Unlikely Extremists: Ethnographic Explorations into the Journey Towards Far-Right Extremism

Abstract (English)

This paper sheds light on the nuanced and variegated factors that drive people towards far-right radical conspiracies and political movements in contemporary societies. Drawing on preliminary research conducted over the past two years, I am especially interested in those who moved from holding ideals and values typically associated with the left side of the political spectrum to those associated with far-right extremism. I argue that people are driven to right-wing fringe movements by socioeconomic dislocations and certain kinds of personal crises. Promises of status and belonging welcome them into worlds they previously found inconceivable. However, I also argue that once ensconced in conspiratorial beliefs, their sense of dislocation and distortion only deepens.
My paper also discusses the ways in which this research has challenged my ethnographic practice. While some of the extremists I work with are themselves members of marginalized racial or ethnic groups, they express ideas that are bigoted and misogynistic. This makes establishing the basic levels of trust and sympathy that are key to ethnographic research a complicated, and sometimes difficult, endeavor. Moreover, my own ethnographic practice and ethics have historically emphasized reciprocity and advocacy -- another set of challenges that I will discuss in this paper.
Ultimately, I find that diving beneath the surface of extremist politics and ideologies reveals a set of contradictory and convoluted ideas and priorities has as much to teach us about the fringes of the political spectrum as it does about the messiness of the mainstream.