Past and Present Nationalist Political Rhetoric in Finland: Changes and Continuities

Abstract

This article focuses on nationalist political rhetoric in two historical periods in Finland. We analysed the rhetorical changes and continuities in anticommunist newspaper articles from the past (1930s) and in anti-Islam blogs in the present (2010s). We identified two similar discourses in the political rhetoric of both eras, each discourse constructed around two different Others: the external Other, the stranger from the outside world, and the internal Others, those within our own society. Our analysis identified some significant differences pertaining to the form of the rhetoric in the two studied time periods. The writers in the past used unproblematic and blatant rhetoric that often relied on metaphorical and hyperbolic expressions. The present-day bloggers painted a negative picture of the Other more often than did their counterparts of the 1930s by using factuality-enhancing strategies such as giving details, citing statistics, and drawing on expert knowledge. Importantly, moreover, the present-day discourse was characterised by defensive and counterattacking rhetorical formulations, as illustrated by the extensive denials and reversals of racism. Our analysis suggests that the discourse of Otherness seems to require much more rhetorical work and justifying proclamations in the present than in the past nationalist political rhetoric.