Understanding the appeal of the extreme right is key to preventing its resurgence

Reports continue to surface in the Australian media about the disturbing rise of neo-Nazi groups and the possible threat of domestic terrorism they pose, as well as the ways these groups have used the COVID-19 pandemic as a pretext for recruitment. One barrier to such understanding is a shared sense that, precisely because Nazis and fascists of whatever stripe exalt the rule of force, emotion, and strength and denounce weakness, intellectualism, and “fancy ideas” like social justice, humanitarianism, and equality, the extreme right could never take root in well-educated populations. In both nations, the universities and even the artistic avant-garde contained many enthusiasts taken in by the promised spiritual “regeneration” and forms of “new man” that the extreme right promised. Third, at the level of style and organisation, extreme right movements invariably look to charismatic, quasi-messianic leaders who have proven themselves strong enough to break existing legal and moral norms in order to defend “the people” against all enemies — external and internal. The extreme right’s appeal to strength, and the surfeit of moral clarity they exhibit in the face of widespread societal “decadence” appeals to many among the online intelligentsia as expressing “hard” but necessary “truths”.