The far-right thrives on the politics of hate.
Whether it is the hate politics of Hindutva or the hate politics of white supremacy, the ongoing generation of hate is vital to the machinery of the far-right.
Hate is an instrument for growing membership and legitimating the politics of the far-right.
To recruit people into its politics of deep inequality, the far-right continually sell hate.
The establishment of inequality as normative needs the perpetual other. This other is cast as the threat to the status quo, the established order, and therefore the target of hate. Hate finds legitimacy in the threat posed by the other.
Funded by the capitalist class that profits from the perpetuation of these social inequalities as legitimate and necessary, the communicative infrastructures of the far-right are propelled through digital platforms that profit from the virality of hate. Note here the capitalist investments into the political agendas of the far-right, whether it is the Koch Brothers in the U.S. or Reliance Industries in India.
This process of othering simultaneously renders as necessary the infrastructure of inequality. Inequality offers the necessary protection against the onslaught of the other.
Through an array of communicative inversions, the status quo is turned into the victim, threatened by the existence of the other.
This other, at the religious, raced, caste-based, gendered, classed margins of the dominant structure are the target of the hate, propped up by narratives continually constructing the different realms of the threat posed by them.
Colonial, gendered, caste-based, and raced structures of organizing societies are communicatively inverted into victimhood. The narrative of majoritarian victimhood mobilizes the majority into the politics of hate, mainstreaming the far-right as a structure of hegemonic political organizing.
Critical thought that interrogates the workings of power and control threatens the existence of the far-right. The questioning of the narratives that form the very basis of the inequalities held up by the far-right risks the politics that is based upon the perpetuation of inequalities.
The far-right therefore actively constructs critical thought as dangerous.
The attacks of both Hindutva and white supremacist groups on critical thinkers are carried out through the framing of critical thinking as anti-national, against the interests of the nation. In other instances, through communicative inversions, critical thought interrogating the hate politics of the far-right is framed as hate speech. For instance, critical thought that attends to the targeting of minority groups by hate politics is labeled as hate speech, accused of producing "phobias" against the majority community.
Critical thought that documents the whiteness of the mainstream white society are framed as racist. Critical thought that documents the hate politics of Hindutva is framed as Hinduphobic. Critical thought that documents the hate politics of the Israeli settler-colonial occupation in Palestine are communicatively inverted as extremist.
While carrying out these attacks, the rhetoric of the far-right continually makes its claim to support the freedom of expression.
These targeted attacks on critical thought are held up by communicative infrastructures of capital. Consider the role of the Koch Brothers in the U.S. in funding the attacks on critical race theory.
Once established within the political structures, the far-right works to equate the critique of hate politics with working against the interests of the nation. The nation, synonymous with the interests of the hegemonic power structures of the far-right, is organized into the discursive infrastructure as the basis for organizing security. Critical thought is therefore a security threat and must be silenced. A wide array of policies are orchestrated to criminalize critical thought.
Critical thought is vital to countering the far-right, and policy infrastructures must anticipate and respond adequately with the organized attacks of the far-right on critical thought.