On the Laughable Origins of the Far Right’s Beloved “Great Replacement Theory” Ibram X. Kendi Explains How a Fringe Idea Made Its Way From Rural France to the Heart of American PowerA novelist visited southern France during one of the final years of the twentieth century. When Camus first imagined great replacement theory in Hérault on the eve of the twenty-first century, his conspiracy theory staggered around the fringes of global politics. When he published The Great Replacement in 2011, politicians had already started using the theory on voters in multiple countries. The actual protagonists in this story are the great replacement financiers, politicians, theorists, and soldiers. They are striving to bring into being the actual great replacement humans should fear in the twenty-first century: the replacement of democracy with dictatorship.

Source: The North Africa Journal March 18, 2026 11:56 UTC