Is the West Experiencing a Right-Wing Drift?

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penalties in place elsewhere, and daycare is mandatory for all children over the age of one, or family allowances are withdrawn.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.

can't believe they made mussolini a woman in the reboot. this woke nonsense has ruined yet another franchise

— Ida🏳️‍⚧️🥔 (@Ida_Clemens) September 26, 2022

The "she's not a fascist, chill" idiocy amongst mainstream right wing types for Meloni seems to me to be a lot stronger than it was for Bolsonaro, Orban, Erdogan - any theories?

Bolsanaro has never tried to hide how much he loved the old military junta whereas Meloni has played down the associations with Mussolini.

Also the ppl saying chill are silly and shouldn't be bothered with.

Maybe because she isn't that different from most of the current Tory Party? Apart from the Catholic bit, of course.

A lot of people are either not experienced with the kind of dogwhistling about family etc or it reads differently coming from a woman due to structural sexism. I think that’s a big part of it, that she is physically small, relatively young and leans hard on that unpolished not-a-politician thing, and also that she knows how to code a lot of her words so that they pass if you don’t want to look too closely = less threatening. She doesn’t look like what people think a fascist looks like.

That makes a lot of sense gyac. But then you could say the same about Le Pen? I guess her family credentials make things more obvious.

I also wonder whether it's a "too close to home" situation, where leaders in South America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East can be safely categorized as fascists (while still making arguments as to why this is all somehow Fault Of The Left) but a Western European fascist has to be spun as something else.

Also the ppl saying chill are silly and shouldn't be bothered with.

I am not "bothering with them" in terms of taking their opinions seriously, but finding out why centrist stooges take the positions they take can reveal things about the political powers they align with.

Le Pen gets a lot of soft soaping too! She’s been on Newsnight. But yes, family connection and she’s older and doesn’t play vulnerable girlboss.

Aesthetics are a huge part of it for fascists. You’d read people making fun of Nick Griffin’s looks as though that was the thing that mattered.

Farage has got a fair bit of soft soaping over the years, and very rarely does the girlboss thing

Farage is from the same background as the ruling class, it’s no mystery.

also Farage is not really viewed as Not A Fascist anywhere save the UK, while with Meloni I've seen the same sort of opinions coming from voices in the UK, US, France, Portugal.

Latin America, Eastern Europe etc. is just much further away, yes. Most of the ppl wondering as to whether Meloni is a fascist will know of Mussolini. Don't think people have an equivalent for Turkey or Brazil at their fingertips.

Isn't the centrist position one of distance and a hedging one's bets? They'll publish an opinion that will say Meloni is a fascist, or that Meloni is nothing to be afraid of. As long as both are considered. Because there is no immediate danger maybe it's ok to have this kind of debate as it won't knock on their door tomorrow. But if it does they aren't on the wrong side, or so they think.

they would be saying the same thing about le pen if she won power in france

both the national rally & the brothers of italy have pretty direct fascist lineages that their leadership is keen to downplay for the very obvious reasons, but that makes the accusations hit harder & their backers much more defensive about it.

i think orban was offset by having more explicit fascists around in jobbik & being an established political figure who wasn't as explicit about his trajectory until he was already in a position to seriously consolidate power, erdogan's relations with the west have been very rocky, his consolidation of power has been much more gradual, and the western right still often views him with suspicion so they're not anywhere near as inclined to be defensive there, and bolsonaro is much more direct about who he is (though he still denies the far-right label).