this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2023
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Yeah, the tactics they use are very internationally copy-pasted at this point, but 15% seems higher than I had assumed. Not hugely higher, admittedly.
That number is short of constant across a number of societies I know well, but, and here’s the trick, it’s elastic.
If you really push back on it as a society, you can shame most of them into pretending they are just conservatives and the support for your local flavor of authoritarian extreme right wing parties dwindles to 5-ish percent.
However, if you let up, they are free to influence and recruit and their support can easily swell to 20-25%, which is a level where in proportional systems you can start winning elections and leading coalition governments.
So, keep pushing the fuckers back into the sewers.
This is unfortunately the reality, as especially the majority of the German media outlets still seem to try to rationalise and understand those “prodigial sons” (as they seem to perceive them).
However, exactly the opposite to winning them back to democracy is happening: Feeling their voice being heard and valued, they catch emotional tailwinds and become even more radical.
I completely agree, and I thought the push back was more effective than it seems it has been. If a country with some of the most strict anti-Nazi measures in place is still netting 12.6% to its extreme-right political party though, I am horrified to think how large that number can stretch - now that we have nearly lost all the generation who saw it first-hand.
Admittedly the situation in Australia is very different and votes are counted differently, but our furthest right-wing parties seem to only take maximum 10%. And that's already high enough for me to be nervous about the consequences.