Green Neo-Nazism

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Green Neo-Nazism Green neo-Nazism Examining the intersection of masculinity, far-right extremism and environmentalism in the Nordic Resistance Movement Maria Darwish Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Philosophy in Gender Studies Centre for Gender Research University of Oslo Blindern, Norway November 2018 © Maria Darwish 2018 Green neo-Nazism: Examining the intersection of masculinity, far-right extremism and environmentalism in the Nordic Resistance Movement http://www.duo.uio.no/ Trykk: Reprosentralen, Universitetet i Oslo Abstract This thesis aims to examine the intersections of right-wing extremism, masculinity and environmentalism. The latter is usually associated with the political left rather than the extreme right, and the feminine rather than the masculine. Research has shown that far-right subcultures are male dominated and defined in hyper-masculine terms. Nonetheless, the neo- Nazi group the Nordic Resistance Movement (NRM) emphasizes environmental protection and animal welfare in their political manifesto, which challenges our typical ideas of what far- right extremism looks like today. In this study, I ask how gender affects the NRM’s construction of identity, what neo-Nazi environmentalism is, and how the NRM relates to fascist and Nazi traditions in a contemporary context. To answer these questions, I have conducted a narrative analysis of the NRM’s podcast Nordic Frontier. I have relied on discursive problem analysis and role theory in my investigation. The analysis includes a contextual perspective, and therefore I also rely on historical literature. From the analysis, I construct two main lines of argumentation. First, I argue that there are gaps in the general understanding of neo-Nazi environmentalism. While some have discarded neo-Nazi environmentalism as a strategic effort to mask and expand racism and discrimination, I argue that neo-Nazi environmentalism is also a reflection of Nazi nature- ideology. I also find that neo-Nazi environmentalism is an expression of anti- cosmopolitanism, and a response to a fear of a changing social world. Additionally, neo-Nazi environmentalism serves as a new arena for proving manhood in a time where traditional manhood is challenged. Second, I argue that masculinity is an organizing principle for the NRM’s far-right resistance. I find that the NRM constructs an ideal masculine Self through othering, and by what I call ‘crisising’, which refers to the process of accentuating crisis tendencies by problematizing issues like immigration or social change. Drawing on historical references, canonical texts, biological reductionism and contemporary ideas, I find that the NRM has developed a masculinized environmentally oriented neo-Nazism. i ii Acknowledgements This thesis is a product of curiosity, optimism, yogic breaths and the support of many people. I extend my sincere gratitude to all of whom have believed in this project. Thank you, To the Centre for Gender Research in Oslo for the opportunity to do this research, and for the time, space and support that made this process easier. To my supervisor Øystein Gullvåg Holter for your open door, your patience, and for cheering me on. To my co-supervisor Michael Kimmel for inspiring this project and for making me see the bigger picture when I felt lost. To the STK Gender Studies Family – so much love to you amazing souls for creating a creative and challenging space in which I have grown and learned so much. To my cherished family and friends, without whom I could not manage. To all the remarkable people I have spent time with in Oslo, Gothenburg, New York and Lisbon during the past two years: The stimulating conversations about my project with each and every one of you has kept me going along this path. A last deep-felt thank you to my activist friends in all corners of the world. I dedicate this thesis to you. Keep moving. iii iv Table of contents Abstract ....................................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................... iii Table of contents ........................................................................................................................ v 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Purpose and research questions .................................................................................... 2 1.2 Analysis, selection and limitations ............................................................................... 2 1.3 Overview of study ........................................................................................................ 5 2. Method and empirical material .............................................................................................. 6 2.1 Methodological choices .................................................................................................... 6 2.1.1 Clarifications ............................................................................................................. 7 2.2 Analytic tools ................................................................................................................... 8 2.2.1 Discursive approaches ............................................................................................... 8 2.2.2 Gender as an analytical tool ...................................................................................... 9 2.2.3 Role theory and symbolic interactionism ................................................................ 10 2.3 Overview of empirical data ............................................................................................ 