The Identity Myth by David Swift

Author:David Swift
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Published: 2022-02-17T00:00:00+00:00

The Universal Appeal of National Populism

As mentioned in Part I, the fact that different politicians, from Trump to Johnson to Netanyahu to Putin to Erdoğan to Bolsonaro to Modi, have been able to use a similar combination of nationalism, anti-intellectualism, and appeals to ‘common sense’ to secure popularity in such a wide variety of polities, economies and societies, indicates the widespread appeal and potency of this kind of politics. Yet in addition to an understanding of geopolitics that sees some countries as obnoxiously nationalistic and others as perpetual victims, NeoOrientalism attributes special morality to citizens of the Global South, assuming them to be socialists, anti-racists, feminists, LGBT allies and so on. When faced with the overwhelming evidence that this is not the case, it argues this must be due to the legacies of European colonialism.

The geographical spread of laws against same-sex relationships is an obvious refutation of the NeoOrientalist depiction of the inherent goodness of the Global South, but legislation alone tells a partial tale. After all, in many places in the Global North it might not be illegal to be gay, but it is still pretty dangerous, and attitudes to homosexuality in countries such as Britain and the US were highly retrograde merely a generation ago. At the same time, as argued by Jasbir Puar, ‘gay rights’ have been used by Western right-wingers as a cover for racist or Islamophobic rhetoric, including by people who cared little for gay rights or feminism before 11 September 2001. Nonetheless, the charge of ‘homonationalism’ should not deflect from the observation that many people in the Global South are notably homophobic. As the example of Britain and the US shows, this is not inherent or fixed in time forever, but it is the case today, and appears to affect young people as much as their elders.

A casual glance at social media can confirm this: in March 2020, a Twitter post by a practising Muslim announcing her engagement to her partner saw her inundated with abuse from young Muslims, from Nigeria to Pakistan to Malaysia. Goodluck Jonathan – the behatted former president of Nigeria, who won international plaudits for his peaceful transition of power to Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 – oversaw a 2014 law banning gay marriage and making ‘amorous relationships’ between same-sex couples an offence punishable by imprisonment for up to fourteen years. For many in Nigeria, irrespective of ethnic or religious heritage or political persuasion, homosexuality is seen as a ‘Western import’.

Aside from homophobia, the anti-intellectualism and national populism that have made headway in the US and parts of Europe in recent years are not confined to those living in white-majority countries. In India, Narendra Modi’s BJP has a great deal of support among young Indians and students, and combines nationalistic, anti-Pakistani rhetoric with attacks on so-called ‘Naxals’, a derogatory catch-all term for Marxist intellectuals and liberal elites. As the Indian journalist Annie Zaidi points out, the Indian press writes about Muslims, lower-caste Hindus and members of the ‘scheduled’ tribes with a

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