Understanding and Challenging Right-Wing Movements Against Democracy

Understanding and Challenging Right-Wing Movements Against Democracy

Racism and other forms of oppression and hate are nothing new in the United States. But social movements advocating hate, genocide, and far-right authoritarian politics, have gained increased power and influence through the current Trump administration.

The Trump administration is influenced by multiple social movements that believe the president should be above the law. They believe he should be able to enforce his will immediately, and that he should dehumanize and call for violence against various "enemies."

Dr. Braune is a scholar of far-right movements, including racist hate groups, fascist movements, and Christian nationalist movements. In this presentation, she discusses the influence of these movements on U.S. politics today and how we can resist.

Dr. Braune takes a “social movement approach.” She sees fascism as a social movement seeking power, always already connected to sources of power. She helps communities think through how to understand the danger and build effective social movements to counter it. She does not claim to have all the answers, but she helps communities understand how these movements operate so that they can think through effective boundaries with far-right groups and consider means of challenging them.

The social movement approach argues that fascism cannot be defeated merely by elections, policing, or dialogue. Rather, fascism can only be defeated through social movements that resist it. The time is urgent to act, and we can all play a role.

There will be time for questions as well as an interactive opportunity to participate in a small group exercise on thinking through social spaces and subcultures we belong to and ways to resist fascism in those spaces.

Dr. Joan Braune (She/Her) is author of numerous works including Understanding and Countering Fascist Movements: From Void to Hope (Routledge 2024) and is co-editor of The Ethics of Researching the Far Right (Manchester University Press 2024) and the forthcoming book, On Christian Nationalism: Critical and Theological Perspectives, which will be coming out in December from Routledge. She has been studying fascism and the far-right for the past eight years and frequently presents to activist groups, faith communities, educators, labor unions, and others.

The event is free and there is a Zoom option as well.

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