10 2.3.1 Podcast as a medium ............................................................................................... 11 2.3.2 Nordic Frontier ........................................................................................................ 11 2.3.3 Additional sources ................................................................................................... 13 2.4 Ethics .............................................................................................................................. 14 3. Background and literary review ........................................................................................... 16 3.1 Historical background: Nazism ...................................................................................... 16 3.1.1 From Bismarck to The Third Reich ........................................................................ 17 3.1.2 Race ......................................................................................................................... 20 3.1.3 Gender ..................................................................................................................... 22 3.1.4 Nature ...................................................................................................................... 24 3.2 Neo-Nazism and the Nordic Resistance Movement ...................................................... 27 3.2.1 The Nordic Resistance Movement .......................................................................... 28 3.2.2 Meanings ................................................................................................................. 30 3.2.3 A new context .......................................................................................................... 31 3.2.4 Gendered identity .................................................................................................... 34 3.3 Gender and masculinities ............................................................................................... 34 v 3.3.1 Male bonding ........................................................................................................... 36 3.3.2 Exclusion, othering and racism ............................................................................... 36 3.3.3 The Protector role .................................................................................................... 37 3.3.4 Gender and nature ................................................................................................... 38 3.4 Environmentalism .......................................................................................................... 39 3.5 The crisis ........................................................................................................................ 42 3.5.1 A crisis of masculinity ............................................................................................. 42 3.5.2 Fascism’s crisis ....................................................................................................... 43 3.6 Chapter synopsis ............................................................................................................ 44 4. Empirical data ...................................................................................................................... 46 4.1 Nice guys ........................................................................................................................ 46 4.2 Protectors ........................................................................................................................ 47 4.2.1 Protecting the white race ........................................................................................
Recommended publications
  • Twenty-Four Conservative-Liberal Thinkers Part I Hannes H
    Hannes H. Gissurarson Twenty-Four Conservative-Liberal Thinkers Part I Hannes H. Gissurarson Twenty-Four Conservative-Liberal Thinkers Part I New Direction MMXX CONTENTS Hannes H. Gissurarson is Professor of Politics at the University of Iceland and Director of Research at RNH, the Icelandic Research Centre for Innovation and Economic Growth. The author of several books in Icelandic, English and Swedish, he has been on the governing boards of the Central Bank of Iceland and the Mont Pelerin Society and a Visiting Scholar at Stanford, UCLA, LUISS, George Mason and other universities. He holds a D.Phil. in Politics from Oxford University and a B.A. and an M.A. in History and Philosophy from the University of Iceland. Introduction 7 Snorri Sturluson (1179–1241) 13 St. Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) 35 John Locke (1632–1704) 57 David Hume (1711–1776) 83 Adam Smith (1723–1790) 103 Edmund Burke (1729–1797) 129 Founded by Margaret Thatcher in 2009 as the intellectual Anders Chydenius (1729–1803) 163 hub of European Conservatism, New Direction has established academic networks across Europe and research Benjamin Constant (1767–1830) 185 partnerships throughout the world. Frédéric Bastiat (1801–1850) 215 Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859) 243 Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) 281 New Direction is registered in Belgium as a not-for-profit organisation and is partly funded by the European Parliament. Registered Office: Rue du Trône, 4, 1000 Brussels, Belgium President: Tomasz Poręba MEP Executive Director: Witold de Chevilly Lord Acton (1834–1902) 313 The European Parliament and New Direction assume no responsibility for the opinions expressed in this publication.
