Australian right wing extremist ideology: exploring narratives of nostalgia and nemesis

ABSTRACT

Australian Right Wing Extremism (RWE) ideology can be identified by ethnocentric and structural discourses, with prominent narratives of racial identification and threat articulation. This study has examined nine RWE manifestos and collated statements of Australian authorship, both historical and contemporary, to gain a qualitative understanding of discourses, narratives and axiomatic beliefs within the heterogeneous movement, in order to identify the ideological contour of Australia’s extreme right. It found that ethnocentric discourses assigned positive value to identity narratives regarding white identity and heritage and seek to proscribe the ideal society based on nostalgic and imagined identity constructs. Societal narratives situate gender roles within the ambit of a failing and degenerate society. Threat narratives assigned negative values to designated out-groups, while concurrently arguing white victimhood. Structural discourses manifested to a lesser extent, demonstrating opposition to political concepts like democracy and equality, and capitalist economic systems. Ethnocentric and structural discourses combine to elevate white identity, enforce notions of threat, and romanticise a nostalgic and imagined existence to which extremists seek a return.

KEYWORDS:

• Right wing
• ideology
• extremism
• terrorism
• Australia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The term ‘white race’ is used throughout to reflect manifesto language, rather than the author’s position.

2. Antipodean Resistance and Blair Cottrell did not engage with these themes.

3. Butler and Cottrell did not engage with this theme.

4. The only author not to discuss miscegenation was Butler.

5. Butler did not appear to use the term ‘invader’ although he discussed Jews as being intruders and subverters. (1946, p. 96). AR did not appear to use the term at all.

6. While Cottrell is also anti-Semitic, hence his racial vilification charges. There are no direct posts in his Gab feed since March 2019.

7. The only writer who did not address the left was Mills. WAU touch briefly on the left wing, but only to attribute its success to the activities of women.

8. Butler and Saleam did not engage with this theme.

9. The Publicist authors, Butler and Saleam, wrote little on the topic.

10. Butler, Tarrant and Cottrell did not engage with this theme. It should also be noted that RWE groups/influencers tend to be more homophobic and transphobic in practice than is represented in their writings.

11. Mills and Butler did not address this theme.

12. Over half of the manifestos explicitly address equality. In others, it is implicit.