Is the new right more of the same or a novel threat?

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Hi Diogenes,

Welcome to openDemocracy's weekly reader comments round-up. We receive so many carefully considered messages about our work that it seems a shame to keep them to ourselves. Send us your thoughts for next week's round-up by replying directly to any of our emails or commenting on our articles or Instagram posts.

These comments are edited for clarity, accuracy and length, and aren't necessarily a reflection of openDemocracy's editorial position.

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Re: He built a far-right men's rights group, then he killed his ex

The final school years should include a course in parenting and its role in world peace. For too long, the hardest job in the world has been relegated to the too-hard basket. Stop blaming and start educating. It's not too hard to do. –yeswecan via our website

Re: Weekly Poll: Does the new right feel different from the past?

While I view the current poisonous right movements as more of the grisly same manipulating those in fear of difference and of the other and always beaten down by poverty or the privileged strategies of the privileged, the stark and troubling distinction from the past is the use of the wealthy and malicious of sophisticated communication tools still to emerge at the times of earlier rightist suppression. –Malcolm via email

To explain my reasoning for answering 'yes', I think the only real difference between the new right and the right of the past is that social media enables those spreading disinformation to reach far more people who are willing to digest what they read/hear without questioning whether the claims are based on facts or whether there may be other factors in play. So, for example, a narrative along the lines of 'all our problems can be put down to immigrants' takes hold, as does the assumption that all those immigrants are 'illegals'. Both statements are, of course, nonsense, but many seem to be easily led. –Peter G via email

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I think the answer is yes and no. I am researching for a PhD on the changed and changing relations between the state and governments, the law, the police and dissenters since 2018, in the context of the rise of corporate oligarchy and a perceived shift to the right in the context of globalisation. My initial conclusion is that this is simply old wine in new bottles and it is the context and methodology which has changed, particularly the decline of Western capitalism within an overarching existential climate crisis.

It seems that right-wing ideology is now mainstream within establishments across the globe. I would suggest that this is partly due to social media transparency leading to an awakening from the colonial ideology used to control the population, and partly due to a concerted effort by the right to roll back the gains made in 1945 and then in the 1960s and 1970s. The right in the US, in particular, has stated this was to be completed by 2025, and the re-establishment of fascist rule has been cumulative.

In the US, for example, the state was founded on genocide and slavery, then colonial and economic exploitation. In my view, Donald Trump is not an aberration but the end result of a policy started by Harry Truman through Ronald Reagan etc, and the whole process is inculcated with the Christian right (from the founding fathers).

And similarly, in the UK, the current situation has its roots in colonialism, racism and oppression of working people. Right-wing militias slaughtered working people who wanted parliamentary reform in Peterloo, Manchester, in 1819, and killed the Calton weavers, who were on strike over wage cuts, in Scotland in 1787. There are many other similar examples, including the anti-semitic violence carried out by fascist Oswald Mosley and his blackshirts in East London in the 1930s. The avowed aim of the current crop is to go back to the glory days!

What has changed is the methodology, in terms of legislation and government control of the masses in the service of corporations, police tactics and technology, and global manipulation, predominantly by electronic means and global networks. The essence, though, remains the same. Even then, this change should be juxtaposed with the period from the late 1950s to the 1970s, during which the perception of fairness and equality was itself an ideological myth from which we have now largely awoken. It is not surprising that the right is terrified of 'woke'!

Finally, there is a strong argument that the nature of the right is not a new direction but a reaction. For example, the Zionist lobby and UK Lawyers for Israel, in particular, were established or grew in response to the increasing success of Palestine supporters and boycott movements. Your article on the failure of the Kenyan Christian right to sanctify an American Christian fascist is an uplifting example of the nature of the front-line battle as old as time. –Peter S via email

Is MAGA a religion? Why has protest been criminalised in England and Wales? Who is profiting from anti-immigration sentiment? And how can we engage with young men who've fallen down the alt-right pipeline?

These are just a few of the questions that we've put to leading thinkers, frontline activists, and global experts on our new podcast, In Solidarity, over the past six months.

In Solidarity is a podcast for people who understand that politics doesn't just happen in the halls of power. Every show, we tackle a new theme to uncover how authoritarianism spreads, who is benefiting from fear, and how solidarity is evolving into resistance movements around the world.

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Re: The former fire station fighting the far-right radicalisation of young men

Dear fellow supporters of community services. The Warren is to be encouraged and praised, and I wonder whether there exists a list of all these various groups, each in its own town, all aiming to help young people, especially young men, to learn to be good citizens.

Here is one idea, which I thought about after learning of the Unity Boxing Gyms in Rotherham and elsewhere. I wonder if the practice of combatants following formal rules – whether in boxing, fencing, judo or other sports – might be one reason for their success. All participants have to follow strict rules of politeness; they must speak to each other in a certain manner and show respect, for example, by a formal salute in fencing. The actual combat is also governed by rules, which all must obey.

This means everybody is treated the same and shown the same respect, so no young person can feel left out or diminished. It works the other way round, too; a young person learns how to show respect to others, in words and actions.

Rules – laws – are there for our protection, even if sometimes they feel restrictive. A young man, perhaps 18 years old, showed me this once. In a conversation about what freedom means, he gave a little speech, something he'd clearly thought about carefully. He said: "We cannot be truly free unless we live within a framework of good laws." He was very intelligent, could easily have gone to university, but chose instead to join the police. –Alisoun via email