The Psychology of the New Far Right: Privilege, Fear, and Media Power in the Rise of Authoritarianism

Fear, belonging, and power are being manipulated into a frightening new age of populist outrage and algorithmic media, argues Dr Russell Jackson

. Photo: AP Photo / Jose Luis Magana

From Privilege to Populism

Across Europe and North America, figures such as Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, Richard B Spencer, Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson, Richard Tice, Danny Kruger, and Rupert Lowe have helped to normalise far-right populist rhetoric within mainstream politics. Their appeal is anti-elite — yet they themselves embody the privilege they claim to challenge.

All the politicians named above attended expensive boys-only schools, learning early how to mask their vulnerabilities with aggression and entitlement. Today, they remain deeply embedded in the networks of power and wealth that form the very establishment they denounce.

Farage rails against “globalists” while appearing daily in billionaire-owned media; Trump poses as the champion of the working class, despite a life defined by inherited wealth. They, and the billionaires whose interests they represent, exploit the countries and citizens they claim to care for. Their brand of “outsider” populism is a carefully managed performance.

What masquerades as rebellion from below is oligarchy from above — a repackaging of class power as cultural revolt. The theatre of “authentic” anger conceals the reality that these movements are fuelled, financed, and amplified by the ultrarich, who are the primary beneficiaries.

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The Media-Machine Behind the Strongman

This pseudo-populism would not flourish without its megaphone: a vast network of elite-controlled media. Murdoch’s, Marshall’s, and Harmsworth’s media empires and the constellation of billionaire-owned online platforms surrounding them have created a media ecosystem in which outrage is currency and division a business model.