tag:theconversation.com,2011:/nz/topics/anders-breivik-1112/articlesAnders Breivik – The Conversation2023-03-09T19:05:47Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2012852023-03-09T19:05:47Z2023-03-09T19:05:47ZThe road to March 15: ‘networked white rage’ and the Christchurch terror attacks<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514127/original/file-20230308-28-k0ywkg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C11%2C7896%2C5252&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The massacres of March 15 2019 at two Christchurch mosques confirmed the far right remains a constant threat to public order and safety in New Zealand, and that this threat was largely overlooked by security and intelligence agencies. </p>
<p>Both elements were corroborated by the findings of the <a href="https://christchurchattack.royalcommission.nz/the-report/">Royal Commission of Inquiry</a> into the attacks that was released in November 2020. The country was not exempt from such activist, murderous politics, despite widespread complacency. </p>
<p>While the perpetrator exhibited many of the longstanding ideological beliefs and violent tactics of white supremacists, his “manifesto” reflected the influence and rise of the alt-right, with a focus on the “great replacement”, the participation in online subcultures and new versions of conspiracies (as well as old ones). </p>
<p>We trace the development of the alt-right as a series of disparate coalitions of far-right and (white) ethnonationalist groups, activists and ideologies – secular and religious – and their use of online platforms to proselytise, recruit and radicalise. We are particularly interested in the rise of identitarian movements and ideologies, and their transnational influence and reach. </p>
<p>How has ethnonationalism been (re-)radicalised? How have new motifs and symbols been used to attract and explain, especially in identifying groups – the “deep state”, mass media, groups such as Muslims or Jews – as an existential threat facing the “white race” or “European civilisation”? </p>
<p>What role does religion play in these new coalitions and their selection of religious enemies and targets? How significant is the neglect of religion in the failure to recognise religious motivations and ideologies by security and intelligence agencies in secular polities? And how have online platforms and possibilities been utilised in the cause of these new politics?</p>
<h2>A new stage in far-right politics</h2>
<p>The alt-right is a product of the ideological mixing of traditional far-right politics and conservative populist movements. As David Neiwert writes in Alt-America: The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump, key elements began to appear with the Tea Party after 2010 in the US: nativist anti-immigrant views, specifically in relation to “ ‘parasitic’ minorities and immigrants”, a “hostility towards ‘liberal’ elites” and the “supposed ‘tyranny’ of the president”. Neiwert writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>These populist movements have created an “[a]lternative universe [and] a set of alternative explanations [which are] amplified by a panoply of conspiracy theories [including] a New World order [which is] plotting to enslave all of mankind in a world government that permits no freedom […] In this alternative universe, facts and the laws of political gravity do not apply.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513882/original/file-20230307-16-wtb2x2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513882/original/file-20230307-16-wtb2x2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513882/original/file-20230307-16-wtb2x2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513882/original/file-20230307-16-wtb2x2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513882/original/file-20230307-16-wtb2x2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1064&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513882/original/file-20230307-16-wtb2x2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1064&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513882/original/file-20230307-16-wtb2x2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1064&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The term "alt-right” was first coined in 2009 by Richard Spencer, an American white nationalist disillusioned with contemporary conservatism and who became director of the National Policy Institute, a lobby group for race-based policies where “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/02/opinion/sunday/what-the-alt-right-really-means.html">race is the foundation of identity</a>” – a far-right response to, and version of, contemporary identity politics. A year later, Spencer established his own webzine, The Alternative Right. </p>
<p>By the 2016 US presidential election, the views and activities of the alt-right had become well established and provided a contrast to more traditional far-right politics – in two particular ways. </p>
<p>First, the alt-right were firmly internet-based. Secondly, many followed the Spencer tradition of the “suit-and-tie image” of white nationalism, the preppy look of middle America. The term gained traction when Hillary Clinton, as a presidential candidate, used it in a speech in August 2015 to critique white supremacy and her opponent, Donald Trump. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fear-and-loathing-in-new-zealand-an-overdue-examination-of-our-underworld-of-extremists-is-valuable-but-flawed-198580">Fear and loathing in New Zealand: an overdue examination of our ‘underworld of extremists’ is valuable but flawed</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>‘Networked white rage’</h2>
<p>Explanations for the rise of the alt-right vary. Some, such as the author <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1536504218766547">Jessie Daniels</a>, see it as a “manifestation of the angry white male who has status anxiety about his declining social and economic power”. </p>
<p>There is certainly some evidence of a high degree of disillusionment and feelings of marginalisation in white communities in the US that then translates into support for an angry and exclusive nationalism through the second decade of the 21st century. Arlie Hochschild chronicles this in her compelling book, <a href="https://thenewpress.com/books/strangers-their-own-land">Strangers in Their Own Land</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-christchurch-commissions-call-to-improve-social-cohesion-is-its-hardest-and-most-important-recommendation-149969">The Christchurch commission’s call to improve social cohesion is its hardest — and most important — recommendation</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The second explanation is that it is a product of the echo chambers of the internet – or “an informal and ill-defined collection of internet-based radicals”. Jessie Daniels goes on to argue:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The rise of the alt-right is both a continuation of a centuries-old dimension of racism in the US and part of an emerging media ecosystem powered by algorithms […] The ideology of the contemporary alt-right is entirely consistent with earlier manifestations of extremist white supremacy with only slight modifications in style and emphasis […] This iteration is newly enabled by algorithms [which] deliver search results for those who seek confirmation for racist notions and [which] connect newcomers to like-minded racists […] providing networked white rage.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The ideological positions of the alt-right are just as likely to be embedded in video games or music videos.</p>
<h2>The red-pilled alt-right</h2>
<p>A third component is the demographic profile of the alt-right. Many are young white males, some of whom are university graduates or students. Milo Yiannopoulos, a key US alt-right activist and commentator who, with Allum Bokhari, wrote “An establishment conservative’s guide to the alt-right”, described the movement as “born out of the youthful, subversive underground edges of the internet”. </p>
<p>In many ways, this is no different from earlier neo-fascist and neo-Nazi movements, such as skinheads, but the image and membership have changed: more intellectual (or claiming to be), more skilful messaging (by Canadian YouTube activists Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern, for example) and a more carefully managed appeal to conservatives, nationalists and populists.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/replacement-theory-isnt-new-3-things-to-know-about-how-this-once-fringe-conspiracy-has-become-more-mainstream-183492">Replacement theory isn't new – 3 things to know about how this once-fringe conspiracy has become more mainstream</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The alt-right had been growing and evolving for some time, but the US presidential campaign in 2016 and the subsequent election of Donald Trump confirmed the presence and influence of the alt-right as a “mass movement” that hinged on the radicalising potential of the internet, especially of “disenfranchised and mostly anonymous, young white men”. As David Neiwert noted: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Alt-righters see [getting red-pilled] as a metaphor for what they consider to be the revelatory power of their ideology, which cuts through the lies of “social justice warriors” (SJWs), “cultural Marxists” and the mainstream media. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>A new phase, and a variation on far-right political traditions and activism, had emerged by 2015–16. One element of this, which appeared alongside the alt-right, was identitarianism, which places the threat to the “white race” or “European civilisation” at the core of alt-right activism.</p>
<h2>Identitarian politics</h2>
<p>This term has been largely defined by <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/12/10/what-is-generation-identity">Generation Identity</a>, a European-based movement that arose from <a href="https://www.counterextremism.com/supremacy/les-identitaires">Bloc Identitaire</a>, which was founded in 2002 in Nice. A youth wing was established a decade later, and was most apparent in Austria, Germany and Italy.</p>
<p>Generation Identity, one of whose leaders is Martin Sellner, an Austrian and former neo-Nazi, is a European analogue of the largely American alt-right. A core ideological concern is the “great replacement” and, specifically, as Julie Ebner wrote in Going Dark: The Secret Social Lives of Extremists, the belief that a mix of “pro-abortion and pro-LGBTQI+ laws had lowered birthrates of native Europeans, and pro-migration policies […] have allowed minorities to engage in a ‘strategic mass breeding’ .”</p>
<p>American identitarians formed <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_Evropa">Identity Evropa</a>, which was renamed the American Identity Movement in the US in 2019. It has close links to Generation Identity in Europe and with the alt-right in the US. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/white-nationalism-is-a-political-ideology-that-mainstreams-racist-conspiracy-theories-184375">White nationalism is a political ideology that mainstreams racist conspiracy theories</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>European identitarians have adopted some of the strategies of the alt-right, especially the Breitbart belief (a reference to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/business/media/the-life-and-death-of-andrew-breitbart.html">Andrew Breitbart</a>, an influencer of the alt-right and founder of the website that bears his name) that changing cultural narratives precedes political change. </p>
<p>In particular, there is the Breitbart argument that activists “need to create counter-cultures that attract young people [in order] to increase public pressure on mainstream politics”.</p>
<p>This is sometimes referred to as “strategic polarisation” or forcing bystanders to take a position either of support or against alt-right or identitarian ideological positions. The intent is to radicalise individuals or communities and to implement their own local or national campaigns. </p>
<p>Here is an example of seeking to alter the “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window">Overton window</a>” (changing the spectrum of politically acceptable views) and to move the political spectrum to the right so that alt-right and identitarian ideas become normalised. </p>
<h2>Crisis narratives</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514139/original/file-20230308-28-xz4ubd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514139/original/file-20230308-28-xz4ubd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514139/original/file-20230308-28-xz4ubd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514139/original/file-20230308-28-xz4ubd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514139/original/file-20230308-28-xz4ubd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514139/original/file-20230308-28-xz4ubd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514139/original/file-20230308-28-xz4ubd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514139/original/file-20230308-28-xz4ubd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">French writer and ‘great replacement’ theorist Renaud Camus, pictured here in 1989.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Julie Ebner infiltrated Generation Identity groups in the United Kingdom and provided an excellent account (in her book Going Dark) of how such identitarian politics operate – and how such politics were a major influence on the March 15 terrorist.</p>
<p>Identitarianism is a movement that primarily advocates for a contemporary ethno-nationalism, is typically exclusive (hence, “re-migrating” non-natives and immigrants) and that portrays Islam as the key threat (therefore “de-Islamisation”). </p>
<p>This position was espoused by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaud_Camus">Renaud Camus</a> in his book, Le Grand Remplacement (2011), which introduced the idea of “white genocide” and “reverse racism”, and has had a major influence on the ideological preoccupations of the alt-right. As Eibner writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Great Replacement theory combines all four features of a violence inciting ideology [or] so-called “crises narratives”: conspiracy, dystopia, impurity and existential threat. The idea is that Europeans [sometimes labelled the “white race”] are being replaced with racially and culturally distinct migrants (impurity) by a cabal of global elites and complicit actors in governments, tech firms and media outlets (conspiracy), leading to the gradual decay of society (dystopia) and the eventual extinction of whites (existential threat).</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/violent-extremists-are-not-lone-wolves-dispelling-this-myth-could-help-reduce-violence-200434">Violent extremists are not lone wolves – dispelling this myth could help reduce violence</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This theory, along with its four components, is found in a range of contemporary alt-right groups such as <a href="https://www.newsroom.co.nz/white-supremacist-group-infiltrated">Action Zealandia</a>. It was also a preoccupation of the March 15 terrorist whose manifesto, “The Great Replacement”, draws heavily on Renaud Camus’ You Will Not Replace Us! (2018), as well as the earlier work that also provided the rallying call to the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.</p>
<p>The terrorist also valorised <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Behring_Breivik">Anders Behring Breivik</a> and referenced the Norwegian’s manifesto alongside the justificatory confessions and statements of other terrorists, in particular highlighting the tradition of Christian crusader knights doing God’s work defending Christendom and Christianity against their enemies, mainly Muslims and Jews. </p>
<p>These precursors provided the symbols, memes, framework, inspiration and preemptive-strike strategy for the March 15 attacks. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>This is an edited extract from</em> Histories of Hate: The Radical Right in Aotearoa New Zealand, <em>edited by Matthew Cunningham, Marinus La Rooij and Paul Spoonley (Otago University Press).</em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201285/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Spoonley receives funding from MBIE. He is Co-Director of He Whenua Taurikura. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Morris does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In this extract from the new book Histories of Hate: The Radical Right in Aotearoa New Zealand, the authors examine the ideological origins of the Christchurch massacres nearly four years ago.Paul Spoonley, Distinguished Professor, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Massey UniversityPaul Morris, Emeritus Professor, School of Social and Cultural Studies, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of WellingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1631442021-07-22T15:31:42Z2021-07-22T15:31:42ZFifteen years ago we shrugged off anti-Muslim hate speech. Have we evolved?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412178/original/file-20210720-27-14timbr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=824%2C463%2C2576%2C1907&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">High school students hold signs outside the London Muslim Mosque before a vigil for the victims of the deadly vehicle attack on five Muslim family members in London, Ont., in June 2021. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 2007, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/dec/06/theirownworstenemies"><em>Macleans</em> magazine published an excerpt</a> from a book, <em>America Alone</em>, in which author Mark Steyn raised the alarm about what he described as the Muslim takeover of Europe. </p>
<p>This takeover, said Steyn, was occurring through high levels of immigration from Muslim countries and higher birth rates in Muslim families that had settled in the West. </p>
<p>Steyn argued that Muslims wanted to impose Sharia law on European countries and were prepared to use a variety of means to achieve this end, including violence. He claimed that we are at “the dawn of a new Dark Ages” in which much of Europe will be “re-primitivized” by Muslims.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/islamophobia-in-western-media-is-based-on-false-premises-151443">Islamophobia in western media is based on false premises</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Complaint made</h2>
<p>Following the publication of Steyn’s piece, <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2008/06/07/emotions_run_high_over_macleans_article.html">a complaint was made against <em>Macleans</em></a> under a provision of the British Columbia Human Rights Code that prohibits the publication of hate speech. The complaint argued that <em>Macleans</em> had exposed Muslims to hatred and contempt by publishing the piece.</p>
<p>Almost without exception, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/free-speech-eh-why-is-canada-prosecuting-mark-steyn-1.720445">media commentators in Canada condemned the complaint</a> and the laws that allowed it to be made. They saw the complaint as an attack on free speech and press freedom.</p>
<p>The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal <a href="https://www.steynonline.com/images/rotator/bchrt%20decision.pdf">dismissed the complaint</a> because, in its view, the tone of Steyn’s article was not hateful and so did not rise “to the level of detestation, calumny and vilification necessary to breach … the Code.” The tribunal also thought that the piece contributed to public discussion — while Steyn may have engaged in “exaggeration,” it said, he did so in order to rally public opinion.</p>
<p>The vitriolic tone of a particular instance of speech is relevant when determining whether it spreads hatred. But the tribunal’s focus on the article’s neutral tone created the mistaken impression that hate speech laws are intended to protect individuals from hurt feelings rather than from the spread of dangerous misinformation. </p>
<p>The central question that human rights tribunals must answer in these cases is whether false claims, such as those made in this case about Muslims, are so extreme that they’re likely to encourage hateful views and extreme action.</p>
<h2>What role does hate speech play in violence?</h2>
