Icelander said:
I have a friend who used to post here who is currently living in Sweden and has been for at least 6 years or more. I asked him about this subject and his reply is worthy of this thread.
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Quote:
It's a big issue with many sub-issues. I've been following it closely for years. I'll answer your questions one by one:
>Hey what's your take on the rise of the far right in Europe?
The far-right is an interesting term in itself. On the one had it is used by the media and many pundits to a priori dismiss people who can be identified with the far-right (guilt by association, shaming, demonization: good people agree with us, bad people think like the far-right). This encourages the idea that a PC elite control discourse and politics, thus bolstering support for the far-right. (I'm sure you recognize this basic pattern from your observations of mankind and US politics.)
On the other hand, one should ask themselves whether so-called the far-right is always far-right. What I see are parties and interest groups that mainly stand to the right of established ideology, in particular on immigration, nationalism vs. globalism, political correctness, and so on. Few of these parties and interest groups are fascist as they are often called. The majority of them are simply populist and often xenophobic. However, a large segment of the far-right sympathizers are in fact ideologically aligned with social democrats (who feel there is no better choice than the far-right at this point).
I think the far-right has in part arisen because there has been a power vacuum with the collapse of previously stronger social democratic and liberal parties who have alienated themselves from their voter bases (in favor of identity politics, globalist ideology and EU agendas), and because politics and media have moved far away from what people are experiencing while at the same time the media, police and power elite are in many cases, like in Sweden, are covering up what is in fact going on with the immigration crisis. With this in mind, I think the far right would largely lose voters if the ruling organs would come back to Earth, listen to their voters, and stop covering up the truth and so on.
You also have to look at the rhetoric and how quickly things have changed. Ignoring the roots of several far right parites in Western Europe, you can see that their suggested polices on immigration are in fact to the left of where left parties were just fifteen to twenty years ago. The official line has shifted, the people see it and they're upset. You get fired and crucified in the (social) media if you have the wrong opinions on the immigration issue. I'm not even talking about blatant racism and so on, but simply being opposed to official policy or having experiences that conflict with the mediated reality and received ideology you are expected to believe in.
>Are things getting crazy over there?
Yes. Things have been getting increasingly polarized, censored, desperate. Rapes, violent attacks and racial tensions are increasing. Housing shortages, economic problems, the EU is collapsing, immigrants wind up in unassimilated/unintegrated ghettos, Swedish infrastructure for instance is retracting and collapsing (police have to spend more and more time dealing with migrants and answering calls at shelters), gangs of migrant men from North Africa roam around Stockholm's central station on thieving and groping. They police have come forward and admitted to the problem, but no laws have been changed and nothing has been done to sway this problem. Refugees sit around watching TV at centers all day waiting to learn Swedish, get a job (there are none for low-skilled workers), etc. Fights break out, Christian and homosexual refugees get beaten up by Muslim refugees. Fight after fight. People walk into the Swedish Migration Agency and pour lighter fluid on themselves and the staff, but are stopped. Refugees and migrants don't listen to female social workers, break windows, etc. There are gypsy/Romani beggars everywhere in Sweden for a few years now. I've seen Romani people stealing and robbing others in the streets, but all the media writes about is how they need pity (and free health care, free dental care, etc., etc.), and if you call that into question you're a racist.
>Are the Muslims being scapegoated because a common enemy is needed to distract from economic woes?
To some extent, yes. Some people simply don't like foreigners or Muslims at all. I have worked with many and know several and believe I can see both sides. I think the naive humanism in the West has been extremely suicidal and dangerous. However, people are waking up to the fact that all of humanity is not one, and that cultures are in fact radically different and many of the so-called universal values of humanism and democracy indeed took hundreds of years to make reality and are not givens to the majority of people arriving here today. Just now are people getting a wake-up call: ah, yes, people from different conditions are in fact radically different. These differences of values, religion, background, education, views of women, etc., cannot be overcome by goodwill and a language course with a few well-meaning instructions about local law and mores. (And the only people who dare deal with the issue are the far-right and the so-called far-right.) Then there's the ghost of Islamic terrorism that has people on edge, including Europl's statement yesterday that ISIS is planning large-scale attacks throughout Europe.
I find it greatly amusing that the far-right is considered such a danger when the establishment itself has to extensively lie to and misinform the populace in order to maintain order. They are very much like the description and fears of their opposition.
My citizenship to a country on the otherside of the Atlantic may come in handy. My reading and insights indicate that 2016 is going to be much rougher than 2015 for Western Europe."
Wow, I would love to meet this fella. That was one of the best posts I've seen around here in a long time.
I think, at least here in America, the left is beginning to understand that it needs to hone its message and ideals, as they have grown out of whack. For instance, defending the Charlie Hebdo attackers. Another example is the feminist garbage that gets trotted out so often by big name political figures, and has no basis in reality.
Left and right cannot be so rigid and narrowly defined as the media would like us to believe they are. You're suppose to pick one side and line up with their positions on a slew of unrelated issues, and then hate the other side for not agreeing with the leadership of your own.
Democracy has been hijacked in this way. We have allowed our critical thinking skills to take a back seat to the spoon fed models that we are given. Maybe because it is easy, and our lives are busy. I don't know, but when you talk to the average person on the street, they are not very well informed on political events, or ideology. Most people don't even have an acceptably mediocre understanding of these things. The world is quite confusing, and has grown smaller and faster. I'm sure that plays a part also.
Anyways, great post!
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"It is no measure of good health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society," - Jiddu Krishnamurti
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