The Rise of Ethnonationalist Nostalgia

A lot of you may be wondering why ethnonationalist rhetoric is rising. Ethnonationalist

rhetoric is rising largely because people feel overwhelmed by rapid change. When life feels

unstable, they look back at the past and imagine it was simpler or better.

Politicians take advantage of this by promoting a nostalgic version of history — a “golden age”

that never really existed in the way it's being presented. This nostalgia creates a strong in-group

identity: the idea of “real citizens” who belong to the nation’s imagined past.

Once that in-group is formed, it becomes easy to blame an out-group — usually immigrants

or minorities — for economic problems or cultural changes. By pushing the idea that the nation