Fascism 

Abstract: A major development on the European far right since 1945 is the turn to a ‘metapolitics’ supposedly influenced by the Italian Marxist theorist Antonio Gramsci. Metapolitics, in this sense, deemphasizes electoral politics in favor of intellectual activism and the pursuit of ‘cultural hegemony’ as a prelude to seizing political power. This article examines the metapolitics of the European New Right (ENR) from a new theoretical and historical perspective. It argues that the literature of the US ‘culture wars’ better explains the ENR’s practice than any reception of Gramsci. And it presents ENR metapolitics not as the strategic reformulation of interwar fascism but as part of a broad transatlantic backlash against the leftist successes of the 1960s. This approach better accounts for ENR intellectuals’ function as ‘culture warriors’ specializing in demonization and mastery of the tools of public discourse.

Abstract: While much academic effort has been devoted to exploring various aspects of right-wing extremist lone-actor terrorism, little attention has been devoted to establishing how the terrorists create meaning by locating themselves within a larger narration of history. This article tries to fill this gap, by analysing the conceptions of history and the historical narratives evoked in the manifestos that the right-wing extremist perpetrators uploaded online in relation to the terrorist attacks in Norway on July 22, 2011 and in Christchurch, New Zealand March 15, 2019. Employing a combination of discourse and narrative analysis, the article argues that a shared fascist ‘regime of historicity’ may be identified in the manifestos. Furthermore, it places the narratives found in the manifestos in relation to different right-wing extremist virtual communities.