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France is on the precipice of a far-right landslide (www.middleeasteye.net)
submitted 2 days ago* by to c/world@quokk.au
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To paraphrase philosopher Antonio Gramsci, we are witnessing not an event, but an epoch. The eventual rise to power of the National Rally would be one of its chapters.

This epoch began with the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, and the forces at play today are the mature offspring of that “war on terror”. While these movements refuse to hide their supremacist nature and authoritarian intent behind a veneer of political decorum, they do not fundamentally differ at their core from the governments that preceded them; they merely call for draconian Islamophobic measures to be adopted faster, with the backing of entire societies.

The proposed hijab referendum in France should not be understood only as the move of an obsessively Islamophobic party, nostalgic for its colonial past. More broadly, it offers a perfect opportunity for an obsessively Islamophobic nation, nostalgic for its colonial past, to adopt legislation that could drive the last nail into the coffin of Muslims’ freedom of religion.

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[–] 62 points 2 days ago (22 children)

If Le Pen wins in France and AfD wins in Germany Europe will be truly fucked. It’s just so frustrating how many idiots are willing to vote for them. But looking at how much the fascists are ruining the country across the Atlantic is too hard for them. They just want to toss out anyone with a slightly darker complexion than their own and screw over their allies like tough daddy Trump is doing.

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  • [–] 40 points 2 days ago (10 children)

    The problem is that the left seems to be completely castrated, achieving very little in ways to actually help the average people, meanwhile the (alt) right is offering the typical fascist approach of simple solutions to complex problems...

    Most people aren't economists. They don't, and more importantly, don't WANT to grasp the intricacies of why things are shite and why it takes a long time to fix them. They want their lives improved, without being too involved.

    The left has simultaneously failed to market themselves as the solution OR when in power, deliver any solutions.

    And it doesn't matter how bad an alt right government would be, people just want to be less tired, have more money, and that's PRECISELY what Le Pen and the rest of these fuckers promise.

    The added racism and xenophobia on top is just a little extra to play into people's tribalism - pin all the issues on the immigrants, the foreigners, the people most outside the average person's tribes, and all that fearmongering will play directly onto these promises.

    One of the most important challenges, once we beat these fascist pieces of shit, will be the reform to education, so that critical thinking is taught appropriately, allowing people to at the very least recognise the very typical fascist methodology of playing into people's emotions to get away with everything. Because these altright chuds never deliver. But they can always talk their way out of not delivering.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 day ago

    The left has never been in power and the left never has the backing of the billionaires.

    The far right can grow because huge sums of money are being invested into them, with the expectation that the rich will benefit.

    If the left got power they would go after billionaires and as such all efforts are made to discredit them and ensure they cannot get power.

    You cannot reform the system and save it. It will simply do the same thing where the rich amass power and influence to undo the reforms over time as people get complacent. The only real solution is revolution.

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  • [–] 8 points 2 days ago* (3 children)

    "people just want to be less tired, have more money, and that’s PRECISELY what Le Pen and the rest of these fuckers promise."

    Le Pen will deliver none of that. I don't buy it that so many voters are outright stupid, when we are talking about self interest. It is much more likely that most of her voters know what they will actually get with her, they are satisfied by her persecuting immigrants and ready to pay the price for that.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 days ago (2 children)

    Read the rest of my comment.

    Of course they won't deliver.

    But they will promise an EASY solution that "will fix everything in one fell swoop", and when that doesn't happen they'll blame everyone else.

    And given how many right wing voters are publicly regretting their choice around the world... you should believe that people are that stupid/ignorant/short-sighted.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 days ago (1 child)

    That was not my point. My point was that most of their voters know they won't deliver on that as well. So no they are not voting for them because they believe they will ve better iff if they do. They vote for them because others will be off worse if they do (even if they'll also take a hit).

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  • [–] 4 points 2 days ago

    Socialism isn't that hard to market to the working class.

    "We will bring democracy to the workplace, which is where you spend the majority of your waking life." (Marketing the idea of transforming all businesses into worker cooperatives in a way that's relatable and easy to understand for the layman)

    "The government will have a universal safety net available for all who wish to use it, and that will include taking care of all basic necessities, including a universal basic income, shelter, utilities, education, and food."

    "It's not your neighbor who has no money and no power who has been causing all of your life's issues, but the wealthy elite, who hide behind their piles of money and their propaganda machines and try to tell you how to think and who to blame for the issues that they caused."

    The issue with socialism in the past has been that the wealthy elite are very good at coopting social and political movements across the globe, and often times they go unnoticed. The "left" in modern day, western countries are still inherently capitalists who don't truly believe in the above idiology, at least not in full, which is why they continue to fail to deliver the necessary solutions to prevent fascist uprisings.

    Fascism comes as a direct result of three things: a top-down divide and conquer strategy, mass financial hardship, and lack of a proper education system that extends equally to all of society.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 days ago

    Russia is leading the way in a genocidal purge of the uneducated, just like the world did nearly 100 years ago. The survivors will value education or they'll participate in slaughter round two, and after that the uneducated male population will be culled enough for civil rights movements. Again. Just like last time.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 days ago* (1 child)

    You don't even have to look across the Atlantic. Just look at what happened to Hungary.

    But hey soon we'll be holding all European voters individually responsible for the heinous shit their far right governments are about to do, no matter who they voted for. Right?

    I just want to make sure you all know that when Russia steamrolls Ukraine, you will all be responsible for it.

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  • [–] 11 points 2 days ago (4 children)

    Do these people not see what happened when the US had a far right landslide?

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  • [–] 5 points 2 days ago

    They really don't :( Local TV news always tone down (and professional translation helps a lot with this too) the degenerate things said by authoritarian figures, heck they basically give them a platform everyday. Report by copy-pasting, no critique whatsoever. They don't report acts of violence by police or erosion of citizen rights, they just repeat what's said on media panels, twitter, truth social

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  • [–] 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

    Add as well Italy (already there), and probably in November, Spain. Austria and the Netherlands slippery slopping towards it.

    I just hope UK stays away of Reform now that it split.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 days ago* (1 child)

    No, Italy is not the same, say what you will about Meloni, but she is not bought by Russia like AfD and Le Pen, she is also not trying to destroy the EU.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 days ago

    I'm talking about the EU becoming a far-right zone, because reading this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brothers_of_Italy

    "In June 2024, a Fanpage.it journalist infiltrated a Roman section of the party's youth organisation "National Youth". The resulting investigation showed how militants frequently use the Nazi slogan "Sieg Heil!", make fascist salutes and praise Benito Mussolini. The organisation is said to have a policy of masking all these aspects publicly, while in private they are tolerated and promoted"

    They do seem to move like a duck and talk like a duck.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago

    Don’t worry, part of the cycle. Other countries will follow, the shift to the right is unavoidable. This will create the base for a proper revolution, where all the oligarchs and super rich will be held accountable, by cutting their heads off. Suddenly, people start to earn money again, there will be no reason to support right-wing anymore and we will have a couple of decades of flourishing economies, most likely lead by China.

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