How the far right is infiltrating the codes of well-being

Morning routine at 5am. Detox smoothie with "natural" ingredients. Advice on how to "take control" of your health. On Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, wellness and personal development content is proliferating. On the face of it, there's nothing very worrying about it: eating better, doing sport, limiting ultra-processed products or seeking a healthier lifestyle are aspirations that are widely shared. But behind some of the rhetoric about well-being and "pure" food lies a world that is much more radical than it seems. As the videos progress, health advice can gradually drift towards anti-vaccine content, masculinist discourse, conspiracy theories or an obsession with the "purity" of the body and society.

The shift is often subtle. A few publications on the supposed dangers of industrial food or the benefits of raw milk can quickly find themselves alongside videos denouncing a society "weakened" by feminism, institutions or modernity. Social network algorithms play a central role here, linking together fitness, lifestyle, virilist and identity-related content. "The body is a metaphor", says Catherine Tebaldi, an anthropologist and linguist at the University of Luxembourg, who studies cultural and ideological practices in extreme right-wing circles. Behind the injunctions to "purify" one's diet or optimise one's body lie visions of the world, social hierarchies and political imaginations.

From detox smoothies to soy boys

In these online communities, food is never just a question of nutrition. Certain foods become ideological symbols. Raw milk is presented as "purer", more "natural". Red meat becomes a marker of virility. Conversely, vegetarian products and soya are sometimes associated with a supposed 'feminisation' of men. "Food becomes pure or impure", explains Catherine Tebaldi. The researcher observes in this content a fascination with a return to a supposedly original nature, often associated with highly hierarchical visions of social and gender relations. "Anything that isn't 'raw' or 'natural' becomes suspect", she sums up. Some influencers pit "natural" products against modern society, which is seen as artificial, decadent or weakening.

In her interview with the Lëtzebuerger Journal, the researcher cites the discourse surrounding "carnivorous" diets and communities obsessed with male physical performance. On TikTok and YouTube, influencers stage ultra-codified routines: waking up before dawn, massive consumption of proteins, rejection of foods considered "toxic", intensive training sessions and constant optimisation of the body.