<p>Most of those who read Steyn’s words didn’t engage in anti-Muslim violence. When an individual, a so-called “lone wolf”, commits an act of violence after immersing himself in anti-Muslim speech, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-newzealand-shooting-idUSKBN25M2QF">his action will often be attributed to his moral deficiency or mental illness</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412184/original/file-20210720-27-118woq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412184/original/file-20210720-27-118woq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412184/original/file-20210720-27-118woq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412184/original/file-20210720-27-118woq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412184/original/file-20210720-27-118woq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412184/original/file-20210720-27-118woq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412184/original/file-20210720-27-118woq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412184/original/file-20210720-27-118woq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Anders Breivik sits beside his lawyer in a courtroom in August 2012 after killing dozens of people, mostly teen members of the Labour Party Youth wing, during their island retreat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Frank Augstein)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/eurabia-opponents-scramble-for-distance-from-anti-muslim-murderer/article588254/">Steyn was embarrassed by the references to his work</a> in an anti-Muslim manifesto produced by Anders Breivik, who in 2011 murdered 69 young people in Norway. He sought to distance himself from Breivik, <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/islamophobia-and-mass-murder-mark-steyn/">describing him as someone “lost in his own psychoses.”</a> </p>
<p>But if a reader takes the claims of Steyn and other anti-Muslim writers, seriously what should they conclude? Steyn claimed in a mainstream publication that Muslims are an enemy within who are prepared to use violence to impose their faith on others. Breivik appears to have drawn the obvious conclusion from Steyn’s claims. </p>
<p>When Steyn’s piece was published, anti-Muslim speech seemed to be an accepted (although not yet common) part of public conversation, even by those who thought it was mistaken and unfair. Since the dismissal of the complaint against <em>Macleans</em>, <a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/UN%20Strategy%20and%20Plan%20of%20Action%20on%20Hate%20Speech%2018%20June%20SYNOPSIS.pdf">anti-Muslim speech has grown dramatically</a>, spreading freely and widely on the internet.</p>
<h2>Fuelling intolerance</h2>
<p>This speech has fuelled public intolerance. It has, almost certainly, contributed to discriminatory public action such as <a href="https://nationalpost.com/opinion/richard-moon-the-government-is-sure-to-lose-its-appeal-in-the-citizenship-oath-niqab-case-maybe-thats-the-point">the requirement that individuals remove face coverings</a> when taking the citizenship oath and the enactment of <a href="http://www.assnat.qc.ca/en/travaux-parlementaires/projets-loi/projet-loi-21-42-1.html">Québec’s Bill 21</a> that prohibits many provincial civil servants from wearing religious symbols at work. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/quebecs-bill-21-may-embolden-religious-bullying-in-schools-120934">Québec's Bill 21 may embolden religious bullying in schools</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Despite the neutral framing of these actions, there can be little doubt that they are directed primarily at women who wear the hijab.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="Women wait to enter a courtroom." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287402/original/file-20190808-144883-1spmtw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287402/original/file-20190808-144883-1spmtw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287402/original/file-20190808-144883-1spmtw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287402/original/file-20190808-144883-1spmtw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287402/original/file-20190808-144883-1spmtw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287402/original/file-20190808-144883-1spmtw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287402/original/file-20190808-144883-1spmtw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People wait to enter the courtroom for a hearing challenging Bill 21, July 9, 2019 in Montréal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Anti-Muslim speech has also inspired acts of violence against Canadian Muslims, ranging from assaults on the street to the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2017/02/mourning-the-victims-of-the-quebec-mosque-attack/515790/">murder of worshippers at a Québec mosque</a> and, more recently, the murder of a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/london-hit-and-run-politicians-react-1.6056785">Muslim family in London</a>, Ont.</p>
<h2>History or persecution</h2>
<p>Speech that attributes dangerous or undesirable traits to a group that has in the past been the target of a campaign of violence is more likely to be regarded as hate speech that creates a risk of significant harm. We are more likely to discern a link between a particular instance of hateful speech and the spread of hatred or the occurrence of violence <a href="https://montreal.citynews.ca/2021/05/12/hate-crime-investigation-underway-regarding-nazi-flag-being-flown-in-central-alberta/">when there is a history of violence</a> against the group. </p>
<p>Because phrases such as “the final solution” or symbols such as the swastika evoke the Holocaust, it’s easy to a attribute a violent anti-Semitic purpose to the people who use them.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412166/original/file-20210720-21-1awx7ce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman holds a sign that reads Muslim Lives Matter." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412166/original/file-20210720-21-1awx7ce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412166/original/file-20210720-21-1awx7ce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412166/original/file-20210720-21-1awx7ce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412166/original/file-20210720-21-1awx7ce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412166/original/file-20210720-21-1awx7ce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412166/original/file-20210720-21-1awx7ce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412166/original/file-20210720-21-1awx7ce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A woman attends a vigil for the victims of the London, Ont., attack in Calgary in June 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But in the case of hateful statements made about an identifiable group that does not have the same history of frequent or organized violent persecution, it may be harder to discern a violent purpose. We are less likely to see speech as a call or prelude to violent action when violence seems remote.</p>
<p>The question now is whether recent acts of violence against Muslims in Canada will lead us to see what we should have seen earlier — that the anti-Muslim speech of Steyn and others is hate speech that encourages violence against Muslims and should fall outside the scope of free speech protection.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163144/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Moon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Will recent acts of violence against Muslims in Canada lead us to see what we should have seen earlier — that anti-Muslim works are hate speech that encourage violence against Muslims?Richard Moon, Distinguished Professor of Law, University of WindsorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1648192021-07-22T11:37:25Z2021-07-22T11:37:25ZUtøya massacre 10 years on: what has changed in Norway?<p>It has been 10 years since 77 people – mostly teenage political activists – were massacred in a far-right terror attack in Norway that shocked the country and the world.</p>
<p>Anders Breivik was 32 years old on July 22 2011 when he detonated an ammonium nitrate fertiliser bomb at 15:25pm in the Regjeringskvartalet district of Oslo, attempting to assassinate government officials, killing eight. Ninety minutes later, as emergency services responded to the bomb, Breivik, posing as a police officer, arrived at Utøya Island, the site of a youth Labour Party summer youth camp.</p>
<p>Using legally acquired weapons, he murdered 69 members of the Workers’ Youth League summer camp. Hoping to target former Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, whose appearance at the island that day was cancelled, he fired indiscriminately at adults and teens alike.</p>
<p>Norway, with strict gun controls, had only ever witnessed one mass shooting, at a shooting range in Farsund, in August 1988. Four people were killed with a shotgun and two were injured by a shooter with severe psychosis. </p>
<p>Breivik’s attack was labelled terrorism, joining only two other terrorist attacks in the country since the second world war (the 1977 bombing of a left-wing bookshop, and a bomb thrown into a peaceful demonstration in 1979). </p>
<p>Breivik’s attack differed from the horrors of other headline-making mass shootings in that his shots were not “random carnage”, but targeted at fledgling political figures of the future. His use of the bomb as a distraction to aid his main attack was even more impactful – <a href="https://arkiv.klassekampen.no/59186/article/item/null/-av--kjenner-rammede">one in four Norwegians</a> knew someone personally affected by the massacre. </p>
<h2>Mass shootings, 10 years later</h2>
<p>Ten years on from Brevik’s attack, mass shootings are still rare in <a href="http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//NONSGML+REPORT+A6-2007-0276+0+DOC+PDF+V0//EN&language=EN">Europe</a>, occurring mostly in countries with relatively relaxed firearm regulations, such as <a href="https://www.morgenpost.de/politik/article103911191/Bundestag-billigt-verschaerftes-Waffenrecht.html">Germany</a> and Finland.</p>
<p>In the US, there is a different story. In 2020, the country saw the <a href="https://theconversation.com/mass-shootings-in-the-us-have-risen-sharply-in-2020-why-150981">largest number of mass shootings in any year</a> in its history (610 incidents where 4 or more were injured or killed irrespective of motive).</p>
<p>Strict firearm laws in other countries have generally helped to stop mass shootings, for example in <a href="https://theconversation.com/obama-on-us-shootings-what-gun-laws-worked-in-australia-and-britain-48510">Australia and the UK</a>. However, those intent on causing mass carnage who are unable to access firearms have shown increasing use of vehicles as weapons, including attacks in Sweden, Germany, France, Spain <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/cwernlw0el1t/london-bridge-attack">and in the UK</a>.</p>
<p>It is much easier to access vehicles than guns in many countries, and drivers can get unobtrusively close to potential victims. In response, the geography of public spaces in many major cities around Europe have been <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1206331220985445">physically changed by bollards and barriers</a> as a way to keep citizens safe from vehicle attacks.</p>
<p>This raises important questions about the price to be paid for civilian safety, and how we want our public spaces to look and feel.</p>
<p>FBI director Christopher Wray acknowledged that surveillance is limited in preventing mass shootings or terrorist actions, and suggests “people-power” is the greatest ally, stating that all citizens have a critical role in prevention by overcoming a natural reluctance to report suspicious activity to authorities. </p>
<p>Brevik’s actions led to copycat attacks in the <a href="https://www.idnes.cz/zpravy/cerna-kronika/policie-chtyila-ceskeho-breivika.A120818_102846_ostrava-zpravy_mad">Czech Republic</a> and <a href="https://www.idnes.cz/zpravy/zahranicni/polsko-zmarilo-chystany-teroristicky-utok-na-predstavitele-zeme.A121120_081639_zahranicni_js">Poland</a> in 2012 and the <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/oceania/christchurch-suspect-claimed-brief-contact-with-norwegian-mass-murderer-20190316-p514pj.html">New Zealand Mosque attacks in 2019</a>.</p>
<p>Due to the contagious nature of mass shootings and the large amount of global media attention they receive, it is likely that this will continue to happen for years.</p>
<h2>What has changed</h2>
<p>A positive element of Breivik’s legacy is that Norway, which already prohibits civilians from owning automatic weapons, announced plans in 2018 to <a href="https://www.lifeinnorway.net/gun-ownership-ban/">ban semi-automatic gun ownership by 2021</a> (except for hunting and sport). Although the ban is yet to be enacted, there are over 40 different semi-automatic weapons slated to be largely outlawed. The ban would require current owners of semi-automatic weapons to surrender them to the authorities, and would prohibit future sales.</p>
<p>While Breivik believed that direct action was required over democracy, studies have shown that Norwegian youth are now more determined to use democracy than ever, with 67% of Norwegians aged 18-21 <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337605487_Why_Did_Young_Norwegians_Mobilize_External_Events_or_Early_Enfranchisement">casting a ballot in 2013 elections</a>, an increase of 10% from 2009.</p>
<p>Breivik was what researchers have called a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334901353_Fame-seeking_mass_shooters_in_America_Severity_characteristics_and_media_coverage">“fame-seeking mass shooter”</a> –
he chose to be captured, and distributed photos and a manifesto to enhance his notoriety. </p>
<p>Court-ordered psychological assessment ultimately concluded that Breivik’s acts were the result of grandiose, delusional narcissism – his views were “extreme overvalued beliefs,” not delusions. </p>
<p>He wanted his audience to view him as a “freedom figher” acting against an imagined Islamist threat, when in reality he was a hate-filled fantasist who lacked any meaningful social connections or occupation. Like many similar perpetrators, he turned to mass shooting at a difficult and lonely point in his life.</p>
<p>Breivik was sentenced to preventative detention for 21 years in prison, the maximum sentence allowed by Norwegian law. This can be repeatedly extended by five years if needed. He may only be eligible for release if he is deemed rehabilitated. However, reports of his continuously <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-norway-breivik-hunger-strike-20140218-story.html#ixzz2tqGiYpbV">disruptive and litigious behaviour</a> make it unlikely he will be released anytime soon.</p>
<p>Ten years after the attacks, Norway’s strict gun laws are set to become more so, with fewer dangerous people accessing firearms. The youth of “generation Utøya” are more committed to political debate and less tolerant of violence, and better public understanding of the facts around mental illness and violence was a consequence of Breivik’s highly publicised trial. </p>
<p>Despite Breivik’s atrocity, he inadvertently made a civilised country even more so. Should he ever be released from prison, he may find himself in a Norway he no longer recognises.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164819/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Craig Jackson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Ten years after Anders Breivik killed 77 people in Norway, a look at how the country has changed.Craig Jackson, Professor of Occupational Health Psychology, Birmingham City UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1450912020-08-27T03:19:59Z2020-08-27T03:19:59ZWhen life means life: why the court had to deliver an unprecedented sentence for the Christchurch terrorist<p>Was Brenton Tarrant’s <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/christchurch-shooting/300092274/christchurch-terrorist-wont-speak-at-sentencing-for-mosque-shootings">silence</a> and acceptance of sentence in court a final act to expand his notoriety? Was his <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/424583/christchurch-mosque-attacks-terrorist-sentenced-to-life-in-jail-without-parole">disavowal</a> of previously expressed ideological views a trick?</p>
<p>A person capable of planning the Christchurch mosque attacks so methodically may well have mapped the last public chapter, too. By saying little and expressing no real remorse, alone and without even his own lawyer, was he hoping the world would see a determined stoicism, an enigma?</p>
<p>Or did he simply realise the controls around court behaviour were so well designed that he couldn’t hijack proceedings? </p>
<p>For now at least, we can’t know. All we can say for sure is what the court has heard over the days leading to today’s <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/christchurch-shooting/122577663/christchurch-mosque-gunman-jailed-until-his-last-gasp">sentence</a> of life in prison with no minimum parole: using overwhelming firepower against defenceless civilians he took the lives of 51 men, women and children, injured many more and left even more bereft.</p>
<p>His silence notwithstanding, then, he is not an enigma. As the first person in New Zealand to be convicted of terrorism, he comes from the same dark place that spawned the likes of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-14259989">Anders Breivik</a> in Norway, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-42910051">Darren Osborne</a> (who drove a truck into Muslim worshippers in London in 2017) and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/10/dylann-roof-sentenced-to-death-charleston-church-shooting">Dylann Roof</a> (who attacked black parishioners in a South Carolina church in 2015). </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/remembering-my-friend-and-why-there-is-no-right-way-to-mourn-the-christchurch-attacks-133239">Remembering my friend, and why there is no right way to mourn the Christchurch attacks</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Tarrant had even carved the names of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/08/world/canada/alexandre-bissonnette-sentence.html">Alexandre Bissonette</a> (who attacked a mosque in Quebec in 2017) and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/03/italian-extremist-given-12-year-sentence-after-shooting-at-migrants">Luca Traini</a> (who attacked African migrants in Italy in 2018) on the magazines of his guns. </p>
<p>So now he joins that list of mass murderers, animated by a hatred of tolerance, equality and multicultural values, who came to believe indiscriminate violence against unarmed civilians was justified.</p>
<h2>The first ever non-parole sentence</h2>
<p>If this was America, he could have been sentenced to death or given a cumulative jail sentence of over 1,000 years. Neither option is available in New Zealand. There are many good reasons for having no death penalty, including in this case the denial of any aspirations to martyrdom.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/jailing-the-christchurch-terrorist-will-cost-new-zealand-millions-a-prisoner-swap-with-australia-would-solve-more-than-one-problem-144199">Jailing the Christchurch terrorist will cost New Zealand millions. A prisoner swap with Australia would solve more than one problem</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The most <a href="http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2002/0009/latest/DLM136499.html">extreme penalty</a> New Zealand law does allow is jail for life without any minimum parole period. Although a sentence of 30 years without parole has been imposed, life without parole has never been given. </p>
<p>It is fair to say that Judge Mander, who did an excellent job throughout, met public expectation with his decision to ensure Tarrant never again walks outside a guarded wall.</p>
<h2>What the law demands</h2>
<p>Such a sentence is justified if the court is satisfied no minimum term of imprisonment would be enough to satisfy the main considerations: accountability, denouncement, deterrence or protecting the community. </p>
<p>In short, the Sentencing Act sets out the <a href="http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2002/0009/latest/DLM135543.html">purposes of sentencing</a>: to hold the offender to account for the harm done to the victims and the wider community, to denounce the crime and deter others from replicating those acts. </p>
