Right-wing populism as a worldview and online practice: Social media communication by ordinary citizens between ideology and lifestyles

ABSTRACT

Right-wing populist ideologies are expressed not only by politicians, party members or mass media actors but also by non-organised citizens on social media. On these platforms, political messages alternate with posts revealing personal lifestyles. We assume that an increasingly coherent political milieu and identity are emerging around right-wing populist worldviews that manifest themselves in social media practices and correspond with expressions of other aspects of lifestyles. A qualitative study of social media accounts of users who expressed a right-wing populist worldview was conducted. We investigate how core elements of right-wing populism are being communicated by these users, reconstruct a typical vision of society that links political concerns with users’ everyday way of life, identify political and social topics beyond the core of right-wing populism, and analyse how these different elements of online expression are held together by a specific style of thinking and communication.

KEYWORDS:

• Right-wing populism
• ideology
• lifestyle
• social media

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Anti-genderism (see the contributions in Hark & Villa, 2015) can be defined as attitudes or activism directed against presumed threats by gender theory, feminism and gender equality policy (and often also research, movements and policies related to LGBT issues). Conservative and right-wing populist or extremist actors oppose the non-essentialist conception of gender as a dangerous ideology and what they see as (pseudo-scientific) research and as indoctrination and harmful policy threatening the natural order of the sexes, the traditional family, and the healthy development of children.

2 ‘Colourful’ is regularly used as a metaphor for diversity and multiculturalism in Germany.