Myth: Nationalism is just the idea that a nation is and should be a nation
Fact: There are many extreme concepts that easily pop up within nationalism, no matter the country, almost like a convergent evolution of sorts.
Just some of these concepts are:
Blood and Soil: This is where the idea that a "racial blood" is tied to land and that "racial blood" is superior to migrant, nomadic, or "stateless" groups.
"Cleansing": Identity, political, religious, social, and of course... ethnic. This all refers to getting rid of some "undesirable" group from the nation.
Conspiracy theories: Nationalism often runs on bizarre and unfounded conspiracy theories that are often enshrined in state policy which in turn leads to atrocities and other tragedies. These conspiracy theories include "Cultural Marxism", "globalism", a "new world order", an idea that some group has stabbed the nation in the back, white genocide, a Zionist occupation government, and conspiracy theories involving George Soros.
Cults of personality: This is where the leader is elevated to godhood in the eyes of the media, party events, supporters, etc. who does all the thinking for the people, the first worker, the eternal leader, all that crazy stuff.
Eliminationism: This is where a group is referred to as a tumor, a cancer, a parasite, etc. in the nation, and this 'thing' must be excised to protect the purity of the nation.
Enemy of the people/state: This is where a group of people, often dissidents, personal enemies of the leader, or opponents of the party just happen to also be enemies of the whole nation. What a coincidence! Emmanuel Goldstein is a great fictional example of what happens when a regime declares someone to be an enemy of the state.
Ethnic hatred: This is where there are feelings of hatred and prejudice towards an ethnic group and this is often enhanced by nationalism.
Historical negationism: This is where pseudoscience and pseudohistory are used to forge new accounts of a nation's history so the party or ideologues can look awesome.
Palingenesis: This is where the nation can be reborn into some mythic/romanticized era. So when nationalists say they want to return to the 1950's (Or in the case of Roy Moore voters... before the Civil War), this is actually palingenesis. Too bad this often involves overthrowing/getting rid of all the "decadent" people and groups so we can return to the mythic era. May involve making a nation great again.
Welfare chauvinism: This is where welfare and jobs should not go to immigrants, well, it starts with immigrants, when there are no more immigrants to deny welfare and jobs to, it becomes the homeless, undesirable types, academics, intellectuals, and other 'useless' people.
So any time you see something reading as "Nationalism is just...", refer them to this post, thanks.
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