Blyth Crawford

German Opposition Gambles With Far-Right on Immigration, and Loses Friedrich Merz and his Christian Democrats broke a political taboo by working with the hard-right Alternative for Germany to toughen rules on immigration. It did not pay off.

In an effort to portray himself and his party as tough on immigration, Friedrich Merz, the leader of the poll-leading Christian Democrats, pushed a series of measures tightening borders and accelerating deportations through Parliament this week. He did so with help from the hard-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD — parts of which have been classified as extremist by German intelligence agencies. On Friday, the gambit ended in a crushing legislative defeat for Mr. Merz, dissent in his own party and jubilant claims of new legitimacy from the AfD, a chain reaction that could rattle Mr. Merz’s comfortable seat at the top of the polls. Mr. Merz’s willingness to rely on support from the AfD, broke a taboo in German politics that had endured since the end of World War II.

Lessons to be learned:

1. Centrists align with far-right to look tough on immigration
2. Centrists gain nothing
3. Far-right wins more power

Combative Trump blames DEI policies after air tragedy The president started his White House news conference as "consoler-in-chief" but then pivoted into unevidenced political blame, writes the BBC's Anthony Zurcher.

This framing—which emphasizes Trump’s combativeness”—says nothing about the absurdity and racism of his claim.
www.bbc.com/news/article...

NCLR and GLAD Law File Challenge to Trump’s Transgender Military Ban  - National Center for Lesbian Rights For immediate release:  January 28, 2025                          Contacts: Amanda Johnston, GLAD Law  | 617-417-7769 | ajohnston@glad.org  Malkia Hutchinson, NCLR | mhutchinson@nclrights.org    GLAD ...

The National Center for Lesbian Rights and GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders have filed a lawsuit challenging Trump’s order banning transgender Americans from serving in the U.S. military: www.nclrights.org/about-us/pre...

Recommending this to any fellow PhDers ⬇️

Undercover in Britain First Britain First wants you to believe it is a respectable political party. Our undercover reporter spent a year inside the organisation — rising through the ranks to earn a top activist award — and disco...

New from @hopenothate.org.uk! An undercover investigation into Britain First, revealing just how extreme they actually are! Watch the mini doc and read all about it here! hopenothate.org.uk/undercover-b...

💥NEW: HOPE not hate can reveal that the two masked far-right extremists threatening to bring war to Leeds this weekend are Aidan Heaps and Toby “TJ” Chapman.
Heaps has a worrying previous criminal conviction.

Read the full story: hopenothate.org.uk/2024/11/19/w...

The Onion Buys Alex Jones’s Infowars Out of Bankruptcy The satirical news site planned to turn Infowars into a parody of itself, mocking “weird internet personalities” who peddle conspiracy theories and health supplements.

Hi everyone.

The Onion, with the help of the Sandy Hook families, has purchased InfoWars.

We are planning on making it a very funny, very stupid website.

We have retained the services of some Onion and Clickhole Hall of Famers to pull this off.

I can't wait to show you what we have cooked up.

New to Bluesky?

If you want to understand the far right, violent extremists, White Supremacists, and Christian nationalists, these are the journalists, researchers, academics, and other experts that monitor, research, and provide analysis on all the flavors of the far right and extremist movements.

THREAD: How to verify online images

Social media is awash with false or misleading images, some of which get millions of engagements.

So here's a simple guide on ways you can quickly check the veracity of images you see on your social media feeds with major elections coming up this year.

hi folks! Sharing some of my work that is proving increasingly (unfortunately) relevant:

Check out this piece on the ideology driving the Christian nationalist, men's only Society for American Civic Renewal (SACR), that has links to Vance and Project 2025: www.middlebury.edu/institute/ct...

LGBTQ+ crisis hotlines report uptick in calls after Trump victory Crisis hotlines catering to LGBTQ+ youths and adults have seen a staggering rise in calls from people distressed over Donald Trump’s win.

"The Rainbow Youth Project said it has received more than 3,810 calls this month, surpassing its monthly average of 3,765 in the span of six days" wapo.st/4ejndGv

Sure, there are many reasons for the outcome of the US elections. But it is gender (issues) that are absolutely crucial to understand the success of the far right today. Read on my newest research on the link between the far right, "anti-gender" campaigns and mainstreaming osf.io/preprints/so...

It feels like a good time for an introduction. I’m a researcher of right wing extremism and have focussed on online radicalisation for around the last 5 years or so. While I’m currently in the depths of PhD writing, my other work focuses on online culture, anti-LGBTQ+ hate and neo-Nazism. 👋

Yeah it feels about time to start posting here.