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If this hypothesis is true then you would think that the government in place would do everything they can to stop the far right/far left from rising from the ashes of the failed social safety net.
Instead, what we see mostly is the mainstream parties blaming the far right/far left without even addressing the issues that have led to people actually joining their ranks.
Its the same in Europe. Some people say they want a different Europe, mainstream politicians say no.
People then have the impression that their voices have not been heard. What do they do? They vote far right or far left and say: "now, can you hear me?"
But even that's still not enough, because most politicians are only concerned with being reelected, they still don't listen and they even blame the people who now despise the mainstream parties.
I can't understand this kind of logic.
The problem is that politicians care about their individual pockets, not what happens to society after their term. Politicians are not incentivized to serve the people - quite the contrary. And even if they do end up thrown out of office, a nice private sector job is waiting for those who let themselves be bribed.
Anyway, the public political discourse is usually addressing the symptoms, like far-right blaming the immigrants or far-left bringing back some welfare-state memories. Looks like ever since the iron curtain was lifted global economies have been rocked by constant crisis and the voters want an answer, so they choose either left or right or whoever is speaking "the truth". And of course it's hard to address economic problems, requires a well-educated know-how.
I don't think they can. When the mainstream messes up really badly, people turn to the fringe. The mainstream can try to hinder them, but can't really stop them by anything other than not messing up badly. Once something like 2008 has happened, it's already too late.
Please stop calling them "rednecks" and please don't assume that all his supporters were simply anti-immigration. While "redneckism" was a part of their campaign, Trump was elected by college educated, white suburban women too. Personally, the Trump supporters I've talked with are mostly well-off (small business owners), and mostly disconnected from world news. They don't identify as rednecks, and live in a very blue state. The usual justification goes like this "I worked for what I have, I don't think others should get hand outs" and "Politicians are all evil, I like that Trump is 'shaking things up'"
To be clear, I'm not defending Trump supporters but rather advocating for looking at them with a broader view. While my state is one of the most liberal in the nation, 50% of my neighbors identify with GOP messaging.
And polls keep showing that the people who voted for him do not regret their vote. “Redneck” may be unfair, and a slur, but the spirit of it in term of cultural identity (small-minded racists) has sadly been proven through his continued support.
A logical thing to assume for someone who is fully engaged with current events/news. However, most don't follow /r/politics religiously, and the nightly network news certainly isn't covering it (with the outrage that they should be) so many are still blissfully ignorant. Or is it willfully ignorant?
Even from here in Germany, newspapers make headlines with every little tweet that Trump spews out, not to mention every tiny detail from the Mueller probe. Same for social media. You gotta run through the world blindfolded to be unaware of Trumps scandals...
In the US we have "network news" and "cable news".
Network news is what the workers, families and people who just want a quick update on the world watch. This nightly news (30-60 min) focuses mostly on local horrors like murders, robberies, fires etc. with a smattering of positive local happenings. They might touch for 1-2 minutes on national/political news, and in doing so attempt to tell it in a way that doesn't piss off 50% of their audience. People that watch this news, as their primary source are blissfully unaware of how bad it really is. They think it's just "politics as usual" and don't want to be bummed out after a long day at work.
Then we have cable news, which is is a 24/7 IV drip for retirees, stay at homes, jobless Americans and the most militant supporters on both sides. If you identify with Republicans you watch Fox News if you identify with Democrats, you watch MSNBC. Both leave you feeling outraged, exhausted and convinced the other side is "lying to you".
Then, both sides retreat to social media, where their friends and family re-enforce what they already feel - further widening the divide between Americans.
This, in a country of cord cutters, and massive internet consumption, with access to the world’s press in addition to their own.
I think you need to broaden your social circle, as the Americans I know personally aren't as connected as you assume. Every revelation I share with them is responded to with shock and disbelief. "What do you mean it's illegal but no one is doing anything about it?" or "If that was true, shouldn't those people be arrested and in jail?"
I only know a couple "cord cutters" and even those that have cut the cord, still watch network news; CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox. Facebook we know is an echo-chamber, not open to dissenting opinions by design.
Furthermore, these people aren't on Twitter, they don't even know what a "web forum" or blog really is ("is it like a website?").
Most people have the innate sense that something in our society is deeply unfair and they’re looking for someone to blame. Trump offers easy solutions.
What we should refuse to do is let anyone off the hook for supporting Trump. Just because you like his business policies doesn’t mean you get to look the other way when he does monstrous things like locking migrant families in detention centers.
