Newsflash: "President Trump" scares (some) World leaders
Yes, for a very wide definition of the word "leader".
These so-called "leaders" are the main responsible party for most of the extremism on the rise. The people we now call "extremists" (from which I exclude actual extremists, like Daesh) are mostly people who felt abandoned and betrayed by their own nations, and reacted in a way that we have not yet fully grasped. There's not much to add here.
Note: My own texts on this blog qualify me as an extremist. So be it.
What I find amusing in this ongoing media coverage is the way most pundits keep ranting about "race issues": Trump has risen because of racism; Europe is falling apart because of racism (exacerbated by the refugee crisis). I disagree. That's not to say there is no racism (or any other kind of tribalism) at play. Racism is an issue; it's just not the issue.
People don't rally behind Trump because he targets non-white people. They rally behind him because he targets the "illegal scum that comes into this Great Nation and steals the jobs away from the honest-to-God-hard-working-Americans". Something similar happens in Europe. Europe began disintegrating with the 2011 crisis, with the way EU countries divided, and turned on each other. The European elected accountants showed the European people that the game was "Each man for himself". The current divisions over the refugees are just another step on that course.
Looking at the USA, try a little "What if" exercise. What if Mexico and Canada were "reversed"? Apply everything you know about Mexico to Canada and vice-versa, but keep each people's skin color - Mexicans would still be "latino", and Canadians would still be "white".
Mexicans would visit the USA on tourism, and many would have work relations there, which would be construed as mutually beneficial. Canadians would flock to the USA in their millions, looking for a better life, taking any job available, and working for much lower wages. And with a sizable percentage of illegal immigrants.
Is anyone really suggesting that if the USA were filled with Canadian immigrants "stealing American jobs", Trump would ignore them just because they're white?
No, this is not about race, or religion, or any such nonsense. That's the pretext, not the motive, and its use stems from the fact that it's a lot easier to stir up the mob by giving them an easily recognizable "other".
This is about money. This is about inequality. This is about poverty.
This is what's getting these movements into the spotlight and, ultimately, into power. People who are already in poverty and people who perceive themselves (correctly or incorrectly) to risk falling into poverty. People who feel abandoned and betrayed; people who see no hope of ever recovering their lost income level; people who fear they will lose their own income.
I find it stupid beyond belief that so many people compare today's extreme right parties to the Nazi party, and then ignore that the Nazi's rise to power happened after the Great Depression. Back then, people didn't vote for them because of Antisemitism. That only became relevant after the Nazis took a hold on power.
I believe Trump's opponents know this. I also believe Trump's opponents use the race/religion/whatever issue for the same reason Trump uses it - because it's an easier way to stir up the mobs. Solving the actual problems - inequality, and the poverty and misery it causes - is one of the most complex problems we face today. It's a lot easier to just shout "Racism".
Add to that the business as usual of the last few decades, from both sides of the fence, both of which have brought us here, and both still eager to give us more austerity, more "pro-growth structural reforms", more deregulation... more of the same, really.
No wonder people are going for the extremes. Sure it can get ugly, but the number of people who believe they have little or nothing to lose is growing.
And those scared "leaders"? They're the ones delivering more and more people, on a silver platter, to the extremes.
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