<p>Supplementary <a href="http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2002/0009/latest/DLM135544.html">principles</a> a sentencing judge must consider include the gravity of the offending and its seriousness compared to other types of offences. The judge is required “to impose the maximum penalty prescribed for the offence if the offending is within the most serious of cases for which that penalty is prescribed” (unless there are mitigating circumstances). </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-how-a-royal-commission-will-investigate-christchurch-shootings-116122">Explainer: how a royal commission will investigate Christchurch shootings</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The only <a href="http://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2002/0009/latest/whole.html?search=ts_act%40bill%40regulation%40deemedreg_Sentencing+Act+2002_resel_25_a&p=1%2f#DLM135545">mitigation</a> that would have carried weight in this case was Tarrant <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/120565800/christchurch-mosque-attacks-accused-pleads-guilty-to-murder-attempted-murder-and-terrorism">pleading guilty</a> and therefore shortening proceedings. Other mitigating factors, such as remorse or <a href="http://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2002/0009/latest/whole.html?search=ts_act%40bill%40regulation%40deemedreg_Sentencing+Act+2002_resel_25_a&p=1%2f#DLM135548">offers to make amends</a>, were not to be seen or were deemed not genuine. </p>
<h2>Placing the victims first</h2>
<p>The other principle Judge Mander had to take into account relates to the effect of the offending on the victims. As the 91 <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/424486/christchurch-mosque-attacks-you-are-in-hell-anger-as-victims-face-killer-in-court">victim impact statements</a> heard over three days made clear, those victims displayed remarkable fortitude, bravery, wisdom and humanity. But the black hole of pain the killer left in his wake is near incomprehensible. </p>
<p>Further <a href="http://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2002/0009/latest/whole.html?search=ts_act%40bill%40regulation%40deemedreg_Sentencing+Act+2002_resel_25_a&p=1%2f#DLM135545">aggravating factors</a> justifying this sentence were that these were pre-meditated crimes of hate, terrorism, particular cruelty and involved the use of weapons. </p>
<p>Tarrant ticked all of the boxes. The enormity of his crimes made them unlike anything that had gone before. New Zealand has experienced mass shootings in the past, and murders based on racial hatred, but nothing of this scale. </p>
<p>On top of that, no one had <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12309116">employed the internet</a> to spread hatred as happened in Christchurch, nor has anyone pleaded guilty to an act of terrorism before. </p>
<p>When all of these considerations were put on the scales of justice, Judge Mander would have seen that, small acts of mitigation aside, an unprecedented sentence was the only appropriate outcome for an unprecedented crime.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145091/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexander Gillespie does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In a New Zealand legal first, mass-murderer and terrorist Brenton Tarrant is jailed for life with no chance of parole.Alexander Gillespie, Professor of Law, University of WaikatoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1360702020-04-13T11:42:29Z2020-04-13T11:42:29ZHow dangerous are conspiracy theories? Listen to part five of our expert guide<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/326947/original/file-20200409-165427-2pyuhl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/vaccination-children-injection-selective-focus-1066303739">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Conspiracy theories might be entertaining but they can also be dangerous. Sadly, what often starts off as a bit of fun can turn sour quite quickly – even if it’s laughing about the idea that Rihanna or Katy Perry are part of the Illuminati. We find out how in our latest episode of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/expert-guide-to-conspiracy-theories-83678">Expert guide to conspiracy theories</a>, a series from The Conversation’s Anthill podcast.</p>
<iframe src="https://player.acast.com/5e3bf1111a6e452f6380a7bc/episodes/expert-guide-to-conspiracy-theories-part-5-how-dangerous-are?theme=default&cover=1&latest=1" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="110px" allow="autoplay"></iframe>
<hr>
<p><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-anthill/id1114423002?mt=2"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321534/original/file-20200319-22606-q84y3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=182&fit=crop&dpr=1" alt="Listen on Apple Podcasts" width="268" height="68"></a> <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/265Bnp4BgwaEmFv2QciIOC?si=-WMr1ecDTsO_6avrkxZu8g"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321535/original/file-20200319-22606-1l4copl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=183&fit=crop&dpr=1" width="268" height="70"></a> </p>
<p>This episode delves into some of the psychology behind what makes conspiracy theories dangerous. It also explores the relationship between conspiracy theories and the radicalisation of extremists. And we find out the best ways to talk to people who believe in conspiracy theories.</p>
<p>Psychologist Steve Lewandowsky tells us there is a strong link between people who endorse conspiracy theories and reject climate science. What makes this dangerous is the way that conspiracy theories are used by climate change deniers to justify not acting to reduce carbon emissions:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When you ask climate change deniers: “Well, if you don’t think this is happening, why do you think all the scientists are agreeing?” Then they will deploy this conspiratorial rhetoric as a way of justifying to themselves why they don’t believe it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Psychologist Daniel Jolley has also found that conspiracy theories that climate change is made up can influence how people respond to the issue. He says: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It makes you less likely to want to reduce your carbon footprint because you feel disillusioned. You feel powerless. If it’s all a conspiracy, why would I bother trying to reduce my carbon footprint?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We also find out more about the links between conspiracy theories and extremism. Political scientist Eirikur Bergmann tells us how populist politicians use conspiracy theories to their advantage, particularly one called the Great Replacement theory. This is the idea that white people in the west are at threat of invasion and being replaced by non-white immigrants.</p>
<p>Politicians don’t need to believe in a conspiracy theory themselves, or to convince others to fully believe the conspiracy theory they invoke. Bergmann says their main aim is to spread fear – and this is effective in rallying support. The problem is, politicians can’t always control how people interpret their rhetoric. We hear how attacks by white supremacists in Norway, the UK and New Zealand were all committed by people who took a threat of invasion literally. </p>
<p>We also learn how to engage with conspiracy theorists and how difficult it is to convince hardline believers that they are wrong. Psychologist Karen Douglas tells us that it’s easier to inoculate people against believing in conspiracy theories in the first place:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If you present people with the scientific correct information before they’re exposed to the conspiracy theory, then that theory doesn’t have as much impact on people’s attitudes. Whereas if you do it the other way around, and you present people with the conspiracy theory and then the correct information, the conspiracy belief tends to stay there.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Anthropologist Ela Drazkiewicz also shares insights from her research into attitudes toward HPV vaccination in Ireland. She explains how mistrust of the health authorities led to a dramatic 30% fall in vaccination uptake between 2014 and 2017. But she also offers hope, describing how the Irish health service managed to turn this around and restore trust in the vaccine.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The Anthill podcast is produced by Annabel Bligh and Gemma Ware. Sound design is by Eloise Stevens, with original music from Neeta Sarl and audio from <a href="https://www.epidemicsound.com/">Epidemic Sound</a>. A big thanks to City, University of London, for letting us use their studios.</em></p>
<p><a href="https://pca.st/5Hul"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321533/original/file-20200319-22598-afljnr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=212&fit=crop&dpr=1" alt="Listen on Pocket Casts" width="268" height="68"></a> <a href="https://castbox.fm/channel/The-Anthill-id2625863?country=gb"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321531/original/file-20200319-22632-t8ds9t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=232&fit=crop&dpr=1" width="268" height="70"></a> </p>
<p><a href="https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly90aGVjb252ZXJzYXRpb24uY29tL3VrL3BvZGNhc3RzL3RoZS1hbnRoaWxsLnJzcw%3D%3D"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233720/original/file-20180827-75978-3mdxcf.png" alt="" width="268" height="68"></a> <a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-conversation/the-anthill"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233716/original/file-20180827-75981-pdp50i.png" alt="Stitcher" width="300" height="88"></a> </p>
<p><a href="https://tunein.com/podcasts/Technology-Podcasts/The-Anthill-p877873/"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233723/original/file-20180827-75984-f0y2gb.png" alt="Listen on TuneIn" width="318" height="125"></a> <a href="https://radiopublic.com/the-anthill-GOJ1vz"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-152" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233717/original/file-20180827-75990-86y5tg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=268&fit=clip" alt="Listen on RadioPublic" width="268" height="87"></a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/136070/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Annabel Bligh works for The Conversation, which received funding from the Comparative Analysis of Conspiracy Theories research network (COST Action COMPACT) to make this podcast.</span></em></p>PODCAST: In part five of The Anthill’s expert guide to conspiracy theories we find out the best ways to talk to people who believe in them.Annabel Bligh, Host of The Anthill Podcast, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/965582018-05-14T15:05:29Z2018-05-14T15:05:29ZThe bogus ‘crisis’ of masculinity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218770/original/file-20180514-178757-1foee0f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C6%2C926%2C662&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cowboys Coyote Quartet, Glacier National Park, April 17, 1927. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/97453745@N02/9047013599/">Tullio Saba/Flickr</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Toronto, April 23, 2018: <a href="http://toronto.citynews.ca/2018/05/10/toronto-van-attack-more-charges/">A man drives a van into a group of pedestrians</a>,
killing eight women and two men and injuring several others. </p>
<p>While the investigation is still ongoing and the suspect’s trial is months away, a message published by the accused on social media already provides insight into possible motivations, associating him with the movement of “involuntary celibates” or “incels.”</p>
<p>Incels are chiefly active on <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/incel-what-is-involuntary-celibates-elliot-rodger-alek-minassian-canada-terrorism-a8335816.html">social media</a> and claim that men suffer from a lack of female sexual availability, leading both to suicide among men and violence against women, including mass murders. The movement has its own <a href="https://theconversation.com/la-tuerie-de-toronto-sombre-hommage-a-un-autre-crime-misogyne-95671">heroes and martyrs</a>, such as Elliot Rodger (<a href="http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/justice-et-faits-divers/201804/24/01-5162222-alek-minassian-avait-des-liens-avec-des-groupes-de-discussion-misogynes.php">described as a “supreme gentleman”</a> by the Toronto suspect), who killed six people in California in 2014, explaining in a video that he wanted to punish women because he had never had sexual relations.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
À lire aussi :
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-dark-possible-motive-of-the-toronto-van-attacker-95578">The dark possible motive of the Toronto van attacker</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Although this is an extreme example of the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/30041839?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">“crisis of masculinity”</a> rhetoric — the idea that men are suffering at the hands of women in general and feminists in particular — it’s not the only mass murder associated with this kind of discourse.</p>
<h2>The ghost of Montreal</h2>
<p>On Dec. 6, 1989, <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2014/12/06/two_women_on_marc_lpines_death_list_speak_out.html">a man killed 14 women at the Montreal Polytechnique</a>, claiming that “feminists” had “ruined his life.”</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217929/original/file-20180507-46359-vcgmk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217929/original/file-20180507-46359-vcgmk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217929/original/file-20180507-46359-vcgmk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=643&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217929/original/file-20180507-46359-vcgmk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=643&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217929/original/file-20180507-46359-vcgmk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=643&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217929/original/file-20180507-46359-vcgmk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=808&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217929/original/file-20180507-46359-vcgmk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=808&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217929/original/file-20180507-46359-vcgmk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=808&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Commemorations for the 14 victims (all female) of the slaughter at the Montréal Polytechnique (1989). The man responsible for the massacre, Marc Lépine, stated, ‘You’re women, you’re about to become engineers. You’re nothing but a bunch of feminists. I hate feminists.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mtl_dec6_plaque.jpg">Bobanny/Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The attack was presented by several contemporary commentators as proof that <a href="http://www.editions-rm.ca/livres/jhais-les-feministes/">the men of Quebec were suffering an identity crisis</a>. More recently in Norway, neo-Nazi Anders Breivik killed dozens of young members of the Socialist Party, explaining in his manifesto that feminists are threatening the virility of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08038740.2011.650707">Western civilization</a>. In the months following the attack, female journalists were the target of sexist insults and death threats from members of the so-called <a href="https://www.crimejusticejournal.com/article/view/314">“Breivik Fan Club”</a>.</p>
<h2>Crisis or crisis rhetoric?</h2>
<p>Historian <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/30223">Judith A. Allen</a> and others, including <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1468-0424.12212">Mary Louise Roberts</a>, have warned that the notion of a “crisis of masculinity” clouds our understanding of complex social phenomena. </p>
<p>They argue that the concept of “crisis,” which implies serious upheavals and profound transformations, does not accurately describe the reality of relations between sexes and the condition of men in society.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0viifGIcA84?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for Patric Jean’s <em>La Domination masculine</em> (“Male Domination”), 2009.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Allen underlines the importance of monitoring real-life institutions and social relations to ascertain whether it’s men or women who are at the top of the major political, economic and cultural institutions, which group has the most resources (property, money, firearms, etc.), who is afraid of whom, who carries out the unpaid work of looking after others (husbands, children, the sick) and so on.</p>
<p>This approach quickly reveals that one should more accurately speak of a “rhetoric of crisis,” as Allen suggests, rather than an actual crisis.</p>
<p>Others have made the same observation, including Jie Yang, who studied masculinity <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1425.2010.01272.x">crisis rhetoric in post-Maoist China</a>. Yang deplores the fact that the majority of studies on the so-called crisis of masculinity are based on material from newspapers, novels, films and interviews:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“This approach can create the illusion that literary texts adequately reflect what is truly happening in society.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Even if there is no real crisis, Yang and others have demonstrated that the rhetoric of crisis can have a real impact on society. It brings the attention of authorities and public opinion to those supposedly in crisis (in this case, men), allowing them to present themselves as victims and therefore in need of help (resources, services, etc.). </p>
<p>It also enables the root causes of the alleged crisis to be identified and delegitimized (in this case, feminists and women). It can even be used to justify mass murder and glorify the memory of murderers, presented as heroes, rebels or members of the resistance.</p>
<h2>An overly long tradition</h2>
<p>We should be all the more wary of the notion of a “crisis of masculinity” since <a href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-cahiers-du-genre-2012-1-page-119.htm">Western history</a> is littered with examples of this rhetoric, from as early as ancient Rome to the end of the Middle Ages and throughout each successive century across the Western world, including such powerful countries as Germany, the United States, and France.</p>
<p>The 20<sup>th</sup> century seems to be dogged by a continuous crisis of masculinity, including in the Eastern Bloc, both during the Cold War and after liberalization.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217928/original/file-20180507-46353-1tma9t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217928/original/file-20180507-46353-1tma9t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217928/original/file-20180507-46353-1tma9t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217928/original/file-20180507-46353-1tma9t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217928/original/file-20180507-46353-1tma9t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217928/original/file-20180507-46353-1tma9t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217928/original/file-20180507-46353-1tma9t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘The Age of Brass or the Triumph of Women’s Rights’, a lithograph from 1869 caricaturing the possible consequences of giving women the right to vote.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Age-of-Brass_Triumph-of-Womans-Rights_1869.jpg">Currier and Ives/Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In these countries, the rhetoric of a crisis of masculinity was propagated by the highest authorities, including kings and presidents, religious elites, academics, famous writers, prominent members of patriotic leagues and representatives from chambers of commerce.</p>
