The Symbols and Ideas of the Radical Right: Why Their Opponents Should be More Informed

The Wolfsangel is a symbol representing a stylised section of a wolf trap. Though some commentators suggest that it is runic, in fact the Wolfsangel sign does not belong to any particular runic tradition and may have originated in a heraldic use.

Along with many other symbols related to a largely invented Teutonic (and ‘Aryan’) tradition, Nazi Germany appropriated the Wolfsangel, using it in the divisional insignia of several Waffen-SS units, in addition to the Sturmabteilung (SA) and Hitler Youth.

A variety of political parties and groups have adopted the Wolfsangel as a way of signalling their commitment to neo-Nazi politics, without resorting to the obvious Swastika. In the United States, the neo-Nazi group Aryan Nations incorporated the Wolfsangel into their logo and in Ukraine the symbol is used by the fascist militia Azov Battalion (now called the Azov Regiment). The symbol has also been used on flags and clothing during marches of extremist groups in the UK; for example, Britain’s so-called ‘Infidels’ (who split from the English Defence League).

These acronyms communicate violent fantasies, typically fantasies of mass murder. DOTR stands for ‘Day of the Rope’ and DOR stands for either ‘Day of Reckoning’ or ‘Day of Retribution’. The ‘Day of the Rope’ is a radical-right fantasy that, at some time in the future, ‘justice’ will be served to those who entered into mixed-race marriages and similar acts of ethnic ‘treason’. Typically, this ‘justice’ involves a public hanging of everyone the radical right perceives as enemies. The terroristic organisation Atomwaffen Division use such terminology in propaganda depicting violence against their opponents. The term was taken from a passage in William Pierce’s (1978) novel, The Turner Diaries. The novel’s heroes lead a fascist revolution in the US where, among other atrocities, those in mixed-ethnic relationships are hung from lampposts. ‘DOTR’ has long been used as shorthand for the desire for white-supremacist revolution, and has been disseminated by openly neo-Nazi groups ranging from The Daily Stormer to the more extreme Atomwaffen Division in the US and, in the UK, by National Action and its splinter movements such as the now-proscribed NS131 and Scottish Dawn.

This concept is used by white nationalists to refer to demographic changes which they believe lead to a reduction of the percentage of the white population, including nonwhite immigration, intermarriage between whites and nonwhites, and white birthrates being below those of other groups. Unlike all other known forms of genocide, which typically involve forced movement, restrictions on reproductive freedom, and violence, they argue that “white genocide” results from the freedom (most prominently of whites themselves) to move, marry, and reproduce as they wish.

A number of social processes are attributed to a conscious program that sees the reduction of the white population as its goal, and emerges from some force powerful enough to more or less consciously control culture, state and corporate policy, individual preferences, and so on. This malevolent force is frequently equated with the figure of an organized Jewish conspiracy (or in superficially more sophisticated accounts, the spontaneous malevolent actions of Jews in general), even though Jews in most Western countries are also declining as a percentage of the population through intermarriage, lower birth rates, and non-Jewish migration.

Sometimes, white supremacists raise Japan’s highly restrictionist immigration policy as an example to show that (1) this conspiracy is real, and (2) people are hypocritically condemning whites for restricting immigration to “their” countries when “nobody” criticizes Japan for the same thing. But this example, in fact, proves the opposite of each of these. For Japan’s restrictionist immigration policy hasn’t done anything to increase Japanese birthrates, which are low in spite of the presumed absence of a Jewish conspiracy to depress them; and this policy and Japanese nationalism is criticized, most obviously by Japan’s Korean minority and political left, but also by non-nationalists generally.

The “Great Replacement,” is very frequently cited by the terrorist fringe, because it reframes peaceful decisions of people to move,  marry, and have children or not as “genocide,” and therefore actual mass murder as a perverse form of self-defense. However, as an organizing frame, it also has legs on the electorally successful flank of the radical right. When US Congressional representatives say that, for instance, “we can’t restore our civilization with someone else’s babies,” they act as vectors to smuggle these ideas from the terrorist fringe into the mainstream of political discourse. Although the fringe and the “moderate” radical right can be understood distinctly, they aid and influence each other.

