How can this fucking stupid Party be so high in votes… how stupid are we for fucks sake???
To me, I think they have spent years and years coordinating (not just in Germany) with other right-wing parties, tried and tested propaganda mechanics, nailed the language, the target audience, sold the product properly and their target audience responded. The majority of voters who take to this are individuals who often feel disenfranchised by minorities (including immigrants), have limited (if any) tertiary education so they are not critical thinkers, have been led to believe that their current status is because of other forms of government and people not of our liking, and not their lack of education, skillsets etc and so on. This has been used very well in other regions including Africa (Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda, Senegal), South America (see Colombia incoming, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia), Asia (India, Japan, South Korea, Philippines, Thailand) and so on.
Civic education left the building a long time ago and is no longer encouraged.
You’re not wrong, but you’re giving right-wing populists too much credit. Their polling numbers are not just a product of their own efforts, but equally so the result of
- outside interference: Russia is probably one of the most prominent actors in this sector, linked to both interference in U.S. elections (on behalf of Trump), in the Brexit referendum (on behalf of the Leave campaign), in the latest Romanian election, and so many more. But technofascists like Thiel and Musk are equally getting involved, endorsing, hosting and probably bankrolling candidates they see as conducive to giving even more power to oligarchs. Cf. Musk hosting and endorsing Alice Weidel (AfD GER) and Tommy Robinson recently at the London rallye, and Thiel essentially funding JD Vance’s entire political career.
- the abandonment of the working and middle class by the political elites: hear me out, I’m not just parrotting a right-wing talking point here. If you look at the development of both income and wealth inequality in the last few decades, you’ll see that there is some truth to it. Governments from left to right have had a much more open ear to the interests of corporations and billionaires - after all, that’s where all that sweet, sweet campaign money comes from, as well as the career for their lives after politics. Meanwhile, ordinary people have been struggling from crisis to crisis: from dotcom bubble to subprime meltdown, from the Euro crisis into a global pandemic, and from there into two severe energy shocks ('22 and '26). And it turns out that bailing out banks while dishing out austerity, shutting down the country and remaining mostly inactive in the face of rising inequality and inflation isn’t exactly the way to win the trust of the public. That said, the far right posing as an “alternative” to failed mainstream politics is a joke, obviously: as laid out above, they are mostly bankrolled by the very elites that are responsible for people’s struggles. They are here to shift the blame onto marginalised groups and give even the lower classes somebody to look down and vent their anger on. If you look at their agenda, their plan is to open the floodgates even more to the money elites, slash taxes and regulations and funnel government spending towards oligarch-owned monopolies. (The rampant corruption under Trump II bears ample testimony to that.)
So, yes, the far right has been busy in the recent past. But they wouldn’t have come this far if it weren’t for fascists with money supporting them and mainstream politics failing people left and right.
and mainstream politics failing people left and right.
I think this sums it up pretty nicely!
No, it actually doesn’t. In the majority of cases those alleged mainstream and center politics have been right-wing to at best center-right-wing already for decades and they have been bad for as long as most voters can remember. They have not suddenly started abandoning sensible politics or failing people. They are simple continuing the exact same policies of previous decades that fuck over people to make a few rich. It’s not the politics that changed but the amount of people getting fucked for policies benefitting only a very small fraction of people. And the fact that they don’t need to obfuscate their bad politics anymore as bullshit populism is so much easier and more effective as a diversion.
You are right. They have been enabled by fascists. I agree with you on this 100%.
To me, I think they have spent years and years coordinating (not just in Germany) with other right-wing parties, tried and tested propaganda mechanics, nailed the language, the target audience, sold the product properly and their target audience responded.
Which is what any party should do, they did nothing new or strange, they simply listen to the people and offered solutions (which would not necessary work or be realizable) occupying a space other parties decided to abandon.
I was at a town hall meeting regarding the opening of refugee shelter in the neighbouhood. Let me tell you how it went.
I went there with two friends, knowing that the owner of the building next to the shelter mobilised in right-wing facebook groups to show up in numbers to show the establishment what the people think.
There was police checking bag for weapons, which was a bit intimidating. When I was inside, the woman next to me told me that last time it was worse, there was security between every row. “If you lose the populations favour I guess thats what you have to do” she said.
On the stage was the SPD mayor, who was admittedly a horrible mayor, he got voted out for some corruption thing some months later.
The only other politician there was an AfD one. He was in the audience, literally on the side “of the people against those up there”, who critically asked uncomfortable questions about murdering refugees.
The building owner stood up and pointed out that an email has been found coming from the mayors secretary to security telling them “to make sure the atmosphere doesnt tilt right”. A groan went through the room. It later turned out that the email was real and in response to the mobilisation in the facebook groups. The mayor risked his neck talking, not really saying anything of substance throughout the whole meeting.
In my corner there was us and some people from the local community center, who sometimes also helped refugees. Towards the end, a person who I’d describe as a Fascho stood up, pointed at us and said “Well it seems like the mayor invited his TAZ-reading fans from antifa as well”. The next day, this was reported like that on Nius.
It was a complete shitshow. And now remember. They do this everywhere. In small towns they stand on the town square during rain with their little tent, just in case someone wants to have a chat.
I say this as a party member of Die Linke. Nobody seems to give a fuck about the disenfranchised except the AfD. For many people, the AfD is the only one that actually talks to and doesnt look down on them. This is not a justification, it scares me. But I can see how people get drawn in like that. What an embarrassment for both the liberal mainstream and the left, who is supposed to cater to the forgotten ones.
I can’t verify this, so take it as gossip, but a person who tried to organized a unified voice for a similar issue against AfD at a townhall meeting once, told me that when they entered a meeting, a cop came up to them, told that they need to ask them some questions regarding the safety of the meeting, and he was held there for long enough so they couldn’t properly attend the meeting, so afd person told their speech unapposed.
Again, I don’t know details, how legal it is, or anything, take it with a grain of salt. But in my heart of hearts I kinda believe thatFirst of all, thanks for going to the meeting and opposing those Nazis.
Nobody seems to give a fuck about the disenfranchised except the AfD.
I know this is what you meant too, but I think it’s important to emphasise this: They seem to give a fuck. In reality they are just as bad, if not worse than the other major parties when it comes to actually supporting them.
Fucking piece of shit Nazis.
I hate that fucking Nazi cunt so much
It requires a really unique mindset to want to restore ties to the losing party of a war they started themselves.
Like in gaming there’s the insult of calling someone a “win team joiner”, so someone who’s joining the already winning team to get an easy win. This is… the opposite.
The Swiss lesbian leader of the xeno- and homophobic party wants to lead Germany. How perfectly normal
Traitors. And their voting base keeps cheering this shit on.
Ah… the old Divide et Impera. Russians (and americans) don’t want a strong united Europe, so they ofc try to dismantle its forming from the inside… I’d esteem the Kremlin for such a smart move, wouldn’t my skin be in the game.
