In the last four months, Coronavirus (COVID-19) has spread across every populated continent and infected more than two million people, with estimates of many more to come. More than just a tragic outbreak of an infectious disease, COVID-19 is proving to be something of a social and political Rorschach Test.
Before movement restrictions came into effect, in multiple cities in the UK, for example, several Britons were arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated assault, beating and attacking members of the Asian community, these representing just the horrible tip of an iceberg that includes unreported crimes and other forms of race-based discrimination against members of the Asian diaspora in the UK.
Beyond even these responses are those of the extreme radical right. On the one hand, reports have emerged from the US about the foiled attempt to literally weaponise COVID-19 by a neo-Nazi group. On the other is the rhetorical weaponising of COVID-19 online. From mainstream websites including YouTube and Twitter, to more specialist platforms such as Gab and Wire, extreme content has been flooding in about COVID-19, using it as a topical mechanism for reiterating racist and anti-state narratives essential to extremist ideologies. We can know that this is happening by simply believing what known members of the extreme right-wing are saying about their take on COVID-19, statements about “how we use this story,” or admissions that “it does look like the kind of event that’ll benefit people like ourselves.”
