diagonalism en · NOUN
Etymology
From diagonal + -ism, based on German Querdenken (literally “diagonal thinking”). Coined by Canadian historian and professor Quinn Slobodian and political scientist William Callison in the context of the German Querdenker (“anti-vaxx”) movement during the COVID-19 pandemic, see quotations.
Meanings
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(uncommon, uncountable) The coming together of antagonistic groups around one issue on which they find common ground, for instance the rejection of vaccination.
I think a lot of that diagonalism came together with people in the new age wellness world who were saying: I have a powerful immune system. I don’t need your vaccines.
2026 March 20, Ezra Klein, quoting Naomi Klein, “We’re All Living in the ‘Mirror World’ Now”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:Just as this book takes on the more general topic of the rise in political polarization and far-right populism in online communication, and therefore is not just about diagonalism, Chapter 4 also has a more general application beyond the analysis of diagonalist discourse.
2026, David Block, chapter 1, in Diagonalism in Online Populist Discourse: Left Moving Right, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN:Diagonalism reminds us that universal Internet access, the attention-absorbing power of social media platforms, and the dynamics of “incitement capitalism” have left the state’s official script ragged with perforations and made space for hostile counterpublics, agents of “disinfotainment,” social movements of rabbit holes, gig conspiracies for the gig economy.
2021 January 12, William Callison, Quinn Slobodian, “Coronapolitics from the Reichstag to the Capitol”, in Boston Review: