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Unhappy lives linked to recent rise of right-wing populism in Europe (www.psypost.org)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Additionally, the researchers found that life dissatisfaction indirectly influenced right-wing populist voting through two key attitudes: political distrust and anti-immigration sentiment. Dissatisfied individuals were more likely to distrust political institutions and view immigration negatively, which in turn increased their likelihood of voting for right-wing populist parties. Notably, anti-immigration sentiment emerged as the stronger of the two mediators.

And this is the key point of right-wing propaganda. Destroy trust into organizations, sow sentiments against immigrants, spread fear by overhyping individual crimes, produce anxiety. Basically "make people angry and fearful".

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

Yeah, duh: making immigrants and politicians the scapegoat works best when people are unhappy with life.

To me it's extremely transparent however that neoliberals and conservatives have defunded and weakened our institutions so they can no longer fulfill their responsibilities. This leads to dissatisfaction which the extreme right blames on immigrants and correctly on neoliberal politicians.

That this leads to women voting for patriarchs, Jewish people for descendants of Nazis and second generation immigrants for racists, is so frustrating.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

And since the media - especially social media - is trapped in an attention economy where mainly bad news drive engagement it's no wonder people have a skewed and negative view of reality.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

anti-immigration sentiment.

I wonder why indiginous wage slaves would feel this way... Like there is no way to tell why they would feel like this.

CBO estimated that net immigration was 2.67 million immigrants in 2022, and 3.3 million immigrants in 2023, the highest in its data going back to 2000, and about triple the average rate between 2000 and 2021 (1.05 million immigrants per year).

I wonder what happened in 2022 that made daddy bringing all these additional slaves.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Immigrants don’t need to be “brought.” This is right-wing rhetoric, but most ironic of all is that these “wage slaves” are literally better off with more immigration, not less.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

Unhappiness and fear linked to fascism? Unbelievable! But yeah, I think that's something you more or less directly learn as German if you look back on our democracy, the Weimarer Republik, before rise of national socialism. Many people didn't believed in democracy at the first place, but the bad economic situation made it even worse. If you are unhappy or even fear about your future that's a great attack point for right wing propaganda.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

I was thinking about this before scrolling comments. It seems many on the right support/vote for policies that actively make their quality of life seemingly better in the short term, and are surprised and disappointed when the long-term consequences of their decisions begin happening to become noticeable (usually more for me, less for thee?). When they discover the policies affect them, personally, they become angry and belligerent, looking to place blame on external factors. The left (I don't mean neoliberal) seem to go within, asking things like, "how did my voting choices affect this? What have I learned? How can I calibrate my choices for better results, going forward?" then try to make better decisions, even if it hurts them more, personally, in the short term, hoping for better across-the-board results long term?

I've just begun milling this, so I've no idea if this is correct or not. I'd love to see some research on it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

All this learning what has it accomplished? The fascists are on the rise again.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

The contemporary witnesses are dying. I wouldn't say it's because of them not being able to tell their stories anymore, but a human life is enough time for a society to forget. And if I say society, I really mean the majority of people forget, nowadays just many have forgotten, too many, but not the majority. There always have been a few people who couldn't forget because they never knew, never wanted to know, we call them neo-nazis. They are on the rise again, all the crises of the last years have helped them and still do so, but I don't think people who haven't forgotten would follow them.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

It works for both left and right wing populism. Unfortunately, the former tends to (almost always) manifest the latter. Just look at all left-wing populists who (understandably) hate Joe Biden rolling out the red carpet for Donald Trump.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

As a left wing populist, I do hate Joe Biden rolling out the red carpet for Donald Trump

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Sure, either interpretation works.

Justifiable hatred of the establishment undermines institutions beyond repair, and since left wing politics are grounded in facts, whereas populism is not a fact-based ideology, left wing populism almost always fails, and populism has become practically synonymous with fascism.

Incidentally, this is also why the left-wing has a tendency for infighting. Again, left-wing politics are broadly driven by facts whereas populism is not. The right wing flourishes under these conditions because none of their beliefs are grounded in empirical or normative reality.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Shit's fucked, yo. So let's vote for the kind of people that make everything worse. I will never understand this kind of mindset.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Especially since the populists thrive on it which gives them exactly zero incentive to improve things.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Some people need an answer that's easy and quick. That answer is also always wrong but by then they stopped thinking anyway and are hooked on easy and quick.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (2 children)

"The rich stole all your money" is also an easy answer and much closer to reality. People who fall for right wing bullshit do so because it panders to their hate and resentment.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

People voting for populists are much more likely to see the scapegoats their electees talk about in their life than an actual billionaire that exploited them, though. And there's the "temporarily embarrassed millionaire" narrative we've been forced upon, too.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

similarly, conspiracy cranks get all up in arms about some shady group of "elites" that somehow aren't just.. billionaires and top-level politicians..

they have an actual legitimate conspiracy in front of them, presented on a fucking silver platter, and yet they completely ignore that and instead make shit up that makes no fucking sense.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

So, less left politics lead to more right politics? Checks out in Germany. 16 years of Merkel and before that 16 years of Kohl have lead to crumbling infrastructure, an erosion of social welfare and tax breaks for the rich. And even our supposedly center left party hasn't done much to change that when they were in power.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Damn we got a German using critical thinking...

