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?

  • GraniteM@lemmy.world
    72·
    3 days ago

    Of what use, then, are the American Communists?

    They serve one function extremely useful to you and to the country, so useful that, if there were no Communists, we would almost be forced to create some. They are a reliable litmus paper for detecting real sources of danger to the Republic.

    Communism is so repugnant to almost all Americans, when they are getting along even tolerably well, that one may predict with certainty that any social field or group in which the Communists make real strides in gaining members or acceptance of their doctrines, any such spot is in such bad shape from real and not imaginary social ills that the rest of us should take emergency, drastic action to investigate and correct the trouble.

    –Robert A. Heinlein, Take Bank Your Government

    Replace “communism” with far-right ideology, and that’s it. People, humanity in general, are fairly agreeable and cooperative, when they are getting along even tolerably well. It’s only when conditions on the ground become intolerable that you see extreme political movements take hold, either left or right, because the established political order has demonstrated that it is either unwilling or unable to provide for the people’s needs.

    If more people were able to afford education, medicine, housing, and had the financial breathing room to take the occasional vacation and provide for their and their children’s future, you wouldn’t see extremism. You’d see people happy that things were working out okay. It’s because we’ve allowed economic inequality and environmental chaos to become so widespread that people have become desperate enough to look to anyone who is at least saying they’ll make real changes to fix what’s wrong with the world.