Shahin Nazar is a PhD candidate working at the intersection of digital anthropology, feminist and critical race theory, and open-source investigations.
After having worked in the tech industry, he was trained in the history and philosophy of science. His research examines how far-right extremist discourses and conspiracy theories possibly normalize racial and gendered violence. Currently, he is investigating how an international network of far-right extremists employs euphemism, obfuscation, and omission to make white male supremacy appear reasonable and respectable.
We鈥檝e all encountered these euphemisms in our newsfeeds. For example:
- Consider how mainstream outlets referred to racial violence by far-right mobs in the UK as mere 鈥渢huggery.鈥 The 鈥渢hug鈥 euphemism strips racist violence of its racial elements and makes it possibly more palatable to a wider public.
- Or how reporters often avoid using the words 鈥渢ransgender,鈥 鈥済ay,鈥 or 鈥淟GBTQ鈥 when covering stories of violent attacks on queer people and institutions, instead framing such incidents as 鈥渃onservative activism鈥 with 鈥渁 focus on racial and gender issues.鈥
- And especially the way in which victims are regularly framed as 鈥渋ssues鈥 to be 鈥渙pposed.鈥 Transgender identities or migrants鈥 livelihoods become 鈥渋ssues鈥 to be 鈥渄ebated.鈥 These victims aren鈥檛 seen as people with lives, friends, and humanity but are instead reduced to battlegrounds, where no distinction is made between oppressor and oppressed鈥攐nly a debate club with differing opinions. As human stakes are lost in this euphemistic framing, dehumanization becomes obscured in favour of anodyne-sounding policy 鈥渋ssues.鈥
This complex (and, to a certain degree, coordinated) campaign has cultivated an online culture of 鈥渞espectable鈥 white male supremacy. Shahin's goal is to understand the inner workings of these cultures in order to determine the broader implications it has for addressing the normalization of the far right and identifying who can be held accountable for it.