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?
I assume politics goes through generational pendulum swings.
I cant speak to european causes, but as Americas’ culture tends to set the pace of world events since the end of the second world war, it’s entirely possible that there is a connection.
in the united states you need to know about two individuals that are primarily responsible for the rise of right wing populism and corporatocracy. The first is a Proto-Christian Nationalist and white supremacist by the name of Barry Goldwater, and the other was a Neo-Calvinist and Objectivist “thinker”* Lewis F. Powell, Jr. (*and I use the term loosely)
Barry Goldwater was a driving force in opposition to the civil rights movement, and primary architect of the modern Conservative platform. He played a rather large part in the Great Lane Swap where Southern Democrats switched to the Republican Party and Northern Republicans became the core of centrist Neoliberalism.
Where Lewis Powell comes into the mix is his treatment (now known simply as the “Powell Memorandum”) called “Attack On the American Free Enterprise system” where he bemoans Corporate regulation as “holding back” the potential of not just American but Western Capitalism to enrich those who he deems worthy of greatness. (If you are familiar with the writings of Ayn Rand, this kind of “why do I need to share?!” Objectivist whining should sound similar.)
In both cases, they set up the groundwork and built the nascent foundations of the conservative political strategy we see to day that has resulted in much of the worlds’ oligarchic tendencies. Goldwater’s contribution was to recognize that conservative messaging had an image problem and rather than accept that the message was the problem, it was the recipients of that message who needed to be controlled and reeducated. To that end he further recognised that what kept the populace averse to conservative messaging was the Institutions of Liberal Democracy, namely free access to education, the social safety net, and strong labor movements. By eradicating these pillars where able, and eroding their influence continually, this would allow a formation of a systemic return to fundamentalist christianity as the fall back for what he deemed a corrupt and wonten society. (To wit; This guy would have thought “The Handmaid’s Tale” was a fine book if only the main narrator was one of the men leading Galead, and not the woman who’s rights had been stripped away.)
Powell, on the other hand, was a corporate lawyer by trade, and the person most responsible for corporate deregulation and “trickle-down economics.” He promoted the idea that “a rising tide lifts all boats” as a justification for these actions, and used outmoded Calvinist ideas (just given a fresh coat of paint for the times) to justify the rule that the economically unsuccessful should move out of the way for those who could maintain economic success, and that such a system would be a driver of economic mobility by “encouraging” people to take agency in their own social status (Read: He thought the welfare state made people lazy and that forcing them to face a choice between destitution or participation would be a motivating factor for them to work harder, and thus increase profits at the top, which would then percolate down as the wealthy invested in new opportunities and ideas.) He saw labor unions as not just Socialist Infections but as the driving force preventing these phantom profits from bubbling up to those who he believed would be most suited to “properly” distributing them. If this sounds alot like “the peasantry don’t know how to spend their money, better to let the nobility have it” congrats, you win a gold star.
In both cases, the philosophies meshed very well as each supported the goals and methods of the other. By deregulating business, it allowed corporations to attack traditional power bases of the left wing, entrenching a kind of Capitalist Nobility as the only people who could actually make it in the new system, and blinding the working class to the fact that social mobility was little more than a myth used as a ideological carrot on a stick that kept productivity KPIs artificially high.
Other factors that lead to this situation are supreme court rulings in the 1920’s, specifically Henry Ford Vs. The Dodge Brothers, that inadvertently set the precedent that the point of any business was not to enrich its workers evenly or even commensurately with its owners, but to maximize profits to the shareholders. Another stumbling block for Leftist thought is Article One of N.A.T.O. which states that every member state must engage in a capitalist free market economy - a damn shame because otherwise N.A.T.O. is one of, if not the, most important defensive alliance in the promotion of omnipax world politics in human history. (Not to say it has always been successful toward that goal, mind.) Even more than the United Nations, in many regards.
That last bit may be more salient to the European perspective, as there is STILL a mindset of eurocentrism even as the world becomes more globalist and western influence wanes now that the age of colonialism is largely over. Mass migrations due to the policies of unchecked corporate power causing the lands these migrants hail from despoiled and unlivable, makes the supporters of these same mentalities quite ironic. Instead of bemoaning the influx of such individuals, and chafe at their presence, one would think that expending resources and investing to improve the living conditions of these places such that immigration from them be unnecessary, would be a more adroit course of action, and yet here we are. It’s easier to complain that the world is ugly than face the fact that your ideology is partly to blame, I suppose.
