ISCI is a cross-disciplinary research centre working to further our understanding of state crime: organisational deviance violating human rights

Hate Propaganda: Words as Knives

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This case study analyses the use of hate propaganda in political discourse, moving from the Nazi regime to current European far-right parties focusing on Switzerland and Italy. The following sections will underline striking similarities that exist between early-20th century Nazi propaganda campaigns against the Jews on the one hand, and current campaigns against immigrants on the other.

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Access Words as Knives casestudy

Both campaigns create, spread and tirelessly repeat identical stereotypes and prejudices targeting a specific group, the Jews for the Nazis and immigrants for contemporary far-right parties. In both cases, the members of the targeted group are pictured as inherently evil, and their removal is commended as the panacea which can solve all social and economic issues facing the country in a given historical moment.

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