HOME FRONT: PART I
In communities that especially feel the brunt of war, the experience of loss during wartime can be a catalyst of reactionary sentiment.
COLUMNS REPORTING
Words: Kelsey D. Atherton
Date: February 16th, 2023
When soldiers return from war, they do so changed by the experience, while integrating with home communities that changed in different ways in their absence. It’s a trope of military memoir, fiction, and often public testimony: that the soldier left to fight for one country and came back to one in some way unrecognizable and, often, worse. One of those differences, too, is the loss of comrades in arms, of fellow soldiers who left and never came back. In communities that especially feel the brunt of war, from lost family to returned, changed veterans, the experience of loss during wartime can be a catalyst of reactionary sentiment.
Such is the contention of Richard J. McAlexander, Michael A. Rubin, and Rob Williams in their working paper, “They’re Still There, He’s All Gone: American Fatalities in Foreign Wars and Right-Wing Radicalization at Home.”
IN COMMUNITIES THAT ESPECIALLY FEEL THE BRUNT OF WAR, FROM LOST FAMILY TO RETURNED, CHANGED VETERANS, THE EXPERIENCE OF LOSS DURING WARTIME CAN BE A CATALYST OF REACTIONARY SENTIMENT.
“We agree that both economic anxiety and racial resentment explanations are important for understanding right-wing radicalization, but highlight a third factor missing from this debate: the impact of US foreign military engagements on politics and society at home,” write the authors. “We argue that communities that bear the costs of these wars, specifically in terms of fatalities among community members, may be more prone to high rates of radicalization.”
To build evidence for this, the researchers looked at publicly available posts on Parler, an online Twitter-like platform specifically seen as a home for right-wing mobilization. Parler video posts were geo-located, making it easy to match hometowns and travel for users.
https://inkstickmedia.com/home-front-part-i/
