Discourses of Resilience in the US Alt Right

Nicholas Michelsen; Pablo Gaston de Orellana

doi:10.1080/21693293.2019.1609199

Discourses of Resilience in the US Alt Right

Nicholas Michelsen, Pablo Gaston de Orellana

War Studies

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

The New Right movements known as the American Alt-Right regularly appeal to resilience and resistance. In this research we examine whether and how they include resilience thinking in their discourses. We analyse Alt-Right discourses on indigeneity, frequently enunciated as the survival of race, on social norms, with a focus on gender, as well as on power and democracy to uncover the role played by resilience thinking. It is found that an illiberal ‘reactionary resilience’ is clearly manifest and linked to 1930s as well as newer ideas of identity, nature and politics. It plays an unlikely and important role in coagulating Alt-Right ideas of identity, survival and struggle in particular. Further, resilience as an assumption linked to nature as well as an operational concept, plays key roles in framing the publicly acceptable face of Alt-Right arguments and as a strategic and personal ethos in resisting social and political change.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	271-287
Journal	Resilience, International Policies, Practices and Discourses
Volume	7
Issue number	3
Early online date	28 Apr 2019
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/21693293.2019.1609199
Publication status	Published - 2019

Keywords

resilience
nationalism
far-right
Fake News
Trump
new right

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10.1080/21693293.2019.1609199

Discourses of Resilience in_MICHELSEN_Acc13Nov2018Epub28Apr2019_GREEN_AAMAccepted author manuscript, 312 KB

1 Chapter

Pessimism and the Alt-Right: Knowledge, Power, Race and Time
Michelsen, N. & de Orellana, P. G., 13 Sept 2019, Pessimism in International Relations: Provocations, Possibilities, Politics. Stevens, T. & Michelsen, N. (eds.). Palgrave Macmillan
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

Cite this

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title = "Discourses of Resilience in the US Alt Right",

abstract = "The New Right movements known as the American Alt-Right regularly appeal to resilience and resistance. In this research we examine whether and how they include resilience thinking in their discourses. We analyse Alt-Right discourses on indigeneity, frequently enunciated as the survival of race, on social norms, with a focus on gender, as well as on power and democracy to uncover the role played by resilience thinking. It is found that an illiberal {\textquoteleft}reactionary resilience{\textquoteright} is clearly manifest and linked to 1930s as well as newer ideas of identity, nature and politics. It plays an unlikely and important role in coagulating Alt-Right ideas of identity, survival and struggle in particular. Further, resilience as an assumption linked to nature as well as an operational concept, plays key roles in framing the publicly acceptable face of Alt-Right arguments and as a strategic and personal ethos in resisting social and political change.",

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Discourses of Resilience in the US Alt Right

Abstract

Keywords

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Research output

Pessimism and the Alt-Right: Knowledge, Power, Race and Time

Cite this