Version 1
: Received: 11 September 2024 / Approved: 11 September 2024 / Online: 12 September 2024 (11:05:12 CEST)
Version 2
: Received: 16 September 2024 / Approved: 18 September 2024 / Online: 20 September 2024 (03:05:26 CEST)
How to cite:
von Malmborg, F. Embodying Vulnerabilities and Emotions in the Analysis of Political Hate and Threats: The Case of Nasty Rhetoric in Swedish Climate Politics. Preprints2024, 2024090960. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202409.0960.v2
von Malmborg, F. Embodying Vulnerabilities and Emotions in the Analysis of Political Hate and Threats: The Case of Nasty Rhetoric in Swedish Climate Politics. Preprints 2024, 2024090960. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202409.0960.v2
von Malmborg, F. Embodying Vulnerabilities and Emotions in the Analysis of Political Hate and Threats: The Case of Nasty Rhetoric in Swedish Climate Politics. Preprints2024, 2024090960. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202409.0960.v2
APA Style
von Malmborg, F. (2024). Embodying Vulnerabilities and Emotions in the Analysis of Political Hate and Threats: The Case of Nasty Rhetoric in Swedish Climate Politics. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202409.0960.v2
Chicago/Turabian Style
von Malmborg, F. 2024 "Embodying Vulnerabilities and Emotions in the Analysis of Political Hate and Threats: The Case of Nasty Rhetoric in Swedish Climate Politics" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202409.0960.v2
Abstract
In this paper I dig deep down along the slope of what touches me deeply – a democratic decline in climate politics. I follow the course of critical researchers in management and organisation studies, striving to move away from traditional, horizontal norms of academic writing that focus on counting rather than content and elision the author from the text, towards a more vertical writing acknowledging the value of incorporating the voice of the author. Embodying and resonating with my own emotional experiences of hate and threat campaigns, not locking my own vulnerabilities in, I analyse qualitatively the use, reasons, contents, senders and targets of such nasty rhetoric in Swedish climate politics, and the implications thereof for democracy. At the moment, a far-right populist nativist party holds tangible powers dictating the content and process of Swedish climate politics. In less than two years, Swedish climate politics have turned into an antidemocratic divisive politics portraying climate science as “a point of view”, female journalists writing about climate change and climate policy as “crypto environmentalists”, “motherfuckers” and “moron hags” that should be “fired” and “raped”, and the climate justice movement as “terrorists” and “a threat to Swedish democracy” that should be “sent to prison” and “executed”. Such nasty rhetoric is used not only by anonymous trolls in social media, but by the prime minister, cabinet ministers and parliamentarians, even in debates in the Swedish parliament. It has inspired the far-right extremist movement to use physical violence. Use of nasty politics aims to silence the opponents to the government’s climate policy, the political opposition, climate scientists, the climate justice movement and journalists, breaching liberal and deliberative democratic norms such as legitimacy, accountability and justice. It is a powerful tactic that leaves its targets with an anxious fear of losing control and often a need for disappearance. Many targets resign or stay silent. I chose to break the silence and write differently about the issue.
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