Online they are always frothing at the mouth at negative mention of Merkel and her shiti economic and geopolitical policy

Has the public opinion turned on her within Germany yet or we still calling her auntie?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Online they are always frothing at the mouth at negative mention of Merkel and her shiti economic and geopolitical policy

You sound like you're doing wild stereotyping. But no, not every single German thinks the same way.

And you may not want to hear it, but while Merkel's policies often did a disservice to Germany and the EU, she did have strengths. Just compare her to the utter non-presence that is Olaf Scholz, who somehow snagged the chancellor's seat.

Has the public opinion turned on her within Germany yet or we still calling her auntie?

We called her "Mutti", i.e. "mommy". There isn't even a German word for "auntie" in German afaik. ~~And I should k because growing up, I had a very motherly neighbor. We never had a special term for her.~~

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

There isn't even a German word for "auntie" in German afaik.

Wouldn't auntie literally be Tantchen? However, I've never heard somebody using it except perhaps in translated US TV.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago

Hmm. According to Collins you're right. That makes me a lot less sure about the definitions I had in my head:

Tantchen, either a) your favorite aunt or a b) random short and/or middle-aged woman that you're being condescending towards.
auntie, a woman that you may or may not be related to but who you look up to for advice etc. and who may fill the role of a parent at times.

Maybe someone wants to comment on the veracity of these. :)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I mean, generally I liked her. But I think she would have been better in the social party. She was an expert at making absolutely everything sound good and deflected any and all criticism. But under her government absolutely nothing got done. And now the new government is slowly trying to fix stuff and it's getting more and more apparent what is broken so they get the blame.

In general I think the left hate her because she's too right and the (far) right hate her because she's too left. "Danke Merkel" has become a meme similar to "thanks Obama".

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Nothing learned from last time, huh?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

... not this shit again ...

I feel very sad that the ruling class is actually pushing this. Because this future sucks.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

If we need a behavioral science paper to understand such an elementary thing, really we have lost as a society.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

The papier doesn't go as far as exploring the reasons for personal life dissatisfaction. My theory is that much of it comes from the frustration created by advertising and consumerism. I can't buy the same nice car/house/vacation as my neighbors/friends/relatives and so I get frustrated. People are constantly exposed to advertisement: in the morning when they check their phone or listen to the radio, during their commute with the radio again, billboards, bus stops, during the day every time they go on the Internet, during their commute back home, TV of course and again their phone at night. The influx of frustrating stimuli is constant throughout our lives, hence the dissatisfaction.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

India, Brazil and Argentina all pretty much throw this idea out the window. They’re low GDP/income countries where the average person is trying to scrape by and just afford food. Those countries have all turned to right wing populism as well (Brazil is on my to watch list as I don’t believe we’ve seen the last of Bolsanaro or his political friends). It’s not really an advertising/consumerism thing.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

“I’m unhappy, let’s put people in camps and start a secret police force!! That’ll make me SO happy!”

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

"As long as someone else is getting hurt more than me!"

every conservative

[–] [email protected] -1 points 4 months ago (3 children)

The rise of right-wing in Europe can be directly attributed to the massive influx of right-wing conservative ideologues from the middle East pouring in.

I'm a huge proponent of immigration, but what we're seeing here is the backlash of immigration done incredibly poorly.

There will be articles for years that tap dance around with us, but if you listen to the people who are voting for right-wing assholes, it's pretty clear why they're doing it and what they're saying. The Press has been bullied into avoiding talking about it though under the guise of islamophobia.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

The rise of right-wing in Europe can be directly attributed to the massive influx of right-wing conservative ideologues from the middle East pouring in.

You might want to think on this some more, because this seems like a bad take to say the least. The people coming from the Middle East to the EU are very diverse. In fact, it's a big pull that there's a lot more freedom here than in their home countries. Including the freedom to e.g. be openly gay.

Our societies have (largely informally) been segregating immigrants from the native-born citizens. We also didn't prioritize education about e.g. Islam. This void has been abused by organizations sponsored by autocratic nations to infiltrate or societies. That's one part of the issue.

Another is that xenophobia is privileged in all of our brains. And a third is that over the past few decades, our societies were reshuffled to make outcomes worse for poor people.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago

I completely disagree is a bad take. I think you're overlooking the reality that a right leaning Neo-Nazi has a lot in common with a conservative islamist.

You see it very clearly in Canada with the push to keep sex education out of classrooms being led by the far right PPC party and huge swaths of recently immigrated people from the middle East and Indian subcontinent. They use different methods but they have the same goals ultimately.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I honestly think that no matter what we’re doing the right would have a problem with migration because they want to go back to a white supremacist kind of society. We’re hearing the same shit how about Syrians and Ukrainians now that we heard in the 90s about Russian and Yugoslavian people, in the 60s/70s about Italian, Spanish, Polish, Turkish people and in the 40s/50s about German refugees.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I'd disagree with that. For 50 years Canada did pretty well letting in controlled numbers of people from around the world. Then they opened the flood gates and problems started.

