Far-right groups in Western Europe and North America have latched onto the recent global outbreak of monkeypox. Some of the rhetoric that has become a staple of such groups, especially since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, has been revived during this new public health crisis. Sensitivity to government interventions and allegations of fearmongering by mainstream media in the sphere of public health has increased among such groups and certain recurrent narratives are resurfacing in this context. The monkeypox outbreak has reignited arguments that are reflected within the bubble of western far-right ideology. These arguments will be outlined under the categories of world government conspiracy, racism and sexualism.
World Government Conspiracy
The COVID-19 pandemic saw governments across the world implement vaccine programmes in order to halt the spread of the virus. Far-right groups across the world viewed the enforcement of this programme as an infringement on civil liberties, personal health (due to fabricated concerns around the vaccine), and personal choices – a common trope among such groups, emphasising the political disenfranchisement of individuals and local communities.
There are claims being propagated that the monkeypox outbreak is simply another excuse used by supranational groups in their supposed plan to transgress the national sovereignty of nation-states and form a single world government. As with COVID-19, this plan is being labelled as the “monkeypox plandemic” and it is being orchestrated by so-called elites in Davos, where the World Economic Forum (WEF) hosts its annual meeting, and organisations such as the United Nations (UN) and World Health Organisation (WHO). InfoWars, a website launched by far-right commentator Alex Jones, has claimed that the current health outbreak represents the “second phase” of the UN and WHO “plan”, embodied in the so-called “pandemic treaty” being proposed by the WHO. This implies a first phase, likely referring to the actions planned and implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. How national governments and international organisations harmonise their efforts, however, is not mentioned.
The actions and intentions of governments and international organisations are often complemented with those of multinational corporations. Far-right news website The Gateway Pundit has made an unsubstantiated claim that the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a drug treatment for monkeypox developed by “Pfizer-linked” SIGA Technologies. The logic is that such corporations are profiting from global crises and governments/international organisations are moving towards the formation of a single global government hand-in-hand. Of course, Pfizer has been one of the main producers of the COVID-19 vaccine and so this supposed association creates an imagined causal link, if one is to accept that their actions during the COVID-19 and then the monkeypox outbreaks were pre-planned. Claims have even been made that the COVID-19 vaccine is causing monkeypox symptoms.
Sexualism
Criticisms of globalisation, political disenfranchisement and corporate profiteering are not limited to the far-right, but are also prevalent among elements of the left. However, one stark aspect that differentiates the far-right, especially at such times of health, economic or political crises, is their focus on shifting the blame towards “otherised” groups in Western societies based on race and sexual orientation.
The current outbreak of monkeypox is known to have originated in west Africa and the WHO has claimed that most cases of the disease have been identified among “men who have sex with men (MSM)”, wording which has been the subject of criticism, but which has been echoed by far-right sympathisers. This emphasis is closely related to the far-right’s general grievances against “liberal” lifestyles and so-called “cultural Marxism”, the alleged ideology that promotes positive discrimination and places excessive attention on the sufferings of marginalised and oppressed groups. Sexualism is the discrimination against people on the basis of their sexual orientation. The far-right is linking news about the spread of monkeypox through sex at raves in Europe with their general discontent about “woke” and liberal culture.
Racism
In terms of racism, just as was the case with COVID-19 and its origins in China, much is being made of the African origins of monkeypox. Far-right British commentator Paul Joseph Watson posted news about the Nigerian Centre of Disease and Control calling on people in the country to avoid eating the meat of monkeys and rats in order to prevent the spread of monkeypox. Watson commented on this news stating that “some cultures are better than others”.
Indeed, while far-right groups are being criticised for the open racism and sexualism, mainstream media is also being accused of fuelling the fire of prejudices against the aforementioned “otherised” groups. Similar xenophobic commentaries and even physical attacks were witnessed against Chinese and, in general, East Asians in western countries at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The current monkeypox outbreak is revitalising those xenophobic sentiments among far-right groups, who, as mentioned above, take advantage of times of crises to propel their ideological agenda.
Broken cassette tape
At moments of political, social and/or economic crises, the far-right reproduces the same narratives from the past and, by and large, finds the same scapegoats for the problems that arise during these crises. In addition, these narratives are often based on unsubstantiated conspiratorial theories that neatly fit into their ideological framework, but frequently do not reflect reality.
An interesting, and worrying, parallel can be made with the AIDS pandemic from the 1980s. Stigmatisation of certain groups of people, especially of the LGBTQ+ communities, was rife not only among far-right groups, but also the mainstream media, which had even referred to the pandemic as a “gay plague”, somewhat similar to the racialist naming of COVID-19 as the “China virus”.
The political class and media are at times feedings the arguments made by the far-right, despite the latter’s defiance of mainstream politics. One recent example of this in the UK is the conclusion of the UK-Rwanda asylum agreement, which seeks to deport asylum seekers from the UK to Rwanda. The announcement of the deal was hailed by the far-right as a move that will help to curtail illegal immigration to the UK. In the US context, the presidency of Donald Trump was deemed to be a boost for the far-right in that country, a situation which has now changed with the election of Joe Biden, which led to the 2021 Capitol attack by far-right figures.
The mixture of a failure to address the social conditions that produce the far-right and the actions of the political elite that are at times harmonised with far-right ideology feed the broken cassette tape that repeat and, at times of crises, amplify rhetoric that does not shy away from racism, sexism and other forms of identity-based discrimination. In the contemporary context of social media, arguments and conspiracy theories made by the far-right are shared and disseminated all the more frequently within such networks at blistering speed. Certain social media companies, such as Twitter, have sought to crackdown on far-right groups online; however, such groups have circumvented these bans and have moved to other platforms, such as Telegram, where they share and forward content.
The interlinkage between conspiracy theories, discriminatory ideology and real-life crises embolden the far-right in the propagation of the aforementioned views. This is compounded by a lack of factual and structural analysis of the problems that are discussed. Although tackling the factual inconsistencies of far-right narratives is an important task in and of itself, it is not enough to address the emotive and structural issues that underpins far-right arguments. A political strategy that focuses on empowering local communities to confront the far-right’s prejudicial stances through participation in political processes and economic empowerment can help to alleviate these issues. Whether there is a political will to do so is another matter.