Screenshot: Twitter.
A few weeks ago, part of the academic community on Twitter got into a heated discussion on the normalisation of radical right discourse. It all started when two much-followed academics announced that they would be taking part in the controversial debate entitled ‘Is Rising Ethnic Diversity a Threat to the West?’ The title of the event provoked a rebuke from numerous scholars, leading the organisers to change the title to the less inflammatory ‘Immigration and Diversity Politics: A Challenge to Liberal Democracy?’ It also led to the publication of an open letter outlining what the signatories held was wrong with the initial title, and opposing the tendency to mainstream radical right ideas by selling them as ‘open debate’. Amongst the most interesting features of this Twitter exchange has been the conversation that it has sparkedon how researchers, journalists, or political observers, should engage with radical right politicians, themes, and movements.