The war against "cultural elites" started with the first "mountain men" that ran for office in contrast to the 'educated elites' from "the North". Sound familiar?
It's not liberals, leftists or elitists who started the war on manual labor - they used it to separate themselves a long time ago.
This of course was connected to slavery, which left the south under-educated and feeling personally attacked. Too much to cover here, just read the book!
Hitler spent far more time blaming Democracy for that, and several missteps in a row really handed it over to him. He despised Jews and blamed them, but you don't really come to power by blaming hidden minorities. He had to first destroy Democracy, which he did, to rousing applause. He convinced everyone that autocracy was the solution. And man, was it fast. As soon as he was Chancellor, they were up and murdering what was left of the minority opposition. It was fast and ugly. And after that, it was ironclad. People should be more worried.
To get closer to autocracy he’d need better control of one of those two branches.
"democracy is fundamentally not German: it is Jewish" - Hitler
Hitler believed the Jews invented and foisted democracy onto the world. So when he's blaming democracy, he's still blaming the Jews.
> you don't really come to power by blaming hidden minorities
Except he did exactly this, repeatedly and publicly, in his writing, speeches, and policy.
Sure. He pointed a hell of a lot of fingers. He had a special hatred for Jews, yes. He said it publicly, but my point was that it he didn't come to power by solely blaming Jews for everything. The "humiliation" that he felt Germany suffered due to the end of WWI generally played much better.
Hitler believed Germany lost WW1 specifically because they were "stabbed in the back" by the Jews.
I'm slowly coming to realise this. You'd think that point might be more broadly advertised.
And now, look where we are. In short, if you're sick of all the right-wing nonsense, follow the money: who loaned them the money to get where they are today, in power? Follow that trail all the way back and you'll see the real string-pullers behind the puppets...
Then to be told if only you cared more about climate change everything would be fine...
The amusing thing in the case of Germany is that the country never really was a real nation with a unifying culture etc (like e.g. France). Having only been unified in 1871, it was a hodgepodge of dukedoms for centuries. It's for example completely arbitrary that Bavaria became part of Germany but Austria didn't. To this day there is no unifying culture to speak of, e.g. the stereotypical German-Bavarian would scoff at "traditional" food from Northern Germany and vice versa. It was migration, immigration and arbitrarily drawn borders since practically forever. Many inhabitants of northern Germany have slavic surnames, because half of the local population has been wiped out in the Thirty Years' War, with immigrants replacing the dead. We don't even have a common religous tradition.
High immigration(besides nearby catastrophes) usually means something good happended to the area. So people can have the same overall happiness but for different reasons.
For example: Job opportunities are better now, Property prices are rising(Great my home is worth more), but it feels less at home then before.
I live in Munich. Aside from exorbitant rents caused by politicians ignoring housing issues for decades, we don't have a significant problem w/ immigrants and refugees. We do have a couple Nazi groups (two different Pegida groups, plus the "old" NPD nazi party plus the AfD neo-fash) with maybe two dozen people on the streets, but no one except Antifa gives a flying f..k about them.
Also i personally dont know anybody who got negatively affected (besides closed school Gyms) by the refugee crisis, but many worry anyways. Probaly Social Media makes it feel worse then it is,similar to people feeling less safe now despite way lower crime rates.
I can't remember the exact number, but the majority population feels threatened when the non-majority reaches some like 5-10% of the total population. When you feel threatened, the minority population isn't exactly overwhelming. America has had this kind of xenophobia before. Irish, Italians, Ukranians, Jews, it's all the same noise, and it turns out the same - you still have America, it's just a little different, a little more culturally complex. And don't give me that whole "but they aren't integrating" shtick. They may not integrate easily, but 2 generations from now their grand kids will be as American as anybody.
Because if it was white people moving into their hometowns then you/they wouldn't feel like a foreigner.
White people tend to be the biggest offenders in the gentrification regard but people tend to take it out on the newcomers who are visibly different from them so in white communities it because an "immigration problem" and in nonwhite communities it becomes a "gentrification problem".
Jeez, that's basically directly quoted out of the conspiracy theory playbook ("Umvolkung"). Germany has 5% Muslims and people whine about Islamization.
It's bollocks fueled by media. When media and politicians does nothing but draw migrants or "foreign" people as problems, then you'll see the non-whites on the streets automatically, subconsciously, as a problem. THIS is why the Nazi rhetoric and framing is so dangerous.
https://blog.kpmg.ch/swiss-immigration-recent-developments-o...
This is how immigration should be handled.