nationalism

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

God's Soldiers: Clerico-Fascism and the Deep History of Christian Nationalism

“A Planet-Wide Race War”: The Global Circulation of White Supremacist Violence in the Late Twentieth Century

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

“A Planet-Wide Race War”: The Global Circulation of White Supremacist Violence in the Late Twentieth Century

“Democracy Must Be Made Safe for the World”: Ralph Adams Cram and the Tradition of American Monarchism

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

“Democracy Must Be Made Safe for the World”: Ralph Adams Cram and the Tradition of American Monarchism

3.2 front matter

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

3.2 front matter

JRWS, vol. 3, iss. 2 (2025)

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

JRWS, vol. 3, iss. 2 (2025)

Ausländerfrei! The Hoyerswerda Pogrom, 1991

Mon, 16 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Ausländerfrei! The Hoyerswerda Pogrom, 1991

3.1 letter from the editor

Mon, 16 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

3.1 letter from the editor

Global Influence of the Contemporary American Far Right: A Case Study of Serbia

Mon, 16 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The process of globalization in recent years has ignited an unprecedented level of far-right transatlantic cooperation. Individuals and members of organizations from the United States traveled to Europe intending to establish permanent relations with their ideological cousins, while new ways of online communication enabled extreme right-wing organizations to share ideas and methods of political activism and learn from each other. This phenomenon is observable in Serbia even though bilateral relations with the United States are troubled by the US-led NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999. For this reason, anti-American feelings developed among many Serbs, with the far right taking the most uncompromising attitude. Nevertheless, the American far right has inspired and influenced right-wing and even mainstream political organizations in Serbia. The first part of this article examines how extreme right-wing groups in Serbia became exposed to American far-right...

"Based" Bookishness: White Nationalist Strategies for a Post-Print Age

Mon, 16 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

"Based" Bookishness: White Nationalist Strategies for a Post-Print Age

Review of Francesca Scrinzi, The Racialization of Sexism: Men, Women, and Gender in the Populist Radical Right

Mon, 16 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Review of Francesca Scrinzi, The Racialization of Sexism: Men, Women, and Gender in the Populist Radical Right

3.1 front matter

Mon, 16 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

3.1 front matter

JRWS, vol. 3, iss. 1 (2025)

Mon, 16 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

JRWS, vol. 3, iss. 1 (2025)

The Masculinities and Emotions of Men Going Their Own Way: An Ethnographic Study on the MGTOW Reddit Forum

Mon, 16 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The manosphere consists of numerous anti-feminist websites, blogs, and online forums that are now widely considered misogynistic and male supremacist. Among the heterogeneous manosphere groups is the gender-separatist Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW). This article recounts a four-week digital ethnographic study that investigated the emotional and relational dynamics of the Reddit MGTOW forum. I found that rage and fear toward women are central to MGTOW users, as users worked together to reinterpret their feelings of rage and fear to construct a shared narrative that positions women as perpetrators. This worldview obscures the important role masculine ideology plays in male loneliness and disconnection. Giving advice and emotional support on the forum cultivated a sense of belonging and provided a space for men to navigate feelings of loneliness, frustration, and social displacement. Ultimately, MGTOW users expressed a desire to transcend restrictive gender ideals such as husband...

Review of Talia Lavin, Wild Faith: How the Christian Right Is Taking Over America

Mon, 16 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Review of Talia Lavin, Wild Faith: How the Christian Right Is Taking Over America

Hindu Nationalism and Student Politics: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad between 1947 and 1985

Mon, 16 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Students in India have played politically significant roles both before and since independence. Organizations of both the left and the right attempted and at various points succeeded in mobilizing mass support among students. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the front organizations spawned by it, known collectively as the Sangh, have long been major proponents of Hindu nationalism and have considered students important. Despite this, the Sangh’s relationship with students has not received systematic analysis. This article, using sources primarily produced by the Sangh, analyzes different aspects of the Sangh’s relationship with students between 1947 and 1985. It attempts to demonstrate how during this period, primarily through its student front, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (All India Students’ Council, ABVP), the Sangh was keen on gaining control and influence over student politics. To do so, the ABVP sought to strategically moderate its image. At times...

