Helen Smith

So what can we learn in Australia as onlookers?

She joins me now.

Deborah, why are people describing Charlottesville as the birthplace of the far right in the US?

Is that fair to say?

So for those who might not remember, can you explain what happened in 2017 at that Unite the Right rally?

Some people do see the Unite the Right rally as a Trump era phenomenon, but you've argued that the conditions for it were building long before Donald Trump entered politics.

How was the groundwork laid decades earlier?

You've spoken about how local activists, they say that they saw the danger coming in Charlottesville while the police and FBI seemed blind to it from the outside.

And we've also had similar narratives here in Australia recently with a rise in protests, which people are calling from the far right, and also people who are outwardly saying that they are neo-Nazis, for example.

Why do you think institutions are so consistently, and this is quote, unwilling to grasp the threat of far-right violence until it's too late?

Or is that just what it seems like from the outset of the public?

A lot of the resistance in Charlottesville came from younger activists.

But today we're also hearing concerns about Gen Z encountering far-right ideals or ideas online.

Do you see young people as a key line of defense against these movements or are they a generation that's also being actively targeted by them?

Here in Australia, ASIO, our Australian intelligence, has recently warned that nationalist and racist violent extremists are trying to mainstream their movement.

Based on your historical work, what's the most dangerous stage of mainstreaming radical movements?

You just mentioned they're both sides.

And after Charlottesville happened in 2017, there was a lot of commentary and back and forth about what Donald Trump said about being fine people on both sides.

Could you unpack what happened there a little bit?

It's scary times.