26. Februar 2025. Ruth Wodak: »Fortress Europe« and »Fortress Austria« — The Shameless Normalization of Exclusionary Politics and Discourses

Recent years have shown a global rise of the far-right, frequently supported by conservative mainstream parties and the manipulative use of (social) media. Formerly taboo statements are increasingly being incorporated into mainstream discourses and politics. This normalization is accompanied by a certain »shamelessness«: the boundaries of what can be said are shifting both in terms of the frequency and acceptance of lies, the disregard for principles of politeness, and the undermining of democratic conventions. Public communication is dominated by discursive strategies of provocation, guilt avoidance, denial, Manichean division, and conspiracy narratives, accompanied by an increasingly strong nativist nationalism and the racialization of space. Focusing on recent EU asylum policies and imaginaries of the »new normal« in Austria and beyond, the lecture will illustrate the ongoing processes of (shameless) normalization. Prof. Dr. Ruth Wodak, emeritierte Professorin für Angewandte Linguistik der Universität Wien und Distinguished Professor of Discourse Studies der Lancaster University Moderation: Alexander Hobe, M.A., Historiker; Mitglied der Forschungsgruppe Demokratie und Staatlichkeit am HIS Eröffnungsveranstaltung des Workshops "Politics of demarcation and the radical right in post-war Europe: Defining what is right" We ask for your understanding. Due to technical problems, the sound quality in the recording was limited.