The far-right is crazy — like a fox: The code behind the far-right’s success

Arizona is ground zero for the wackiest theories and craziest political candidates. Then there's Blake Masters, the losing Arizona Republican Senate candidate, who accused the Biden administration of encouraging millions of immigrants to enter the United States "to change the demographics of our country." The three most widespread and demonstrably false far-right narratives — globalist-Satanists control the economy, elections are being "stolen," and foreigners are out to "replace" Whites — flourish in a state that, long, long ago, gave the world Barry Goldwater, the original radical right-wing politician. But far more of those who support candidates like Kari Lake and her global counterparts — Giorgia Meloni in Italy, Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, and Narendra Modi in India, among others — are actually "persuadables," voting in their perceived self-interest based on perfectly real economic and political needs. After new leaders jettisoned the Nazi trappings and focused instead on the immigrant "threat," the party began to climb in the polls, coming in second in last September's elections with 20.5% of the vote and so helping a new right-wing government take over.