Fear: New Zealand's hostile underworld of extremists
6 March 2023
Having been a follower of Byron Clark since I became aware of his work exploring Aotearoa New Zealand's far-right and alt-right extremism landscape, I have had this book on pre-order for a few months, and have been looking forward to cracking the spine and getting stuck in. While Aotearoa has a long history of far-right groups operating at the edges, what was new, that emerged following the horrific Christchurch terrorist attacks at the Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre and during the COVID-19 response, was something that we'd not seen before in our country. Fringe groups coordinating with each other, increased reach through online channels, faster cycles of the widespread adoption of conspiratorial ideas, and increased media attention as the movement created its local “influencers”.