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this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2023
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When people feel their needs aren't being met by mainstream political parties, they seek answers in the fringes.
This is frightening and seems to be happening all over the Western world. Personally, I think people are struggling with the social disconnect brought by technology, with the smaller family sizes required by economic and climate conditions, with the simmering dread brought on by climate change, and an increasing rage as the struggling middle and lower classes are inundated with daily news of billionaires engaging in frivolity, waste, and/or crimes against the most vulnerable members of our society. People are becoming cynical and angry. They don't see the future as bright.
In a situation like that, people seek alternatives to the status quo. What could be more attractive than a political view based on returning to old times? They want the return of economic security, stronger family units, more disposable income for leisure, and all the other real or perceived benefits of times past. They think that getting there will require us to embrace the other things we are trying to leave behind - racism, sexism, perhaps even war and genocide in some of the more extreme fringes.
We can see it globally in the left wing too. This is where the terms conservative and progressive really shine as being good descriptors. Conservatives want to go back to the glory days. The more extreme they are, the more willing they are to embrace the worst parts of our past. Progressives/liberals want to move forward. The more extreme they are, the more they are willing to try radical new things that sound like fantasy or science fiction. Progressives are often willing to upend massive social and economic structures to try new things. I find myself in this camp, and sometimes I step outside myself and admit that I have some pretty extreme views. I once told my conservative uncle that I would absolutely be willing to eat my food in pill form, edit my genes so I could live forever, change my brain chemistry so I could be happy all the time. He was shocked and said those things were inhuman and evil.
I don't believe that we can convert people back to the mainstream unless the mainstream starts to meet their needs. Nations with hungry, lonely, and unfulfilled people are probably good breeding grounds for revolution, in my opinion. Unfortunately, revolutions aren't always good. Bad actors often take advantage of instability.
A very thoughtful comment.
It encapsulates the notion that individuals, grappling with the complexities of our times, often turn to simplistic solutions.
While right-wing and fascist leaders may offer simplicity, the true cost lies in the erosion of freedom and a bleak future. They can't revert reality to a simpler era.
Instead, they dismantle the very foundations that once helped navigate change.
It doesn't explain however how people who suffer from this still not end up clinging to political extremists. Especially in Germany we should be educated enough about this matter due to our own history. I'm dreading the future too, I'm at the point where I lost all hope, but I still can't understand why people go and vote for the AfD or similar parties in different countries. In fact, this just adds to my point of view that humanity is fucked.
Social disconnect brought by technology? Please explain. I feel like there has been quite the opposite- technology bringing a very uncomfortable social connection. Especially with social media allowing disturbed individuals to communicate with each other, instantly, globally, for the first time in human history.
As our online lives grow, our real-world connections shrink. I'm a teacher, a fairly young and tech-savvy one. I say that so you know I'm not coming at this like an old and out-of-touch boomer who hates technology.
Our kids do not know how to communicate as well as they used to. They don't hang out in person, they don't roam around town and make friends with the local kids in their neighborhood, they don't play outside beyond highly-structured and competitive sports, and many have ZERO real-world friends.
I spend a lot of time online. Online friendships are great and can be super important for many people. That said, I don't think it's super healthy to only have online friends. I know many kids who literally do not interact with a single real-world friend ever. It's all discord and video games.
I myself find that I only have one real-world friend when it comes down to it. Sure, I love my coworkers to pieces and I have my wife's friends to some degree. But me alone? One friend. And yes, I do somewhat blame the degradation of real-world communities for that. Gone are the days when children were raised by "the whole village."
I see what you are saying. And I appreciate your insight, but I think your post might be mostly anecdotal, and slightly myopic. And hell, mine too. But I have a 16yro and and an 8yro. Live in the suburban midwest. And while technology has impacted my kids' lives (both positively and negatively), and covid did a number on them too, I'm happy to report that my experience vastly differs from yours.
