“No to Bill Gates!” “No to forced vaccination!” “We want freedom from the Covid dictatorship!” Slogans like these, influenced by conspiracy theory, were heard in Switzerland at anti-Covid rallies in 2020 and 2021. As in other countries, the marches attracted a mixed crowd – from ageing hippies, yoga teachers and local green alternative-left politicians, to self-styled nation-loving libertarians and the avowed far right.
On the back of the pandemic arose the “Querdenker” movement, a protest group that defies conventional political categorisation. Many who took part in the demonstrations identify as “Querdenker” (literally “lateral thinkers”). Not only do they vehemently oppose government policy on Covid, but they also dissent on other matters like the Russia-Ukraine war and climate change. They dismiss the “mainstream media” and rail against the scientific community and the shadowy “elite” (governments and multinationals) who supposedly control us. “Querdenker” view themselves as the enlightened ones. The rest of us are docile sheep for wearing masks and getting vaccinated.
How should we interpret this movement? Sociologist of literature, Carolin Amlinger, and sociologist professor Oliver Nachtwey, both of whom lecture at the University of Basel, searched for answers while the pandemic was still ongoing. In a study entitled “Gekränkte Freiheit” (Offended freedom), which they published at the end of 2022, Amlinger and Nachtwey surveyed over a thousand “Querdenker” in Germany and Switzerland, a dozen of whom they interviewed at length. They witnessed anti-Covid demos first hand and monitored social media, coming to the conclusion that what we are seeing is “libertarian authoritarianism”.
Not that the “Querdenker” cling to any leader. “If anything, many of them tend to be anti-authoritarian in outlook,” Amlinger and Nachtwey write. Their individual freedoms are non-negotiable, on the other hand. And they defend these with strong-arming, “anti-authoritarian authoritarian” aggression. Unlike other freedom fighters, continue the authors, “Querdenker” view freedom not as a shared social condition but as a form of individual self-realisation without social responsibility.
According to Amlinger and Nachtwey, theirs is an egocentric freedom. When the promise of individual self-realisation is unfulfilled, this harbours potential for offence that can turn into frustration, resentment and a sense of impotence. What can we do to prevent people from repudiating society in this way? Freedom needs to be seen and conveyed “as being something profoundly social”, this insightful book concludes.
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