Description
Subsequent to the Christchurch attack in March 2019, right-wing extremism has been broadly noted by academics and security analysts. Critics argue that in addition to Islamic terrorism, right-wing extremism has already become a truly and deadly threat in many Western countries. In order to tackle the threats posed by right-wing extremism and radical extremists, government authorities in the U.S. and many European countries have recently prompted and implemented some specific policies, such as enhancing the law-enforcement resources devoted to tracking and investigating right-wing extremism, and monitoring online activities related to right-wing extremist thought and ideology. By examining the discursive shift of terrorism and extremism, this paper argues and suggests that the concept of right-wing extremism indeed has different meaning in the U.S. and European countries, and therefore, the governmental and societal responses in the U.S. and European countries—both discursively and materially—should be better understood and discussed in different social and cultural contexts. For the U.S., right-wing extremism usually refers to white supremacy, racial violence, domestic terrorism, and gun control. However, for many European countries, right-wing extremism often refers to nationalism, xenophobia, neo-fascism (or neo-Nazism), and far-right populism.
