When people feel their needs aren’t being met by mainstream political parties, they seek answers in the fringes.
This is frightening and seems to be happening all over the Western world. Personally, I think people are struggling with the social disconnect brought by technology, with the smaller family sizes required by economic and climate conditions, with the simmering dread brought on by climate change, and an increasing rage as the struggling middle and lower classes are inundated with daily news of billionaires engaging in frivolity, waste, and/or crimes against the most vulnerable members of our society. People are becoming cynical and angry. They don’t see the future as bright.
In a situation like that, people seek alternatives to the status quo. What could be more attractive than a political view based on returning to old times? They want the return of economic security, stronger family units, more disposable income for leisure, and all the other real or perceived benefits of times past. They think that getting there will require us to embrace the other things we are trying to leave behind - racism, sexism, perhaps even war and genocide in some of the more extreme fringes.
We can see it globally in the left wing too. This is where the terms conservative and progressive really shine as being good descriptors. Conservatives want to go back to the glory days. The more extreme they are, the more willing they are to embrace the worst parts of our past. Progressives/liberals want to move forward. The more extreme they are, the more they are willing to try radical new things that sound like fantasy or science fiction. Progressives are often willing to upend massive social and economic structures to try new things. I find myself in this camp, and sometimes I step outside myself and admit that I have some pretty extreme views. I once told my conservative uncle that I would absolutely be willing to eat my food in pill form, edit my genes so I could live forever, change my brain chemistry so I could be happy all the time. He was shocked and said those things were inhuman and evil.
I don’t believe that we can convert people back to the mainstream unless the mainstream starts to meet their needs. Nations with hungry, lonely, and unfulfilled people are probably good breeding grounds for revolution, in my opinion. Unfortunately, revolutions aren’t always good. Bad actors often take advantage of instability.
It doesn’t explain however how people who suffer from this still not end up clinging to political extremists. Especially in Germany we should be educated enough about this matter due to our own history. I’m dreading the future too, I’m at the point where I lost all hope, but I still can’t understand why people go and vote for the AfD or similar parties in different countries. In fact, this just adds to my point of view that humanity is fucked.
Oh no, Germany, not again! You have already tried this, remember?
I think that’s absolutely right. The fact that the far right is also on the rise in other countries should not distract from the special responsibility of German citizens. Especially since many AFD voters often use this as an argument: “If other countries are nationalistic, why shouldn’t we be?”
We all have to do what we can, where we can. I am not saying Germans are any worse than any one else. Fascism is an ideology and can grow anywhere.
I was curious what that looks like on the American side.
26% of the U.S. population qualified as highly right-wing authoritarian, Morning Consult research found, twice the share of the No. 2 countries, Canada and Australia.
https://pro.morningconsult.com/trend-setters/global-right-wing-authoritarian-test
How original.
I thought it was. Sorry if it wasn’t.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
This is the result of a study by a team at Bielefeld University commissioned by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, which is politically aligned with Germany’s center-left Social Democratic Party.
Currently, across all age groups, between 5-7% of those surveyed support a dictatorship with a single strong party and leader for Germany.
Many people are racking their brains over how these developments can be stopped and turned around — including researcher Zick, who pointed out that we live in times in which appeals or improved welfare policies are only partially able to placate conflicts, dissatisfaction and protests.
“When people in the mainstream or center, who do not consider themselves right-wing extremist or organize as such, adopt attitudes from the right-wing-extremist fringes of society, then democracy is in danger.”
It’s against this backdrop that Zick sees the study as a part of the culture of remembrance in Germany, directly referencing the Nazi dictatorship of 1933 – 1945:
They called for isolation from the outside world and considered supposedly German values, virtues and duties to be essential to dealing with the crises.
The original article contains 733 words, the summary contains 173 words. Saved 76%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
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