Far-Right Rhetoric and the Politics of Fear w/ Ruth Wodak

In this episode of Guerrilla History, we bring on the world-renowned linguist, Professor Ruth Wodak, to talk about her book The Politics of Fear: The Shameless Normalization of Far-Right Discourse (SAGE Publications).  This book takes both a historical and analytical look at how the rhetoric of the far-right ("right wing populist" in Prof Wodak's words) plays to and stokes our fears, and how far-right parties today are emulating the worst tendencies of far-right parties of the past.  A fascinating conversation on the intersections of linguistics and politics!  We are also joined by guest host Safine Ashirova, a Russian linguist who has also done linguistic research on the rhetoric of the Nazi Party as well as current far-right parties in Germany. Ruth Wodak is Emeritus Distinguished Professor at Lancaster University.  She is one of the pioneers of the Discourse Historical Approach of critical discourse analysis.  Her book The Politics of Fear is available from SAGE Publications: https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/the-politics-of-fear/book265617.  You can also keep up with her latest academic publications using her research portal https://www.research.lancs.ac.uk/portal/en/people/ruth-wodak(71b5650a-f48c-4c2e-8b71-6896e291dc2b).html.   Guerrilla History is the podcast that acts as a reconnaissance report of global proletarian history, and aims to use the lessons of history to analyze the present.  If you have any questions or guest/topic suggestions, email them to us at [email protected]. Your hosts are immunobiologist Henry Hakamaki, Professor Adnan Husain, historian and Director of the School of Religion at Queens University, and Revolutionary Left Radio's Breht O'Shea.   Follow us on social media!  Our podcast can be found on twitter @guerrilla_pod, and can be supported on patreon at https://www.patreon.com/guerrillahistory.  Your contributions will make the show possible to continue and succeed! To follow the hosts, Henry can be found on twitter @huck1995, and also has a patreon to help support himself through the pandemic where he breaks down science and public health research and news at https://www.patreon.com/huck1995.  Adnan can be followed on twitter @adnanahusain, and also runs The Majlis Podcast, which can be found at https://anchor.fm/the-majlis, and the Muslim Societies-Global Perspectives group at Queens University, https://www.facebook.com/MSGPQU/.   Breht is the host of Revolutionary Left Radio, which can be followed on twitter @RevLeftRadio and cohost of The Red Menace Podcast, which can be followed on twitter @Red_Menace_Pod.  Follow and support these shows on patreon, and find them at https://www.revolutionaryleftradio.com/.     Thanks to Ryan Hakamaki, who designed and created the podcast's artwork, and Kevin MacLeod, who creates royalty-free music.