Nationalism - American Style?

 “You know, they have a word – it’s sort of became old-fashioned – it’s called a nationalist. And I say, really, we’re not supposed to use that word. You know what I am? I’m a nationalist, okay? I’m a nationalist. Nationalist. Nothing wrong. Use that word. Use that word."  
Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Houston, Texas, October 22^nd.

On its surface, the word “nationalism” seems like a positive commitment to your own country. What could be wrong with that? Unfortunately, history has imbued that word with rather deep “us” versus “them” valences that usually suggest that those who can trace their roots within a given country to an older, traditional incumbency… “mainstream values”… are the legitimate power class for the entire nation, and that no one else matters. All others are, therefore, inferior and perhaps worthy of expulsion or worse. “Nationalism” is often confused with “patriotism,” but they are very different concepts by connotation. “Love of country and a commitment to fight for its highest values” is the latter without class, ethnic or racial overtones.

Two days after Trump’s self-declaration as a “nationalist,” “[w]ithout mentioning Trump by name,  French President Emmanuel Macron said ‘nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism’  at a gathering of world leaders in France to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the end of World War I.

“Macron defined nationalism as saying, ‘ ‘Our interest first, who cares about the others?’ ’ in a comment evoking the ‘America First’ philosophy Trump has long embraced.” USA Today, October 24^th. Europe has had a particularly ugly 20^th century history with “nationalism,” most powerfully exemplified by Germany’s Nazi Party, formed in 1919 and which brought Hitler to power in 1933.

In German, the party’s full name is:  Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterparte, which translates to National Socialist German Workers' Party. This form of nationalism promoted white Christians of pure “Aryan” blood against the “contamination” of Jews and gypsies. Conquest for lebensraum (literally “living space”) and the unification of ethnic Germans under one government gave Nazis justification to slaughter Jews and gypsies by the millions and to conquer foreign lands to be exploited by and for Germans.

Nationalism is often reflected as populism where angry traditionalist incumbents seek to find blame for cultural and economic degradation in their lives. Thus “nationalism” as it is really used relies heavily on creating mythology – evil attributes given to the inferior peoples who need to be repelled plus conspiracy theories about their hidden intentions – in order to justify why one class of people should have power and hegemony over others. In other words, nationalism cannot exist without “fake news.” We’re witnessing the rise of conspiracy theory as an underlying motivator for Trump’s form of nationalism, but the linkage between the need to fabricate and nationalism appears to be two side of the same coin.

We’ve also seen the rise of fake news anywhere in the West where populist leaders are pulling their nations toward autocracy and racial/ethnic segmentation, from Eastern Bloc nations in the European Union and in our own United States. This statistical correlation between the nationalism/populism and fake news is clear wherever these phenomena are examined with academic vigor.

An interesting study by the BBC into rising Hindu nationalism and the growth of fake news in India is just one more piece of research that sustains this result. Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi’s political career was defined by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with its “base” deeply rooted in the Hindu faith with a profoundly anti-Muslim persona.

Today there are increasing numbers of honor killings of Muslims under “fake news” accusations of their defiling Hindu temples, slaughtering sacred cows (Muslim have no proscription against eating beef) and defiling Hindu women. Conspiracy theories are a hallmark of BJP extremists, and while Modi has been forced to pull back a bit on his party’s rather significant anti-Muslim beliefs (since he is supposed to be the prime minister for all Indians), India’s 175 million Muslims (14-15% of the entire population and a distant second to Hindus) still quiver at each anti-Muslim item of fake news. All-too-often, someone gets killed by an angry mob driven by a viral falsehood.

It is no surprise that Hindu populist Modi’s reign has carried with it a directly proportionate rise in the prevalence of “fake news” in India. “There was… an overlap of fake news sources on Twitter and support networks of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.” BBC.com, November 12^th. Among educated Indians, concern over fake news has risen at a similar rate. According to a BBC study, DUTY, IDENTITY, CREDIBILITY Fake news and the ordinary citizen in India (referenced on the BBC.com, November 12^th), we “have found that coverage of ‘fake news’ in the Indian media over the last three odd years has grown by nearly 200%... In all there have been 47,5437 news articles online about ‘fake news’ between January 2015 and September 2018. English language media [English is spoken widely across all of India, where there are 23 official local languages] were the first to start talking about ‘fake news’ and continue to cover it most often, with vernacular media are starting to engage with the issue more of late….

“In the recent past the ‘fake news’ discussion has mostly revolved around reports of often horrifying violence, with WhatsApp often seen to be at the heart of the violence. The media coverage has not quite been about the use of ‘fake news’ websites, or fake website news stories masquerading as real, as has often been the case in the American context. Of late, the ‘fake news’ story in India has very largely centred around the technology (ie WhatsApp/ Facebook) and the violence. While the combination of technology and violence has naturally led to some gripping headlines, we find that the English language media coverage of ‘fake news’ in India has spanned across a number of topics. Unsurprisingly, 46% of the coverage is domestic, though 15% is about ‘fake news’ in the international context.”

The BBC also found patterns in other “off the Western radar” populist countries, notably Kenya and Nigeria. “The research found that facts were less important to some than the emotional desire to bolster national identity… Social media analysis suggested that right-wing networks are much more organised than on the left, pushing nationalistic fake stories further.” BBC.com.

All over the world, the pattern is consistent. Nationalism/populism cannot secure a powerbase without conspiracy theories, placing blame on clearly identifiable minorities and imbuing them with clearly evil traits… Simply put, nationalism/populism and fake news thrive on each and grow increasingly powerful in that horrific synergy. Unless and until truth can rise above the fake news clutter, democracy is at severe risk.

I’m Peter Dekom, and democracy is showing exactly how fragile it really is under an unprecedented media assault anchored in fake news.