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Do you think that the boost has more to do with the fact that the general political mainstream is collapsing (i.e. perceived as useless) across multiple nations all at once? I mean, we’ve had wealthy businessmen pretty much all throughout history, so is this like a ‘trigger event’, so to speak?
I think the change is that today’s ultra-rich don’t act the same way the rich of the past did.
The “robber-barons” of the early 20th century were phenomenally rich and powerful, and they built schools, libraries, parks, and other public goods with a small fraction of their wealth because they understood that they had at least some tiny obligation to give back to the society that provided the conditions under which they could get so wealthy.
Today’s rich are actively preaching against the concept of empathy, and resisting any notion that they owe anyone anything. They are convinced that even a single dollar of their fortunes going to anything other than their own personal aggrandizement is a deeply offensive idea. And they are so willing to resist doing anything positive for the world that they spend enormous amounts of money to create propaganda networks to convince others that they don’t owe anyone a single cent of their fortunes. They buy ad campaigns to convince people that taxing them is bad, spending in some cases more money than the taxes would cost them… all because they firmly believe no one but themselves should see even the tiniest benefit from their money.
I feel like this is revisionism to some extent which inadvertently whitewashes their legacies; the real reason is they actually feared worker uprisings and did what they could to placate the population. Something not necessary now
The legitimate reasons for discontentment have existed for a long time, but I suspect that powerful people have found a way to capitalize on it en masse. They're taking the kernel of truth (that the mainstream political options aren't being effective) and directing people to solutions that benefit themselves.
Idk if it happening internationally is just collateral damage, if they're trying to operate internationally, or other powerful people elsewhere have just learned from the previous successes.
So no, I don't think there is a trigger event, so much as reaching a critical mass. They've come into the means of control (digital media making distribution of ideas so cheap, making manipulation of media exposure so easy), and a public who is so used to being lied to and mislead that they can't identify trustworthy sources (FUD), and they're striking while the iron is hot.
Ah, I see. So it’s more like a ‘tipping point’ that’s built up over a long time?
I think so. And they've certainly helped us toward a that tipping point, but there is no single event that got us there.
Imo that is. I'm not exactly a political scientist.
In the early 2000s in Europe, many governments significantly worsened social services, including "centre-left" governments like Blair in the UK and Schröder in Germany. This eroded trust in the established parties, and the large influx of migrants from 2015 on in many European coutries on was easily exploited by rightwing parties. Add the significant rightwing bias of US social media that dominates the social media landscape in most western countries and voila, people voting for neonazi parties en masse.