Europe: “What a mess those Americans are in. I can’t believe these ignorant mobs are just letting the coronavirus spread and won’t do anything to stop it.”
I wonder if my sensible American friends feel a little better when they read stories like this. At least they know they’re not alone. (We Canadians have ‘em too, unfortunately.)
When the pandemic started, many observers pointed out that the same people who opposed lockdowns or any other restrictions to stop the spread were also bitterly opposed to getting people to wear masks. It went beyond mask mandates by governments or health authorities, but conspiracy theories about how masks are actually harmful and/or a means of social control.
An anti-vaxxer pharmacist - now there’s a phrase I never thought I’d write - tried to sabotage a vaccine shipment in Wisconsin, and now these Dutch idiots take it to another level. I wonder who gave them the idea that COVID will go away if you don’t test for it?
Republicans still standing by the God-Emperor Trump because reasons. Edgelord twentysomethings in Portland smashing shit while encouraging people to “become ungovernable.” It’s pure nihilism, all the way down. They aren’t for anything, but they know for sure what - and, more importantly, who - they’re against.
No prizes for guessing who the Dutch rioters are against, when you peel back all of the layers:
Isn’t it always?
After Trump’s humiliating defeat and downfall, I wondered how populist right-wing parties in Europe - from whom Trump (via Steve Bannon) lifted something resembling an ideology, and who in turn have been running their own “Make [insert country here] Great Again” campaigns - would be affected.
We’ll soon find out. The invaluable @europelects Twitter feed shows that right-wing parties have been hanging in there, at least for the time being. In France, Marine Le Pen’s party is now the most popular:
Italy, which changes governments like most of us change our socks, just saw its government coalition collapse. And Matteo Salvini’s Lega is still too popular to ignore:
Portugal just had a Presidential election in which the center-right incumbent won easily. But the far-right candidate, Ventura, broke through to finish at least third:
VOX, not to be confused with a lefty “explainer” website, is the third most-popular party in Spain:
And in the land of burning COVID test centers itself, anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim firebrand Geert Wilders’ PVV remains the second most popular party:
Does that mean any of these parties are poised to take power any time soon? Not by themselves, they won’t. Le Pen may come out on top in the first round of the 2022 French Presidential election, but she would almost certainly be routed in the second round. But just making it to the run-off would be a victory for her Rassemblement National, especially if she wins more than the 33.9% of the vote she earned last time around.
In Western European countries with proportional-representation systems, the electorate is fractured, and it’s almost impossible for one party to win an outright majority of the votes. That’s why parties like VOX and the PVV rank high in the polls despite having less than a fifth of the electorate behind them. Even Salvini, first place in Italy, is stuck at under 25%.
The issue isn’t whether they can win outright, but whether they can convince the more mainstream parties to let them join a governing coalition. Western Europe’s record is mixed. Sweden’s major parties want nothing to do with the Sweden Democrats, but Austria’s Freedom Party and Italy’s Lega have been accepted into the fold at various times. (The situation in Eastern Europe, especially in Hungary and Poland, is much more dire.)
There’s still time for this fire to burn itself out, but it doesn’t look like it will be because of Trump’s spectacular failure. Just like in the United States, there’s definitely a segment of Europe’s electorate that’s really on board with this stuff.
Nice try, guys, but this satire of performative wokeness is way too over the top to be effective.
Sadly, not news.
From above: "...many observers pointed out that the same people who opposed lockdowns or any other restrictions...were also bitterly opposed to getting people to wear masks."
Yes, and many of the same people who are anti-abortion are also bitterly opposed to widely and easily available contraception.
Speaking of misinformation, Farrakhan is still discouraging Black people from being vaccinated for Covid-19.
I would like to understand better what is behind these movements. Is it just tribalism, so to speak, sharing a common enemy and gaining a sense of belonging to a group by opposing something together...or is there more to it...?