Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ferruh Yilmaz 

We live in a state of ontological anxieties that fuel a sense of hopelessness often expressed as anger towards perceived elites. The leading question for this project is: why and how do some people channel their grievances and anxieties into supporting the populist far right? My tentative answer is because the populist far right provides political direction by provoking on ongoing series of panics about moral and cultural issues, including immigration and crime, both of which are presented as moral issues. Moral panics play on anxieties about moral and cultural decline and create a feeling that “our way of life is under attack,” bringing cultural and moral values into focus as the basis on which society is united or divided. These panics are often mapped together to create a widespread and ongoing sense of systemic crisis for which “corrupt elites” can then be blamed. Elites, thus, are defined by their cultural and moral characteristics or attitudes rather than, for example, by their class (economic) status. Moral panics also produce affective attachments to solidarities (i.e., identities) formed around defending “our” norms and values against those elites who let subversive forces destroy our society, country, or nation. In addition, little attention has been paid to the cultural resources that make populist far right appeals appear intelligible and attractive. I argue that popular culture provides a rich repertoire of populist themes and ideas.