Frankly, I am so done with media "explaining" the electoral successes of right-wing and fascist parties/candidates in many parts of this world as "people" being "fed up" with "the usual" politics. Really? Then how come, e.g., Black voters don't provide right-wing majorities, if it's all just about class related status quo? Could it actually mean that large sections of our societies harbor racist, homophobic, and antisemitic hate and really support authoritarianism? It's all so mysterious, innit.
And the people who are, truly, fed up with the status quo (which is a much larger and more diverse group than commonly acknowledged in NYT Midwest Diner stories): why is your first impulse to take a sharp right turn, then? Because, historically, that has worked out so well for laborers? You're not voting against your own interests, though, if your primary interest is white supremacy. That is an entirely rational decision if your priority is to keep "those people" further down than you.
@historleans At least half the role of political rhetoric, or so I often think, is to aid speakers and listeners alike in avoiding full awareness of what they say, believe, or feel.
Call it the Not See ideology.
@historleans It seems to me that the right wing is very good at offering simple answers to difficult questions. Unfortunately the old “we” vs “them”, whatever the two sides may be, still works very well. “The left” appears to struggle in explaining the complexity of all the turmoil around us. That’s from a German viewpoint that is.
@historleans giiiirl! just blocked an asshat because apparently it only has to happen to white people for it to be considered Fascism. as if it weren't the #1 American export.
@historleans Not taking it for granted that liberal electoral democracy is a satisfactory end-goal, it might be worth demanding that it be properly implemented, in the form of proportional representation. Make reactionaries show their true colours. If perchance you achieve PR, some of the anomalies you list will be mitigated, creating better conditions for further struggle.
@michaelgraaf @historleans In Slovakia, we have had PR for a long time, and yet the ("left wing") populist party won (again) and we are lucky the outright 1940s-style Hlinka Guard Nazis didn't make it in this time.
@pkraus @historleans The comment was directed at the imperial core countries, which have elaborate methods of maintaining minority electoral victories (electoral colleges, gerrymandering etc).
@historleans "Voters are so fed up with the status quo that they're electing government parties that are often idefined by their intent to bring us to a previous *even more* status quo."
@historleans I think it is important to point that when media says things like this, _it is repeating the rhetoric of the fascists_.
The fascists love to paint themselves as anti-establishment. The "third way", the "new state", cleaning up the corrupt politicians, etc. They are always lying.
Sure, some people will buy into this part specifically. But focusing on this one thing is promoting the fascist narrative of what they represent.
@eldaking Great point, thank you!
@eldaking @historleans it's like that Brexit fascist that the BBC and ITV keep promoting. It's difficult to be more part of the establishment than a privately educated stockbroker who now has a commentary show on a repeatedly-penalised extremist "news" channel, yet his supporters still see him as some short of Robin Hood
@mjr @eldaking Yes, it seems to be a two-level denial of some sort: taking the self-descriptions of right-wingers at face value a lot of the time, but also pretending that everyone who says they're a "fed up" voter/supposedly "apolitical" actually is and/or attributing this to them when the motivations are, actually, quite clear.
@historleans makes as much sense as homeopathy
@historleans they should explain it for what it really is: loud mouths fooling people into letting them live off of tax money and serving their rich buddies by rambling about vague issues.
People are stupid enough to fall for that again and again.
@historleans this is what I keep telling people. A lot of them are passive about this fascism because they don’t mind the fascism, long as they’re on the right side of it. Very scary. Can’t trust humans anymore.