Ahead of June’s EU election, we’re again seeing alarmist rhetoric about far-right insurgents. But the authoritarian turn is happening already — driven by the conservative forces at the heart of the European institutions.
Scratch the surface "nonalignment" of a centrist and you'll find a political ideology that's perfectly fine with right-wing authoritarianism as long as it doesn't affect them personally
Because of the misdirection that exists around “left and right” wing politics.
There is really only one relevant axis when it come to right and left wing. Pro-capitalism and anti-capitalism.
The center and the extreme right both seek to protect capital at all costs. One believes “decorum” and “the structures of power” are necessary to maintain capitalism, one believes an extreme restructuring of power is necessary to “save” capitalism.
They disagree with the means, but they agree with the ends.
And the center will always give way to the extreme right when things get hairy enough. They fear losing some power, but they fear most losing ALL power…
The center and the extreme right both seek to protect capital at all costs. One believes “decorum” and “the structures of power” are necessary to maintain capitalism, one believes an extreme restructuring of power is necessary to “save” capitalism.
And the reason they want to keep captalism is because they want to keep their privileged position because they are afraid they will lose something. Which isn't really true, we have less money than the richer people in the US but also a lot less worry because we have labour rights, free or cheap healthcare, much lower crime etc. And cost of living scales with income anyway. I would never want to work in the US where I can be fired "at will", can go bankrupt when I have a medical issue and have a much higher chance of getting murdered than anywhere else in the western world.
Also, if we go full capitalist, the Chinese will beat us at this for sure because their government cares absolutely nothing about their citizens and they can always hollow out their society's rights more to compete. They pretend to be communist but they're actually ultra-capitalist. But they can do the race to the bottom much much better than we can.
What we should go for is an ethical society that balances the interests of capital with society, environment etc, which we are much better at than any other major power. It's our strength. Unfortunately these guys are breaking these efforts down, sowing discord, and undermining our stability for their own personal gain.
The problem is what do we do about it. I've started blocking all the ex-friends who have been infected by extreme-right propaganda but in my country 24% voted for this trash in the last election, it's ridiculous.
I think the whole movement has been enabled by the central right because they have been undermining welfare for decades while framing the left as being lazy and just wanting to take everyone else's money. It makes people's lives much less secure and this insecurity is what breeds the extreme-right anger.
That's because it's a slightly less paranoid extension of the same moral and political philosophy: protect the social primacy of privilege. The difference is just that centrists feel more secure in protecting it by offering concessions within their ability to do so without impacting their personal comfort significantly, whereas conservatives openly defend it like rabid dogs. Or I guess, like territorial homo sapiens.
The end result is very different, but the belief system we have to tackle is essentially the same. Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. Memorable name for a punk band, terrible basis for a society.
I feel this has been worse since von der Leyen stepped in. But maybe I just feel that way because she is in the spotlight way more than Juncker ever was.