The bitter end: apocalypse and conspiracy in white nationalist responses to the Islamic State attacks in Paris.
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Wilson, Andrew FergusAffiliation
University of DerbyIssue Date
2017-11-21
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Wilson's article examines how apocalyptic thinking converges with the use of conspiracy theory in white nationalist world-views at a time of crisis. Apocalyptic thinking is, typically, a religious response to secular threats to the faith community that prophesize, or are attendant on, the End. These millenarian outlooks provide communities in crisis a promise of confirmation of the object of their faith, the vanquishing of enemies and, crucially, continuity for the community in a better world to come. In the latter half of the twentieth century and the early years of the twenty-first, apocalypticism and conspiracy theory have tended to coincide. The tendency towards a binary distinction between terms of absolute good and absolute evil, and the revelation of secrets relating to human destiny through prophesy or ‘truth-seeking’ provide a broad transposability between the two interpretative strategies. An increasing amalgamation of political paranoia and eschatology have given rise to what has been termed ‘conspirituality’. Much recent white nationalist rhetoric can be understood as emerging from this discursive position, and Wilson's analysis will demonstrate how one white nationalist community drew on conspiratorial apocalypticism in its response to the multiple attacks by Islamic State in Paris on 13–14 November 2015.Citation
Wilson, A. F. (2017) 'The bitter end: apocalypse and conspiracy in white nationalist responses to the Islamic State attacks in Paris', Patterns of Prejudice, 51 (5):412.Publisher
Taylor and FrancisJournal
Patterns of PrejudiceDOI
10.1080/0031322X.2017.1398963Additional Links
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0031322X.2017.1398963Type
ArticleLanguage
enISSN
0031322XEISSN
14617331ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1080/0031322X.2017.1398963
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