    [Show full text]
  • Autarky and Lebensraum. the Political Agenda of Academic Plant Breeding in Nazi Germany[1]
    Journal of History of Science and Technology | Vol.3 | Fall 2009 Autarky and Lebensraum. The political agenda of academic plant breeding in Nazi Germany[1] By Thomas Wieland * Introduction In a 1937 booklet entitled Die politischen Aufgaben der deutschen Pflanzenzüchtung (The Political Objectives of German Plant Breeding), academic plant breeder and director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute (hereafter KWI) for Breeding Research in Müncheberg near Berlin Wilhelm Rudorf declared: “The task is to breed new crop varieties which guarantee the supply of food and the most important raw materials, fibers, oil, cellulose and so forth from German soils and within German climate regions. Moreover, plant breeding has the particular task of creating and improving crops that allow for a denser population of the whole Nordostraum and Ostraum [i.e., northeastern and eastern territories] as well as other border regions…”[2] This quote illustrates two important elements of National Socialist ideology: the concept of agricultural autarky and the concept of Lebensraum. The quest for agricultural autarky was a response to the hunger catastrophe of World War I that painfully demonstrated Germany’s dependence on agricultural imports and was considered to have significantly contributed to the German defeat in 1918. As Herbert Backe (1896–1947), who became state secretary in 1933 and shortly after de facto head of the German Ministry for Food and Agriculture, put it: “World War 1914–18 was not lost at the front-line but at home because the foodstuff industry of the Second Reich [i.e., the German Empire] had failed.”[3] The Nazi regime accordingly wanted to make sure that such a catastrophe would not reoccur in a next war.
    [Show full text]
  • Understanding the Land Ethic By: James Thomas Erbaugh
    Understanding the Land Ethic By: James Thomas Erbaugh Approved by: ____________________, Advisor Dr. Richard Momeyer ____________________, Reader Dr. Kimberly Medley ____________________, Reader Dr. Pascal Massie i Acknowledgements My advisor, Dr. Richard Momeyer, provided continuous support, inspired feedback, and enlightened direction throughout my research and writing. Dr. Pascal Massie and Dr. Kimberly Medley greatly strengthened my thought and writing with their careful readings and valuable critiques. Finally, the Honors Department and the Department of Philosophy at Miami University provide the opportunity to pursue an undergraduate thesis, an opportunity I have found deeply rewarding. To these people and departments: thank you. ii Table of Contents Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………i Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………...ii Introduction………………………………………………………………………………1 Chapter One: Leopold‟s Land Ethic and Callicott‟s Development………………………7 Chapter Two: Critique and Defense of the Land Ethic…………………………………..22 Chapter Three: Application and Critique………………………………………………...37 iii Introduction More than a decade before the environmental revolution of the 1960s, Aldo Leopold published A Sand County Almanac. “The Land Ethic,” one of the most compelling essays in A Sand County Almanac, provides normative direction for the human relation to and use of the land. Over half a century later, the ethical maxims and directions provided within “The Land Ethic” are still being discussed; foremost among supporters—and revisers—of Leopold‟s
    [Show full text]
  • Hitler's American Model
    Hitler’s American Model The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law James Q. Whitman Princeton University Press Princeton and Oxford 1 Introduction This jurisprudence would suit us perfectly, with a single exception. Over there they have in mind, practically speaking, only coloreds and half-coloreds, which includes mestizos and mulattoes; but the Jews, who are also of interest to us, are not reckoned among the coloreds. —Roland Freisler, June 5, 1934 On June 5, 1934, about a year and a half after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of the Reich, the leading lawyers of Nazi Germany gathered at a meeting to plan what would become the Nuremberg Laws, the notorious anti-Jewish legislation of the Nazi race regime. The meeting was chaired by Franz Gürtner, the Reich Minister of Justice, and attended by officials who in the coming years would play central roles in the persecution of Germany’s Jews. Among those present was Bernhard Lösener, one of the principal draftsmen of the Nuremberg Laws; and the terrifying Roland Freisler, later President of the Nazi People’s Court and a man whose name has endured as a byword for twentieth-century judicial savagery. The meeting was an important one, and a stenographer was present to record a verbatim transcript, to be preserved by the ever-diligent Nazi bureaucracy as a record of a crucial moment in the creation of the new race regime. That transcript reveals the startling fact that is my point of departure in this study: the meeting involved detailed and lengthy discussions of the law of the United States.
