It’s been reported that in the German elections, a far right party has made ‘significant gains’.
In the UK (at least before the scandals) Reform UK seems to have had a significant boost and has even surpassed the right-wing Conservative Party in some polls/predictions.
Even France, one or two years ago, was threatened with a far-right government due to the French far right party gaining a lot of support.
It feels like in the last few years, the far-right has exceeded itself and had a surge in popularity. Is this the case? And if so, wtf is fuelling it?
Billionaires. It’s not just a coincidence that so many countries are shifting far right. In any sane society, billionaires wouldn’t exist while there are homeless people living on the street
Billionaires. They fund right-wring advocates, because tearing down establishment concepts like “rule of law”, “industrial standards”, “equality”, and so forth is very useful to the wealthy.
- Rising costs / decline in incomes
- Failing infrastructure
- Decline in education
- Repression of history
- Brainwash through social media
- Nostalgia
Inequality and decades of painting anything left as evil communism.
Plus liberals would rather hand the reins to fascists than socialists.
The Left is for sure partly responsible.
There’s a lot of things the ‘left’ will not address or even admit is a problem. There’s a stubbornness to them that is undoing them.
On top of them not being actually on the left… And apparently hating the actual left to the point of happily destroying themselves.
What are you actually trying to say? It’s extremely vague and hard to get at your point.
???
If you switch the first two instances of “left” with “US Democrats” then it kinda makes sense. Maybe that’s it?
Even though it is a right-of-center party on the global stage, there are a LOT of people in the US who think the Democrats are literally far left wing, full-on Marxists. That’s what they are told by the people who engage their attention.
I wish.
So this is why people don’t like your comment:
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It’s vague. You’re not actually taking a specific stance on anything; you’re just vaguely complaining about “things” that the left will not address, and “stubbornness”, so that someone can fill in the gaps with something it would be reasonable to complain about.
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It has the appearance of someone conflating “Leftism” with “The Democratic Party of the United States.” That’s generally bad form.
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The context of this post is a worldwide rise in right-wing views, so the above point is even worse than normal. Whatever issue you’re thinking of (which we don’t know, because you’re not actually taking a position, per the first point), it’s possible it isn’t associated with Leftism outside of the US at all.
No one can tell you that you’re wrong if you never actually make a specific claim, right?
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Not everyone is american bud
There’s an actual German party called The Left. You capitalized it, yet I still don’t think you’re referring to them. You’re just dumb and barely literate. You go on to out it in quotes. ??? If you are referring to the party, they won locally and are on the rise. They’re offering something the center doesn’t, an off-road to an unpopular war and sanctions that’s only hurt them and helped American billionaires. They’re offering something the right doesn’t, Mamdani-like reforms in Berlin.
Democracy works when you offer what your electorate need, not what your donor demand.
Billionaires are pouring infinite money into right wing movements. They have no scruples and can pay anyone they need to get what they want done. The problem is capitalism because it creates extreme unelected power in an extremely small self interested minority. They also fund the power centers of the left to keep things from moving too far against them. Elections move on money far too much. In the end, you can’t have democracy and capitalism. Slowly capitalism always tries to swallow democracy.
not just the billionaires, but also state actors that want to see europe or britain or america or ‘the west’ in general, implode into chaos and disarray.
It’s an ouroboros. The ultra wealthy finance state actors till they become rich (insider trading,etc), then they enter the private sector and become even more filthy rich by getting executive jobs or board seats to lobby the next state actor they can corrupt. I always follow the money, because there are very few true believers actually in power.
Until actual power takes root. Ask how all those wealthy people who helped putin, stalin, mao, hitler into power did in the end.
Their wealth makes them powerful, that power makes them feel invincible. Until somone gains enough politial power to burry them.
See how quckly elon musk bent to trump when they started their little spat. Money is powerful, but the politically powerful still control the police and military.
Dictatorships hustorically are all supported by the wealthy. The wealthy think they can control the dictator. Then the dictator turns on them because he no longer needs their support.
I’m extremely curious, what “wealthy people” put the Bolsheviks and CPC into power? Russian workers and peasants, and the Chinese peasantry, are “wealthy?”
wealthy people who helped putin, stalin, mao
Stalin
Mao
What the fuck are you talking about?
You could interpret this as Stalin and Mao’s opposition to capitalist parasites as what put them into power.
Thanks for the help, kulaks!
You seem to be conflating democracy with capitalism, and history with a world of imagination.
Which actors from the State are you referring to?
It’s definitely what I want to see happening also, from the State of Washington.👍📉🔥
Yes yes, it’s all the fault of perfidious foreigners…
It is not capitalism itself, but rather representative systems of government that sooner or later lead to corrupt oligarchies.
Even socialist states have corrupt elites, so it doesn’t depend solely on the system of government.
