As I try to make sense of European and American politics, the image that keeps coming to mind is that of a hydra. In Greek mythology, a hydra is a mythical serpent with multiple heads that grow back when cut off; persistent, multifaceted, and difficult to defeat. In the movie Captain America, hydra is a secretive authoritarian group with the motto: “Cut off one head, two more take its place.”
Authoritarian populist actors function like a multi-headed hydra in constant movement, and it is in part the internal diversity of the many “heads” that gives it its strength—but could also become its undoing. Despite somewhat different ideological goals, a broad coalition of interest groups (including white supremacists, Christian nationalists, tech oligarchs, anti-gender activists, ecofascists, and so on) has come together, both nationally and transnationally, realizing that their shared goals are more achievable if they join forces and change the political order together.
Editor's note: The ideas expressed in this blog are not necessarily those of the Othering & Belonging Institute or UC Berkeley, but belong to the authors.