    [Show full text]
  • Appendix: More on Methodology
    Appendix: More on Methodology Over the years my fi rst monograph, The Nature of Fascism (1991), has been charged by some academic colleagues with essentialism, reductionism, ‘revisionism’, a disinterest in praxis or material realities, and even a philosophical idealism which trivializes the human suffering caused by Hitler’s regime. It is thus worth offering the more methodologically self-aware readers, inveterately sceptical of the type of large-scale theorizing (‘metanarration’) that forms the bulk of Part One of this book, a few more paragraphs to substantiate my approach and give it some sort of intellectual pedigree. It can be thought of as deriving from three lines of methodological inquiry – and there are doubtless others that are complementary to them. One is the sophisticated (but inevitably contested) model of concept formation through ‘idealizing abstraction’1 which was elaborated piece-meal by Max Weber when wrestling with a number of the dilemmas which plagued the more epistemologically self-aware academics engaged in the late nineteenth-century ‘Methodenstreit’. This was a confl ict over methodology within the German human sciences that anticipated many themes of the late twentieth-century debate over how humanities disciplines should respond to postmodernism and the critical turn.2 The upshot of this line of thinking is that researchers must take it upon themselves to be as self-conscious as possible in the process of constructing the premises and ‘ideal types’ which shape the investigation of an area of external reality. Nor should they ever lose sight of the purely heuristic nature of their inquiry, and hence its inherently partial, incomplete nature.
    [Show full text]
  • The Buildup of the German War Economy: the Importance of the Nazi-Soviet Economic Agreements of 1939 and 1940 by Samantha Carl I
    The Buildup of the German War Economy: The Importance of the Nazi-Soviet Economic Agreements of 1939 and 1940 By Samantha Carl INTRODUCTION German-Soviet relations in the early half of the twentieth century have been marked by periods of rapprochement followed by increasing tensions. After World War I, where the nations fought on opposite sides, Germany and the Soviet Union focused on their respective domestic problems and tensions began to ease. During the 1920s, Germany and the Soviet Union moved toward normal relations with the signing of the Treaty of Rapallo in 1922.(1) Tensions were once again apparent after 1933, when Adolf Hitler gained power in Germany. Using propaganda and anti-Bolshevik rhetoric, Hitler depicted the Soviet Union as Germany's true enemy.(2) Despite the animosity between the two nations, the benefits of trade enabled them to maintain economic relations throughout the inter-war period. It was this very relationship that paved the way for the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact of 1939 and the subsequent outbreak of World War II. Nazi-Soviet relations on the eve of the war were vital to the war movement of each respective nation. In essence, the conclusion of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact on August 23, 1939 allowed Germany to augment its war effort while diminishing the Soviet fear of a German invasion.(3) The betterment of relations was a carefully planned program in which Hitler sought to achieve two important goals. First, he sought to prevent a two-front war from developing upon the invasion of Poland. Second, he sought to gain valuable raw materials that were necessary for the war movement.(4) The only way to meet these goals was to pursue the completion of two pacts with the Soviet Union: an economic agreement as well as a political one.
    [Show full text]
  • Fascist Ecology: the Gr" Een Wing" of the Nazi Party and Its Historical Antecedents Peter Staudenmaier Marquette University, [email protected]
    Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette History Faculty Research and Publications History, Department of 1-1-2011 Fascist Ecology: The Gr" een Wing" of the Nazi Party and its Historical Antecedents Peter Staudenmaier Marquette University, [email protected] Published version. "Fascist Ecology: The Gr" een Wing" of the Nazi Party and its Historical Antecedents," in Ecofascism Revisited: Lessons from the German Experience. Eds. Janet Biehl and Peter Staudenmaier. Porsgrunn: New Compass Press, 2011: 13-42. Permalink. © 2011 New Compass Press. PETER STAUDENMAIER FASCIST ECOLOGY: THE uGREEN WING" OF THE NAZI PARTY AND ITS HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS "We recognize that separating humanity from nature, from the whole of life, leads to humankind's own destruction and to the death of nations. Only through a re-integration of humanity into the whole of nature can our people be made stronger. That is the fundamental point of the biological tasks of our age. Humankind alone is no longer the focus of thought, but rather life as a whole . This striving toward connectedness with the totality of life, with nature itself, a nature into which we are born, this is the deepest meaning and the true essence of National Socialist thought:' 1 In our zeal to condemn the status quo, radicals often carelessly toss about epithets like "fascist" and "ecofascist;' thus contributing to a sort of conceptual inflation that in no way furthers effective social critique. In such a situation, 13 ECOFASCISM REVISITED it is easy to overlook the fact that there are still virulent strains of fascism in our political culture which, however marginal, demand our attention.
