The Extremes in Finland | Matti Virtanen | Negotiator 67

Summary

Journalist and author Matti Virtanen discusses his forthcoming book on political extremes and identity politics. The conversation traces identity politics back to 1970s America, sets out Eric Hobsbawm’s defence of universalism against fragmentation into identity groups, and works through what it looks like in Finland: the National Coalition’s stress test in the Helsinki mayoral race, Atte Kaleva’s communist joke and its aftermath, the Finns Party as an economically left-wing party, and Orbán’s state-led economy. In the second half: Fukuyama’s thymos and the demand for special status, the argument over compensation by skin colour, antiracism against colourblindness, the trans law and the fight over word choices, and Virtanen’s reporting trips to Sápmi and to nationalist circles. It closes on how the pandemic divides people into the fearful and the enraged, and what that does to political identity.

Chapters

• 00:00 — The starting points of the extremes debate
• 00:40 — Introducing journalist Matti Virtanen
• 01:42 — Why Finland needs its own analysis of identity
• 02:25 — The roots of identity politics in 1970s America
• 04:00 — Hobsbawm and the defence of universalism
• 06:17 — The National Coalition’s stress test in Helsinki
• 07:57 — Vapaavuori’s line and positioning the party
• 09:19 — Vartiainen and Lepomäki enter the mayoral race
• 12:57 — The Vastaamo data breach and Piha’s withdrawal
• 14:08 — The problems with value maps and axes
• 14:59 — Atte Kaleva’s communist joke and the fallout
• 16:36 — The Finns Party as an economically left-wing party
• 17:34 — Orbán, Fidesz and a state-led economy
• 19:00 — Thymos and the demand for special status
• 23:41 — Compensation by skin colour does not work
• 24:41 — Antiracism, colourblindness and allyship
• 27:11 — J.K. Rowling and the definition of sex
• 29:25 — The trans law and the battle over word choices
• 31:04 — Peak wokeness in Finland
• 33:15 — The National Theatre, the translator dispute and representation
• 37:11 — Cultural appropriation and the Sámi question
• 42:10 — A visit among the nationalists
• 44:55 — Trumpism and the future of the Republicans
• 47:43 — The book’s title and the birth of “people of sense”
• 49:32 — COVID divides people into the fearful and the enraged
• 53:46 — The media fragments and the extremes find channels
• 57:00 — Finland-Swedish identity and bilingualism
• 59:55 — Hungary without a domestic minority language
• 1:02:45 — Topics left out of the book

Watch

The recording lives on the Neuvottelija channel: Ääripäät Suomessa | Matti Virtanen | Neuvottelija 67. A Finnish edition of this episode is published at www.neuvottelija.fi.