<p>It was used as a means to criticize mothers and wives depicted as dominating, and to chastise women who did not conform to strictly laid-out female roles (in the way they dressed or did their hair, carried firearms or practised traditionally masculine professions). The rhetoric of crisis also helped justify punishment of women and brought about new resources for men, including the development of amateur sport, gentlemen’s clubs and so on.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218771/original/file-20180514-133183-12x6zpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218771/original/file-20180514-133183-12x6zpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218771/original/file-20180514-133183-12x6zpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218771/original/file-20180514-133183-12x6zpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218771/original/file-20180514-133183-12x6zpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218771/original/file-20180514-133183-12x6zpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218771/original/file-20180514-133183-12x6zpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Club of Gentlemen’, circa 1730.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joseph Highmore/Wikimedia</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘Global feminist terrorism’</h2>
<p>Today, studies around the globe speak of a crisis of masculinity in countries <a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/a-crisis-of-male-identity-patriarchy-violence-lynching-4748027/">as diverse as India</a>, <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/culture/.premium.MAGAZINE-violent-sensual-unapologetic-1.5404329">Israel</a>, Japan and Russia, as well as among Christian, Jewish and Muslim men. </p>
<p>In the West, some claim that African-American men and “young Arab” men are violent because they are suffering from a crisis of masculinity or, conversely, that they are more virile than the white man, who is “castrated” and defenceless against the Black man or Muslim immigration. </p>
<p>Demonstrably, the notion of a crisis of masculinity can be used to substantiate a plethora of contradictory claims.</p>
<p>The rhetoric can be reoriented, depending on the context: Prior to easier access to divorce, the dominating wife was responsible for the crisis; nowadays, it’s the ex-wife. In some countries today, the discourse touches on higher rates of suicide among men, boys’ difficulties in school, the obligation to pay alimony post-divorce and even laws against domestic violence, which have been presented by groups of men in India as the result of <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1077801214546906">“global feminist terrorism.”</a></p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217934/original/file-20180507-46347-169093n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217934/original/file-20180507-46347-169093n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217934/original/file-20180507-46347-169093n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217934/original/file-20180507-46347-169093n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217934/original/file-20180507-46347-169093n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217934/original/file-20180507-46347-169093n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217934/original/file-20180507-46347-169093n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A demonstration to ‘Save the Indian family’ in New Delhi in 2007.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Save_Indian_Families_protest_(New_Delhi,_26_August_2007).jpg">newageindian/Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Today, the rhetoric of crisis is still largely disseminated by wealthy middle-class men with higher-than-average levels of education and good jobs (according to studies in the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J002v39n01_06">United States</a>, <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1077801214546906">India</a>, <a href="http://hv.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:626574/FULLTEXT01.pdf">Sweden</a>, and elsewhere).</p>
<p>They are intellectuals, psychologists and social workers, but also activists <a href="https://xyonline.net/sites/xyonline.net/files/Flood%2C%20What%27s%20wrong%20with%20fathers%27%20rights.pdf">from groups of separated or divorced fathers</a>, Christian organizations who run <a href="http://www.konbini.com/fr/tendances-2/france-2-reportage-sexiste-abject-20h">men-only retreats</a>, and white supremacists <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780847690268/White-Man-Falling-Race-Gender-and-White-Supremacy">in the neo-fascist networks</a>.</p>
<h2>Conventional masculine identity: A risk factor</h2>
<p>The rhetoric of the crisis of masculinity offers an opportunity to reaffirm a radical division of humanity into men and women, to associate masculinity with certain stereotyped qualities (action, competitiveness, aggressiveness and violence) and claim that femininity is at once different, inferior and dangerous to men, since the feminine influence is cast as pathological and liable to lead to the decline <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/9780061981906/the-decline-of-men">or even the disappearance of men</a>.</p>
<p>Yet if we look closely at studies of the symptoms supposedly arising from a crisis of masculinity — suicides, difficulty in school, divorce, etc. — we see that women are very often not the cause and, above all, that conventional masculine identity constitutes a risk factor rather than a solution.</p>
<p>In the case of suicides, for example, <a href="https://liberation.checknews.fr/question/38531/pourquoi-les-hommes-se-suicident-trois-fois-plus-que-les-femmes">the high rates for men</a> can be explained, among other things, by the idea <a href="http://www.seuil.com/ouvrage/histoire-de-la-virilite-t-1-alain-corbin/9782020980678">that virility</a> and firearms go hand-in-hand, and by the overlap between masculine and professional identity, leaving men more vulnerable in the case of unemployment. Epidemiologists also note that suicide rates rise in <a href="http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2012/02/07/la-hausse-des-suicides-lies-a-la-crise-une-realite-ignoree_1639939_3224.html">times of economic crisis</a>, a phenomenon that cannot be attributed to women, since they do not run the economy.</p>
<p>Even more troubling, the notion of a crisis in masculinity implies that equality is a feminine value that threatens male identity. In this framework, masculine identity is above all a political identity, associated with privileges (in the bedroom, the boardroom, etc.) that are supposedly due to men, while important everyday tasks, like cooking food and looking after children, are seen as incompatible with healthy masculinity. </p>
<p>This discourse is right out of the <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/male-supremacy">male supremacist</a> playbook, drawing on the same ideas that might have motivated attacks like that in Toronto.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The author recently published <a href="http://www.editions-rm.ca/livres/la-crise-de-la-masculinite">La Crise de la masculinité: autopsie d’un mythe tenace</a> (“The Crisis of Masculinity: Autopsy of a Persistent Myth”), Montréal, Remue-ménage Publishing.</em></p>
<p><em>Translated from the French by Alice Heathwood for Fast for Word.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/96558/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Francis Dupuis-Déri ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>The notion of a ‘crisis of masculinity" clouds the understanding of complex social phenomena and falsely asserts a vision of humanity as being radically divided between men and women.Francis Dupuis-Déri, Professeur, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/739172017-03-02T11:43:00Z2017-03-02T11:43:00ZThe saga of Anders Breivik’s prison conditions puts European democracy in the spotlight<p>Norway is not violating the rights of mass murderer Anders Breivik by keeping him in solitary confinement, according to an appeal ruling on March 1. </p>
<p>The Borgarting Court of Appeal in Oslo delivered its much awaited <a href="https://www.domstol.no/en/Enkelt-domstol/Borgarting-lagmannsrett/Aktuelt/judgment-in-the-appeal-case-between-the-norwegian-ministry-of-justice-and-breivik/">judgment</a> on the latest chapter of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/norways-human-rights-appeal-over-the-prison-conditions-of-anders-breivik-explained-70160">legal challenge</a> by Breivik, who killed 77 people in two terrorist acts in Norway in 2011. The appeals court overturned an earlier <a href="http://www.domstol.no/contentassets/9082215b86804731af6ddc9691116cf3/15-107496tvi-otir---dom-20042016breivik.pdf">decision</a> of the Oslo District Court and ruled that the conditions of Breivik’s detention have not violated his rights under <a href="http://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/Convention_ENG.pdf">Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights</a> (ECHR) which prohibits torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. </p>
<p>The Court of Appeal said it was necessary to keep Breivik in solitary confinement and for guards to use handcuffs on him and conduct body searches. It was satisfied that there was risk of violence both from Breivik and against him from other inmates. It said that extensive measures had been taken to compensate for his lack of companionship and that there was an absence of evidence of substantial damage to his mental health due to prolonged isolation.</p>
<h2>What is necessary</h2>
<p>It is significant that two Norwegian courts have now reached different conclusions about Breivik’s rights under the ECHR. In the original ruling, the Oslo District Court did not doubt that Breivik remained a dangerous ultra-right wing extremist, nor that his detention conditions were generally “good”. But the court was not convinced that the continuous solitary confinement was “strictly necessary” or that adequate measures had been taken to compensate for Breivik’s lack of social interaction. </p>
<p>In the latest ruling, however, the Borgarting Court of Appeal, seems to have placed more emphasis on the fact that Breivik remains apparently remorseless and “strongly affected by his right-wing extremist political universe”. The appeal judges considered it impossible for prison authorities to predict whether and when Breivik may resort to violence again. As such, they ruled that comprehensive security measures including solitary confinement were necessary in view of “strong societal considerations”.</p>
<p>Both Norwegian courts, then, have essentially looked at how necessary the conditions of Breivik’s detention are in order to determine whether they are unlawful. This will depend on the circumstances of each individual case, taking into account the severity of the measure, its duration, and the effect on the prisoner’s well-being. </p>
<p>Apparently similar detention conditions, therefore, can be found to violate Article 3 of the Convention in <a href="http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng#%7B%22fulltext%22:%5B%22ocalan%20v.%20turkey%22%5D,%22sort%22:%5B%22kpdate%20Descending%22%5D,%22docname%22:%5B%22ocalan%22%5D,%22documentcollectionid2%22:%5B%22GRANDCHAMBER%22,%22CHAMBER%22%5D,%22itemid%22:%5B%22001-142087%22%5D%7D">some circumstances</a> but not in <a href="http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng#%7B%22docname%22:%5B%22%22CASE%20OF%20RAMIREZ%20SANCHEZ%20v.%20FRANCE%22%22%5D,%22documentcollectionid2%22:%5B%22GRANDCHAMBER%22,%22CHAMBER%22%5D,%22itemid%22:%5B%22001-76169%22%5D%7D">others</a>.</p>
<p>The European Court of Human Rights has been <a href="http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng#%7B%22docname%22:%5B%22Ireland%20v.%20United%20Kingdom%22%5D,%22documentcollectionid2%22:%5B%22GRANDCHAMBER%22,%22CHAMBER%22%5D,%22itemid%22:%5B%22001-57506%22%5D%7D">clear</a> that legal opinion on whether treatment is “inhuman” or “degrading” is relative, and depends on all the circumstances of the <a href="http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng#%7B%22docname%22:%5B%22soering%22%5D,%22documentcollectionid2%22:%5B%22GRANDCHAMBER%22,%22CHAMBER%22%5D,%22itemid%22:%5B%22001-57619%22%5D%7D">case</a>. It should not be surprising, therefore, that a slight difference in the weighting of relevant factors has produced different outcomes. </p>
<h2>A question of priorities</h2>
<p>But taking a wider angle, there is an oxymoron lying at the heart of Breivik’s legal challenge. The current living conditions of the man responsible for one of the most heinous crimes in recent European history seem to be infinitely better than those of <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-the-eu-wants-to-be-the-bastion-of-liberal-democracy-it-too-must-stop-demonising-refugees-and-migrants-72327">refugees and asylum seekers</a> reaching European shores en masse in recent years. </p>
<p>Of course, lowering the standards of treatment we afford prisoners would not resolve the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/refugee-crisis-20183">refugee crisis</a>, but this obvious asymmetry does raise existential questions about the priorities of Europe’s human rights protection system.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159101/original/image-20170302-14714-1l58p77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159101/original/image-20170302-14714-1l58p77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159101/original/image-20170302-14714-1l58p77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159101/original/image-20170302-14714-1l58p77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159101/original/image-20170302-14714-1l58p77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159101/original/image-20170302-14714-1l58p77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159101/original/image-20170302-14714-1l58p77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A memorial for the victims of Brevik’s attack on the island of Utøya.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Krister Sorboe/EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is why we need to talk about European democracy more than we need to talk about the Breivik ruling itself. The way Europe – as a diverse but united demos held together by common democratic values – treats terrorists and convicted criminals through its human rights system is an index of the kind of political community we aspire to be. </p>
<p>Our collective commitment to the rule of law and to the protection of fundamental human rights does not, and should not, depend on who may happen to be on the receiving end of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. But equally significant is our collective public reaction to judicial decisions such as this that may protect the inalienable rights of abhorrent Neo-Nazi mass murderers.</p>
<p>Constitutional democracy comes at a cost. Part of this cost is to accept that trust in the justice system and in the judiciary, both European and domestic, cannot operate on an a-la-carte basis. In a democratic society, of course, no institution should be entirely insulated from criticism, but it is important to bear in mind that the interpretation of legal rules that are heavily dependent on the facts of each case is an inherently difficult task and one which is rarely going to produce results that satisfy everyone’s sense of right and wrong.</p>
<p>At a time when the political trend on both sides of the Atlantic is to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/law/2017/feb/16/politicians-slow-defend-judges-brexit-case-lord-neuberger">attack</a> and <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-trump-immigration-idUKKBN15I2JB">ridicule</a> judges for upholding their constitutional duties, it is important to make sure that the Oslo appeal court is applauded for the right reasons. Credit is due when a court upholds the law regardless of whether its conclusions resonate with the views of the many – not because of it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73917/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Panos Kapotas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A Norwegian appeal court has ruled that the mass murderer’s human rights are not being violated by the conditions of his imprisonment.Panos Kapotas, Senior Lecturer, School of Law , University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/734002017-02-23T21:07:51Z2017-02-23T21:07:51ZDonald Trump, white victimhood and the South African far-right<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157882/original/image-20170222-1364-1h7l7ck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Afrikaans singer Steve Hofmeyr (with the yellow t-shirt) in front of a statue of Paul Kruger at Church Square in Pretoria.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alon Skuy/The Times</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the age of smartphones and social media, the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/general-election-2015/politics-blog/11565661/Viral-memes-are-ruining-our-politics.-Share-if-you-agree.html">spread of ideas as digital memes</a> is global and unpredictable. This includes, for example, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29052144">Islamic State</a> (IS) recruiting followers from across the globe, to the nationalist and xenophobic <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/brexit-vote-has-led-to-noticeable-rise-in-uk-xenophobia-watchdog-warns-a7343646.html">ideas</a> that were espoused respectively in the campaigns by <a href="https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/brexiteer">Brexiteers</a> to get the UK to <a href="http://www.politico.eu/article/brexit-in-memes-uk-decision-light-hearted-view/">leave the European Union</a> and Donald Trump to <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/7/7/12116242/trump-frozen-antisemitic-meme-clinton">get elected</a> as US president. </p>
<p>Around the world, <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/12/31/13869676/social-media-influence-alt-right">the right</a> especially has shown how effective a tool social media can be.</p>
<p>A good example is popular South African singer <a href="http://synapses.co.za/muppet-takes-puppet-steve-hofmeyr-chestermissing/">Steve Hofmeyr</a>, who is a foremost crusader for <a href="http://www.enca.com/south-africa/red-october-plight-whites-new-south-africa">white right-wing causes</a>, –especially on social media. With 222,000 followers, his Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/steve_hofmeyr">timeline</a> not only features local issues of so-called white victimhood, but also retweets of prominent European extremists’ campaigns. As to be expected, he is a strong Trump supporter.</p>
<p>Recently, there was a fundraising campaign to <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2017-02-06-in-trump-he-trusts-meet-the-man-who-could-be-the-next-us-ambassador-to-south-africa/#.WKIHg9J96Hs">send Hofmeyr to the US</a> to meet with Trump. The extremist campaigner behind the proposed “talks” said it was aimed at stopping the “genocide” of white Afrikaners. He even sent tweets to Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, and his wife, Melania, to help facilitate the talks. </p>
<p>But South Africa’s right-wing is a fractious bunch, and the fundraising campaign stuttered to a halt when it appeared that it was a scam and Hofmeyr <a href="http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/hofmeyr-withdraws-from-trump-fundraising-20170214">distanced</a> himself from the efforts.</p>
<h2>Victimhood crossing borders</h2>
<p>White victimhood has crossed international borders. The idea of white people falling victim to an “onslaught” of refugees and immigrants has become a <a href="http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-populism/">major factor</a> in elections across Europe. The meaning of “PC” is changing, with political correctness making way for patriotic correctness. That’s what Trump’s “America First” is all about.</p>
<p>Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again” <a href="http://www.herald.co.zw/trump-and-fascism-democracy-fatigue/">appealed to</a> white victimhood. He focused on a white electorate who feels disillusioned by demographic and sociopolitical change in the US. They <a href="http://www.salon.com/2017/02/12/trumps-supporters-believe-a-false-narrative-of-white-victimhood-and-the-data-proves-it/">feel</a> that American values are in danger, and hence there is the need to “take back America”.</p>
