In turbulent political times, Government & Law professor Michael Feola studies the patterns of political far-right extremism.
Over the summer, he published a book, “The Rage of Replacement,” which analyzes a pervasive far-right narrative called “The Great Replacement.”
“It’s inspired so much anger,” Feola said of the theory. “This idea that they are taking your nation away from you, they’re giving it to these migrants.”
Feola said that the theory centers around ideas that “native populations are becoming less and less white” and “more and more the population of nations in changing due to migration.”
He said that a key component of the narrative is believing that the trend is intentional and that “immigration policy is actually being engineered by elites behind the scenes.”
Feola stressed that his research is relevant to the present political moment in relation to broader international trends.
“A lot of this has arisen in the wake of globalization and neoliberalism,” he said. “Some of it has to do with standard populist anger against just elites, but it’s definitely populist anger against elites in a specifically global moment.”
Feola’s only long-term research assistant was Jacob Moldover ‘24, who worked for Feola as an EXCEL scholar in the summer of 2022 and then again during his senior year. Moldover searched online neo-Nazi forums to identify common narratives.
“It’s hard and there were different points where I would have to take time off from doing the research for a week or two at a time,” Moldover said, emphasizing that Feola allowed him to rotate through different tasks. “It gets dark and you have to just look at some really terrible stuff.”
Moldover said he studied far-right discussions about reproductive politics like abortion as well as militia movements.
“The sort of intellectual space that exists in a neo-Nazi forum is talking about such a vastly different set of ideas and a vastly different set of supposed facts,” Moldover said.
When working on the first chapter of the book in 2020, Feola said that he discovered many scholars had a lot of interest in the topic.
“A lot of people ask me questions about it and trying to try to pick my brain about what was going on with the far right right now, that’s when I realized, oh, this book might actually find some traction,” he said.
“It’s one of those big stories right now across the far right that people are kind of unsettled about, the fact that there’s these far-right movements arising and growing,” he said.
Feola then queried publishers. While several were interested, he chose University of Minnesota Press and finalized his book contract in 2023.
“I think a lot of people would benefit from reading this work that Professor Feola has put out,” Moldover said. “Engaging with it and understanding the kind of discursive space that breeds the alt-right movement and leads to such a big alt-right movement.”
“They can understand what we’re up against, what the stakes are,” he continued.
Feola is currently working on another book that explores the narrative of the “strong man” in far-right circles.
“You can’t grapple with it until you understand why they’re angry, what they’re arguing, where it’s coming from,” Feola said.