But yes, with regard to our situation: Democratic capitalism is coming to an end, because democratic means cannot be used to exploit the population any faster or more intensely (though in a system based on infinite growth, this is a necessity)—which is why things are now becoming undemocratic once again.
Big money interfering. Social media was just the latest iteration, billionaires have been buying news outlets since we had news outlets.
Life is getting shit for everyone, but it’s a lot simpler and more accessible to blame a handful of brown people for everything. When a man in a tie says the same shit you’ve been saying down the pub, it’s too easy for people to fall into lockstep with them.
AFD does not have more billionaire donors than the mainstream parties. It’s the billionaire donors that are driving people to the AFD, as their interests in war and sanctions do not offer anything to the people. The Left party does offer something people actually want, peace, so they are on the rise also.
Billionaires in Germany do not openly donate to the AfD for fear of jeopardizing their businesses through potential consumer boycotts. Alois Müller is a good example of this.
You can still assume, however, that enough money is flowing into the party’s slush funds via front men, bypassing the officially reported party donations.
This phenomenon can be observed in all far-right parties. The American Republicans are an exception in this regard because they are not a new phenomenon, and the influence exerted by billionaires has been de facto legalized since the Citizens United Act.
Corporations are NOT people. We can certainly agree on that.
It’s a two-pronged attack.
One is russia. They have “chaos campaigns” going back decades just to sow discord and cause disruption in Europe. There’s no better discord and disruption than threatening the EU as a whole.
The second is big American businesses and billionaires, because they hate how the EU presents a unified front against their bullshit and actually forces them to do things that chip into the bottom line.
You can always trust Westerners to blame all their countries problems on sinister conspiracy by evil foreigners
Do you mean russian chaos doctrine? It’s not a conspiracy if it’s a very well documented fact almost 100 years old.
Or did you mean the billionaires thing?
Yeah man, the West’s problems are definitely the result of a hundred year old conspiracy.
Can you not read, friend? It’s not a conspiracy, it’s a destabilisation strategy. To quote the fragment from the article I sent you:
[The] playbook [is] nearly 100 years old. In 1923, the GPU (née KGB) founded an office dedicated to “dezinformatsiya.”
It’s literally one of the most known global strategies on the planet, mate.
Yeah man, the West’s problems are definitely the result of a hundred year old
conspiracy“strategy”.Everyone knows that those dastardly Russians invented the concept of “lying” in 1923
I mean, you can keep making an idiot out of yourself or… read the article I linked? I don’t know, your choice.
Oh my God, go back to reddit
In a way, it is a united reactionary front. And I don’t mean that as a pejorative, Vance has connections to the self-called Neoreactionary movement.
Weird how these two things are so opposed. How does this make sense to you? The mainstream parties lost because they tied their policies to an unpopular war and sanctions that destroyed the German economy and climate goals. This created a huge vacuum for AFD. The Left opposes arming Nazis in Ukraine and they won locally, if not nationally. Big winner: Nazis everywhere.
But yeah, Russia. That’s why you’re a loser. 🙄
Honestly, i genuinely believe that social media algorithms are being manipulated by billionaires to push an agenda that saves them from tax or accountability.I am centre left and try to mould fb and insta feeds by specifically flagging content i dislike or dont agree with and it keeps coming back. Some of the insane ‘stop the boats’ shit i see here in the uk from creators and bots i have never heard of or interacted with in anyway is very, very suspicious.
Agreed. It’s not an accident or an attempt to drive engagement. It is a targeted propaganda and influencing campaign. That’s the exact reason I am on Fediverse.
A couple years ago I cut way back on YouTube because it kept trying to steer me into right-wing bullshit. Example: I like construction and I have dreamed about building a cabin. I watched a few videos about timber frame structures. A couple about hand-made buildings. All of a sudden, I noticed that the creator of one video was building a cabin with a holstered gun. Weird, I thought - until I checked the new list of recommended videos. I had fallen into the alt-right prepper wasteland, just because I think nailing boards is fun.
Changes in the media landscape. Up to the 1990s, mainstream media in Western democracies were dominated by intellectuals, who are typically against racism and fascism. This gradually changed as media became more commercialized and sensationalist, a change that rapidly accelerated with the advent of social media, which is completely flooded by hate speech.
Economic reasons are often proposed, but this explanation falls flat considering the lack of a significant economic downturn since the 1990s, and the fact that we have seen fascists massively gaining popularity even in societies that are among the most prosperous in human history. This is especially obvious in Germany, where in East Germany (where the fascist strongholds are) the economic situation has in fact dramatically improved since the 90s.
Economic reasons are often proposed, but this explanation falls flat considering the lack of a significant economic downturn since the 1990s,
wut
The groups with strongest support for right wingers are not the poorest, it’s the middle manager class
Sure, maybe, but the question is how do you win an election? Middle management is by definition a minority.