<p>White victimhood is a <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/01/25/altered-right-how-white-nationalists-exploit-tragedy-build-narrative-white-victimhood">right-wing tactic</a> that inverts the left’s narratives of minority discrimination and neocolonialism. This tactic denies that there is such a thing as white privilege, and attempts to camouflage white domination.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157867/original/image-20170222-1340-5jmgfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157867/original/image-20170222-1340-5jmgfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157867/original/image-20170222-1340-5jmgfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157867/original/image-20170222-1340-5jmgfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157867/original/image-20170222-1340-5jmgfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1161&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157867/original/image-20170222-1340-5jmgfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1161&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157867/original/image-20170222-1340-5jmgfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1161&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Milo Yiannopoulos has resigned from the righ-twing Breitbart News.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jason Szenes/EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Whites can surely be victims of crime or discrimination as individuals, but white victimhood goes much further. It implies that whites as a demographic group are victims of discrimination, oppression or even persecution. In short, whites are endangered by all sorts of dangers out there in the world.</p>
<p>This recent right-wing tactic has morphed into the <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/alternative-right">“alt-right”</a> movement in America with various faces. The extreme is the new Nazism dressed in designer suits and championed by <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/11/richard-spencer-speech-npi/508379/">American white supremacist</a> <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/richard-spencer-alt-right-punched-donald-trump-inauguration-a7538746.html">Richard Spencer</a>, who is president of the <a href="http://www.npiamerica.org/">National Policy Institute</a>. </p>
<p>There is the more “gentrified” culture of anti-left trolling with the Brit <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39026870">Milo Yiannopoulos</a> as its <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/an-interview-with-the-most-hated-man-on-the-internet/">flamboyant poster boy</a>. This right-wing provocateur was forced this week <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/21/milo-yiannopoulos-resigns-breitbart-pedophilia-comments">to fall on his sword</a> over remarks in which he appeared to endorse sex between “younger boys” and older men.</p>
<p>And there is <a href="https://qz.com/898134/what-steve-bannon-really-wants/">Trump’s powerful chief strategist</a>, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-37971742">Stephen Bannon</a>, with his <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/lesterfeder/this-is-how-steve-bannon-sees-the-entire-world?utm_term=.pnqZjAZKb#.bho5Ek5oB">siege mentality</a> against “Islamic fascism”. </p>
<h2>Alt-right’s South African ties</h2>
<p>The “alt-right” news website <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/02/21/breitbart-under-bannon-breitbarts-comment-section-reflects-alt-right-anti-semitic-language">Breitbart</a> has an editor-at-large (after Bannon’s departure) with strong South African ties. <a href="http://mg.co.za/article/2017-02-08-a-south-african-link-to-trumps-inner-circle">Joel Pollak</a>, born in South Africa, was a speechwriter for the opposition Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon from 2002 to 2006 whilst studying in the country.</p>
<p>Pollak is now being floated as Trump’s <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2017-02-06-in-trump-he-trusts-meet-the-man-who-could-be-the-next-us-ambassador-to-south-africa/#.WKIHg9J96Hs">possible US ambassador in Pretoria</a>. </p>
<p>This South African connection goes deeper. The persecution of whites is an influential idea for the South African far-right. The fear of black violence, the so-called “Swart Gevaar” (Afrikaans for black danger) propagated by the apartheid state, still persists. The most extreme version of this victimhood is “white genocide”. </p>
<p>This idea has been popularised by the Afrikaans pop singers Hofmeyr and <a href="http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Law-expert-Sunette-Bridges-order-could-set-precedent-20150401">Sunette Bridges</a> through their <a href="http://www.enca.com/south-africa/red-october-plight-whites-new-south-africa">Red October campaign</a>. They advocate that farm murders in South Africa come down to “white genocide” – farm murders most certainly are <a href="https://issafrica.org/amp/iss-today/farm-attacks-and-farm-murders-remain-a-concern">problematic</a>, even without it being hijacked for political mileage. But they <a href="http://www.farmersweekly.co.za/agri-business/bottomline/the-truth-about-farm-murders/">don’t amount</a> to “white genocide” and affects more than white people.</p>
<p>The right-wing political party Freedom Front Plus has <a href="http://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2014/11/26/FF-call-on-UN-to-investigate-SA-for-genocide1">called on</a> the UN to investigate white genocide. The <a href="http://www.farmersweekly.co.za/agri-news/south-africa/farm-murder-figures-tau-sa/">numbers</a> show that this idea is sheer hyperbole. </p>
<p>An <a href="https://www.change.org/p/european-commission-allow-all-white-south-africans-the-right-to-return-to-europe">online petition</a> has also <a href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/on-whites-right-of-return-to-europe--front-nasiona">requested</a> the Council of the EU to <a href="https://www.change.org/p/european-commission-allow-all-white-south-africans-the-right-to-return-to-europe/u/18505106">“allow all white South Africans the right to return to Europe”</a>. The petition says that whites face persecution and ethnic cleansing at home.</p>
<p>The petition has been reinvigorated by Trump’s election as US president and calls him “a new hope for white South Africans”. It now addresses Trump to accept whites from South Africa as refugees to the US.</p>
<p>The idea of white genocide (or annihilation) has spread to the rest of the globe. Views from the South African far-right found its way into two well-known acts of terrorism committed by radicalised white men. </p>
<p>The first was the 2011 mass murder of 77 people (mostly minors) by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/world/europe/anders-breivik-nazi-prison-lawsuit.html?_r=0">Anders Breivik</a> on an island near Oslo in Norway. Breivik’s <a href="https://publicintelligence.net/anders-behring-breiviks-complete-manifesto-2083-a-european-declaration-of-independence/">manifesto</a> “2083 – A European Declaration of Independence” is a reference to his predicted date when Europe becomes a Muslim continent. It includes various references to the persecution of whites in South Africa and a whole section on Afrikaner genocide. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157869/original/image-20170222-1310-1ozjlkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157869/original/image-20170222-1310-1ozjlkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157869/original/image-20170222-1310-1ozjlkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157869/original/image-20170222-1310-1ozjlkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157869/original/image-20170222-1310-1ozjlkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157869/original/image-20170222-1310-1ozjlkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157869/original/image-20170222-1310-1ozjlkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Norwegian right-wing mass murderer Anders Breivik during a court appearance.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lise Aaserud/Scanpix</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The second was the 2015 mass shooting of nine black people by <a href="http://time.com/4603863/dylann-roof-verdict-guilty/">Dylann Roof</a> in a church in Charleston, South Carolina. Roof’s manifesto <a href="http://lastrhodesian.net/data/documents/rtf88.txt">“The Last Rhodesian”</a> included a reference to discrimination against whites in South Africa. He also lauds the “success” of apartheid as proof that a black majority can be controlled by a white minority. </p>
<p>Breivik and Roof both raised the fear of persecution of whites as motivation for their actions. They invoked the South African situation as “proof” that whites are in danger due to an onslaught by Muslims (in Europe) and black people (in the US).</p>
<p>Trump’s <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/20/politics/trump-inaugural-address/">mention</a> of “American carnage” in his inaugural address is a continuation of the narrative of white victimhood. It forms the imaginary basis for something similar to the apartheid state’s “Swart Gevaar” – except with Mexicans and Muslims being the “peril”. </p>
<p>Trump’s way to deal with these hyperbolic dangers is the proposed <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/02/a-border-wall-by-2020-doubt-it/517341/">wall</a> between the US and Mexico, and the Muslim <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/02/20/politics/trump-new-executive-order-immigration/">travel ban</a> targeting majority-Muslim countries.</p>
<p>The idea of white victimhood played an <a href="http://www.salon.com/2016/06/06/the_politics_of_bigotry_donald_trump_and_the_rise_of_white_racial_victimhood/">important part</a> in Trump’s rise. The South African brand of white supremacy has made a tangible contribution to this narrative of victimhood. It is part of a growing “<a href="https://philcsc.wordpress.com/2008/08/07/interrogating-transnationalism-white-supremacist-cosmopolitanism/">white supremacist cosmopolitanism</a>” and a <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/trump-inauguration-signals-new-world-order-a-1130916.html">Trump New World Order</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73400/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles Villet does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The idea of white victimhood played an important part in Donald Trump’s rise. The South African brand of white supremacy has made a tangible contribution to this narrative of victimhood.Charles Villet, Lecturer in Philosophy, School of Social Science, Monash South Africa, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/701602017-01-11T13:09:55Z2017-01-11T13:09:55ZNorway’s human rights appeal over the prison conditions of Anders Breivik – explained<p>A human rights appeal involving the detention conditions of Norwegian mass shooter Anders Behring Breivik began on January 10. </p>
<p>Breivik, who killed 77 people in attacks in Oslo and on the island of Utøya in July 2011, is serving his sentence in Telemark prison at Skien. Just as his conviction and sentencing gained much international attention, so too did the <a href="http://www.domstol.no/contentassets/9082215b86804731af6ddc9691116cf3/15-107496tvi-otir---dom-20042016breivik.pdf">judgment</a> of Oslo District Court in April 2016 that Breivik’s human rights had been violated in detention. Since then, it has emerged that his prison conditions <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-22/norway-mass-killer-has-jail-isolation-measures-slightly-relaxed/8140722">have been relaxed</a>, including that he no longer has to speak to his lawyer through a glass wall. </p>
<p>Very soon after the Oslo judgment was delivered, an <a href="http://www.thelocal.no/20160426/norway-to-appeal-breivik-human-rights-ruling">appeal was launched</a> by the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and Public Security, which is being heard in the prison at Skien. </p>
<p>The Oslo judgment dealt with arguments put forward by the prisoner’s lawyer based mainly on two sections of the <a href="http://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/Convention_ENG.pdf">European Convention on Human Rights</a>: Article 3 (prohibition of ill-treatment) and Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life). In spite of what was widely reported at the time – that Breivik <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/anders-breivik-demands-better-video-games-and-threatens-hunger-strike-over-jail-hell-9130592.html">complained</a> he did not have the latest version of PlayStation – the real issues in the case were related to the nature of his solitary confinement and repetitive strip-searching. </p>
<p>In its appeal, the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and Public Security will be highlighting a number of prominent European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) cases to try and persuade the appeal court that Breivik’s human rights have not been violated. </p>
<h2>Solitary confinement</h2>
<p>One of these significant cases is that of <a href="http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/app/conversion/pdf?library=ECHR&id=003-3906939-4510631&filename=Chamber%20judgment%20Babar%20Ahmad%20and%20Others%20v.%20the%20United%20Kingdom%2010.04.2012.pdf">Ahmad and Others v United Kingdom (2012)</a>. This is the incident involving Abu Hamza, Babar Ahmad, and other applicants who were all facing terrorism charges in the US and raised concerns about the conditions they would face if extradited. The ECHR ruled that isolation in prison would not immediately constitute inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Instead it said: “The particular conditions, the stringency of the measure, its duration, the objective pursued and its effect on the person concerned had to be taken into account.” </p>
<p>One of the arguments put forward by the applicants in the Ahmad case related to the specific rigorous conditions in the “super-max” US federal facility at <a href="https://www.bop.gov/locations/institutions/flm/">ADX Florence</a>. The ECHR noted, among other things, that “although inmates are confined to their cells for the vast majority of the time, a great deal of in-cell stimulation is provided through television and radio channels, frequent newspapers, books” and so on. The ruling <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/9590016/Key-events-in-battle-to-extradite-Abu-Hamza.html">allowed</a> the extraditions to go ahead.</p>
<p>Prior to the Ahmad ruling, the case of <a href="http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=001-76169">Ramirez Sanchez v France (2006)</a> had also been decided by the ECHR Grand Chamber. The applicant in that case, better known as “Carlos the Jackal”, endured isolation in detention for a period of eight years – notably longer than that experienced by Breivik who has been in isolation since 2011. During those eight years, Sanchez had no contact with other prisoners but was allowed visits from family and a substantial team of lawyers. The ECHR ruled that this meant his being held in isolation did not violate Article 3. </p>
<p>The Norwegian state will be pressing the point that other than the existence of a glass partition between Breivik and his visitors (which was absent in Sanchez’s case), the isolated conditions encountered by Carlos the Jackal lasted longer and were arguably just as restrictive as in the Norwegian case.</p>
<h2>Repeat strip-searching</h2>
<p>The other major issue the court will consider in the appeal involves strip-searching. As well as a gym facility, Breivik has access to an exercise yard in the prison where he can remain active, but still be kept separate from other prisoners and strictly supervised, including by surveillance cameras. He was strip-searched after visits to the exercise yard and when he was transferred between prison and police custody. On some occasions female prison staff were present when Breivik was strip-searched. </p>
<p>The original Norwegian ruling that Breivik’s human rights had been violated in detention mainly cited the case of <a href="http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=001-60915">Van der Ven v Netherlands (2003)</a> on this point. This case involved weekly strip-search examinations and these were found to violate Article 3 – however the searches of the prisoner, Franciscus Cornelis van der Ven, involved intrusive internal inspection, which is not what happened to Breivik. </p>
<p>One case not mentioned in the Oslo District Court judgment, however, was that of <a href="http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=001-127413">S.J. (no.2) v Luxembourg (2013)</a>, which involved the strip search of a prisoner in facilities where third parties could see him. In this case, the ECHR emphasised the absence of any intention by the prison staff to humiliate or debase the prisoner and found no violation of the prisoner’s human rights under Article 3 of the convention. It could make sense for this case to be referred to by the Norwegian government in its appeal.</p>
<p>These are the points that the appeal hearing will be asked to address by Norway’s Ministry of Justice and Public Security, as it seeks to overturn the original ruling. The appeal court will have to determine whether the threshold has been met for degrading treatment, whether the humiliation or debasement of the prisoner has taken place, or been intended, as well as the impact upon the prisoner.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70160/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William Henderson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The European Court of Human Rights will consider whether Breivik’s human rights have been violated by his solitary detention.William Henderson, Lecturer in Law, Glasgow Caledonian UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/680352016-11-04T11:47:54Z2016-11-04T11:47:54ZDeadly combination: the psychiatric disorders that might have made Anders Breivik into a mass shooter<p>Anders Behring Breivik is serving a long sentence for a terrible crime. On 22 July 2011, the 32-year-old Norwegian bombed government buildings in Oslo and then went on a shooting spree on the island of Utøya, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14260297">killing 77 people</a>. He was sentenced to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/aug/24/anders-behring-breivik-verdict-norway-utoya">21 years in prison</a> the following year.</p>
<p>Why did Breivik kill? It is not as simple as saying that he was a terrorist supporting an idealised religion, or dismissing him as insane. He himself has claimed that his actions were to save Europe from radical Islam – and that he was <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/norway/9209977/I-would-have-done-it-again-Anders-Breivik-claims-his-massacre-was-motivated-by-goodness-not-evil.html">motivated by “goodness not evil”</a>. But after studying detailed assessments of the far-right terrorist, as well as Breivik’s own self-published manifesto, we have found that a condition known as “<a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=rAOaiWWA9D8C&pg=PA131&lpg=PA131&dq=millon+narcissistic+decompensation&source=bl&ots=55_WBXrnrr&sig=L8s6M-2RHNjuimwhYZMGi-RW9Wo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwii3L749o7QAhVkCcAKHQ_vBLM4ChDoAQgfMAE#v=onepage&q=millon%20narcissistic%20decompensation&f=false">narcissistic decompensation</a>” may have been behind his belief that he was waging a personal and political war.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cHoyQd8JhiE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>A “narcissistic decompensation” occurs when someone with a narcissistic personal disorder – a condition with which <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3619172/">Breivik has been diagnosed</a> – suffers from a major injury to their self-esteem. An “injury” can take many forms including rejection by one’s peer groups. What happens next is that they begin to isolate themselves from collective thinking, and move <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=rAOaiWWA9D8C&pg=PA131&lpg=PA131&dq=millon+narcissistic+decompensation&source=bl&ots=55_WBXrnrr&sig=L8s6M-2RHNjuimwhYZMGi-RW9Wo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwii3L749o7QAhVkCcAKHQ_vBLM4ChDoAQgfMAE#v=onepage&q=millon%20narcissistic%20decompensation&f=false">into a paranoid disorder</a>. We would not like to speculate as to what it was that caused Breivik’s “decompensation” here: to do so would require a new psychiatric assessment of the shooter.</p>
