# What exactly does "far right" mean?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-does-far-right-mean/786162>\
**Category:** Politics & Elections\
**Created:** [May 8, 2017, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-does-far-right-mean/786162 "2017-05-08T22:20:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-does-far-right-mean/786162/21 "2017-05-11T00:59:34Z")

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It seems to me that far-righters (such as Stormfronters, 4channers, etc.) are \*more \*likely to embrace things like atheism and evolution than merely moderate Republicans, anyone else feel this way?

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**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-does-far-right-mean/786162/22 "2017-05-11T01:30:07Z")

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> [@Ravenman](#):
>
> Feel free to clarify. I resent the implication that I’m the only one who didn’t understand your brilliant post.

I didn’t imply any such thing. I stated directly that you missed it. I don’t really know (or care) if anyone else did, since no one else commented. 😉  
As for the point I was making, it was that there is no way to talk about people who are “more conservative” as we think of that term solely by talking about “far right.” That’s because the issue of “conservativism” is not linear; it is at least two-dimensional, as I pointed out.

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**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-does-far-right-mean/786162/23 "2017-05-11T02:31:09Z")

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> [@Velocity](#):
>
> It seems to me that far-righters (such as Stormfronters, 4channers, etc.) are \*more \*likely to embrace things like atheism and evolution than merely moderate Republicans, anyone else feel this way?

I do. Like I was saying earlier, The Far Right and moderate conservatives aren’t very closely related. They are very different things.

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**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-does-far-right-mean/786162/24 "2017-05-11T02:45:04Z")

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As concrete examples, Stormfront and some militia groups are generally Far Right in the same way the Animal Libertation Front, The Black Panthers and the Symbionese Liberation Army are or were Far Left organizations.

All of those have more moderate analogues but I wouldn’t count organizations like PETA, Black Lives Matter, Occupy Wall Street or The Tea Party as “Far” anything. They are out of the mainstream for sure but they aren’t generally radical in structure. Some individual members may be but that isn’t enough for my definition. You can’t apply the label “Far” very generally or it loses any meaning. In my opinion, it requires some degree of radicalization and only applies to organizations and people at the true fringes in either direction.

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