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Article published In:
Contemporary Discourses of Hate and Radicalism across Space and Genres
Edited by Monika Kopytowska
[Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict 3:1] 2015
► pp. 87–106

The paranoid style in politics

Ideological underpinnings of the discourse of Second Amendment absolutism

In American politics, the National Rifle Association (NRA) has asserted itself as a leading voice in the gun rights movement. The strident rhetoric emanating from the NRA leadership impacts the development of a broader discourse in American public life over gun rights — a discourse of Second Amendment absolutism — that articulates a set of assumptions and explanations in defense of an absolutist stance against gun regulation in any form. This paper examines the ideologies that underlie this absolutist discourse and the identities those ideologies help to construct. In particular, the absolutist discourse is analyzed through the lens of what historian Richard Hofstadter termed “the paranoid style in American politics.” The aim is to isolate and expose the extremist elements of this discourse, which polarize political debate and hinder the democratic process.

Keywords: Gun rights movement, Ideology, National Rifle Association, Paranoid style, Second Amendment absolutism
Published online: 2 October 2015
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlac.3.1.04hod
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Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Dawson, Jessica
2019. Shall not be infringed: how the NRA used religious language to transform the meaning of the Second Amendment. Palgrave Communications 5:1 DOI logo
Hart, Roderick P.
2020. Donald Trump and the Return of the Paranoid Style. Presidential Studies Quarterly 50:2 ► pp. 348 ff. DOI logo

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