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Comment by Browun | Hacker News Reader

29 pointsBrowun8 comments

This probably will get flagged but the Brexit discussion that is beyond if it is good or not is interesting and quite relevant to the tech community considering all the scandals about data processing.

When the news first broke I asked this and I still think it's something worth discussing:

"Putting the substance of the politics aside, I wonder why all this feels coordinated. I mean Trump, Brexit, Putin, Erdoğan, The guy in Brazil, in Hungary - all seem to act like a part of a bigger organization. I don’t really believe that there’s a grand conspiracy but I am fascinated how unrelated organizations act in resonance. It’s not even limited to big politics, suddenly right wing bigotry is sexy. “Lone wolfs” attack women, minorities or pretty much any outliers, movements emerge as ways to combat vegans, girls that don’t behave in the desired ways etc."

There is probably some worthwhile deeper analysis, but my lazy response would be that the whole world is more connected than it has ever been and when things start becoming a problem it will cascade to everyone eventually.

Is it really a conspiracy when we know people like Steve Bannon have traveled to some places like Poland and France to advise the far-right parties there on getting elected?

My theory is that it began with the discovery/utilization of new oil sources in the US 5-7 years ago. The price of oil crashed by 50% and stayed there for most of the last five years. Many countries around the globe dependent on oil (parts of south america and the middle east) had economic turmoil beginning five years ago, resulting in refugee crises (venezuela, syria, etc.). Refugee activity helped fuel dormant nationalism rhetoric in europe and america, leading to Trump/Brexit, and other movements gaining steam.

Oil discovered -> oil price crashes -> oil countries crash -> refugees flee to us/eu -> nationalism

Hrm. Do you also consider different companies all banning various controversial figures at the same time to be coordination?

No, they literally reacted after specific events like mass murders.

In the beginning it was only Putin. He has the motive and the means to destroy peace and alliances around the world. He also has the propaganda machine to put leaders in power.

I've just realised, I now have to start explicitly classifying myself as a parliamentarian. A word that hasn't been particularly relevant for the past 350 years, hope it doesn't turn out the same as last time...

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