In his book The declinistsAlain Roy dismantles the twisted rhetoric of the proponents of the “great replacement”, Éric Zemmour and Mathieu Bock-Côté in the lead.
The big replacement, do you know?
This theory suggests that France is undergoing a “change of people” for the benefit of African and Arab populations. That if nothing is done, the country will become predominantly Muslim, while “native” French people will be in the minority.
The issue of immigration is certainly real in France – as in other Western countries, moreover.
But this conspiracy thesis, launched in 2010 by Renaud Camus, is still surprising in its radicality.
Even more astonishing: it has continued to be recovered by other thinkers, who modulate and enrich it in their own way, allowing it to infuse society. mainstream and to establish itself as a popular far-right concept, or even as a political program.
It is to curb this “great influence” that Quebecer Alain Roy decided to attack the promoters of this controversial theory.
In 150 short pages, the author questions the writings of Renaud Camus (The big replacement), but also the politician Éric Zemmour (French suicide), by the author Michel Houellebecq (Submission), philosophers Michel Onfray (Decadence) and Alain Finkielkraut (The unhappy identity) and the Quebec sociologist Mathieu Bock-Côté (Multiculturalism as a political religion), who has become the darling of the French right-wing media.
Alain Roy advances methodically. Dissect each other’s arguments. Criticize their intolerance. Their bad faith. Their intellectual shortcuts. Their reflexive weaknesses.
Alain Roy denounces the lack of factual data in Camus and Finkielkraut. Varlope Zemmour’s victimizing and paranoid speech (surprising in passing that he was able to run for the presidency of the Republic). Highlights Bock-Côté’s tendentious rhetoric. Points out the inconsistencies of Houellebecq and the contradictions of Onfray.
“Their works present themselves as documented essays, but above all they represent pamphlets filled with humbug,” he concludes at the end of his work. What drives them is less the desire to understand the nature of the phenomena discussed than the desire to attack the hated object. »
Alain Roy is not the first to denounce the xenophobic, even racist, theses of these contemporary intellectuals. In France, left-wing newspapers and media have continued to sound the alarm, while there we are witnessing an inexorable rise of the far right. But it has the merit of grouping the shooting in a single work, thereby facilitating our overall vision. The argument is simple and accessible, although the author sometimes gets carried away by his own subjectivity and personal judgment. When the petticoat sticks out too much, there is a risk of only preaching to the converted…
Finally, we may be surprised that the exercise was carried out by a Quebecer. But it must be remembered that declinist theories are not exclusive to France. According to a survey by the UNESCO Chair in Prevention of Radicalization and Extremism made public in 2022, approximately 15% of Quebecers adhere to the “great replacement” theory.
According to the latest census (2021), the Muslim population in Canada is approximately 5%.
Extract
“The declinist discourse is full of an exacerbated emotionality which prevents a calm and thoughtful examination of the questions raised. Balancing between hysteria, paranoia, hatred, fear and depression, this speech above all gives the impression of a release for agitated, even unstable minds. »
Who is Alain Roy?
Alain Roy is founder and director of the journal Disadvantageauthor of five books published by Boréal and winner of the 2012 Governor General’s Award for his translation of the biography of Glenn Gould.
The declinists
Ecosociety
152 pages