PUBLISHED | 04/06/24 |
READING TIME | 5 |
The Hope and Courage Collective (H&CC) blog shares our analysis and data of how hate and extremism are manifesting and outlines some of the tactics currently being used.
Niamh McDonald, Director of Advocacy and Community Engagement at H&CC exposes the tactics of the far right in the Local and EU Elections.
In the run up to the EU and Local elections, H&CC have identified two dominant and recurring worldviews forming the backdrop to the spread of hate and disinformation in local communities ahead of the elections. Ethno-nationalism – the idea that the identity of the nation or nationality is rooted in ethnicity– to be Irish is to be white, this can be seen in the weaponizing of inequality and scapegoating people seeking asylum and has now grown into an anti-migrant movement. In tandem, conspiracism – the use of conspiracy theories to interpret political and historical events to gain political power or the intentional deployment of such conspiracies for the purposes of socially engineering public opinion – has grown rapidly since 2020. It is now driving a dominant narrative aimed at building support for ultra or far right local and EU candidates.
In order for hate and division to take hold in communities, polarising sides need to be constructed. Over the past 20 months a small group of people with far-right and fascist views have been honing and testing their messages with the intention of establishing a political presence. There are now increased and sustained efforts by extremists to blame migrants, people seeking asylum and those given refugee status for the failures of state policies especially on housing. Rather than providing solutions, blame is placed on those most in need of help in our communities.
The far right have had some success in normalising their messaging. They have succeeded in creating sound bites that are then repeated by mainstream media, politicians and public commentators. These frames are the mental shortcuts we all use to process and create mental pictures in our minds. Frames help us process the volume of information directed at us daily. People on the far right create narratives that frame how we interpret issues like migration. They deliberately seek to stoke imagined and unknown fears. They create a sense of a threat ‘at our front door’, using terms like ‘unvetted males,’ ‘men of military age’ and ‘Ireland is full’, to try to activate intense emotions like anger, disgust, and fear. But this approach is hard to sustain overtime. Therefore there is a need for constant fresh online content to replenish these emotions on a regular basis. This has manifested hyper-locally, resulting in marches, static protests and increasingly turning to more violent activity such as blockades and arson attacks.
Much of their calls to action initially take place on mainstream social media platforms. The proliferation of hateful content and disinformation continues to be facilitated by all major social media platforms enabled by algorithms and recommender systems designed to drive toxic but highly engaging content into people’s feeds. The increase of online hate and violent rhetoric has directly led to offline harassment and intimidation at people’s homes, workplaces and more recently towards candidates running for election.
Over a three week period (May 2024), H&CC has documented 30 instances of intimidation, threats or physical assault of election candidates or their volunteers. Election posters in some areas are being ripped down, dumped and in some instances set on fire. A recurring tactic is to film these attacks, and then use it as content on social media platforms. They are quickly shared across online hate networks, copied in other areas, and then a new cycle begins. This fresh online content replenishes the emotions needed to feed the frames mentioned above.
In the 2024 local elections there are a total of 2,169 candidates running. H&CC has noted 160 candidates running on an openly anti-asylum seeker or anti-migrant platform to extremes of being openly fascist. In the European elections out of 73 candidates across three constituencies there are 29 candidates similar to the local elections as having an openly anti-asylum or anti-migrant platform to being openly fascist.
H&CC research has also found over 40 anti-migrant Facebook groups, most focusing on specific local areas, several set to private and all sharing explicit anti-migrant messaging, false rumours and misinformation. This network creates a hyper-local information pipeline to share lies, disinformation, violent content and strategies. H&CC has identified a correlation between areas of high anti-migrant activity with political threats and attacks on candidates. There have been attacks and threats towards candidates and their canvassers in Cork, Coolock, Dublin’s North Inner City, Leitrim and Tallaght and most notably attacks, verbal threats and intimidation on female candidates of colour in Greystones, Clondalkin and Limerick.
Running in parallel to the political violence in the election is the intensity of anti-migrant content, disinformation and the frequency of mobilisations and blockades at proposed accommodation centres. Numbers participating are lower, however the level of violence and intensity remains – a consistent tactic is to intimidate workers at these sites. Worryingly our analysis shows a 50% increase in arson attacks in a one year period (April 2023- 2024). A further two were recorded in May including a pipe bomb attack in Tallaght at a proposed accommodation site. An Garda Síochána also reported a huge increase in aggression at anti-migrant mobilisations compared to this time in 2023.
Extremists may appear big and seem to be dominating the public narrative, but in reality they are tiny. Recent groundbreaking H&CC research ‘Something to Fight For’ shows the hard right is only about 1.1% of Irish society. They appear bigger because their messages are emotionally charged and spread faster and are louder than the truth and we can see their messaging and framing being repeated in mainstream media. Politicians and community leaders are often not sure how to respond and feel silenced and afraid to speak up.
To successfully dial down the toxic impact of extremists, community and civil society leaders, politicians, public commentators and journalists need to lift up and repeat narratives that reinforce shared solidarity based values. By repeating our opposition’s frames, we inadvertently assist in spreading their ideas and messages, helping them seem bigger than they are. Promoting our world view and the Ireland we want to see is key. By coming together we can reject their division, demand what our families need, and create a better future for us all, no exceptions.
https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095759621ht
https://www.ig i-global.com/dictionary/russian-information-warfare-and-911-conspiracism/72249
https://www.isdglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Uisce-Faoi-Thalamh-Summary-Report.pdf
https://www.immigrantcouncil.ie/sites/default/files/2024-05/Notice%20of%20Polls%20LE%20EU.pdf
https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-41404043.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
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