We are all tired of hearing the same tune: “the far-right is winning.” Yet, it keeps happening.
Far-right parties are topping polls across Europe’s biggest democracies while already sitting in cabinets and even leading governments in several EU countries and beyond.
Note: article is almost one month old. Still relevant since I’m curious how you’d answer this question:
" Do Moderate Politics/ Politicians fail to gain popularity due to a Lack of Mythological and Cultural Communication?
It’s easy to tell a convincing story when you lie
Progressives do not have powerful Russian psyops working for them in addition to a corporate controlled media feeding non-critical thinking masses propaganda.
Centrists failures give a chance for conservative to fear monger and blame the wrong people. Progressives do not use fear lingering like the far right does. Progressives do not try to dismantle the myth that minorities and immigration is he issue
The story: Nothing is our responsibility! Everything is somebody else’s fault! We have super easy solutions for complex problems! Criticism against us is unpatriotic and should be criminalised!
Yeah, I wonder.
And if we get asked a tough question we just start running away, or dodging them and shifting the topic.
Yeah, sure. The left simply can’t communicate, while the right does it so well. The left is also stupid and has no actual plan while the right has a unified vision to sell.
…or we just take a look at who owns the media and realize that it’s not about the story or the communication but all about the platforms and what actually reaches the people.
Well of course the right has a unified vision. A central tenet of their platform is to ostracize anyone that doesn’t agree. Dissent and alternative opinion is literally removed.
You know what ? Both are true. The Left is not more able to communicate to their traditional voter base and this void was taken by the right.
The media have their part of responsability, true, but in the end if the Left say nothing, what the media could tell about them ?
Good point. What can we do about that?
Not Europe, but since the article is talking about Trump, I’d say that a major factor in Trump’s success was a really high willingness to tell major lies coupled with prior presidents who had built up credibility that he could expend.
Immigration isn’t new as a concern in the US (in fact, it’s not even a particularly hot topic compared to many times in the past), nor are rural concerns about urbanization (many more people moved out of farms wirh mechanization of agriculture). But the stupendous rate and degree of lying is quite unusual.
Many people who voted for Trump wanted things like prices to return to pre-COVID levels or a boom in low-skill manufacturing or extractive industry or more-favorable trade agreements.
Democrats didn’t promise those things, because they knew that they weren’t going to deliver them. Trump knew that he wasn’t going to do so either, but he was willing to lie about it.
I am not at all convinced that this is a sustainable strategy, because it relies on an electorate willing to believe such promises.
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.
The problem is capitalism because it creates extreme unelected power in an extremely small self interested minority
I’d say its not capitalism itself but rather representative forms of governance. Once you introduce representatives into the election system these positions are going to be filled with egoists in the long run because they naturally distill the minority of assholes in a society to the top. For reference: Representative communism leads to the same problems with the same overall outcome.
Representatives don’t corrupt on their own. The easiest path to keeping your job as a rep is to do what people want. The capitalists corrupt the representatives with the money to get things tipped their way. I don’t blame the lung cancer, I blame the cigarette for causing it.
By that logic socialst countries shouldn’t have corrupt officals. Yet past and present states prove the opposite.
In my opinion, it’s not about the story, it’s about the ground game.
Which side gets signs up all over town? Which side drives old people to the polls? Which side stays on point?
In Europe you don’t have that much campaign signs and people don’t tend to display them on private property. The ads are mostly funded with public money (each party gets a budget, private donation are mostly illegal) so it’s quite limited. People vote on Sunday and no party drives old people to the polls.
The “ground game” is a very American concept where the elections are way more corrupt.
Also, we need to switch the debate onto the topic of economics. Because a lot of far-right economics inherently disadvantages the labouring class. Especially fascist economic models disadvantage labourers, as there are no independent trade unions, and instead all are headed by your insurer bosses.
What’s more, we need to swing the algorithms into our favour, remove desinformation, and fascist indoctrination sources, while improving access to basic necessities and taxing the oligarchs.
Fascism doesn’t sell a story that buys people. It subsidises the rapist billionnaires in turn for indoctrinating the labourers. Labourer is he who either works for a wage and/or has no multimillion net; no one of these will ever hope to become as wealthy as they can, under capitalism and fascism. Only socialism and communism can pave the way to freedom.
One of the reasons that Reagan went after the Unions so hard was that the Unions were a reliable engine for any candidate they backed. Unions could get a lot of people out into the streets. At the same time the Unions were being decimated, the evangelical churches were flourishing. Jerry Falwell and his Moral Majority got big by doing real grass roots organizing.
Tbh, good point. I was actually taking a good groundwork for granted, which it obviously isn’t. But don’t negate " the story" and the message. Take also Canada’s Mark Carney as an example, and how he’s able to communicate and resonate among many people and borders with his speeches of “working together” etc.
Old saying.
When it comes to candidates, The Left falls in love and the Right falls in line.
It is possible considering these examples of inclusive, centre-oriented (not extreme right) and connecting political campaigns like Obama’s " Yes we can" and Mandela’s “Rainbow nation”.
We need some progressive parties to take this to heart and translate this message to this age, like the Dutch Rob Jetten did this year with his campaign “It is possible”, which he copied from Obama.
The left kills itself. Education for all means no simple workers. Right to healthcare and retirement means other worries.
Ironically the right envisions a unified society while the left offers individualism. Fighting to be able to be different doesn’t create a common cause.
Only when there is an enemy who disturbs everybody then some form of joined purpose arrives.
edit:
resistance alone — resisting Donald Trump, resisting Marine Le Pen, resisting Viktor Orbán, resisting Georgia Meloni
He built a campaign around rent-freeze policies, fare-free public transit, basic goods access and the rising cost of living
The second quote is still a fight against something. When it’s won, no community remains.
Individualism was propagandized because it makes communism much more difficult.
Which story can be told with which everybody can identify when the right to different identities is what the left is fighting for.
I get downvotes, but serious question, which lasting value is the left fighting for that won’t be taken for granted once it’s there. The 40h work week, all workers, including the white collar workers would vote left if they were thankful.
There is no class consciousness. People want to be rich and leave their working class identity behind as fast as they can. I think that’s something to consider for a convincing story.
The elite is making sure that many workers don’t want to vote left. In Germany the voters of the left parties are more educated. That obstacle makes it difficult to tell a successful story and could explain why the left does not tell it.
Maybe it’s important to approach identities first before telling stories.
Lol what? The left is the biggest promoter of collectivism
“Lasting values” are by definition conservative. You are asking progressives to become conservatives 😵💫
Progressive thinking is about always finding new ways to improve living conditions.
Progressive thinking is about always finding new ways to improve living conditions.
This 💯 %
