College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

Spring 6-14-2024

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Christine Reyna, PhD

Second Advisor

Molly Brown, PhD

Abstract

In the last decade, the U.S. has seen a significant uptick in White nationalist ideology, particularly because individuals espousing these extremist ideologies believe their group and the U.S. are under attack by non-White groups (Osborne et al., 2019). As a result, there are prevailing narratives that are used as patriotic rallying cries that center around the desire to progress the country towards White nationalist ideals (e.g., a country for a by White people), to regress the country back to a time where White people had their own eco-system of Whiteness (i.e., the golden days), and to protect and fight for the country they hold near and dear to their hearts (i.e., the U.S.). The present research examined patriotic rhetoric within White nationalist spaces utilizing RStudio and deductive analyses to investigate how various manifestations of patriotism (e.g., progressive, regressive, and protective) manifest. After collecting 50 quotes from various White nationalist websites, this investigation found that progressive patriotism manifested as calls to progress the county towards a reform to make the U.S. an all-White nation or to completely secede from the U.S. (research question 1). In addition, results indicated that regressive patriotism manifested as calls to bring the U.S. back to a time where White people lived in their own segregated communities (i.e., the golden days) (research question 2). Moreover, findings indicated that protective patriotism manifested as calls to protect and fight for the U.S. (research question 3). Finally, for the White nationalist groups in this sample, we found there was this condemning of returning the U.S. to how things used to be (i.e., regressive patriotism) and we found that our progressive and protective patriotism constructs interacted with one another (research question 4). The ecological implications of White nationalist ideology and avenues for further research are discussed.

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