This comparative case study of the Freedom Movement in Sweden and the Freedom Convoy in Canada provides insights into the processes of transnationalization involved in the (re)production of far-right narratives around the COVID-19 pandemic. Focusing on the online media of these protest movements we explore the extent to which the political and cultural context shaped far-right meta narratives and more universal concerns around the pandemic. The study finds significant similarities in how protest narratives in the two countries were constructed and appropriated to intersect with far-right extremism and anti-establishment ideas but also that these narratives were repurposed to make sense in two national contexts characterized by stark differences in the level of restrictions imposed and curtailment of civic rights. Unpacking the local/global intricacies of these narratives helps us understand the ubiquity of contemporary anti-government and anti-establishment discourse propelled by the far-right but also its malleability and flexibility in terms of how it is made to fit different political contexts and scenarios across liberal democracies. 

Political action in reponse to the COVID-19 crisis generated hope for political action on a larger looming crisis, the climate crisis. Articulating climate change in terms of crisis and positioning it in the context of apocalypse can be an effective mobilizer of short-term action. Yet, alarmist discourse risk plunging people into apathy. In this article, we examine imaginaries of the climate crisis invoked by climate activist organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic, as they tried to influence the political agenda on Twitter (now X) and, not least, call for action on the climate crisis. We identify five key activist climate imaginaries and show how an apocalyptic imagery was invoked in response to the pandemic. However, this apocalyptic imaginary was rarely invoked on its own, but in relation to other key climate imaginaries. Our findings contribute to research on agenda setting and the role of political imaginaries in struggles over societal transformations, and especially the role of activist imaginaries when challenging dominant climate imaginaries in attempts to influence the political agenda and generate political action.

Who is afraid of gender? Judith Butler provocatively asks in her latest book addressing the polarised controversies stirred by the concept of gender in recent years. Her question is posed amid a surge of conservative and far-right movements that have significantly fuelled antagonism around gender debates far beyond the relatively niche circles that have traditionally been preoccupied with its conceptualisation and implications. In these debates, what Butler (2024) dubs “the phantasm of gender” is invoked as a threat to Western civilisation, a denial of nature, an attack on masculinity and “traditional family values”, or an effacement of the differences between sexes. Across Europe, such ideas have been propagated, in particular by actors within the so-called anti-gender ideology movement that leverages various forms of activism to undermine the rights of women and queer and trans people in areas from reproductive justice to protections against gendered violence. But even beyond these highly politicised circles, gender does indeed seem to have become a source of division in public discourse to the extent that the toxicity which increasingly surrounds the notion has been reported to discourage scholars and journalists alike from even engaging with the issue in public debate (Bladini, 2020; Møller Hartley & Askanius, 2021; Paternotte, 2019).