"Emmanuel Macron, the French president, has announced that he is dissolving the national assembly, and calling for legislative elections on June 30 and July 7.
The French president said that he can’t pretend nothing has happened, that the outcome of the EU election is not good for his government and that the rise of nationalists is a danger for France and Europe."
Hey, uhh, Europe? Can we talk?
Look, I know the way the left has been handling immigration has you upset, but could you please take a closer look at the absolute freaks you’re electing today?
I mean, just take a good look at the United States, circa 2017 through 2020. Did we look like electing an absolute freak worked out for us? Did it fix our own immigration problems? Did it make electing your own Donald Trumps look like a good idea?
When people feel ignored in a democratic country, they begin to feel like the democracy they live in is a sham or that democracy itself doesn’t work.
Votes like this aren’t necessarily about “we need a different direction” and more about desperation and/or anger. They want to show the elites of their country that they still have the power, they want to cost them something for treating the population like it’s there to be harvested from, they want to shake up the status quo at all cost.
They want to prove to themselves that their vote still matters.
Letting it get to this point is really bad governance. Once you get here, either they win, or they don’t. And of they don’t, most of the people who support them have their suspicions confirmed, they don’t live in a democracy, they voted and didn’t get what they want, again. This creates a division that is difficult to come back from.
Except the fascists ARE the elites most of the time. This never hurts them. It only hurts themselves.
Exactly. And they won’t fix immigration, they’ll just enrich themselves as much as they possibly can.
These right wing parties need migration. Their whole existence depends on there being immigrants to blame so actually closing the borders and “sending them home” is the worst move they can make politically speaking.
Correct, the next step in the strategy is to blame the immigration on any random external entity (cf Brexit). Eventually this may devolve into full blown war, genocides, etc etc.
Well, you know, there’s a type of “immigration” that fascists love, and the wage cost is zero. You just have to keep the “prisoners with jobs” alive.
not just right wing parties. every country with an aging population needs more young laborers and migrants can help.
fascists just need someone to blame, and someone desperate to do the same work for less pay.
No worries; foreigners, jews, blacks, arabs, and ofc the gays to start.
There is always someone to blame for everything.
Sometimes, you just wanna punch yourself in the dick. It won’t fix your problems, but it’ll make em feel less important for a few minutes.
Jimmy beat sausage, sometimes
Voting ultra right because of this is like trying to prove life is worth living by eating a bullet
I think you’re being too charitable.
Some people will happily elect somebody that will be horrible to people they don’t like. Far more people than is comfortable.
Sure, but that’s not how it starts usually.
Democracy doesn’t work when there’s rampant misinformation and psyops.
All the shitheads on facebook are drip-fed russian troll-farm garbage and they eat it up like santa eats up biscuits on christmas eve.
There are literally no consequences to misinformation and disinformation. A politic can literally say anything and get away with it.
Well, that’s dismissive. You don’t think that these people are reacting to genuine concerns they have? Not even some of them, some of their concerns?
In an environment where nobody controls the information, people will lie. If democracy doesn’t work when information flows freely, doesn’t that mean democracy doesn’t work?
What do you mean nobody controls the information? We’re sitting here talking on lemmy, but most people (or at least most vooters) get their information from capital intensive sources controlled by the ruling class. Television is captured and subject to manipulation, mainstream social media is captured and subject to manipulation, independent (local) print media is dead. I get really depressed when I think about it
“Information”.
Are their concerns manufactured? Like “immigration bad”, while it’s proven that immigration boosts economy? Like “black people bad”?, “Gay bad”?
Did I miss any of the “concerns” that Afd party is prompting?
If I tell you that your nose will fall off if you don’t give €5, that is not information.
An environment where no-one controls the information is anarchy. Anarchy is not a democracy, no.
An anarchy is an environment where no one controls the application of force. Information has nothing to do with it.
Seems to me you don’t like democracy and only use it as a means to an end.
…and nobody controls the flow of information.
I think democracy is shit, when paired with unbridled capitalism and rampant disinformation & misinformation.
That doesn’t mean I have an alternative. But it’s definitely not anarchy.
It is a sham. An arrogant 3rd term fool imported a population increase of 3 percent in 18 months during a housing crisis and can’t figure out why people hate him. Successfully lowered wages across the whole country after devaluing the currency intentionally. This is not a mystery why people wants see him at a minimum out of office immediately. I think you all know what a lot actually think should be done with him.
I just cannot comprehend how anyone can look at post brexit UK and think “yes, I want the same for my country”
It’s truly bizarre. Every couple of decades or so, either the United States or significant chunks of Europe decide, “What the hell, let’s give the right-wingers another chance, they say they’ll fix immigration,” and then we end up cutting funding for services and giving tax cuts to the rich. They pull this shit every goddamn time, and we keep falling for the bait-and-switch.
It seems to be coinciding with economic crises, the rise of wealth inequality due to covid is leading to a rise in fascism, it happens always.
The recent success of the European far right is precisely because they’ve revised their image to get rid of the freakshow aspects. The days when you could dismiss these people just by calling them “absolute freaks” are over.
But the freakiness is still 100% present in their platforms and ideologies. They’re just dressing nicer now.
Unfortunately, “decorum” is really the only thing keeping some folks from hopping on board those movements, not the policies themselves.
No… No they are all still freaks. Did you just take off your “they live” sunglasses or something? The Freakshow aspect is in the ideological makeup.
That’s terrifying
Not true, 95% are still freaks, optically and mentally.
We love copying the USA.
The US won the Civilization cultural victory 70 years ago and the world has continually gotten worse as a result.
We might need a Ghandi with nukes…
Best we can do is Modi
30 years, no?
As an American, I would argue that the United States didn’t win the Cold War, the Soviet Union just lost it.
And making sure to tell the USA how stupid they are at the same time.
A bit hypocritical, eh?
If you look a little closer, it’s not. Educated European people do not want to copy American culture, or at the very least try to pick out the good stuff. They are those who criticise the US for the bad stuff, though.
Our dummies, deplorables, low class people on the other hand have eaten up American culture hook line and sinker, they are culturally in sync with basic bitch Americans and their lifestyle and hobbies (minus guns because of laws)…music, movies, food, holiday destinations, political views, clothing, hobbies is all copied from the US. American soft power works wonders on soft European brains. These are the people who don’t criticise the US but the US shouldn’t take that as a compliment, because they’re morons.
So there is a huge class divide in Europe between people who want to turn Europe in the US, end those who think that’s not a good idea. No hypocrisy.
Educated American people don’t like the way the US is right now either haha
I know
Not really hypocritical, not all of us are Fr*nch
Unfortunately
*our lower classes (in terms of education) do
We’re at the USA obesity levels of 1995, now tell me it’s just the ignorant.
I mean it probably starts there but with a third if a population voting far right, ignorants will soon be the biggest part of our countries.
It might as well be, that’s why the upper classes should look for an alternative.
Also, who is “we”? I’m not from the UK
It makes me want to mock the EU considering how much, deserved, shit the US gets. But this is just depressing. I would much prefer the US to be mocked as we get our shit, hopefully, together. Not fucking join us.
Are they electing our Trumps or are we electing their Mussolini? Shitty people being shitty is not a US exclusive, but you’re right.
As Saint George says, garbage in, garbage out
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garbage in, garbage out
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I’d actually give the Catholic Church a few points in the “Good” column if they made Carlin a saint. He could be the patron saint of jesters and fools.