![Sample our Social Sciences journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/110822/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Social-Sciences.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
Over recent years, the German extreme right has undergone significant changes, including the appropriation of symbols, styles, and action repertoires of contemporary (youth) cultures, sometimes even taken from the far left. In this article, we investigate extreme right visual communication through Facebook, focusing on claims to truth and authentic Nazism in relation to ‘history’, ‘nature’, and ‘gender roles’. These themes were central in National Socialism, but today need to be (re)negotiated vis-à-vis contemporary (youth) cultures. We show that while a traditional notion of ideological authority is enabled through visuals, there is also a strand of imagery depicting and celebrating ‘intimate’ communion. While this simultaneity leads to tensions within the ‘ideal extreme right subject’, we argue that such dilemmas can also be productive, allowing for the (re)negotiation of classic National Socialist doctrine in the context of contemporary (youth) cultures, and thus, potentially, for a revitalisation of the extreme right.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 As remarked by one anonymous reviewer, this argument has a Marxist form. While we agree, we would add that the Marxist logic is marginalised here by a Bakhtian (Bakhtin, Citation1984) one entailing dialogism and polyphony of discourses and subject constitution. This combines well with our focus on the extreme right as being thoroughly post-modern.
2 While fascism should not simply be confused with National Socialism, there are large overlaps, for example concerning their shared revolt against rationalism and materialism (that is, their organic nationalism, anti-liberalism, anti-individualism; see Sternhell, Sznaider, & Asheri, Citation1994, p. 6).