Justifying contentious social and political claims using mundane language: An analysis of Canadian right-wing extremism.

There has been a lack of research examining how right-wing extremist groups justify their key claims online to reach a broader audience. This question is even more worrisome when considering a Canadian context, given Canada's state policies on multiculturalism and intolerance of hateful rhetoric. My research draws on the gaps within the literature of right-wing extremism, online spaces, and justification of discourse by conducting a content analysis of 300 Facebook and Twitter posts from the accounts of three Canadian right-wing extremist groups, ID Canada, Soldiers of Odin BC, and Yellow Vests Canada. This article proposes the use of French theorist Boltanski and Thévenot's sociology of critical capacity common worlds to help explain how right-wing extremist groups make arguments that are quite extreme to a broad audience of people on social media. Such claims include advocating for a homogenized Canadian identity and Canadian values, promoting a belief in social decay, and supporting authoritarianism. However, these claims are not overt; rather right-wing extremist groups discuss apolitical topics to mask controversial views.

No ha habido apenas investigaciones que examinen cómo los grupos de extrema derecha justifican sus afirmaciones clave en las redes sociales para llegar a una audiencia más amplia. Esta pregunta es aún más preocupante cuando se considera el contexto canadiense, dadas las políticas del gobierno de Canadá sobre el multiculturalismo y la intolerancia hacia la retórica del odio. Esta investigación se basa en las lagunas existentes en la literatura sobre el extremismo de derecha, los espacios online y la justificación del discurso mediante la realización de un análisis de contenido de 300 publicaciones en Facebook y Twitter de las cuentas de tres grupos canadienses de extrema derecha, ID Canadá, Soldiers of Odin BC y Yellow Vest Canada. Este artículo propone el uso de la sociología de la capacidad crítica de los mundos comunes de los teóricos franceses Boltanski y Thévenot para intentar explicar cómo los grupos extremistas de derecha presentan argumentos que son bastante extremos para público amplio en las redes sociales. Tales afirmaciones incluyen abogar por una identidad canadiense homogeneizada y valores canadienses, promover la creencia en la decadencia social y apoyar el autoritarismo. Sin embargo, estas afirmaciones no se hacen de forma abierta, sino que los grupos de extrema derecha discuten temas apolíticos para enmascarar puntos de vista controvertidos.

Peu de travaux ont été consacrés à la manière dont les groupes d'extrême droite justifient leurs principales revendications sur les réseaux sociaux pour atteindre un public plus large. Cette question est d'autant plus préoccupante dans le contexte canadien, compte tenu des politiques publiques du pays en matière de multiculturalisme et d'intolérance à l'égard de la rhétorique de la haine. Partant des lacunes de la recherche sur l'extrémisme de droite, les espaces en ligne et la justification du discours, j'analyze le contenu de 300 messages sur Facebook et Twitter provenant des comptes de trois groupes d'extrémistes de droite canadiens, ID Canada, Soldiers of Odin BC et Yellow Vests Canada. Je propose dans cet article d'utiliser la sociologie de la capacité critique des mondes communs des théoriciens français Boltanski et Thévenot pour expliquer comment les groupes d'extrême droite présentent des arguments assez extrêmes à un large public sur les réseaux sociaux. Ces affirmations comprennent la défense d'une identité et de valeurs canadiennes homogénéisées, la défense de l'idée d'un déclin social et le soutien à l'autoritarisme. Toutefois, ces affirmations ne sont pas faites ouvertement, les groupes d'extrême droite traitant plutôt de sujets apolitiques pour masquer leurs points de vue controversés.

Public health and the value of disobedience.

The writings of a sixteenth century French teenager may seem a stretch for a public health readership, but Etienne de la Boétie's treatise on Voluntary Servitude explains why unjust systems prevail and how they can be changed. They prevail, he shows, because we let them (the losers always vastly outnumber the winners); and they change when we retract our permission (as Ghandi demonstrated). These vital insights have inspired progress down the centuries--the enlightenment philosophers, the French Revolution, Tolstoy, the American civil rights movement as well as the Indian struggle against the British Empire. In an era when widening inequalities have become all too apparent, and the harm this does to the commonweal much better understood, this paper argues that La Boétie's analysis retains all its power and can inspire a new vision for public health.

Effects of homeostatic constraints on associative memory storage and synaptic connectivity of cortical circuits.

The impact of learning and long-term memory storage on synaptic connectivity is not completely understood. In this study, we examine the effects of associative learning on synaptic connectivity in adult cortical circuits by hypothesizing that these circuits function in a steady-state, in which the memory capacity of a circuit is maximal and learning must be accompanied by forgetting. Steady-state circuits should be characterized by unique connectivity features. To uncover such features we developed a biologically constrained, exactly solvable model of associative memory storage. The model is applicable to networks of multiple excitatory and inhibitory neuron classes and can account for homeostatic constraints on the number and the overall weight of functional connections received by each neuron. The results show that in spite of a large number of neuron classes, functional connections between potentially connected cells are realized with less than 50% probability if the presynaptic cell is excitatory and generally a much greater probability if it is inhibitory. We also find that constraining the overall weight of presynaptic connections leads to Gaussian connection weight distributions that are truncated at zero. In contrast, constraining the total number of functional presynaptic connections leads to non-Gaussian distributions, in which weak connections are absent. These theoretical predictions are compared with a large dataset of published experimental studies reporting amplitudes of unitary postsynaptic potentials and probabilities of connections between various classes of excitatory and inhibitory neurons in the cerebellum, neocortex, and hippocampus.