As a well armed far-right movement in America raises its ugly head in Charlottesville, leaving one oppositional protester murdered, Pauline Hanson turns up to Parliament in a Burqa. As her terribly offensive action is passionately berated by George Brandis, of all people, fourteen people are murdered in Barcelona, mowed down by a car in one of the world’s most popular holiday destinations. Across the globe, the actions and conversations that would have once seemed almost impossible ten years ago in their extremity have become the norm.
Drinking shots with nationalists and gobbling falafel with radicals, John Safran was there the year the extreme became the mainstream. Depends What you Mean by Extremist is a book breaking apart the incredibly complex race, religious and ethnic identity of Australia that’s feeding this divisive threat of nationalism and terrorism, written by the only author that could tackle this material in such an astute, confronting, yet can I say highly entertaining way, John Safran.
Read the full article by Bec Mac at The AU Review.