<p>In Breivik’s case, it has been strongly suggested that in addition to his proven narcissistic disorder, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jun/18/anders-breivik-defining-sanity">he also had Asperger’s syndrome</a> – though the latter was not formally diagnosed. The two conditions together may form a particularly dangerous combination, making someone much more at risk of taking part in extreme violent behaviour. </p>
<p>Similar to <a href="http://ijo.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/07/23/0306624X14544155.abstract">previous studies</a>, our research found that there could be a link between narcissistic personality disorder and violence. However, in Breivik’s case, we think that the narcissistic decompensation, which may have occurred at a time when he was relying on an <a href="https://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/alistair/survival/survival.pdf">Asperger’s coping mechanism</a> – following a specific routine to help himself through a social situation, for example – could have been the final push that <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00223980.2016.1175998">sent him along a violent path</a>.</p>
<h2>Intended violence</h2>
<p>Although little is known of the warning signs for what makes a mass shooter, the route itself <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Contemporary_Threat_Management.html?id=9IndAAAACAAJ&source=kp_cover&redir_esc=y&hl=en">has been well defined in the aftermath</a>. Essentially, the “path towards intended violence” starts with harboured grievances, continuing with the development of an idea that, for example in Breivik’s case, Europe must be saved from terrorism. The person then comes to the conclusion that violence is the only way to remedy a situation. This is followed by research and planning and preparing for the violent actions. After this there is an act of breaching security – Breivik used GPS to scout paths across Utøya Island, for example – and finally the attack itself.</p>
<p>Narcissistic traits – or narcissism – have <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=OZ2tCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA91&lpg=PA91&dq=narcissism+potential+risk+factor+school+shootings&source=bl&ots=WseAdzePNM&sig=MPQFHzVFCJoq-R15NGKYFWEM370&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjq8u2psY3QAhViLsAKHbVJBFoQ6AEIOjAD#v=onepage&q=narcissism%20potential%20risk%20factor%20school%20shootings&f=false">already been put forward</a> as a potential risk factor for school shootings. In a study of <a href="http://ijo.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/07/23/0306624X14544155.abstract">seven such incidents in German schools</a>, researchers found that three of the four shooters who had received treatment for psychiatric disorders prior to killings exhibited detached symptoms of narcissism. The authors also found narcissistic traits were exhibited in two of the other three offenders. And in one of these two cases, a diagnosis of narcissistic personality disorder would have been met given the symptoms the shooter displayed. </p>
<p>What this indicates is that the prevalence of narcissistic personality disorder in school shooters is higher than in the general population. So narcissism certainly could be a risk factor in these mass shootings. Further studies in the US have found that narcissism has been exhibited in <a href="https://schoolshooters.info/sites/default/files/rampage_school_shooters_typology_1.1.pdf">one-fifth to one-seventh of school shooters</a>. </p>
<p>It is important to caution here that narcissistic traits are not a necessary condition for motivating a shooting. Likewise, simply having a diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder combined with narcissistic personality disorder will not by itself necessarily propel an individual on the path to intended violence. There are other factors at play.</p>
<h2>Making a mass shooter</h2>
<p>There are significant gaps in our understanding of how mass shooters develop. In the case of Breivik, there were several other things that <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/One-Us-Anders-Breivik-Massacre/dp/1844089193">could have contributed to his violent acts</a>. He had a difficult relationship with his mother and his father was absent. Breivik wanted to be a millionaire – and seemed not to care whether this was by legitimate or criminal means. He had his sexual identity questioned, had difficulties dating and had apparently abandoned his pursuit of the “ideal woman”. He was rejected by his peers in elite gaming circles, as well as the political elite who he saw as not sharing his views – despite his plight to “save” Europe. His life experiences up until the day of the shooting can be summed up as a litany of failed attempts to gain positions of status and power, acceptance and admiration from others. </p>
<p>The pathway to violence – and the factors that drive some to become mass shooters – require urgent, detailed investigation. If we can identify early patterns of behaviour that can be recognised and flagged up, we could potentially predict those individuals which are at an increased risk of committing extremely violent acts.</p>
<p>Given the higher prevalence of narcissistic traits and autism spectrum disorder (including Asperger’s) found in mass shooters, the overlap between these two requires further analysis across a wider pool of subjects. It could very well be that the co-occurrence of both autism and narcissism is a particularly explosive combination.</p>
<p>In the aftermath of mass shootings, the question is always asked “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/14/the-role-of-gun-control-in-2015-worst-mass-shootings">could it have been prevented</a>”? Psychological analysis is just one way we can recognise the warning signs, and stop these atrocities before they ever begin.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/68035/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Clare Allely does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New study finds potential cause of Breivik’s crimes.Clare Allely, Lecturer in Psychology, University of SalfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/90682012-08-25T03:30:18Z2012-08-25T03:30:18ZAnders Breivik is guilty: the fine line between bad and mad<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/14626/original/7rhrc8nn-1345863938.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Anders Breivik was sane when he murdered dozens of people in Norway last year according to a jury.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Heiko Junge/Pool Norway</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>One of the most high profile court decisions on “madness” and crime has concluded. In a unanimous decision, the Oslo District Court in Norway has convicted Anders Behring Breivik of the murder of 77 people in the streets of central Oslo and on the island of Utoya in July 2011.</p>
<p>As is well-known, Breivik faced trial for multiple counts of murder, following gun and bomb attacks resulting in mass killing of adults and children. Since his apprehension, Breivik has admitted planning and carrying out the killings, and is on record as saying that they were necessary to start a revolution aimed at preventing Norway from accepting further numbers of immigrants.</p>
<p>Breivik’s conviction was based on a finding that he was sane at the time of the killings. In a strange twist, the court’s verdict is a victory for the defence; they had been instructed by their client Breivik to argue that he was sane. The prosecution had argued that Breivik was insane.</p>
<p>The finding that Breivik was sane and the conviction means that he can be punished and he has been sentenced to 21 years in prison. It is possible that Breivik will be detained beyond that period, under a regime of preventative detention. This means Breivik may never be released. The seriousness of Breivik’s offences and the enormous harm they have caused seems to indicate that Breivik’s conviction and sentence will be well-received in Norway.</p>
<p>The issue in Breivik’s trial was whether he was criminally responsible for the killings. If he was insane at the time of killings, he was not criminally responsible. Criminal responsibility concerns the capacities of the accused. If an accused lacks the necessary capacities, he or she cannot be called to account for his or her actions in the context of a criminal trial.</p>
<p>The question of criminal responsibility goes beyond the issue of liability for an offence: it addresses the issue of whether the accused is someone to whom the criminal law speaks. Criminal responsibility lies at the heart of our criminal justice system.</p>
<p>The Breivik trial brings the complex issues surrounding criminal responsibility into sharp relief. It prompts us to where the line between “madness” and “badness” lies and to think about how to respond to offenders whose criminal responsibility is at issue.</p>
<p>Media reports indicate that Brievik has been examined by a total of 18 medical experts. Some of these experts concluded that he met the legal test of insanity, which, in Norway, requires that he acted under the influence of psychosis at the time of the crime. But Breivik himself disputed this diagnosis, claiming it is part of an attempt to silence him and stymie his message about “saving” Norway. Other medical assessments concluded Breivik was sane at the time of the offences, his actions motivated by extremist ideology not mental illness. The judges reached the same conclusion.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/14627/original/qn3682k6-1345865221.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/14627/original/qn3682k6-1345865221.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14627/original/qn3682k6-1345865221.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14627/original/qn3682k6-1345865221.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14627/original/qn3682k6-1345865221.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14627/original/qn3682k6-1345865221.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14627/original/qn3682k6-1345865221.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Anders Breivik murdered Sharidyn Meegan Ngahiwi Svebakk-Boehn on July 22 2011 on the Norwegian island of Utoya. He killed another 68 people on Utoya and eight others with a car bomb detonated in Oslo the same day.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Svebakk Boehn Family</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This difference of opinion among experts should not surprise us. Not only is the process of diagnosing a mental disorder complex, determining whether a disorder had a relevant effect on an individual at a specific point in time, is notoriously difficult. At what point, if any, does ideologically-driven fanaticism become “madness”?</p>
<p>It is tempting to think that Breivik’s crimes were so extreme that he had to be “mad”. How could he think he was performing a “duty” to his country, that such violence was “necessary”? According to this logic, the criminal acts tell us everything we need to know. And criminal responsibility appears to be a trade off between the severity of someone’s mental incapacity and the magnitude of harm resulting from their offence.</p>
<p>But, as a matter of law, in our system, responsibility and harm are separate matters. If an individual is not criminally responsible, the issue of the harm that their actions have caused must be dealt with by means other than punishment. Indeed, treatment for the relevant mental condition may be the most appropriate response when an individual is not criminally responsible.</p>
<p>If this seems too lenient, we must recall that it represents the flipside of a criminal justice system that works on the assumption that everyone is an independent agent, and, in a liberal democratic system, this assumption protects us from excessive paternalism on the part of the state. Our system requires that each individual accused of crime be respected as an autonomous subject of the law.</p>
<p>We must also recall that, even if an individual is not criminally responsible, legal options remain open. If Breivik had been found to be insane at the time of the killings, and not convicted of the offences with which he was charged, he could have been made the subject of a court order, which, in his case, would have seen him detained in a secure psychiatric unit inside a prison. This form of detention could have been just as long as any prison term.</p>
<p>If he had been tried here, and found not to be criminally responsible, Breivik could have been subject to detention – perhaps even indefinitely. But, in that case, our legal system’s response is not so much a moral condemnation of blameworthy conduct, but more forward-looking action aimed at avoiding further harm – to the individual and others – in the future. </p>
<p>The crucial difference with this response is that it is not based on the responsible subject otherwise at the heart of criminal law and process.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/9068/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Arlie Loughnan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>One of the most high profile court decisions on “madness” and crime has concluded. In a unanimous decision, the Oslo District Court in Norway has convicted Anders Behring Breivik of the murder of 77 people…Arlie Loughnan, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/74172012-06-06T02:49:29Z2012-06-06T02:49:29ZWith friends like Anders Breivik: is human contact a right?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/11312/original/yz29dqhk-1338770020.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Does Anders Breivik deserve human contact?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Does Anders Breivik deserve friends?</p>
<p>The Norwegian justice system <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/world/hired-friends-to-play-with-breivik-in-prison-20120601-1zl5c.html">thinks so</a>.</p>
<p>It is often said that the humanity of a society can be judged by the way it treats its most disadvantaged citizens, even those who commit crime and are removed from that society. </p>
<p>The standards of treatment in a prison may, to some extent, reflect just how far the humane values of that society are extended. In some cultures prisoners are treated with little respect and with little dignity, whereas the standards of treatment in Norwegian prisons are arguably the best in the world, to the extent of allowing prisoners to have their own rooms keys and be able to access saunas and outdoor activities.</p>
<p>In Norway’s Ila prison the treatment of confessed mass murderer Anders Breivik raises further issues. It is proposed that Breivik is “too dangerous” to mingle with ordinary prisoners, and rather than have him deprived of company, the prison proposes to hire trained “friends” to interact with him. The prison indicated that it was not willing to inflict years of isolation on Breivik, given that he was likely to remain in that environment for the next 21 years, should the courts determine he is not to be detained under their mental health criteria.</p>
<p>The first United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders was held in Geneva in 1955, and set out guidelines for the treatment of prisoners and the management of institutions. These guidelines recommended that corporal punishment, sensory deprivation and cruel or degrading punishments be prohibited and punishment by close confinement should never be inflicted.</p>
<p>It is with these guidelines in mind that the famously progressive Norwegian prison system will have made its decision on Breivik.</p>
<h2>The Australian situation</h2>
<p>In Australia, the standard of treatment in prisons varies greatly. If one examines how one prison treats its worst prisoner, some insight may be gleaned. Michael Barry Fyfe, “the Birdman of Yatala”, has been held in solitary confinement in South Australia’s main prison since 1996. </p>
<p>Fyfe had a horrendous childhood. He was raised by his father in Tasmania and was forced to have regular sexual intercourse with his own sister as his perverted father watched on. This behaviour continued over several years until Fyfe was aged 14 years. As a victim of such appalling psychological degradation, Fyfe became an angry man, who developed a hatred towards authority figures who abused their roles, and those who perpetrated sexual offences.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/11314/original/hbctwb2t-1338771814.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/11314/original/hbctwb2t-1338771814.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/11314/original/hbctwb2t-1338771814.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/11314/original/hbctwb2t-1338771814.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/11314/original/hbctwb2t-1338771814.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/11314/original/hbctwb2t-1338771814.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/11314/original/hbctwb2t-1338771814.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The memorial to the victims of Anders Breivik’s slaughter on the Norwegian island of Utoya.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Vegard</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In prison, Fyfe’s anger manifested itself in 1996 when he attacked and killed a convicted rapist and former police officer, Joe Tilley, in the prison kitchen.</p>
<p>In sentencing Fyfe, the Judge described Fyfe as one of the most violent men he had encountered and that his “prospects for rehabilitation were nil”. Subsequently Fyfe was placed in solitary confinement in Yatala Labour Prison’s notorious “G Division”. Fyfe’s “dangerousness” was assessed by prison psychologists utilizing a static risk assessment tool, which took into account only historical data, and determined that Fyfe was a “very high violent risk offender”.</p>
<h2>Alone for life?</h2>
<p>Several Supreme Court Judicial Appeals took place in 1998, 2000, 2004 and 2007 that argued for Fyfe to be transferred to the mainstream prison. All were unsuccessful. On each appeal the “dangerousness” criteria was weighted more strongly by the Court than his “human rights”.</p>
<p>Because the primary “risk assessment” measure is static, it will always show Fyfe to be “high risk” and as such, it is unlikely he will ever be released from solitary confinement. This is an example of how Australian society has determined its weighting of “dangerousness risk” versus “human rights”.</p>
<p>Despite mitigating circumstances, upbringing and motives, society asks for remorse from its offenders - some acknowledgement of how their actions robbed others of their human rights.</p>
<p>Will society itself be accountable for its lack of remorse in how it responds to its most disadvantaged and damaged citizens or do “2 wrongs make a ‘right’? ”</p>
<p>By denying the likes Michael Fyfe the human contact Anders Breivik will be permitted, we damage ourselves as much as we hurt those we claim to punish.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/7417/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jack White does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Does Anders Breivik deserve friends? The Norwegian justice system thinks so. It is often said that the humanity of a society can be judged by the way it treats its most disadvantaged citizens, even those…Jack White, Forensic psychologist & Adjunct Associate Professor in Clinical Psychology, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/66702012-04-29T20:43:56Z2012-04-29T20:43:56ZAnders Breivik, videogames and the militarisation of society<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9992/original/hkfktp4p-1335494992.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The boundary between the military and everyday life is being eroded by videogames.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">gelle.dk</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The ongoing trial of Norwegian right-wing extremist <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/anders-breivik">Anders Breivik</a> has generated a great deal of <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/20/anders-behring-breivik-trial-live">media coverage</a>, public debate and analysis.</p>
<p>Much of this has focused on claims made by Breivik that he used the “military shooter” <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_of_Duty:_Modern_Warfare_2">Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2</a> to prepare for his attacks. </p>
<p>Critics of games and gaming very quickly pounced on his assertion to claim this was <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/norway-killer-sharpened-aim-with-video-games-20120420-1xas3.html">evidence of a causal link between game-playing and committing acts of violence</a>.</p>