    [Show full text]
  • Ideology Research Unit
    Ideology Research Unit YEAR IN REVIEW REPORT RESEARCH UNIT HEAD: BALŠA LUBARDA MEMBERS: DR IMRAN AWAN DR VALERIO ALFONSO BRUNO MICHAEL COLE DR JAMES F. DOWNES DR MAUREEN EGER DR BERNHARD FORCHTNER JULIAN GÖPFFARTH MONIKA HUEBSCHER BRIAN HUGHES DANIEL JONES DR ARISTOTLE KALLIS MAXIMILIAN KRETER DR CHAMILA LIYANAGE ASHLEY MATTHEIS DR HALEY MCEWEN DR ANDREAS ÖNNERFORS DR JOHN E. RICHARDSON ALESSIO SCOPELITTI K. E. SHROPSHIRE DR VASILIKI TSAGKRONI SABINE VOLK DR RUTH WODAK DECEMBER 2020 CARR IDEOLOGY RESEARCH UNIT YEAR-IN-REVIEW 2020 About the Ideology Research Unit The CARR Ideology Research Unit (IRU) aims to address and explore the conceptual issues around the terminology and the relationship between the different strands of radical right ideology. How can we delineate between various strands of radical right, such as fascism, accelerationism, New Right, metapolitics, populism, but also the uneasy relationship with some of the more ‘established’ ideologies, such as that of liberalism, conservatism, or socialism and ecologism? The role of IRU is to look at how these mutually informing yet sometimes very distant notions overlap intellectually. About the CARR Year in Review Reports The CARR Year in Review reports feature the latest research from CARR Fellows reflecting back on significant developments over the course of the year, specifically on topics pertaining to the individual Research Units. CARR Year in Review reports aim to provide a useful resource within a broader network of scholars, practitioners, and policymakers focusing on key dynamics of the radical right. Managing Editor: Dr Eviane Leidig About the Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right The Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right (CARR) is a UK-based research centre and pedagogical outreach initiative focused on the study and countering of radical right extremism and intersecting phenomena (e.g.
    [Show full text]
  • Universal Social Protection in Latin America and the Caribbean: Selected Texts 2006-2019
    Select pages of ECLAC Universal Social Protection in Latin America and the Caribbean Selected texts 2006-2019 Simone Cecchini (compiler) Thank you for your interest in this ECLAC publication ECLAC Publications Please register if you would like to receive information on our editorial products and activities. When you register, you may specify your particular areas of interest and you will gain access to our products in other formats. www.cepal.org/en/publications ublicaciones www.cepal.org/apps SELECT PAGES OF ECLAC Select Pages of ECLAC is an innovative editorial collection from the Commission, in keeping with the new ways of disseminating and reading publications in the digital era. The titles included in this electronic collection are compilations of texts on the latest topics that make up the Organization’s main areas of work. The full versions of the original articles can be accessed through the links in the publication and in the final section “Documents included in this compilation”. Alicia Bárcena Executive Secretary Mario Cimoli Deputy Executive Secretary Raúl García-Buchaca Deputy Executive Secretary for Management and Programme Analysis Ricardo Pérez Chief, Publications and Web Services Division The selected texts in this volume are taken from institutional documents of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, ECLAC (annual reports and meeting and session documents) and books or documents produced by the following authors and editors: Laís Abramo, Alberto Arenas, Carla Bronzo, Simone Cecchini, Nuria Cunill-Grau, Fernando Filgueira, Carlos Maldonado, Rodrigo Martínez, Beatriz Morales, Fabián Repetto, Nieves Rico, Claudia Robles, Cecilia Rossel, Ana Sojo, Andras Uthoff and Mario Velásquez.