I'm not sure it's about being black and white, i feel like it's more about people feeling the need to integrate which doesn't happen when you arrive with 100,000 of your countrymates.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

What do you mean with them „opening the flood gates“? I would be interested to see some data on that. AFAIK Canada has one of the strictest migration politics in the world.

In Germany we now have people whose grandparents have migrated to Germany, but they’re still not considered „true“ Germans just because of their names, looks and religion. Even though in the Americas they have their own racist things going on, the normal thing is that if you’re a citizen, people won’t doubt that you’re American.

The same isn’t true in European countries and as I said it didn’t actually matter where people were from, German society was incredibly hostile towards German refugees after the 2nd world war, where there was little need to integrate or learn the language, yet the rhetoric was surprisingly similar to that about e.g. Syrians today.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Canada used to have a strict policy and on some levels still do outside of the programs being instituted to supplement the workforce and to bring refugees in from complex zones, we've allowed in over double the previous amount for the past couple of years, under various refugee programs. Going a bit farther back there was a large influx of Syrians (and tasty shwarma!). The canada.ca website details the rapid increase in numbers quite well.

I would never say that these people move to Canada are not true Canadians because at one point my family got here on a boat and my wife's family escaped an islamist regime to come here too. We're both quite Canadian in culture and jean jackets.

From what I see, many of these problems derive from cultural conflicts that were previously not apparent because while many people knew to a country tend to stick together when they are a true minority, they tend to work to fit in. When you have large waves of people coming at once, there's no impetus for them to fit in because they can stay within their own cultural confines..... As sad as it is to say, some of those cultural confines are very much at odds with the greater Canadian culture.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

I find it incredibly lazy to make such a big statement and then not back it up with data, not even on request. But I checked myself and what I found does not back your statement at all. Maybe I’m looking at different numbers than you did and in that case I’d like to see yours but from what I see they let in roughly the same number of people for decades.

Regarding the cultural compatibility, again, they were saying the same thing about German refugees within Germany and they’re saying that right now in Poland about Ukrainians, and in Turkey about Syrians, hell even in Lebanon and Jordan about Syrians. So to get back about your initial point, I don’t think it has anything to do with middle eastern culture, it has to do with people being xenophobic in general and the media and politicians fueling that for their own benefit.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

https://www.statista.com/statistics/443063/number-of-immigrants-in-canada/

You're lazily conflating immigration and refugee data. It's a combination of both the Canada is struggling with. Right now. There's no shortage of analysis or study showing that far too many people are coming to Canada than our system can handle. Even the federal government who is the one who set these policies have started walking them back.

As someone who hails from a middle Eastern culture and is married to an Iranian refugee, I can say with certainty that the influx of people coming from the places that my wife and I escaped are absolutely causing societal problems for us here in Canada. I'm far from a pull. The ladder up behind me. Kind of guy but I'm also a citizen of this country which is being quite clearly impacted by the oversaturation of new people coming from very small pockets of this planet into Canada. This isn't being driven by politicians. Both the conservative and the liberal sides of politics in this country are very much pro-immigration due to our inability to maintain our population rates and tax base without it. The people of Canada on the other hand are starting to show more and more discontent with this approach.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Thanks for the source. I see what you mean but even at 400k migrants vs 200k we’re talking like an increase from 0.5% to 1% of the total population. In Germany we took something like 3% in 2015 and honestly it was often a chaos but we absolutely managed. There was mostly the problem that everyone wanted to go to the big cities because of racism in the countryside and terrible infrastructure if you didn’t have a car.

Well regarding the rest what can I say, I wish you all the best, but if you think you or your wife will be left alone because you’re the good kind of migrant vs all the others who are from „backwards Islamic cultures“, that’s not how right wing populism works. If it hits them, you’re gonna be next sooner or later. People have tried riding the wave before, there were even Jews fighting for the Wehrmacht in WW2 until they ended up in the camps. Hope you don’t mind the analogy but I hope you get my point.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

As someone who's here because his family had to flee the situation you describe in your last paragraph to the middle East and then to Canada. I'm not ignorant enough to forget the poem ' first they came for'

That's outside of the reality being faced by Canadians today and they're rightful anger towards the situation.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Lmao I now see from your post history that you’re probably Israeli and also a genocide denier. Welp good luck then, despite this horrible worldview I sincerely wish that you’ll never be on the receiving end of the politics you wish for others.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago

I'm a Canadian. I just happen to understand what a genocide is and isn't unlike what appears to be a concerning number of westerners who clearly lack critical thinking skills or a baseline education to understand the reality that is before them and see through a Muslim brotherhood propaganda that they are being taught.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 4 months ago

While I don’t disagree, it is possible that populism is exacerbated both by misery and by potentially legitimate anti-immigration sentiments.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Don't get too excited guys. It's psypost....

[–] [email protected] -1 points 4 months ago

Bad source?