Hybridization or Salad Bar Ideology? Testing Ideological Convergence Within the American Violent Far Right

In September 2020, FBI Director Christopher Wray described far-right extremist motivations as “a mishmash” or “salad bar” of ideologies. Academics and practitioners have further promoted such ideas using case studies of inter-organizational collaboration. The current study tests the “Salad Bar” and...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Hemmila, Tess (Author)
Contributors: Perliger, Arie
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2025
In: Crime & delinquency
Year: 2025, Volume: 71, Issue: 3, Pages: 830-859
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
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Keywords:
online extremism
Discourse Analysis
Far-right
Description
Summary:In September 2020, FBI Director Christopher Wray described far-right extremist motivations as “a mishmash” or “salad bar” of ideologies. Academics and practitioners have further promoted such ideas using case studies of inter-organizational collaboration. The current study tests the “Salad Bar” and Hybridization hypotheses by analyzing the online discourse of far-right extremist groups to identify similarities and differences in their designation of “adversaries,” topics of political discourse, support for violence, membership characteristics, and psychological dimensions. After computer-assisted analysis of ideological discourse samples, our findings indicate that there may be an initial overlap between far-right groups, but it is too early to assume hybridization across the far-right.
ISSN:1552-387X
DOI:10.1177/00111287241271288