<p>As <a href="http://theconversation.com/videogames-aggression-anders-breivik-lets-not-join-the-dots-6346">Adam Ruch</a> pointed out last week on The Conversation, there is no conclusive evidence one way or the other concerning the effects of playing violent videogames. Endlessly debating whether or not games contribute to an individual’s violent actions or thoughts misses the point. </p>
<p>What has not been addressed in the debate generated by violent military games is the role these games play in the process of “militarisation”.</p>
<h2>Military shooters</h2>
<p>A military shooter is a military-themed version of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-person_shooter">first-person shooter (FPS)</a> genre. As you might imagine, a FPS is played from the first-person or subjective visual perspective, with the player’s weapon appearing to the right and in the foreground of the screen (see image below).</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/10010/original/pyc9f5n4-1335502082.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/10010/original/pyc9f5n4-1335502082.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/10010/original/pyc9f5n4-1335502082.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/10010/original/pyc9f5n4-1335502082.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/10010/original/pyc9f5n4-1335502082.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/10010/original/pyc9f5n4-1335502082.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/10010/original/pyc9f5n4-1335502082.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">rickdigo</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These games gained a wide audience in the early 1990s with the release of the World-War-II-based <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C00n4rDUMNo">Wolfenstein 3D</a> (1992) and the science-fiction-inspired <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yr-lQZzevwA">Doom</a> (1993).</p>
<p>FPSs such as these often involve a lone hero armed to the teeth against hordes of enemies. The Doom franchise underwent a military makeover in the 1990s when the US military modified Doom II to create <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VK1xKsVaXNk">Marine Doom</a>. </p>
<p>The modern military shooter differs from games such as Doom by using realistic plots, locations and weaponry. The technology behind today’s military shooters enables game designers to reproduce war settings complete with realistic sights and sounds.</p>
<p>Current gaming technology very much enables players to immerse themselves within a synthetic war zone. </p>
<p>In fact, games such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 are now so immersive, so accurate (with the right <a href="http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2012/04/norwegian-shooter-breivik-says-he-trained-using-modern-warfare.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss">add-ons</a>) that they’re more like training tools than simple games. Breivik has stated that he used a “holographic” gunsight to practice targeting while training with Call of Duty.</p>
<p>The sophistication of these games is the product of the close relationship between game designers and the military. The designers of military shooters often work with former (or current) military personnel to ensure the gameplay (including the look, feel and effect of in-game guns) is as realistic as possible – as was the case with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (see video below).</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IMoqDNBv4Gc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Such partnerships share the goal of working to enhance the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/dec/28/ministry-defence-war-games-xbox">training effectiveness</a> of simulation technology. </p>
<p>Military shooters add to the already-potent cultural tools political systems have at their disposal for propaganda purposes. A <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/story/2012-02-29/afghanistan-iraq-military-information-operations-usa-today-investigation/53295472/1">recent report</a> highlighted the almost US$500 million spent annually on propaganda or “information operations” in Iraq and Afghanistan.</p>
<p>The US military has also begun to actively engage with <a href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/04/usa-today-pentagon/">social media</a> to promote American values and to generate support for the military.</p>
<p>Military-oriented games supplement the mass mediums of print, television, film, radio and the web in their promotion of “asymmetrical warfare” – that is, the capacity to engage in war with enemies that have different levels of military power. Games such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 simulate asymmetrical warfare in great detail.</p>
<h2>The militarisation of society</h2>
<p>Any examination of the issues raised by the Breivik trial needs to go beyond the narrow debate about <a href="https://theconversation.com/videogames-aggression-anders-breivik-lets-not-join-the-dots-6346">media effects</a> – whether the experience had in one medium (such as videogames) has any measurable effect in real-life. </p>
<p>Both critics and supporters of games and gaming, it seems, are unable or unwilling to address the big picture: western societies are undergoing a process of militarisation.</p>
<p>Militarisation is the social process through which societies are organised in ways that allow for the production of violence. <a href="http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520220713">According to the feminist writer Cynthia Enloe</a>, militarisation describes a process through which individuals come to view militaristic ideas and military needs as being significant and the norm.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9988/original/g7s2vjtz-1335493476.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9988/original/g7s2vjtz-1335493476.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9988/original/g7s2vjtz-1335493476.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9988/original/g7s2vjtz-1335493476.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9988/original/g7s2vjtz-1335493476.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9988/original/g7s2vjtz-1335493476.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9988/original/g7s2vjtz-1335493476.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AslanMedia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Simply put, militarisation blurs the boundaries between military and civil society. Militarisation sees our institutions, social practices and societal aims taking on a military hue.</p>
<p>What do I mean by this? Well, let’s briefly consider a bit of history.</p>
<p>In Australia, nation-building and the military have long been linked. A recent paper produced by La Trobe Univeristy social scientist <a href="http://www.mapw.org.au/download/militarising-australian-history-mapw-war-militarism-series-1">Marilyn Lake</a> documents the extent to which the commemoration of war (think Anzac Day) has become integral to our view of Australian history and the place of Australia in the world.</p>
<p>According to Lake, millions of dollars have been spent in schools since 1996 to promote Australia’s war-fighting history and culture.</p>
<p>In her paper, Lake talks about how social practices such as the exploration of family history have been co-opted into the national obsession alongside military history. In particular, Lake argues, there’s a growing pressure to locate one’s family within the national war story and to visit battle-sites and engage in war tourism.</p>
<p>Recent data published by the <a href="http://www.mapw.org.au/news/australia-leader-military-spending">Stockholm International Peace Institute</a> indicates Australia is one of the largest military-spending nations in the world.</p>
<p>Indeed, in 2011 Australia was the fifth-largest military spender in the Asia and Oceania regions. We are second only to India in the world when it comes to arms importation.</p>
<p>The diversion of substantial levels of expenditure to the preparation for and waging of war, rather than to foreign aid and <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/3971186.html">diplomacy</a>, indicates the extent to which Australia’s societal aims have become militarised.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/H2LCB9228uY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Computer and videogames, such as military shooters, act in a way which extends the process of boundary-weakening between military and regular society. </p>
<p>Military games enable players to test military scenarios (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B60Ep8talJY">rescuing hostages</a> for instance), organisational structures (the chain of command) and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_xxUvDr0V8">the technology and technique of killing</a>. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.gamesradar.com/modern-warfare-2s-most-baffling-jargon/">language employed</a>, head-shots, kill/death ratios and high-tech weapons and gear all extend and amplify the process of militarisation.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9993/original/nswxdppy-1335495007.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9993/original/nswxdppy-1335495007.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9993/original/nswxdppy-1335495007.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9993/original/nswxdppy-1335495007.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9993/original/nswxdppy-1335495007.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9993/original/nswxdppy-1335495007.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9993/original/nswxdppy-1335495007.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">yourbartender</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The role played by videogames and, in particular, military-themed games in popular culture and society is complex and at times contradictory.</p>
<p>Games are often highlighted in the popular imagination as harmless fun, or as potential breeding grounds for social misfits and future criminals. But a causal link between individual acts and this technology is unclear. </p>
<p>What is clear is that media accounts and public criticism of gaming never question the underpinning ideological and propaganda function of military-themed gaming.</p>
<p>Much work needs to be done to help us understand the social impact of these games. </p>
<p><em>John Martino is currently writing a book for <a href="http://www.peterlang.com/">Peter Lang Publishers</a> about videogames and the militarisation of society.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/6670/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Martino does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The ongoing trial of Norwegian right-wing extremist Anders Breivik has generated a great deal of media coverage, public debate and analysis. Much of this has focused on claims made by Breivik that he used…John Martino, Senior Lecturer in Education, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/63462012-04-20T04:15:11Z2012-04-20T04:15:11ZVideogames, aggression, Anders Breivik – let’s not join the dots<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9804/original/6m58vddx-1334888515.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C91%2C490%2C356&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Playing violent games didn't make Anders Breivik a mass-murderer.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">alessio.sartore</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>“Violent videogames cause people to become violent in real life”. It’s a familiar refrain for anyone who has read a newspaper in the last 15 years.</p>
<p>Today, <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/norway-killer-sharpened-aim-with-video-games-20120420-1xas3.html">the media reporting surrounding the trial</a> of accused mass-murderer <a href="https://theconversation.com/search?q=anders+breivik">Anders Breivik</a> has dusted off this old chestnut to explain a shooting spree and bomb attack that claimed <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Norway_attacks">the lives of 77 people in Oslo last year</a>.</p>
<p>Breivik has testified that he used <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_Warcraft">World of Warcraft</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_of_Duty_4:_Modern_Warfare">Call of Duty: Modern Warfare</a> to train for his attacks. He also testified to be a member of the anti-Muslim militant group Knights Templar and refused to recognise the authority of the federal court system.</p>
<p>The fact that <a href="http://heathenscripture.wordpress.com/2011/08/03/grand-theft-auto-nazareth-jim-wallaces-blame-wars/">videogames play no demonstrable part</a> in Breivik’s (or any other) act of violence hasn’t stopped the media from creating and re-creating this narrative, even to the point that university media officers are picking up the chant.</p>
<h2>The research shows what?</h2>
<p>A University of Gothenburg press release about a new study is entitled <a href="http://www.ufn.gu.se/english/News/newsdetail/researchers-questioning-the-link-between-violent-computer-games-and-aggressiveness-.cid1070001">Researchers questioning link between violent computer games and aggressiveness</a>.</p>
<p>The release reports that the authors are “questioning the whole gaming and violence debate”. The study itself, published in the <a href="http://ijcscl.org/">International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning</a> is entitled <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/d85648r035x12533/">How gamers manage aggression: Situating skills in collaborative computer games</a>.</p>
<p>Taken together, these two titles might lead one to interpret the study in a similar vein to researchers <a href="http://pss.sagepub.com/content/12/5/353.short">Craig Anderson</a> or <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359178907000055">Christopher Ferguson</a>. That is, it would make sense to argue either that violent videogames do (Anderson) or do not (Ferguson) have a meaningful effect on players’ aggression levels in real life.</p>
<p>Instead, the research is actually a detailed study of how players of massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) – such as World of Warcraft – cooperate to manage the attention of powerful, dangerous enemy characters (known as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boss_(video_gaming)">bosses</a>). In MMO parlance, that attention is known as “aggro”. </p>
<p>The aggression being managed, then, is not that of the players, but of the computer-controlled enemies. How, then, is this research linked to the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/leicestershire/3934277.stm">debate about media effects</a>?</p>
<p>Hint: it’s not.</p>
<h2>The ‘media effects’ narrative</h2>
<p>As <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/daniel-golding-2564">Dan Golding</a> pointed out in <a href="http://theconversation.com/gamers-tag-is-a-poor-fit-whichever-way-you-foldit-3519">an earlier article</a> on The Conversation, the media only seem equipped to discuss videogames in three ways:</p>
<ul>
<li>as <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/games/from-fantasy-to-lethal-reality-breivik-trained-on-modern-warfare-game-20110725-1hw41.html">moral panic</a></li>
<li>in terms of (always surprising) <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/germany-video-games-sales-call-of-duty-modern-warfare-299040">economic profit</a> and</li>
<li>as an exotic artefact or <a href="http://voices.yahoo.com/the-subculture-video-games-534483.html">sub-culture</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p>The press release announcing this new study, as well as coverage of Breivik’s trial by the <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/norway-killer-sharpened-aim-with-video-games-20120420-1xas3.html">Sydney Morning Herald</a>, among others, falls right into the first category. </p>
<p>The notion of media effects and transfer (from medium to real-life) is perhaps as old as communications media themselves. Even <a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/republic.11.x.html#470">Plato was wary</a> of the power of the poet “because he awakens and nourishes and strengthens the feelings and impairs the reason”.</p>
<p>Today’s “violence and videogames” narrative is well-worn. So much so that even a public relations officer at a university takes a study on videogames with the word “aggression” in its title to be examining a “link” between mediated depictions of violence and real-world aggression.</p>
<p>But the link to the media effects research such as Anderson and Ferguson’s is not entirely facetious: the Swedish team of researchers are in fact questioning the basis of the videogame violence debate; the “transfer” mentioned earlier.</p>
<p>Transfer, as the study points out, is a contentious construct of educational theory. It is, to quote from the article: “the appearance of a person carrying the product of learning from one task, problem, situation, or institution to another”. In this case, the “transfer” of aggression from videogames to real-life.</p>
<p>The authors of this study rightly point out that the nature of transfer is contentious, ill-defined, and rarely agreed upon. Thus, there are <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/bul/136/2/">disagreements</a> about how to empirically measure the effects of media on an audience.</p>
<p>But instead of pursuing this, the paper moves on to conduct a close study of [raid encounters](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_(gaming) (where numerous players attempt to take out a boss together), documenting the skills and knowledge used by players who cooperate successfully.</p>
<p>These skills include:</p>
<ul>
<li>spatial awareness and the importance of positioning one’s avatar in the immediate geography around the boss before and during the fight</li>
<li>case-specific knowledge about additional enemies entering the fray and appropriate responses</li>
<li>reacting to other unexpected events during the fight, such as the death of a healer (a team member who’s role it is to heal fellow players).</li>
</ul>
<p>The depth and precision of the details presented in this study are valuable and will certainly provide excellent reference material for future scholars who are researching and writing about MMO gameplay. But this study simply isn’t focused on violent videogames leading to aggression in the real world. </p>
<h2>Overcoming the narrative</h2>
<p>The aim of the study I’ve been discussing was, in fact, to take a step back from the debate entirely and avoid assuming the straightforward transfer of media, with regard to videogames.</p>
<p>The authors “approached collaborative gaming where aggression is represented as a practice to be studied on its own premises”.</p>
<p>To that end, the study is working around what media researcher <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Paul_Gee">James Paul Gee</a> calls “the problem of content”. That is, looking past the representations of violence shown on screen and measuring what the human players are actually learning to do while playing the game.</p>
<p>In this case, players deploy very specific knowledge about the geography of terrain, the behaviour of bosses and the various skills their individual avatar possesses. </p>
<p>This study does not suggest that causing an avatar to swing a broadsword will incite the human player to do the same, or similar, the next time he or she steps out of the house for some milk.</p>
<p>Even though there’s no consensus on media effects nor the relationship between videogame and real-world violence, the international press still get completely lost in a frenzy as they pump out hysteria-filled headlines.</p>
