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.