The Far Right’s Quest for Cultural Dominance: Radical Publishing in Greece since 1974

Mon, 16 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The article explores the influence of far-right publishing in Greece since 1974. It examines the role of publishers in spreading ultranationalist and neo-Nazi ideologies, highlighting the connection between publishing and political action. It discusses the rise of the Golden Dawn party and the shift from traditional Greek nationalism to international far-right extremism. The study reveals how far-right publishers operate outside mainstream channels, using specialized networks to distribute materials. It also notes the emergence of new publishers and the integration of international far-right themes into Greek politics. The research underscores the cultural impact of far-right publishing, emphasizing its role in shaping public discourse and normalizing extremist ideologies. The article provides a comprehensive analysis of the far-right publishing landscape, documenting its evolution and influence on Greek society.

Introduction—Heroes and Hard Truths: Gender, Sexuality, and the Sociolinguistics of the Far Right

Sat, 18 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction—Heroes and Hard Truths: Gender, Sexuality, and the Sociolinguistics of the Far Right

Letter from the Editor

Sat, 18 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Letter from the Editor

From Pajama Boy to Pepe the Frog: Power, Essentialism, and the Nation-State in the Manosphere

Sat, 18 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

From Pajama Boy to Pepe the Frog: Power, Essentialism, and the Nation-State in the Manosphere

Family Politics in Contemporary Fascist Propaganda: Multimodal Entanglements of National Socialist Ideals, Populist Rhetoric, and Image Bank Semiotics

Sat, 18 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This article delves into a recurring dilemma facing contemporary fascist movements: how to communicate ideological purity to its hardcore base and at the same time appeal to imagined new voters and recruits? By analyzing how the most prominent fascist movement in Sweden, the Nordic Resistance Movement (NRM), publicly communicates its ideas about family issues and the role of women, we shed light on the semiotic work done by the far right to merge common social conservative tropes with an extremist discourse. Using the tools of social semiotics and multimodal critical discourse studies, the article shows how the NRM uses a range of semiotic resources as it interweaves mainstream conservative discourses about the nature of women and men, recognizable to a broader public (not least to supporters of the Swedish right-wing populist party, the Sweden Democrats), with Nazi keywords appealing to ideological in-groups. The analysis also reveals how the NRM uses image bank semiotics,...

Referentialism and Discursive Parallels between US “Alt-Right” and “Gender-Critical” Conspiracism

Sat, 18 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This article examines the role of language ideology in the argumentation of both “alt-right” and “gender-critical” discourses about gender. While positioning themselves on different sides of the left-right political spectrum, both groups make use of referentialist language ideologies to establish themselves as authorities over language. Referentialism is a type of tautological reasoning that posits language and dictionary-style definitions as the final arbiter of reality (e.g., “A woman is an adult human female; if it is an adult human female, it must be a woman”). This article contributes to a broader understanding of how language ideology functions as a powerful rhetorical tool in the fight against anti-gender movements.

JRWS, vol. 2, iss. 2 (2024)

Sat, 18 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

JRWS, vol. 2, iss. 2 (2024)

The Discursive Construction of “Truth” in the Email Newsletter of an Anti-Genderist Polish NGO

Sat, 18 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Since at least 2012, right-wing politicians, media, and the Catholic Church have been demonizing the LGBTQ+ community as promoters of the “LGBT ideology,” a substitute term for “gender ideology” in Poland. The vitriolic anti-LGBTQ+ discourse has become a central resource in the right-wing construction of Polish patriotism and national identity. This discourse is adopted by many mainstream conservative public figures and is part of the global anti-genderism register that has been taken up by transnationally linked actors and institutions. In this article, I adopt Critical Discourse Analysis, Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis, and the Discourse Historical Approach to examine how anti-genderist actors in Poland discursively construct “truth” through what looks like logical argumentation and appeals to assumed “common sense” knowledge, and how such constructions are used to support appeals to emotion and Catholic faith while also co-opting and redefining progressive terms...

