Hate in Precarious Times: Mobilizing Anxiety from the Alt-Right to Brexit - Hardcover

by Neal Curtis (Author)

In the age of Brexit and Donald Trump, the radical right has gained significant popularity, characterized by a rhetoric of xenophobia, discrimination and "hate speech". This book examines why the politics of hate and ideologies of the far-right are on the rise and argues that to counter it we must challenge the sense of social and economic precarity this politics feeds off.

Hate in Precarious Times examines five distinct types of precarity, covering threats to a particular way of life; fear of apocalyptic terrorism; the insecurity of austerity, and low-waged jobs in the wake of the Financial Crisis; challenges to privilege; and the spread of disinformation in a "post-truth" age. In this book, Neal Curtis seeks the root of what causes ordinary people to identify with far-right ideologies and asks what can be done to counter the conditions underpinning this.

Author Biography

Neal Curtis is Associate Professor of Media and Communication at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He is author of On Sovereignty and Superheroes (2016), Idiotism: Capitalism and the Privatization of Life (2013), War and Social Theory: World, Value and Identity (2006) and Against Autonomy: Lyotard, Judgement and Action (2001).