The left refusal to acknowledge preocupation of the population. The willing to believe in infinite redistribution and that all cause are equal and must be defend.
I’m gonna take one exemple. Immigration. For real. Find me one argument about it that immigration is in my best interest. U can’t. But in front of the massive disproval your only answer is to call this massive electorate facist racist and so on. I dont care about them. It doesn’t serve my interest, quite the opposite. Everywhere where anti immigration sentiment is at an all time high the right rise.
Politics isn’t being nice it’s being pragmatic. And if I live in a country with strong redistribution letting ppl freely come that are net negative contributor impact the standard of living of everybody. I dont care if they are sad if their shithole country is in constant state of war. I specifically dont want ppl that created this state of things to come into my country to recreate thoses states.
It has nothing to do with infinite money being push to convey ppl. U could also have infinite money but you will never convince me to vote for other interest while being unfavorable to me. U can try to convince ppl the impact isn’t big but that s a lie easily disproven simply with my own eyes in my own life everyday of it.
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.
The insanity of the far left
this will likely be downvoted to hell but it’s true
People feel betrayed because they can’t feel the benefits of economic growth. Jobs aren’t safe anymore. But funding a family still requires a stable income. Humans love having social and economic security. If a government refuses to make that happen, they will vote for whoever promises to punish the old government - even if no fix for any of the actual problems is proposed.
If you are a politician, the solution is disgustingly trivial: stop taking bribes and do your job. Governments are infrastructure. They are meant to support the people governed by them.
So far the solution implemented by the big old parties was to double down on making everyone but the Epstein class poorer until voter morale improves.epstein class. they are always the reason for shittification of the world. always
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?
It takes familiarity. It is likely why urban areas tend to be more liberal than spread out rural areas.
Sounds so very 1984
“GOLDSTEIN! GOLDSTEIN!!!” They cried out
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
Same thing that happened to the US.
I see a lot of blame on “brainless idiots” or similar labels when discussing this, but I think that’s dismissive of issues many parties seems to be ignoring, or exacerbating, and that the alt-right is pouncing on.
Not everyone who voted Trump is an idiot, and doubling down on that thinking will make the issue worse.
Another is that the far-right parties tend to be “modern” and very social media savvy, whereas establishment centrist parties are out of touch, and campaign in archaic ways. And (from my impression on the outside) the more leftist European parties are prone to disunity and infighting. They don’t benefit from scandal and controversy like the far right does.
You’re right, they’re not all dumb. A lot of them are just plain evil.
This is dismissive.
I know otherwise smart, college or post grad people who voted Trump. I know working professionals, who aren’t religious or anything, who would probably vote for him again over whatever Dem runs. And the left blanket labeling them as evil idiots is exactly what Fox News, WSJ, or their social feeds harp on.
I’m not trying to drag the US into this, I’m just positing that Europe is falling into the same trap. You can dismiss these people, but the far right won’t; they will happily take their vote.
Yeah that’s a good way to win elections.
Cowardice.
The predominant online presence of leftist anarchists all but vanished as corporations and social media took root. For a long time the corporate world remained skeptical of the internet. It was “just a fad” that would go away eventually. They started buying everything up, monopolizing, and controlling the narratives.
I have no doubt the fediverse makes them nervous again like they haven’t been in years. There are obvious bad actors running around these parts.
it makes the powerful people more money and power
that’s about it. also people are selfish and dumb and buy into it because they’re selfish and dumb
Anti-immigration sentiment and Islamophobia have surged in Western and Central Europe, especially when many of the establishment parties have made moves to increase immigration, i.e. the Boriswave in the UK, enacted by the centre-right party that wooed voters just months earlier by promising to “Get Brexit Done.”
Can’t really elaborate on the rise of National Rally in France and the AfD in Germany, but here in the UK we’ve had grooming gang scandals that have led to several national inquiries, numerous protests focused around the use of hotels to house asylum seekers, and three riots in the last two years which were sparked by violent crimes.
The internet and very wealthy, very evil people.



