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Comment by redeeman | Hacker News Reader

"far right" (gets 44% of votes.. lets not talk about that)

I think typically the term "Far" is meant to denote where it lies on political spectrum, and has fairly well understood typical brew of populist/authoritarian/nationalistic/xenophobic, with themes of strength, unity, and focus on "in" and "out" groups

It does not mean fringe or rare or low-in-numbers - unfortunately, "far right politics" have frequently been in the majority in our history and will certainly be again :-/

Right and left has little meaning in modern politics. What is a bit more concerning is the allegations of getting money from Russian.

As for a resurgence of the nazi horror: their leader is in a mixed race lesbian relationship.

When people say "far right," they mean "authoritarian right," not "fringe right."

Just because authoritarianism has emerged from the fringes doesn't make it any less authoritarian.

*44% of a Saxony-Anhalt state election. Let me know when the heart of Berlin gets anything near that.

Also, the Free State of Anhalt was the first Weimar state to elect a local parliament with a Nazi leader. History sure does rhyme.

The Nazi party got 37% of votes nationwide (not just in one state).

Getting a lot of votes does not mean a party is not far-right. Germans of all people know that.

I have a feeling that the majority of AFD voters simply want some kind of change and action on what they are seeing happen in Germany. I'm definitely not one of them, (and being an auslander myself I have skin in this game) -- this is a failure of the other parties more than it's a victory for AFD. But then again, that's all it takes really.

If you're a foreigner who's rooting for the fascists, you're an idiot. They want to deport you.

? What did I say that gave that opinion? Of course I'm not rooting for the fascists...

Elsewhere in this thread, you talk about how it's unfair that the far-right gets compared to Nazis, but here you call them fascists.

What a weird position to be in, where you acknowledge the fascism but think Nazi comparisons go too far...

See, this sort of thing is exactly is why they're going to continue to make progress. This attitude of painting all of them with the same brush and calling them nazis exactly is the thing that creates more nazis.

You're the problem here. I'm not on the side of the AFD, never will be -- and let me be clear: I and my family are directly impacted if they take power.

I don't think calling literal nazis nazis is a problem, my point, if you read it properly is that shutting down the (reasonable or not) concerns of a big chunk of the population and calling them all nazis only makes them more extreme, and grows their power. We need a better way.

So what? Is he only allowed to play victim? What kind of a dumb logic is that

Fascists inherently do not care why people voted for them.

This was a state election. This state was the first to elect nazis pre nazi dictatorship. Let's not jump to any crazy conclusions.

In 2020, florida was called for trump and biden won. Saying florida was a sign of things to come was simply not true.

What is the "far-right" far from?

In normal English, it would be from the average (median) voter. A party is "far-right" (or "far-left") if it is substantially to the right (left) of the average voter.

Assume that people vote for the person/party closest to their own view on an issue. 44% of voters choose the far-right candidate, meaning 44% of voters are closer to the far-right candidate than any other option.

How can this happen? Several ways, but only one is realistic: the other candidates are even farther away (to the left or right) from the position of the median voter. 40%+ of voters are themselves "far-right".

> The Nazi party got 37% of votes nationwide (not just in one state).

The Nazi party was not that far to the right of the median German voter at the time.

The far-left is using scary words ("Nazi", "Far-right", etc.) to tar a group they dislike (see what I did there?) They are counting on the fact that most voters can be influenced by group-think and name-calling. They are probably correct. But this is Hacker News, and the people here ought to be smart enough to see this for the stupid political smear that it obviously is. If you don't like a party, make the case that their policy is wrong. If vague analogy to the Nazis is the best argument you have, then you have no argument at all.

That comparison is depressingly applicable. The National Socialists gained power in a period when both the present and future looked very bleak to a large fraction of German voters, and a whole succession governments formed by political mainstream figures had demonstrated that they couldn't do squat to really fix things - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weimar_Republic#Renewed_crisis...

If https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_II had not done such a comprehensive job of discrediting hereditary nobility, it might be healthier if German voters had the option to replace their elected government with a ruling Kaiser for 4 or 5 years. Ideally, that would lessen the appeal of more-extreme political parties. And the threat of indefinite irrelevance (the Kaiser could be reelected) might even motivate the politicians to occasional competence.

This is exactly the arrogant narrative that pushes more people to vote for AfD. It’s the people’s right to vote for any party they want and that’s part of the democratic process.

Labelling or bullying people because they have exercised their right and calling them Nazis is not gonna make them change their mind at all.

After all who are you or anyone else to say that what other person has voted is right or wrong. You can have your opinion, but you cannot judge them

This is a completely absurd comment.

I'm calling the AfD Nazis because that's exactly what they are.

Of course when people vote for a Nazi party, that's extremely alarming, and I have every right to say that they're wrong to do so.

If the AfD comes to power in Germany, it will be a disaster for the country, and not only for the country. Germany tried fascism once before in its history, and we all know how that turned out.

This isn't really news. Media has been calling anyone which does not align with their views as far right for more than a decade.

Is the AfD a party in favor of liberal democracy? Enlighten us about where you'd palce their ideas in the political spectrum.

I wasn't specifically speaking of Afd, but overall general direction of the term used by media. How many people who are moderate and haven't changed their views on things moved from moderate to being labeled as far right.

Anyway this topic shouldn't even be on HN. The story will likely be flagged soon.

> Anyway this topic shouldn't even be on HN

Oh, it should. Where should we discuss it? Because we really should discuss it.

> Anyway this topic shouldn't even be on HN. The story will likely be flagged soon.

We are building a literal surveillance state tech dystopia funded by the sorts of VCs that employ a lot of the people in this site and you think that news about who will have control over this and what they plan to do with it is off-topic?

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