this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2026
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The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) won the state election in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

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[โ€“] BananaTrifleViolin@piefed.world 23 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

Multiple countries are lurching quite badly to the right - the USA, Germany, France, Italy, the UK etc. Personally I think the cause is social media - it's badly regulated and being manipulated to spread hate and stupidity. It's allowing right wing hate to spread among a particular core of frankly moronic people.

Governments piss around with age bans, because they're focusing on the wrong issue. It's the adults that need protecting from the manipulated addictive algorithms, and running people into echo chambers where the nonsense never gets challenged. It's well beyond time for proper regulation of social media. They should be treated as a public service, just as Television & Radio was across Europe in the 20th century.

That means take the algorithms out of the hands of the companies using it to maximise engagement and profit without any care about accuracy, fact checking or public benefit. European countries in particular need to look at decoupling ourselves from the very broken and manipulated social media from the US and China. I'd even go so far as banning TikTok, Reddit, Facebook, Instagram if they refuse to comply, and allowing locally produced and regulated versions to grow.

[โ€“] Malica@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 days ago

I've been screaming about this since Cambridge analytica, watching country after country fall. Now Europe too. How long are they going to leave this propaganda machine online?

Social media is the cause, for both sides.

Across the western world politics is having rapid adjusts, and it's all being manipulated. What is center right today still, is grouped with some of the most harmful ideologies in the world, and most what is grouped within that is just comfortable basic needs for everyone, while the center left doing the same is now put in a group of far left socialism,

No one wants to meet in the middle anymore. Everyone online especially is stuck treating it like a game their side HAS to win for the greater good because the other is going to destroy everything. No government can ever keep up with this rapid shift, It's all going to boil to a point 1 side getting in power is going to take things to drastic measures, and do exactly the things you read about in history books. Civil uprising takes to many years, it takes like 30 years of oppression for that to happen. and in the span of less than 10 years look at how much the political space has shifted drastically. When this comes to an end and everything is reset, it isnt going to be pretty, and your grandkids will be learning about it in school