Limbless Warriors and Foaming Liberals: The Allure of Post-Heroism in Far-Right Memes

Sat, 18 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In light of the so-called Great Meme War, a meme-based propaganda campaign waged in favor of Donald Trump’s 2016 candidacy, this article identifies a type of disembodied far-right “meme warrior” that ironically denies longings for heroism. This ambivalent stance toward heroic masculine ideals, which characterizes the meme warriors’ (self-)portraits, stands in stark contrast to more serious traditional far-right heroic imaginaries. This phenomenon is discussed in relation to the notion of the post-heroic, a concept used in military studies to describe the shrinking willingness and (perceived) need to sacrifice one’s life in combat. The second part of the article explores the construction of a ludic collective heroism in the alt-right’s responses to Shia LaBeouf’s “He Will Not Divide Us” (HWNDU) project, which was conceived as a participatory video work in public space inviting people to repeat those words while gazing into a camera. The article...

The Science of Desire: Beauty, Masculinity, and Ideology on the Far Right

Sat, 18 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Scores of male right-wing influencers offer advice to young men online on fitness, diet, and bodybuilding. Representations of the “right” kind of man draw attention to rippling muscles, square jaws, and beautifully symmetrical faces as evidence of racial superiority. This contemporary resurgence of “body fascism” in the hypersemiotized online spaces of the far right, however, remains underexamined. In this article, we analyze Man’s World magazine, a digital publication edited by the neofascist lifestyle influencer “Raw Egg Nationalist.” Through gendered semiotic and linguistic anthropological analysis of the text, we argue that hardness, understood in myriad ways, is the moral flavor of a far-right masculinist speech register that combines elements of mental fortitude, muscular strength, sexual potency, and physical beauty at the individual level with racial renewal and national invulnerability at the political level. We show how readiness for violence and the “return” to traditional...

Why Everybody Wants to Be a Fascist and Why We Should Study Language to Understand It

Sat, 18 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Why Everybody Wants to Be a Fascist and Why We Should Study Language to Understand It

Front Matter

Sat, 18 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Front Matter

Hailing, Voicing, and Masturbation Abstention: NoFap’s Role in Socializing Young Men into the Right-Wing Politics of Ressentiment

Sat, 18 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Digital ethnographic and linguistic anthropological analysis of the far right is an invaluable resource for explaining the gradual processes of socialization through which individuals are recruited into right-wing extremism. This article examines online masturbation abstention programs in three linguistic contexts (English, Japanese, and Brazilian Portuguese) as potential sites that mobilize gender and sexual norms to draw subjects into anti-feminist and racist sociopolitical visions. NoFap (known as nōfappu or onakin in Japan) is a fairly popular trend that is understood to help men regain the focus, vitality, and energy they have lost to pornography addiction. By analyzing the ways figures of personhood are constructed through the enregisterment of disparate semiotic materials in these very different contexts, we argue that the right-wing abstemious masculine subject is produced through tensions between neoliberal generalized competition and the imagined...

The Pornography of Fools: Tracing the History of Sexual Antisemitism

Mon, 30 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This article is an attempt to provide a genealogy of the sexual emotions and desires at work in contemporary far-right antisemitism. Embedded in primary research while also drawing heavily on the existing literature on antisemitism, the article seeks to make an intervention into the historiography of antisemitism and to argue for the existence of a sexual component at the heart of antisemitism, both historically and today. The article starts by briefly discussing a very short and specific story from Irish Jewish history in the 1900s, and then moves to a seemingly very unconnected story about the vocabulary of twenty-first-century American politics. And then what follows—a discussion of how these two stories are essentially intertwined and a broad overview of the history of antisemitism—argues for sexual antisemitism as a key concept for understanding anti-Jewish ideologies.

Similarity Heuristics in the Indian Far Right: How the RSS Obscures Its Operational Scale

Tue, 6 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

To conceal their activities, far-right networks manipulate similarity heuristics that suggest their constituent organizations are discrete and coherent. When an organization crafts a public image indicating that only those who wear the same uniforms and march in the same marches are part of an organization, it implies that those who do not, are not. This use of cognitive shortcuts assists far-right organizations in crafting their organizational boundaries to obscure internal divisions of labor. That these disguised internal divisions of labor exist is strong evidence to support a renewed focus on the intra-organizational dynamics of far-right organizations—a focus that pivots from a discursive to a materialist understanding of the far right. I use the case of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), one of the world’s largest far-right organizations, to argue that similarity heuristics disguise far-right connectivity. Paying granular attention to the organizational boundary-making...

The Ordinariness of January 6: Rhetorics of Participation in Antidemocratic Culture