A lot of the rest are just voting due to fear, and because they keep hearing these messages repeated by media and by this type of self interested people. You need to give people hope. You have a few good examples to copy like Mamdami, he figured out how to counter the propaganda.
Mamdami gives hope, but he also accurately identifies structural problems and ultimately, enemies, ie, he offers a cohesive worldview.
Democrats expressly don’t do that. They just offer bandaid solutions and ontological bewilderment…
Compared to any European country, the Democrats act like a coalition of 4-5 medium sized parties, not as a coherent single party.
With the near total absence of a socialist component, yeah.
I don’t mean there haven’t been recessions, just that on the whole the economic situation is not significantly worse (and in fact probably somewhat better) than in the 1990s.
The “on the whole” economic situation is not what you want to be looking at.
If you look at the real wage growth compared to expenses, life has been being getting grimmer and grimmer for the vast majority of individuals since the 1970s, even if GDP continues to climb.
Did you, in fact, look at real wage growth?
Here is data for the US specifically, which shows modest growth of median real wages over the past decades.
Edit: I’d also see the shift in the media landscape as a very conscious effort made by oligarchs to control the media landscape, including Reagan removing the Fairness Doctrine, and Fox News being explicitly created to allow Republican presidents to engage in criminal activity.
Not sure what you’re seeing. Everything I see things pointing to life getting worse and harder economically.
Rise in consumer debt: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CCLACBW027SBOG
Decline in housing affordability: https://worththen.com/tools/housing-affordability
Increase in student loand debt: https://thecollegeinvestor.com/32031/average-student-loan-debt-by-year/Medical bankruptcy is another thing to look into.
Culture is another window, maybe less valid. The idea behind the Simpsons was a family of 3 was barely scraping by, yet they owned two cars, a house, and Homer had a union job and no college degree, and usually Marge didn´t need to work. In the 1980’s Anthony’s Song complained about, “Who needs a house out in Hackensack? Is that all you get for your money?” would be a flop today because a house out in Hackensack isn’t conformity, it’s just unattainable.
Well, even if we accept (which I don’t) that things like increasing student debt would be a major factor, how do you explain fascism being on the rise in many other (pretty much all of them) Western democracies? You can’t really use US-specific things like medical bankruptcy and student debt as explanations for a trend in societies where these aspects just are not relevant at all. Most Western democracies have universal access to health care and education.
The Fairness Doctrine, however, has clear parallels in other societies. Not because they have legislation similar to it (though some did or still do, like France) - but because even in those places where no such formal legislation exists, social media have almost completely negated the role journalists used to play in moderating public debate from a (relatively) neutral and, more importantly, non-fascist viewpoint.
You’re too smart to convince of anything.
Have a great rest of your day.
This only holds true when you use the metrics that wealthy people use to know how well the economy is doing for them. For the vast majority of people the economic situation has been worsening for decades.
By what metric more appropriate for ordinary people has the situation significantly worsened since the 1990s, on average across Western democracies?
Stagnant real wage growth, sure. Stagnant, so not significantly worse.
Health care? US-specific - how do you explain the massive growth of fascism in countries with reasonably well-functioning health care systems and universal health care?
Union membership? US-specific - how do you explain the massive growth of fascism in countries with 50%+ union membership rates, massively more politically influential unions and widespread collective wage bargaining?
Minimum wage? US-specific - how do you explain the massive growth of fascism in countries where even the minimum income (i.e., for the unemployed) is far above the US federal minimum wage?
Inequality? A global problem, to be sure. But how do you explain the massive growth of fascism even in countries with dramatically lower inequality, poverty and crime, and with universal access to health care and top-tier education? In fact, some of these countries are among the most egalitarian in human history since the advent of agriculture thousands of years ago.
Why did fascism emerge now as suddenly so much more popular? Could it be, perhaps, not something economic at all, but something else? Like maybe people being bombarded with fascist propaganda 24/7?
There was one particular morning in 2014 when Google dropped articles from The Daily Stormer directly into the personalized news feed widget on my phone. I grew up in the South, so I know the ins and outs of racism there. This was completely different. It was wildly genocidal anti-Semitism; straight up Nazi shit. Right there on my phone and presented as news.
That’s when I knew that something was seriously wrong.
social media, which is completely flooded by hate speech.
Well, you’re not wrong there.
Thats interesting, good explanation.
No it’s not, it’s a terrible explanation
but this explanation falls flat considering the lack of a significant economic downturn since the 1990s
…
How are people upvoting this? Wtf?
The media was always racist, they just hid it better… Sometimes.
Tech bros? Especially Peter Thiel. I thought this is common knowledge already.
The world is complex. Humans aren’t equipped to deal with that level of complexity. Also the amount of information we are bombarded with is far beyond what we have evolved to deal with.
