My research asks why some extremist ideologies go mainstream while others do not. Drawing on security studies and cultural analysis, I develop a theoretical framework of political and cultural alignment to explain this variation. A related line of work examines gender, radicalization, and far-right movements in the United States and Europe.
Book Project: Mainstreaming Extremism: Pathways from the Margins to the Mainstream
What can explain the variation in mainstream presence of extremist ideologies and conspiratorial beliefs? Extant research addresses the role of critical junctures, psychological predispositions, or social media algorithms. These approaches help explain why individuals adopt extremist ideologies, but not why some ideologies move into the mainstream, while others do not. This book project adds to those explanations by (1) treating extremist ideologies and conspiratorial beliefs as objects of analysis, and (2) by showing that these extremist ideologies become legible when they are aligned with political and cultural contexts. In doing so, I introduce political and cultural alignment, two concepts that can help explain this variation. Cultural alignment refers to the convergence of extremist ideologies and conspiratorial beliefs with widely shared cultural symbols, myths, and nostalgic narratives. Political alignment refers to the convergence of extremist ideologies and conspiratorial beliefs with the rhetoric of influential political actors. Each form of alignment is a graded phenomenon, referring to minimal, weak, and strong alignment, which helps explain why some ideologies remain on the margins despite high visibility and why others are fully embedded in mainstream political and cultural discourse.
I examine political and cultural alignment through four case studies, each of which demonstrate a different variation of alignment. First, a content analysis of an incel forum reveals how misogynistic discourses leverage cultural nostalgia and symbolic gender hierarchies to normalize extremist attitudes. Here, I find evidence for strong cultural alignment and weak political alignment. Second, a textual analysis of the Great Replacement conspiracy theory demonstrates how narratives of demographic threat gain mainstream resonance through appeals to moral decline and national myths. In this case study, I find evidence for strong political and cultural alignment. Third, an analysis of Telegram messages surrounding the 2020 U.S. presidential election traces the amplification of election-fraud narratives via digital platforms, demonstrating a top-down mechanism of mainstreaming. I find strong political alignment and weak cultural alignment. Finally, an analysis of social media groups discussing the chemtrail conspiracy theory demonstrates how conspiracy theories can persist despite minimal political alignment and the absence of cultural alignment.
I find that in cases with strong political and cultural alignment, mainstreaming is more likely and more embedded within political and cultural discourse. I also find that weak alignment, whether political or cultural, can create the permissive conditions for an extremist ideology or conspiratorial belief to take hold. I make two contributions: I show that the cultural context is an important and understudied factor in explaining the mainstreaming of extremist ideologies and conspiratorial beliefs, and that extremist ideologies draw upon and repurpose this existing cultural context. Further, I highlight the importance of the interplay between political and cultural contexts in mainstreaming extremism. This has implications for future research, as these insights show that countering the mainstreaming of extremist beliefs requires an understanding of the cultural and political contexts that make these extremist ideologies and conspiratorial beliefs legible and resonant.
Comparative Homonationalisms: Far-Right Visions of LGB(TQ+) Belonging in the United States and the Netherlands (with Jana Foxe) (Conditionally accepted at The European Journal of Politics and Gender)
This article examines variations in homonationalist discourse among far-right parties in the United States and the Netherlands. We theorize two particular forms: White Christian homonationalism, rooted in frontier nationalism and muscular Christianity, and secular homonationalism, grounded in civic secularism and nativist ideals of tolerance. Using Critical Discourse Analysis of party manifestos and campaign materials, we show how these discourses discipline LGBTQ+ identities, particularly TQ+ identities, by reinforcing binary gender norms through national myth-making. Far-right homonationalism constructs the “proper homosexual subject” to legitimize exclusionary nationalism. Masculinity plays a central role in shaping national myths and out-grouping dynamics, with differential implications for how TQ+ identities are framed as threats. MAGA discourse aligns with White Christian homonationalism, PVV with secular homonationalism, and FvD integrates characteristics of both. These findings challenge assumptions about far-right support for LGBTQ+ rights, and reveal the gendered logics of nationalist belonging.
The Past as Weapon: Nostalgia, Myth, and the Mainstreaming of Great Replacement Ideology (Manuscript under development)
The Great Replacement theory has become a central ideological framework motivating lone-actor political violence. Existing scholarship largely examines how extremist ideas infiltrate mainstream discourse from the margins outward. This paper reverses that direction, asking how mainstream American cultural resources function as legitimating tools for extremist ideology. I introduce the concept of cultural alignment, the process by which extremist narratives activate pre-existing cultural symbols, myths, and nostalgic narratives to achieve broader uptake and legitimacy. Through qualitative analysis of four American lone actor manifestos (2015-2022) explicitly invoking the Great Replacement theory, I find strong cultural alignment across three mechanisms: the appropriation of shared American symbols such as the melting pot and the American Dream; embeddedness within foundational myths including the Chosen Nation and Founding Father narratives; and nostalgic appeals to an idealized White past that frame demographic change as cultural loss. These findings suggest that the Great Replacement ideology achieves resonance through cultural parasitism rather than ideological novelty. Counter-extremism efforts must therefore engage the mainstream cultural narratives that make these ideologies emotionally and politically legible.
Memes, Misogyny, and Mainstreaming: How Meme Culture Blurs the Boundary Between Mainstream and Extreme Misogyny (Manuscript under development)
The defense that a meme is ‘just a joke’ has become one of the most effective shields for misogynistic content in contemporary digital culture. This paper argues that meme culture is not necessarily a radicalization mechanism, but a symptom. It is an x-ray that lays bare a continuum between every day and extreme misogyny that was already present in mainstream culture. This continuum runs from jokes about latent misogyny to the explicit far-right misogyny of the manosphere and incel communities, culminating in a justification for extreme violence. Drawing on a purposive sample of memes collected across platforms ranging from mainstream to manosphere to incel communities, this paper traces that continuum through close reading and discourse analysis. This paper argues that such blurring reflects a boundary that was never as clear as mainstream culture assumes. Meme culture enables this blurring in three ways: by providing deniability through humor, by normalizing the extreme through repetition, and by building communities in which that normalization becomes identity. Thus, rather than treating far-right misogynist meme culture as a cause of extreme misogyny, this paper repositions it as a cultural form that reveals and consolidates what was already there.
Shades of Supporters: Football Supporters and Their Impact on Democratic Politics (with Sebastian Mayer) (Manuscript under development)
This paper examines the impact and influence of European soccer supporters on democratic engagement. In particular, the paper investigates if this influence is positive or negative. On the one hand, European soccer supporters often engage in political activity in club politics, such as voting for club leadership or voicing opinions about proposed club policies. Moreover, being part of a club can create a sense of belonging and build identity. Through participation in club politics, soccer supporters may develop a heightened sense of representation, active decision-making, and political efficacy – all of which may socialize them into broader political participation outside of club politics. This, we argue, is the positive effect of sports fandom on democratic politics. On the other hand, there also exists a darker side of supporter’s engagement with soccer clubs. A sense of belonging and identity formation within these groups can lead to the amplification of extremist ideologies, and in turn, create a pipeline to far-right radicalization. This, then, constitutes a negative effect on democratic politics. Using examples from soccer supporters in the Netherlands, Germany, and England, this paper advances our understanding of the role that soccer, and sports fandom in particular, can play in political participation, civic engagement, and democratic politics more broadly. Ultimately, the paper argues that political engagement among soccer fans is largely positive for democracy, while taking care to note that some caution about the negative effects is warranted within this dynamic.