Not only US politics. Romania is about to vote for a right wing extremist as their president, Germany is going to vote for a right wing, extremist party in February, France gave right wing extremists 30% of parliament, Spain voted for a right winger too, Hungary has had Victor Orban for years, and so on. All the while progressive and left leaning people either don’t vote, strategically vote for a center right party, or vote for some unknown, unimportant, backwater party that has no chance of doing anything in parliament.
Democracies ruled by the rich that do not invest in education, for sure. I’m certain that an educated populace would be less likely to turn to populism and fascism - but we currently do not have such a country…
Well, Germany isn’t that far along. It will vote for a conservative party first, which will do nothing to change the crumbling economy and infrastructure but will further cut social services, all this while normalizing far right talking points by trying to court the voters on the right fringe (who only ever vote for the original), while ignoring or even demonizing any position even slightly left. This will lay the groundwork for the fascists to take over after the next election. And once more conservatives will have helped fascists destroy democracy.
As someone living in Germany, I am so pissed at everyone for being pissed about the current government. It is a coalition of three parties that inherited a country that was led by one person for 16 years, post pandemic, and was hit with two huge wars that they are inevitably involved in. Cut them some slack, maybe? I honestly feel like I am the only one thinking they did quite OK. Give them some time (and fire Lindner) at least. But no, let’s be mad that they didn’t solve recession, climate change, didn’t establish world peace and got the country out of its stillstand of one and a half decades within three years.
I completely agree. They were constantly hamstrung by Lindner and his insistence on not taking new debt and still accomplished more in four years then Merkel in 16.
All the while progressive and left leaning people either don’t vote, strategically vote for a center right party, or vote for some unknown, unimportant, backwater party that has no chance of doing anything in parliament.
You forgot to vote for an established green or left party - which many countries do have. And if you think “not voting” is a valid option, then you’re part of the problem.
“Judean People’s Front!? We’re the People’s Front of Judea! And if there’s one thing we hate worse than the Romans, it’s the bleeding Judean People’s Front!”
The downvotes are proof of this. Why have a platform that improves the lives of everywhere, when you can act smug and support horrid policies that fascists love?
Centrist is the funniest political term ever. Most self-proclaimed centrists are actually further right than most self-proclaimed right-wing people, far less supportive of democracy, AND are also the least informed about political matters than either right-wing people or left-wing people. All of this has been verified by multiple studies, too.
Not only US politics. Romania is about to vote for a right wing extremist as their president, Germany is going to vote for a right wing, extremist party in February, France gave right wing extremists 30% of parliament, Spain voted for a right winger too, Hungary has had Victor Orban for years, and so on. All the while progressive and left leaning people either don’t vote, strategically vote for a center right party, or vote for some unknown, unimportant, backwater party that has no chance of doing anything in parliament.
This is not new though, Orwell pointed out in 1939 that demcroacies inevitability turn Fascist when times get harder.
Climate change will see that get even worse still.
Democracies ruled by the rich that do not invest in education, for sure. I’m certain that an educated populace would be less likely to turn to populism and fascism - but we currently do not have such a country…
Well, Germany isn’t that far along. It will vote for a conservative party first, which will do nothing to change the crumbling economy and infrastructure but will further cut social services, all this while normalizing far right talking points by trying to court the voters on the right fringe (who only ever vote for the original), while ignoring or even demonizing any position even slightly left. This will lay the groundwork for the fascists to take over after the next election. And once more conservatives will have helped fascists destroy democracy.
As someone living in Germany, I am so pissed at everyone for being pissed about the current government. It is a coalition of three parties that inherited a country that was led by one person for 16 years, post pandemic, and was hit with two huge wars that they are inevitably involved in. Cut them some slack, maybe? I honestly feel like I am the only one thinking they did quite OK. Give them some time (and fire Lindner) at least. But no, let’s be mad that they didn’t solve recession, climate change, didn’t establish world peace and got the country out of its stillstand of one and a half decades within three years.
I completely agree. They were constantly hamstrung by Lindner and his insistence on not taking new debt and still accomplished more in four years then Merkel in 16.
those are in fact the three possible options
You forgot to vote for an established green or left party - which many countries do have. And if you think “not voting” is a valid option, then you’re part of the problem.
What if I live in the US?
My condolences.
but why?
The problem is that centrists consistently align themselves with the far right in order to screw over the leftists.
And leftists can’t unite because they spend their time arguing about whose motives are more pure.
“Judean People’s Front!? We’re the People’s Front of Judea! And if there’s one thing we hate worse than the Romans, it’s the bleeding Judean People’s Front!”
Leftists are busy screwing over other leftists because they’re not good enough.
MAGAs are dumb but ‘both sides same so I’m not going to vote’ leftists might as well be braindead.
Centrists like to call themselves “other leftists” while supporting genocide and cozying up to the Cheneys.
There it is.
What they call “purity testing” we call “Don’t support state-backed murder.”
Centrists wish they had morals.
Centrists denigrate people who have standards because they have none.
The downvotes are proof of this. Why have a platform that improves the lives of everywhere, when you can act smug and support horrid policies that fascists love?
Centrist is the funniest political term ever. Most self-proclaimed centrists are actually further right than most self-proclaimed right-wing people, far less supportive of democracy, AND are also the least informed about political matters than either right-wing people or left-wing people. All of this has been verified by multiple studies, too.
Again, a leftist disparaging a comrade. As is tradition. “Any opinion I disagree with is right-wing”. Funny how that works.
As Yeats famously wrote:
Seems it’s happening again.