Global InformationGreat Replacement information
The Great Replacement (French: Grand Remplacement), also known as replacement theory or great replacement theory,[1][2][3] is a white nationalist[4] far-right conspiracy theory[3][5][6][7] espoused by French author Renaud Camus. The original theory states that, with the complicity or cooperation of "replacist" elites,[a][5][8] the ethnic French and white European populations at large are being demographically and culturally replaced by non-white peoples—especially from Muslim-majority countries—through mass migration, demographic growth and a drop in the birth rate of white Europeans.[5][9][10] Since then, similar claims have been advanced in other national contexts, notably in the United States.[11] Mainstream scholars have dismissed these claims of a conspiracy of "replacist" elites as rooted in a misunderstanding of demographic statistics and premised upon an unscientific, racist worldview.[12][13][14] According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, the Great Replacement "has been widely ridiculed for its blatant absurdity."[3]
While similar themes have characterized various far-right theories since the late 19th century, the particular term was popularized by Camus in his 2011 book Le Grand Remplacement. The book associates the presence of Muslims in France with danger and destruction of French culture and civilization. Camus and other conspiracy theorists attribute recent demographic changes in Europe to intentional policies advanced by global and liberal elites (the "replacists") from within the Government of France, the European Union, or the United Nations; they describe it as a "genocide by substitution".[5]
The conspiracy theory found support in Europe, and has also grown popular among anti-migrant and white nationalist movements from other parts of the West; many of their adherents maintain that "immigrants [are] flocking to predominantly white countries for the precise purpose of rendering the white population a minority within their own land or even causing the extinction of the native population".[10] It aligns with (and is a part of) the larger white genocide conspiracy theory[b][10] except in the strategic replacement of antisemitic canards with Islamophobia.[16][15][17] This replacement, along with a use of simple catch-all slogans, has been cited as one of the reasons for its broader appeal in a pan-European context,[16][18][19] although the concept remains rooted in antisemitism in many white nationalist movements, especially (but not exclusively) in the United States.[20][21]
Although Camus has publicly condemned white nationalist violence,[22][23] scholars have argued that calls to violence are implicit in his depiction of non-white migrants as an existential threat to white populations.[19][24] Several far-right terrorists, including the perpetrators of the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings, the 2019 El Paso shooting, the 2022 Buffalo shooting and the 2023 Jacksonville shooting, have made reference to the "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory. American conservative media personalities, including Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, have espoused ideas of a replacement.[3] Some Republican politicians have endorsed the theory in order to appeal to far-right members of the Republican Party and as a way of signalling their loyalty to Donald Trump.[3]
- ^ Bracke, Sarah; Aguilar, Luis Manuel Hernández (2020). "'They love death as we love life': The 'Muslim Question' and the biopolitics of replacement". The British Journal of Sociology. 71 (4): 680–701. doi:10.1111/1468-4446.12742. ISSN 1468-4446. PMC 7540673. PMID 32100887.
- ^ Bowles, Nellie (18 March 2019). "'Replacement Theory,' a Racist, Sexist Doctrine, Spreads in Far-Right Circles". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 17 May 2019. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
Behind the idea is a racist conspiracy theory known as 'the replacement theory,' which was popularized by a right-wing French philosopher.
- ^ a b c d e "Replacement theory". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 14 June 2022.
- ^ Feola, Michael (2020). "'You Will Not Replace Us': The Melancholic Nationalism of Whiteness". Political Theory. 49 (4): 528–553. doi:10.1177/0090591720972745. ISSN 0090-5917.
This article addresses recent strains of white nationalism rooted within anxieties over demographic replacement (e.g., 'the Great Replacement').
- ^ a b c d Taguieff (2015), PT71.
- ^ Baldauf, Johannes (2017). Toxische Narrative : Monitoring rechts-alternativer Akteure (PDF) (in Dutch). Berlin: Amadeu Antonio Stiftung. p. 11. ISBN 978-3-940878-29-8. OCLC 1042949000. Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 September 2018. Retrieved 24 September 2018.
...this narrative is highly compatible with concrete conspiracy narratives about how this replacement is desired and planned, either by 'the politicians' or 'the elite,' which-ever connotes Jewishness more effectively.
- ^ Korte, Barbara; Wendt, Simon; Falkenhayner, Nicole (2019). Heroism as a Global Phenomenon in Contemporary Culture. Routledge. PT176. ISBN 978-0429557842.
This conspiracy theory, which was first articulated by the French philosopher Renaud Camus, has gained a lot of traction in Europe since 2015.
- ^ Fourquet (2016), PT29.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Froiowas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b c Bergmann (2021), pp. 37–38: "The term 'The Great Replacement' rose to new prominence when a deeply controversial French philosopher, Renaud Camus, used it for the title of his book published in 2011. Camus mainly focused on France, but he argued that European civilisation and identity was at risk of being subsumed by mass migration, especially from Muslim countries, and because of low birth rates among the native French people. (...) It found support widely in Europe and was, for instance, entangled in the more general White Genocide conspiracy theory, which nationalist far-right activists have upheld on both sides of the Atlantic.
- ^ Richard Alba, The Great Demographic Illusion: Majority, Minority, and the Expanding American Mainstream (Princeton UP, 2020) https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691202112
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Jenkins2017was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Buncombe, Andrew (17 May 2022). "Inside the data that debunks the 'Great Replacement' theory". The Independent.
- ^ Rogers, Kaleigh (26 May 2022). "The Twisted Logic Behind The Right's 'Great Replacement' Arguments". FiveThirtyEight.
- ^ a b Cosentino, Gabriele (2020). "From Pizzagate to the Great Replacement: The Globalization of Conspiracy Theories". Social Media and the Post-Truth World Order. Springer. p. 75. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-43005-4_3. ISBN 978-3-030-43005-4. S2CID 216239634.
While the Great Replacement is at its core an Islamophobic belief, Lane's ideology is anti-Semitic.
- ^ a b Camus & Lebourg (2017), pp. 206–207: "The success of that umpteenth incarnation of a theme launched immediately after World War II (Camus has personally declared his indebtedness to Enoch Powell) can be explained by the fact that he subtracted anti-Semitism from the argument."
- ^ Wilson, Andrew (2019). "Fear-Filled Apocalypses: The Far-Right's Use of Conspiracy Theories". Oxford Research Group. Archived from the original on 4 April 2019.
Where the great replacement is an identifiably Islamaphobic screed, Lane's written works reveal an underlying fear-fantasy of a Jewish conspiracy that seeks the eradication of Lane's chosen people.
- ^ Chatterton Williams (2017).
- ^ a b Boubeker, Bancel & Blanchard (2015), pp. 141–152.
- ^ "'The Great Replacement:' An Explainer". Anti-Defamation League. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
- ^ Ekman, Mattias (6 May 2022). "The great replacement: Strategic mainstreaming of far-right conspiracy claims". Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies. 28 (4): 1127–1143. doi:10.1177/13548565221091983. ISSN 1354-8565. S2CID 248603387.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Heimwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Byman, Daniel (16 May 2022). "The Global Roots of the Buffalo Shooting". Foreign Policy.
In fact, although white supremacists in the United States and elsewhere have long claimed the white race is under attack, the Great Replacement theory itself originated in France with philosopher Renaud Camus (though Camus himself rejects violence).
- ^ Finkielkraut (2017), 23m05s.
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