Латиноамериканский исторический альманах (Aug 2022)

The Multifaceted Reaction in the Twenty-First Century: A New Stage in the Evolution of the Right

  • Pablo Stefanoni

DOI
https://doi.org/10.32608/2305-8773-2022-35-1-106-132
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 35
pp. 106 – 132

Abstract

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The emergence of a new type of far right movements embodies some-thing quite different from the conventional right-wing politics of the 80s or 90s. The thesis of this article is that we are facing more than just new forms of conservative reaction; the new right-wingers chal-lenge the left on the disputed field of social nonconformism in a con-text in which the image of the "decadence of the West" resonates again. This political-cultural complex functions a lot like a rhizome, that is, as a structure without a center, without lines of pyramidal or arbores-cent subordination, without root or trunk, and without predefined artic-ulating joints. Both the new political forces and the circulation of meaning on the Internet are giving shape to a new kind of anti-progressive reaction, with a transgressive spirit as one of its most con-noted elements. While any idea of a thinkable future is in crisis, at least in the West, retro-utopias, conspirative paranoia and certain forms of re-sentment tend to multiply and draw from various sources of indigna-tion. Some key words (cultural marxism, wokeism, new inquisition, etc.) contribute to the construction of discourses in which the left is as-signed to the side of the elites while the reactionary right represents the working masses.

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