The symbols of the radical- and extreme-right are constantly evolving and so, as a bestiary of symbols, we acknowledge that some of our report will be superseded by the linguistic landscape of extremist subcultures. Meme formats created by the alt-right, for instance, have been appropriated by their opponents just as readily as visa-versa. Similarly, the Covid-19 pandemic has generated a whole raft of conspiracy theories, with associated vocabularies. However, we hope that our report offers insight into the overall structure and function of such symbols and the ways that they develop, particularly in dialogue with changing social and political contexts.

Of course, many people may never be persuaded by the radical- or extreme right, either because they’ve internalized broad humanist principles or because of a base, intuitive disapproval of their politics, or both. But given that our society is structurally driven to engender alienation, especially alienated young men, we always need to be aware of the dangers of radicalisation. We can’t expect democratic or egalitarian principles to be internalized instantly, nor can we expect our own opposition to reactionary, and violent, political subcultures to always get the better of others’ curiosity. Given these social realities, it is vital that organisations like CARR continue to provide accessible materials that practitioners, academics and the wider public can use to evaluating the ideas and arguments of the radical right. We are very proud to have contributed to this, in our small way.

1. Don’t assume that every symbol with an alt-right (or seeming alt-right) origin is being used in an alt-right way. One of the reasons the alt-right has been as influential on online culture as it has despite its (so far) relatively small numbers has been the fact that one of its most popular gathering spots is also one of the more influential places for creating internet visual culture generally. The Wojak characters, for instance, are about as ubiquitous today as the “rage comics” of yore were (remember them?), and about as associated with 4chan as the latter was with Reddit; the alt-right likes them a lot, but then so do plenty of others. In some cases this is actually deliberate, as with the promotion of the “okay” hand sign as a supposed alt-right symbol – the purpose is to create lots of false positives so as to make opposition to the radical right look absurd and censorious.
2. If you’re engaging with someone one-on-one (especially someone you know) who seems drawn into the radical right and they seem to be in good faith, listen empathetically and present alternative frameworks non-judgmentally. Research has shown that this is the most effective means of persuasion – you “plant a seed” and show an alternative means of conceptualizing things, and most of the persuasive work comes after as you mull it over. (The most effective rightist propagandists also do this.) If someone says they feel a lot of hostility towards them as a white male, say, that’s probably speaking to a real sense of alienation, even if the explanations they’re giving for it don’t hold up. Give them a framework that allows them to think of their real grievances and concerns, whatever they may be, in a way that’s in solidarity with most other people rather than entrenching hierarchies. Many ex-alt-rightists say that the Youtuber Contrapoints deradicalized them precisely because she was able to present alternative ways of thinking about these things in a funny and non-condescending way.
3. If someone engaging a broader audience in bad faith, don’t allow their premises to control the conversation, if a conversation is to happen at all. Generally speaking, these have three very common forms. The first is “I am cool and hip, you are a censorious scold.” In these, the point is to get opponents offended so that they look narrow-minded and unfun. If you must engage with this at all, condescension is a more effective mans of hostility than taking offense. The second is “let’s put the rights of some group on the table by getting into the weeds about my hobbyhorse.” Maybe it’s something like “Syrian refugees should be expelled from Germany because they have higher crime rates than native Germans,” and they demand that you disprove their empirical assertion (Syrians refugees have higher crime rates) or else have to concede their point or otherwise cede facts and logic to them. Well, maybe they are right and maybe they are wrong about the original point – and since this is their hobbyhorse, they’ll have a better set of links and talking points than you, so they’ll likely be able to present a plausible case even if they’re wrong – but in the end this is “privileging the hypothesis” by choosing what to single out as what’s worthy of discussion. (German men presumably have much higher crime rates than German women; does that mean they should be expelled?) If the empirical question isn’t something you know a lot about, then emphasize that you’re not necessarily in a position to evaluate or not, but that the leaps in logic they’re making elsewhere in the argument are non sequiturs, and that privileging other hypotheses leads to other conclusions they would reject. (If it is something you know about, go to town.) The third is “let me put words in your mouth and argue against that.” For instance, the phrase “it’s okay to be white” is meant to pin the non sequitur “it’s not okay to be white” on opponents. State things in your own terms or simply roll your eyes and move on.

TO READ THE FULL REPORT PRODUCED BY CENTRE FOR ANALYSIS OF THE RADICAL RIGHT (CARR): CLICK HERE

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