‘Freedom of speech’ in the self-descriptions of the Estonian extreme right groupuscules

Abstract

This article analyses the processes of identification that prevail on the websites of the Estonian extreme right. The extreme-right activists tend to articulate their nationalist ideas by relying on the signifiers adopted from the generally accepted discourses of multiculturalism. In order to explain this seemingly incompatible meaning generation, we employ the concepts of the hegemonic logic of signification and the empty signifier, as elaborated by Laclau, as well as the concept of the self-description and the self-model from the theoretical framework of cultural semiotics. Our analysis is based on the unexpectedly insistent public feedback that followed the discussions of Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement ratification in Estonia.