Is the West Experiencing a Right-Wing Drift?

i'm talking about penises here

ohhhhhhh

fvd tl;dr

forget the fascism, racism, nazism, anti-semitism, misogyny and homophobia, they were the party’s raison d’être and have been out there in the open from the very beginning; it was this song, picked by one his parliamentary hopefuls, that was the actual cause of this right-wing rift - it greatly upset the Lavendery Leader for not being classical enough:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jH1RNk8954Q

(even though in the video, Ava is lying on top of what might, for all we know, be a piano)

they were are the party’s raison d’être

picked by one his parliamentary hopefuls for their ill-fated strategy meeting last Friday, I should have added.
the guy just now defended his choice of music on one of the talk shows here, he felt it was a very appropriate song for the occasion, bless his wannabe-kingly heart (not really)

The int’l secretary for the violent Ukrainian far-right Azov movement has been granted a fellowship in Vienna. Here’s my 2018 interview with her, which shows her connections to US white supremacists & European neo-nazis. She said Azov has global ambitions. https://t.co/zD7FH85xEQ https://t.co/Ta6sCnRDG9

— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) January 11, 2021

olena what now

lol I also noticed her name.

Ukrainians are something else, man. Never been in a weirder and more conflicted country in my whole life. Very beautiful tho.

this article comes up with the term "diagonal thinking" to stand in for the incoherent mish-mash of anti-elite & pro-individual yet racist, fascist and pro-conspiracy crazed q-grift cult leader nonsense that so many people seem to have adopted lately. it rattles around in my head sometimes - is there any directionality at all to this mind set? seems more like a raw mass of nerves firing off gibberish refracted through viral meme logic, collecting anything that will have some kind of power over other vulnerable people, i.e. whatever is most available as a front for fascism, i.e. brainworms.

http://bostonreview.net/politics/william-callison-quinn-slobodian-coronapolitics-reichstag-capitol

This passing during this pandemic is really something: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/07/switzerland-on-course-to-ban-wearing-of-burqa-and-niqab-in-public-places

(that said, I assume some anti-maskers voted "yes" because they've recently decided any face covering = oppression)

fuck switzerland

fondue, multi-function knives: good
Davos, racism: bad

Think that about sums it up

My sister-in-law and her family live in Switzerland, it is very pretty but also oppressively dull and ridiculously expensive and painfully white.

this is extremely fucked up

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/17/denmark-plans-to-limit-non-western-residents-in-disadvantaged-areas

What the fuck
That is disgusting

In these neighbourhoods, misdemeanours carry double the legal penalties in place elsewhere, and daycare is mandatory for all children over the age of one, or family allowances are withdrawn.

Seriously what the fuck.

Seeing how relatively unremarked upon Denmark's drift rightward into apartheid has been illuminating (not that I know what to do about it either)

Denmark has been in a very bad place with this for quite a few years now. There was also that policy about forcing refugees to sell valuables to pay for their costs to the nation for hosting them.

Yeah, there were some 2nd cousins on my dad's side who were from Denmark, and there was a time when they visited and one of them started throwing around a racist slur, my dad told him to stop, he told my dad to fuck off, and we've never spoken to or heard from them again, absent a card when my dad's mom died. (I know, very much anecdotal, but the cousin also said, "we use this term regularly in Denmark, what's the big deal," and I remember thinking, "Denmark seems like it sucks.")

careful don't say "D*****k" too many times

President-elect of Chile replies to Taylor Swift (via @basslleroz) pic.twitter.com/yQJWO5bqHp

— Populism Updates (@PopulismUpdates) January 25, 2022

is the west experiencing a left-wing swift?

fuck this shit

https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7nk5z/south-korea-president-feminism-yoon-suk-yeol

south korea is still the most misogynistic place i've ever been (not that i've been many places)

ugh. too familiar.

"If Meloni’s far-right forces dominate Italy’s next government, there’s concern about the support Italy will give to right-wing governments in Hungary and Poland “for their deeply conservative agendas″ amid fears about a ”democratic backsliding” in the EU, Art said.

For her part, Meloni says she will “fiercely oppose any anti-democratic drift.”"

https://apnews.com/article/religion-rome-980572acc21fe377ede26eea46be5208

well that's a relief then

Wonder if Italy could be out of the EU in a decade..

so uhhhh sweden and now italy in the last few weeks, huh? ppl who pay more attention to eurozone politics tell me how worried i shd be for vulnerable communities there.

Very. Greece has already implemented very aggressive anti-migrant policies and I expect the likes of Italy will follow.

I don't know about Sweden so much.

they’ve never seen a migrant but they hear they’re bad

Of course none of these governments are any more far right than the current UK administration.

... something you will never hear from the UK media despite all their tut-tutting about Johnny Foreigner and their far right tendencies.

I guess the prospect of this coalition collapsing within two years is as high as it gets at least? Even if the oppo cannot unite in the meantime (much more difficult it seems as bloody usual).

As long as you are pro-EU.

🇪🇺 reaction to yesterday's 🇮🇹 election, which has paved the way for #Italy's first far-right leader since Mussolini:

We are likely to see something similar to 2018 when the populist 5 Stars won - an initial effort to appeal to #Meloni's pro-EU instincts and not to isolate her. pic.twitter.com/NPoQfxJMCI

— Dave Keating (@DaveKeating) September 26, 2022

im american so obv my internal calibration for right-wingedness is tuned to US frequencies, but what besides anti-immigration unites the various right wing parties of the EU and the UK? to what extent do they attack the welfare state, promote privatization and conservative theology, etc?

Well, they pretty much all hate teh gays.

all these parties are remarkably similar imo. you could just copy and paste their speeches (and translate them, of course). it’s pretty much anti-immigration, anti-globalization (i.e. we should make our own stuff!) usually very anti-muslim, and occasionally there’s a whiff of antisemitism for extra credit. “make (x) great again.”

If you want to look at the layers Meloni is keen on gutting reproductive rights, and an emphasis on 'normal' families.

This is pure Guardian.

Happy to be back in @guardian with my take on #ItalianElections 🇮🇹

In short: no reason to panic, as conditions are unfavorable. More important story is two decades of mainstreaming far-right actors and ideas.https://t.co/30G8WGrPle

— Cas Mudde (@CasMudde) September 26, 2022

yeah you’re right xy. i suspect there is a certain brand of catholic conservatism at work in some of these countries that meshes fairly seamlessly with america’s evangelical right.

I met someone from Pakistan at a conference. I think he was based in Portugal and had traveled through Sweden or the reverse with respect to the countries involved. I think the Scandinavian countries, as well as the Baltic states and Finland, have tried to be inclusive. There is a balance between assimilation and numbers and social cohesion that creates tests on many levels.

The current Swedish elections have put that idea to the test.

(yes, of course)

(I guess I was impressed that he was at the conference. I think he was first author on a paper that won the best paper award. How did he get there? What supported him in that journey? etc.)

So the American right is going predictably gaga over Meloni — why not, she's more photogenic than Orban — and is very incensed at any use of the word fascist to describe her. All while also being faux-naif about what she means by "financial speculators."

The European right also seems to be exactly like the contemporary American right in selling reactionary populism (re: anti-globalization/make stuff here) while being 100% wedded to trickle-down/tax cuts for the rich ASAP.

to what extent do they attack the welfare state, promote privatization and conservative theology, etc?

i think one of the key differences between the european far-right and the american far-right is at least some of the europeans are somewhat pro-welfare, especially in comparison to the establishment centre-right parties, as long as it's not for immigrants

"So the American right"

And Hilary Clinton.