Far-right radicalisation accelerates under neoliberal fragmentation and digital amplification
Original framing: “Sorry, Elon, the far right is still the far right” — Financial Times
Scenario modelling suggests that far-right radicalisation will accelerate under climate-induced migration and AI-driven misinformation, unless structural interventions are implemented. Historical precedents like Weimar Germany or Rwanda warn that unchecked economic inequality and media polarisation can lead to catastrophic outcomes. The Financial Times’ headline offers no forward-looking analysis, instead treating the far-right as a static phenomenon rather than a dynamic, escalating threat.
The Financial Times’ headline reflects a neoliberal media paradigm that treats the far-right as an external aberration rather than a product of systemic crises it helps sustain.
Historically, far-right radicalisation has thrived under neoliberal austerity, as elites benefit from political instability while scapegoating marginalised groups—a pattern visible in Reagan’s America, Thatcher’s Britain, and Modi’s India. Cross-culturally, Indigenous and Afro-diasporic traditions offer alternatives to both neoliberal individualism and far-right collectivism, yet these are systematically excluded from elite discourse. The far-right’s current expansion into digital spaces and welfare chauvinism demands structural responses: algorithmic demilitarisation, economic democracy, and cross-cultural solidarity networks. Without addressing these root causes, the cycle of radicalisation will persist, as history and future modelling both warn. The Financial Times’ framing, by contrast, serves to legitimate the status quo while obscuring its complicity in the problem.