    [Show full text]
  • Nationalism in Europe
    Nationalism Do Now Explain your pride in your country? What would you do for your nation? Why? Learning Targets and Intentions of the Lesson 1. KNOW how Nationalism and Liberalism dominated the political landscape of the 19th Century. 2. UNDERSTAND and explain the contrasts between Realism and Romanticism. 3. Complete a guided reading and short response assignment on the significance of Nationalism (SKILLS). What is Liberalism? A political philosophy founded on the ideas of liberty and equality. Nineteenth-century liberalism was more than an economic and political theory: it was a way of viewing the world. Foundations of Liberalism are in Enlightenment ideas, English liberties, the principles of the Declaration of the Rights of Man Nationalism A nation – people joined together by the bonds of: common language, common customs, culture, and history, administered by the same government. Political and ethnic boundaries should coincide. What is Nationalism? Culture – History - shared way a common of life past Nationality – shared Language- shared ethnic Nationalism communication ancestry Religion- Territory shared by – land belongs to most group Positives –overthrow absolute rule, democratic governments Negatives – Forced assimilation of minority, extreme nationalism leads to dictatorship How did “nationalism” affect Europe in the 19th-century? Following the defeat of Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna met to create a peace settlement in Europe Battle of Waterloo The Congress’s purpose was to establish a balance of power in Europe and return monarchs to power. Prince Klemens von Metternich Congress of Vienna (1814 – 1815) But, the French Revolution had inspired the rise of nationalistic movements in many European countries. Nationalism is the loyalty of a people to their values, traditions, geography…their Country Nationalistic Movements: The unification of Germany was led by Otto von Bismarck.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 European Ethno-Nationalist and White Supremacy Groups Key
    European Ethno-Nationalist and White Supremacy Groups Key Findings • European far-right ethno-nationalist groups have cast immigrants as a scapegoat for economic hardship faced by young Europeans. Rather than promote overt white supremacy, these groups denigrate minorities—particularly Muslim immigrants—as detrimental to European culture. • Far-right political parties like Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland and Italy’s Lega Nord have been able to generate substantial popular support by promising to defend their respective countries against the cultural attacks of immigrants and foreign influences, and have consequently made gains in domestic parliamentary elections. • Groups like Les Identitaires and its youth wing, Generation Identity, have renounced violence in favor of utilizing social media and public demonstrations to portray themselves as legitimate, mainstream movements protecting European culture. These groups have directly targeted Europe’s youth through social media and public demonstrations. • Groups including Combat 18 and the Nordic Resistance Movement, which openly embrace neo-Nazi ideology and violent tactics, are still able to recruit for violent activities, despite the rise of non-violent, populist groups. Executive Summary More than 70 years after the defeat of Nazi Germany, ethno-nationalist and white supremacist movements in Europe continue to thrive. They include far-right political parties, neo-Nazi movements, and apolitical protest groups. Some groups openly espouse violent white supremacy, while others have
    [Show full text]
  • Consensus for Mussolini? Popular Opinion in the Province of Venice (1922-1943)
    UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM SCHOOL OF HISTORY AND CULTURES Department of History PhD in Modern History Consensus for Mussolini? Popular opinion in the Province of Venice (1922-1943) Supervisor: Prof. Sabine Lee Student: Marco Tiozzo Fasiolo ACADEMIC YEAR 2016-2017 2 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the PhD degree of the University of Birmingham is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without my prior written consent. I warrant that this authorisation does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. I declare that my thesis consists of my words. 3 Abstract The thesis focuses on the response of Venice province population to the rise of Fascism and to the regime’s attempts to fascistise Italian society.
    [Show full text]