Explaining Far-Right Thinking and Its Surge in the United States

This article offers a relational conceptualization of the far right that is applicable across space and over time. Far-right thinking is conceptualized as adaptable to diverse socioeconomic and demographic groups relative to diverse targets of resentment and hatred. It pivots on a linkage between casteism and replacement theory, the latter being the affective register of the former. The recent surge of far-right thinking is a matter of movement not from the fringe to the mainstream, but rather from implicit to explicit status within the mainstream, where it has always resided yet shapeshifts between covert and overt. Focusing on the US context, this article critiques three salient frameworks that explain the surge of the far right and imbricates pertinent points from each relative to the conceptual framework. All have merit, but alone their recommendations for countering the far right are mainly short-term. The article concludes with an agenda that connects with the conceptual framework and calls for research to document and examine the evolving spread of explicit far-right thinking and practices across institutions, sectors, and nation-states.