Heroes of the past & victims of today: A Twitter investigation reveals what the ‘freedom convoy,’ Islamophobes, incels and Hindu supremacists have in common.
What do Truckers in Canada, Islamophobes in the U.S., Hindu supremacists and incels the world over have in common? Distorted visions of a golden age when they ruled as they liked. Selective histories of nationalist glories are on the front steps of Capitols and Parliaments around the world. Fuelled by half-baked histories and disinformation online, the rise of anti-establishment movements, white supremacy and nationalisms tend to follow a similar script. Joining us today to unpack that script, and to understand why people fall for it, are Zenaib Farokhi and David R. Anderson. Zeinab Farokhi is a doctoral candidate at the Women and Gender Studies Institute and Diaspora and Transnational Studies Centre, University of Toronto. She received her M.A in Women and Gender Studies, University of Toronto, and an M.A in Sociology from Osmania University, India, and her B.A in History from Isfahan University, Iran. Her research interests include cyber feminism, transnational feminisms and diasporic studies.Farokhi's mixed-methods dissertation focuses on right-wing extremism, gender, and online radicalization. Her current doctoral work compares the usage of Twitter by Islamophobic right-wing extremists in India, Canada, and the US, focusing on anti-Muslim rhetoric in Hindu and white nationalist discourse. David R. Anderson is a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change at York University. David was born legally blind and grew up in the West Kootenays, a region of the southern interior of British Columbia and the traditional territory of the Ktunaxa and Sinixt First Nations. His dissertation, Seeing Otherwise: Nature, Blindness, Memoir, examines blind, minority, and nature memoirs via close reading practices to evidence how blind and other overlooked ecological sensibilities can promote more just political and environmental collectivities. With an interdisciplinary background in literature, education, and the environmental humanities, his intersectional research promotes the value of and strategies for creating practices of mutual vulnerability, care, and resilience in the face of multiple climate, social, and political crises. Follow Dr. Bob on Twitter: @ProfessorHuish