The right offers a simple solution.
There is one group, “the other”, that is the root cause of all your problems. Get rid of them and everything will be swanky again.
This plays on one of our earliest and most ingrained senses of survival. As a social tribal species, we are very good at noticing things that are “like us” and “normal”. “Different” and “new” was a potential threat. It literally kept our species alive against far more powerful predators and competition from like species back we we huddled together against the dark night.
Unfortunately we’re just wired that way. It takes knowledge, wisdom and a healthy dose of curiosity/wonder to overcome that. Why do you think one of the first goals of the right is to dismantle education?
Sounds so very 1984
“GOLDSTEIN! GOLDSTEIN!!!” They cried out
Putin! Putin!
An infamous historic empire’s bloodthirsty nature is no news to me, but the Anglo American Empire has reached its end.
Russia has more natural resources than any other nation, ESPECIALLY per capita. That’s all you need to know about the West’s adversarial nature toward them.
Europe and America have never been satisfied without stealing what’s not theirs to feed this veracious appetite of the capitalist rulers.
It takes familiarity. It is likely why urban areas tend to be more liberal than spread out rural areas.
Also to add that the people with money and power control the game, they have total control over the news papers/channels/websites, the algorithms on social media, everything.
They push their agenda and whatever they need to keep us distracted, arguing, missing the actual things that matter and disillusioned to our ability to change the direction we are heading.
Power will always be in the interest of maintaining power.There is more than enough money and food to go around, there is the ability to throw our best and smartest at solving our problems and people as a whole generally are good and want to get along.
The cost of people with the mental sickness that allows them to disregard everybody else to continue endlessly sucking up every bit of power and money is immeasurable.The only real solution is to provide as much friction as possible. Push back when you can, be a voice of change or support somebody else who is that voice for you, dont be afraid to question your own beliefs, do what you can to help and be kind to your fellow human.
I agree that democracy doesn’t work without an informed and educated electorate. That’s why college should be free, like it is IN GERMANY.
It’s highly possible that at least some Germans voted for AFD because they’re the only major party offering an end to an unpopular war and sanctions that has destroyed the German economy and climate goals.
I’d probably just not vote at all, but I could understand how some might.
The problem is billionaires controlling policy, but not so much AFD’s policies.
But they’re fascists, so they will probably also support Ukraine once they get what they wanted. Power. Same as Trump’s empty promises on ending wars.
People are dissatisfied with the economy and the far-right says, “This is happening because of immigrants,” the left says, correctly, “This is happening because of billionaires,” while liberals just say, “This isn’t happening, everything is fine.” The far right’s narrative beats the liberal one because it at least acknowledges that people are struggling, even if the reasons and solutions it offers are totally wrong. Unless the economic conditions can be reversed, and the far-right are the only ones people see offering an alternative, the growth of the far-right is inevitable.
As for the left’s (correct) narrative that the billionaires are the problem, it has the advantage of actually being true and making sense, but it has the disadvantage of threatening monied interests, which are going to try their best to subvert and silence it. Billionaires will generally prefer to promote the far-right because it doesn’t threaten their interests.
However, the left’s narrative is the only thing that can really counter the right’s narrative. You can’t keep insisting there’s no problem as things get worse and worse and expect it to work. The left is weak right now and faces an uphill battle, but it’s a battle where there’s a possibility of winning, while the liberals are ultimately doomed.
Fear.
When people are afraid, they are less likely to help others, and want to protect their family and posessions.
Fear of what, nuclear war with Russia over something that only benefited America.
Fear is the fuel.
Scared people are selfish, and selfishness is the only common denominator in all right wing politics. They don’t have great visions of how to run a society. All they want is to stop someone else from having “their” piece of the imaginary pie.
It takes a lot more positive outlook to have the trust to build a society where people take care of someone they don’t know directly.
It started with the War on Terror of the 2000s destabilizing the Middle East and leading to an influx of refugees into Europe. White supremacists naturally freaked out when they saw more than one brown person, so this started an anti-immigrant sentiment which only continued to build throughout the years. Couple that with funding from rich white supremacists and propaganda from foreign agents like Steve Bannon, and here we are.
And the internet, it went mainstream in the 2000s, in everyone’s pockets by the mid 2010s. Where a village would have a couple of idiots, maybe a racist, maybe a pedo. They were all relatively isolated from others like them in the world. On the internet they banded together, like everyone else but without a society to tell them no, the impressionable and idiots started following the wrong people. Add in a rich sociopath on mainstream media and the foreign interference, and here we are
Left: why are bogans voting for Pauline Hanson
Left: well they’re evil white supremacists
Meanwhile Mohammed tells me we’re letting the wrong kind of people into this country (Indians).
Left: Only white people can be racist!
Until you accept that people everywhere hate mass immigration you have no fucking chance.