<p>Gaming news outlet, <a href="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/04/19/breivik-testifies-about-gaming-press-ignores-the-facts/">Rock, Paper, Shotgun</a> has called out a range of global outlets on their reporting of the Breivik case. Thankfully, publications such as these are interested in clarity and truth and refuse to allow the popular mythology of videogame violence to cloud basic reporting. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/6346/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adam Ruch does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>“Violent videogames cause people to become violent in real life”. It’s a familiar refrain for anyone who has read a newspaper in the last 15 years. Today, the media reporting surrounding the trial of accused…Adam Ruch, PhD Candidate, Videogame Studies, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/65122012-04-18T05:52:26Z2012-04-18T05:52:26ZTerror on trial: should Anders Breivik’s views be heard?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9725/original/trgtr5rm-1334725933.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Should Breivik's hateful diatribe be made public?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Hakon Mosvold Larsen</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The trial of Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik for the murder of 77 people has a special significance for journalists in Australia, and not just because Breivik summoned the names of John Howard, Peter Costello, George Pell and Keith Windschuttle in the manifesto he wrote before the slayings.</p>
<p>There are a number of issues newsrooms here will be considering. Should we broadcast or publish the five-week trial? If it is broadcast or printed, how can we do so responsibly? And is there any advantage to be gained from putting his extreme views on the public agenda for debate? Should journalists be publishing, broadcasting, tweeting and live blogging the trial? </p>
<p>By doing so, the media gives him the opportunity to do what he set out to do – publicise his anti-Islam manifesto. But Breivik has a <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/anders-breivik-trial-displays-norways-formal-legal-system-as-confessed-killer-gets-to-explain-fanatical-views/2012/04/17/gIQA5t8kOT_story.html">legal right in Norway</a> to explain himself. </p>
<p>His defence lawyer said on the first day, “He is obviously pleased that he will be able to explain himself and that there is an interest in the case, there is no doubt about that.”</p>
<h2>Competing interests</h2>
<p>Many of the survivors and the victims’ families will want to hear Breivik’s explanation. They will want to try to make sense of it. But equally there are those who survived the massacre who do not want to give him an international stage. </p>
<p>Survivor Tore Sinding Bekkedal <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/with-worldwide-attention-breivik-finds-pulpit-for-extremist-ideas/article2403861/">said</a>: “He stated he did this to gain attention and I don’t believe that he should gain attention to it.” </p>
<p>But the 800-odd journalists in attendance are being paid to report not just on what he says, but on the justice system. It is the journalists’ job to ensure that happens, regardless of what they think of Breivik’s behaviour. </p>
<p>It is not the job of a journalist or their editor to act as judge and jury, no matter how simple a case might seem.</p>
<h2>Digital opportunities</h2>
<p>Fortunately new technology is making it much easier for journalists who want to report the trial but do not want to spread hate. The court banned television cameras broadcasting his testimony to avoid giving him a direct platform to air his views, but live bloggers have been able to go one better. </p>
<p>Take for example, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/17/anders-behring-breivik-live-updates?CMP=NECNETTXT8187">The Guardian</a>. Not only are they reporting what is being said, but making sure that his incorrect statements are followed by correct information. For example: </p>
<p><em><strong>11.32am:</strong> Breivik claimed this morning that Norwegians would be a minority in their own capital “within five years”. That is not what the statisticians say.</em></p>
<p><em><a href="http://www.ssb.no/english/">Statistics Norway</a> predicts that immigrants are set to make up almost half of Oslo’s population by 2040 and its definition of “immigrants” includes children of immigrants (unlike in the UK where children of immigrants are not defined as immigrants), <a href="http://www.thelocal.no/page/view/half-of-oslo-dwellers-immigrants-by-2040">the Local reported last month</a>.</em></p>
<p>This may satisfy some. But for others, particularly survivors, there is a need to block the information completely. The best innovation seems to have been created by <a href="http://www.dagbladet.no/">Dagbladet</a>, one of Norway’s major newspapers, which has set up <a href="http://www.dagbladet.no/spesial/">a version of its website</a> with a button that removes any mention of the trial. </p>
<p>This wonderful use of digital technology – an opting in or out process – can provide a happy middle for those who are concerned about freedom of speech and justice, but don’t want to censor others’ access to it.</p>
<h2>The public domain</h2>
<p>That said, there is an advantage of putting his hateful diatribe in the public domain. It allows people to make their own decisions about his culpability. It may encourage others to express their support of multiculturalism. </p>
<p>It also prompts journalists to consider how many other people might echo his views. Are those views present in Australia? Is it a minority or a growing body? </p>
<p>After all, Breivik relied on some <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/john-howard-george-pell-cited-in-breivik-diatribe/story-e6frg6so-1226101697828">still prominent Australians</a> to back up his arguments. </p>
<p>As technology becomes more sophisticated, the public and the media are able to handle such thorny issues more deftly. As The Guardian and Dagbladet have demonstrated, it’s becoming easier to report the truth without harming those affected by tragedy, or providing a soapbox for some of the world’s most dangerous, extremist ideas.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/6512/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexandra Wake supports the work of the Multicultural Media Exchange, was an academic fellow with the Dart Centre, and worked in the Middle East from 2001-2004.</span></em></p>The trial of Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik for the murder of 77 people has a special significance for journalists in Australia, and not just because Breivik summoned the names of John Howard, Peter…Alexandra Wake, Lecturer, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/26672011-08-04T04:26:51Z2011-08-04T04:26:51ZThe most dangerous 1,500 pages: inside the mind of Anders Breivik<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/2653/original/6004603776_922cb2d205_b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=41%2C23%2C965%2C642&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Norwegians respond with love, not war, to Anders Breivik's murderous actions. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">marcinlachowicz.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The Conversation asked Professor James Jupp to read through the infamous <a href="http://www.news.com.au/world/accused-killer-anders-behring-breivik-had-two-year-1500-page-plan-for-massacre/story-e6frfkyi-1226101017987">1,500 page manifesto</a> of Anders Breivik.</em> </p>
<p><em>This is his analysis of the document, giving an insight into the mind of the mass murderer who now stands trial in Norway.</em></p>
<p>It will take time to extract exactly what happened on that Friday in July when Anders Breivik detonated a bomb in the prime minister’s office in Oslo and then went into a political youth camp and murdered 70 Norwegian teenagers. </p>
<p>Often it takes years for the details of these kinds of terrible incidents to reveal themselves. But in this case, the accused published his plan and his justifications in great detail. He did so in English, online and on the very day that he struck down his victims. </p>
<h2>A sick mind?</h2>
<p>His manifesto runs into more than 1,500 pages and was to a large extent, influenced by material already on the internet over several years.</p>
<p>He wrote that he was not a “suicide bomber” but rather wanted to become a hero against what he saw as the Marxist multicultural conspiracy to Islamise Europe and destroy the distinct cultures of its varied people. </p>
<p>What immediately strikes the reader is that he is completely without the human characteristics of mercy, sympathy and respect for others. At the core of his manifesto is a chilling description of the need to eliminate the “traitors” who are destroying Europe, by assassination, bombing, the use of anthrax and even of nuclear weapons. </p>
<p>In the <a href="http://www.norvegia.com.ro/2011/07/24/anders-behring-breivik-manifesto-plots-european-civil-war-fighting-can-be-physically-such-as-hezbollah-or-ltte/">four generation civil war</a> which he plans for Europe, Breivik estimates that 140,000 traitors will need to be executed. He started with the young activists of Norwegian Labour at their annual summer camp. He advocates the use of flame throwers, so that some “traitors” will be marked for life but still survive. </p>
<h2>Not a Christian fundamentalist</h2>
<p>This dangerously intelligent and obsessed human being is not a Christian fundamentalist, a fascist, a Nazi, or any of the other labels stuck on him by journalists. </p>
<p>He calls himself a Christian only because “all Norwegians” are Christians and there is a state Lutheran church in which he was baptised. But he hates Muslims for all the struggles, crimes and wars of the years since the Crusades, nearly a thousand years ago. </p>
<p>He takes upon himself the title of a Knight Templar, leading a (non-existent) network of other knights defending Europe against Islam, right up to the Serbian battle against the Bosnians and Kosovars only a few years ago. </p>
<p>A large part of his manifesto goes into great detail about all these struggles. He relies heavily on the voluminous work of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_Yeor">Bat Ye’or</a>, an Egyptian of Jewish background, and takes up her concept of Eurabia, the plot to draw Europe under the eventual control of Muslim Arabs.</p>
<p>Breivik is not anti-semitic and sees the Jews and Israel as allies. Another widely quoted source is Robert Spencer, American author of The Truth about Muhammad: Founder of the World’s Most Intolerant Religion. Spencer and Bat Ye’or agree with each other and are famous in Europe and North America for their hatred of Islam.</p>
<h2>Paranoid politics</h2>
<p>If you can stomach reading on, there is much more to come in this document. The manifesto begins by linking Marxism, multiculturalism and the Islamisation of Europe. The logic of this is not apparent until you realise that he sees links with the Marxist Frankfurt school, which inspired a generation of European and American radicals in the rebellious 1960s. </p>
<p>Chief among its theorists were <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Marcuse">Herbert Marcuse</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_W._Adorno">Theodor Adorno</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%BCrgen_Habermas">Jürgen Habermas</a>. Their deconstruction of social beliefs, literature and ideas in general aimed to undermine the historic traditions which cemented traditional society. </p>
<p>Breivik is a very old-fashioned conservative and very conventional. Most of his hostility to Marxism, postmodernism and the Frankfurt School echoes a broader conservative consensus in Australia and elsewhere. But of course, he takes these arguments to incredible extremes. </p>
<p>He argues that Marxists should have been executed “after the war” and that deconstruction is the major weapon used by Islamists to sap the resistance of Christian Europe through political correctness and multiculturalism.</p>
<p>Put together like this, by heavy use of Google and Wikipedia, it all seems reasonable. But of course, it is fantasy. Fundamental Islamists are as far from the Frankfurt School as is humanly possible. But it allows the author to link up the politicians, the academics, the intellectuals, the socialists and the liberals, as “traitors” deserving to be executed. </p>
<h2>Those he left off the list</h2>
<p>He lists political parties of Europe who are responsible for this ideological treachery. Not a single parliamentary party is left free of the accusation. The only ones who are exonerated are the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8250017.stm">English Defence League</a>, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11443211">Geert Wilders</a> in the Netherlands and other marginal Rightwing nationalists. All have now repudiated him except for the elderly Jean-Marie Le Pen. </p>
<p>But in his mind, these figures are not the hardcore of the European resistance. This will be the Knight Templars with Breivik as their leader. As yet, there is no evidence that such people exist.</p>
<p>This construction of the enemy and their enemies then lapses into an extensive account of Muslim crimes throughout history. But according to Breivik, Muslims are not the traitors and will simply be deported back to where they came from after victories in the four generation European civil war, due to end in 2083. </p>
<h2>The danger of influence</h2>
<p>The really disturbing part of the manifesto is towards the end, which appears to have been written very shortly before his attack on the young Labor camp. This details, day by day, the processes for setting up the bombing and assassination exercise, which he then executed so efficiently. This was placed on the internet the day before he struck and is still there for anyone else who wants to emulate him. </p>
<p>The manifesto suggests that he is fully aware of the potential and power of the Internet, having obviously spent years of his life isolated in its fantasy worlds. He sees Facebook as a revolutionary weapon – rather like Lenin who saw the same potential in the newly invented telephone. </p>
<p>This final message to the world is where the whole thing becomes potentially dangerous. It tells anyone with similar obsessions just how to get hold of fertilisers and other chemicals, how to construct a bomb, how to set up a rural base on a small farm, what weapons to buy and what targets to attack. </p>
<p>The whole manifesto is in English, can be reached throughout the world and could be the basis for terrorist mobilisation for any cause by any group or individual. Even Islamist terrorists could use parts of this 1,500 page attack for their own purposes, if they threw away the attacks on themselves. But they probably know the practical stuff already and do not need the theory, which is pure fantasy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/2667/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Jupp does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Conversation asked Professor James Jupp to read through the infamous 1,500 page manifesto of Anders Breivik. This is his analysis of the document, giving an insight into the mind of the mass murderer…James Jupp, Adjunct Associate Professor, Australian Demographic and Social Research Institute, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/26512011-08-03T04:25:58Z2011-08-03T04:25:58ZMorrissey, Anders Breivik and the claim that all meat is murder<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/2620/original/PIC_-_Rosewarne_Morrissey.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Legendary British singer Morrissey is well-known for his activist vegetarianism.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A qualification of how much I love Morrissey’s music needs to be made. Merely thinking about <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRtW1MAZ32M">There is a Light</a> cuts me raw; I adopted <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3PhKOKOdms">It’s Not Your Birthday Anymore</a> as a power anthem the second I heard it. Morrissey is up there in my top 5 music talents list. (A top 5 that sometimes includes 10 or 11 artists, but he’s up there, nonetheless). </p>
<p>Of course, loving his music does not mean I consider the man himself as beyond reproach. A salient point given his <a href="http://media.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/world-news/outrage-over-morrisseys-norway-comparison-2523760.html">idiotic recent comments</a> about the Norway massacre:</p>
<p><em>Millions of beings are routinely murdered every single day in order to fund profits for McDonalds and KFCruelty, but because these murders are protected by laws, we are asked to feel indifferent about the killings, and to not even dare question them.</em></p>
<p>Like Morrissey, I’m a vegetarian. I haven’t eaten meat in twelve years, albeit with a minor exception of a 2003 flight involving “Vegetarian pork” which presumably involved last-minute tray re-labeling. Like Morrissey, I also quite love animals - dogs mainly, puppies particularly: I love them so much I was once nearly hit by a car when I raced across a road to pat a spaniel. I perfectly understand the yen for not wanting them in a deep fryer.</p>
<p>But daring to use a human tragedy like Norway as some kind of opportunity to beat the drum for vegetarianism is repugnant of a calibre that listening to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKxvkx7v7dQ">Ask</a> on repeat won’t dilute. </p>
<p>Generally I have no qualms with celebrities using their power for good. Marlon Brando sending Sacheen Littlefeather to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QUacU0I4yU">collect his Godfather Oscar</a>. Perhaps. Merlin participating in his Big Brother exit interview with a <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/14/1087065072743.html">taped mouth</a>. Maybe. Big mouth Bono shouting out political platitudes during his concerts. Caveat emptor. </p>
<p>There’s a time and place for protest, for metaphor, for analogy drawing. In the wake of mass slaughter is not such a place. </p>
<p>To his credit, Morrissey did make some interesting points about the blood lust of contemporary news coverage. About the horribly familiar and gratuitous focus on the perpetrator; about victims becoming faceless statistics. And this is where he should have shut up. </p>
<p>My opposition to Moz’s analogy isn’t even grounded in offence. While I think his comments were actually much more egregious than the media coverage he chides, those likely to be most offended by him are too busy nursing broken hearts than to listen to a ranting Manc.</p>
<p>Rather, my opposition lies in just what a bloody bad PR move his diatribe was for vegetarianism.</p>
<p>Even as a vegetarian myself, I frequently find other vegetarians mercilessly annoying. There’s that wonderful scene in the Simpsons were the Dirt First eco-terrorist <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtuMIaOGRy8">claims to be a Level 5 Vegan</a>: “I won’t eat anything that casts a shadow.” Vegetarians are too often either actually like this, or thought of like this: as holier-than-thou, preachy, pocket-mulching pedants.</p>
<p>Just like the cultee who’s just read a book on sugar addiction, like the taxi driver who’s just discovered talkback radio, or the newest Fitness First devotee, some vegetarians outrageously feel perfectly at liberty to tell people what to think, what to worship, what to eat. Hideous.</p>
<p>But not all vegetarians are like that. And the annoying qualities of some shouldn’t overshadow what a refrain from flesh consumption is actually all about.</p>
<p>Given the already troubled reputation of vegetarianism, the question needs to be asked as to whether stunts like Morrissey’s help or hinder the plight.</p>
<p>Non-vegetarians always assume vegetarians to be high-maintenance born-agains. Kinda like the way I think about people who separate their rubbish, wear clothing made of hemp and who listen to the John Butler Trio.</p>
<p>Having Morrissey present such a barbaric analogy puts Moz in a camp of extremists, of loonies, of people completely out of touch with reality.</p>
<p>He – and in turn the cause – then becomes complete unpalatable. Unappealing. Irrelevant.</p>
<p>No, Morrissey’s diatribe won’t stop me listening to his music – <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QN0w2ulyZ4I">Viva Hate</a> is on right now for motivation – but this spectacle serves as a timely warning about the need to separate the art from the antics. And for artists to think very carefully before anointing themselves as a spokesperson.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/2651/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lauren Rosewarne does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A qualification of how much I love Morrissey’s music needs to be made. Merely thinking about There is a Light cuts me raw; I adopted It’s Not Your Birthday Anymore as a power anthem the second I heard…Lauren Rosewarne, Senior Lecturer, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.