My children, and the many kids is our neighborhood, regularly socialize and play outside. There are 7 kids playing outside my house currently, and my oldest went to his hs football game last night with his friends and then roamed around afterwards for a few hours. So while I certainly don't disagree with your concerns and what you've witnessed, I don't think every child, community, region can be lumped into that same bucket.
Where are you located if you don't mind my asking? I am in the American East. I know this is a post in the European community, but my original comment seemed relevant since developed Western nations in North America and Europe seem to be facing a lot of the same issues.
Here in Northeast USA I never see kids outside. And my students are brutally honest that they don't go outside much. They admit to mostly sitting on their phones and playing video games. Even my competitive athletes say they don't play outside. It's crazy.
Technology doesn't bring disconnect. I'd argue liberalism does, and individualism.
Liberlism glorifies individualism: it is the individual who shall be responsible for itself, for its successes and failures. This makes people center on themselves.
But humans are social creatures, so when society tells you that can only rely on yourself, you simply ignore society and focus on your relatives, your family, and maybe your extended social group, which is far, far smaller than the whole society.
Liberalism is basically a doctrine that tells people that the state will abandon them and they shouldn't rely on it. People will mechanically fall back on a fascist regime that tells them that they will be taken care of and granted the privileges they deserve.
Ergo, liberalism builds fascism.
Another way I see this is that fascism is the fail state of societies. A society always fall back to some sort of fascism. And there liberalism comes to tell you that the state, the organisation that structure the society, should disappear or do nothing.
The solution is dirty easy: the government needs to be a government and do something for the people. Fund the schools, the hospitals, public transports. Take the money where it is. Forbid the financiarisation of the housing market, so house can house people instead of being another kind of gold. Ensure people have enough money to eat and shelter. And there you go. People don't need fascism when they're being taken care of.
But the only things liberals do is pretending that there is no money for this shit. Of course, they're hard at work so the state can get the least money possible.
Technology, such as social media and the platforms that easily provides instant access to them to large masses of people absolutely enables disconnect that is agnostic to liberalism, conservatism, etc. It had been in my observation that we are more disconnected to one another because “technology” has enabled individuals who are not of the “status quo” to find each other and empowers them for either good or for bad. We have all seen countless encounters with friends, families and strangers who rather duck into their smart phones than engage in a conversation.
To say liberalism causes fascism by way of individualism is like saying when you eat McDonald’s you’re going to get fat. You’re not totally wrong but there’s a little more to it than that.
Masha Gessen has great insights on fascism and has stated in the past that fascism is fueled by disenfranchised individuals looking for easy/simplistic answers. This why I believe Trump is so widely popular and accepted.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/donald-trumps-fascist-performance
Masha has lived under fascism (USSR) so I tend to feel they have a strong qualified opinion on the subject. Those who truly understands society and what underpins it knows that it is very nuanced and generalizations simply aren’t enough to frame it let alone “fascism”.
I know this thesis of simplisme, but I don't buy it. Or rather, there's nothing around it. People are xenophobe or racist since the dawn of humanity. As you put it, the problem is disenfranchised people, but the solution is how to avoid to disenfranchised them.
Fascist leaders naturally arise when people are looking for solutions to their basic problems. These basic problems are housing, food, security, health,...
In some way we are indeed fighting some instinct of racism, an instinct that has us focus on a smaller group of people we care or understand. The bigger the problems, the smaller the group we focus on.
As for the technology, I firmly disagree still. The disconnect to me would be from the bullshit jobs (a lot of work doesn't serve society but the holy growth). That is one disconnect. The feeling that the rich have the society work for them and the people have to work for that and then find what they need to live is another disconnect. The intensity of work that prevent socialisation in the name of productivity is a disconnect. The lies and advertising for things you don't care much. The philosophy that every activity must cost something.
As for technology, people are saying what you're saying at least since we invented books. Don quichotte is exactly about this.