[rayiner]

My point is that this analysis conflates ordinary democratic nationalism with anti-democratic right wing extremism.

Most people in the world don’t like outsiders, and don’t like the idea of people from outside their country immigrating and changing their country’s culture. Take for example the Japanese. Maybe that makes them “xenophobic” (although I don’t think even that’s accurate) but they certainly aren’t “anti-democratic.” To the contrary, it’s a Democratic sentiment. The people broadly agree that they like their culture and it wouldn’t be good for outsiders to change it. India is a another good example. Hindu nationalism is highly democratic, insofar as it’s broadly supported by the body politic. By contrast, Indian secularism is anti-democratic. It was established by an elite, British educated minority, and is crumbling as ordinary people attain greater political power in the country: https://unherd.com/2021/04/the-culture-wars-of-post-colonial...