In a recent interview, the charismatic Dutch opposition leader offers his take on the farmer protests and what lies behind the government's draconian anti-agricultural policies.
I think the populist right is onto something with the suspicion/hypothesis that there's a warped spiritual element to the neoliberal agenda. They behave like believers in a utopian cult. They envision a perfect world of managerial aristocrats. These aristocrats are selected from a pool of people who did well on standardized multiple choice tests. Any doubts or questions are insults. No real world outcomes can be permitted to factor into their thinking. It's a holy cause, in its fatuous, constipated way.
Thx for the article. Very interesting to hear the xenophobic right in English disseminate their conspiracies. This one is quiet nice I must say (its fresh) tho I think at this specific moment I would warn not to fall into the trap. His argument revolves around the mass immigration of non-white, non-european, non-christians. One should ask where is this mass immigration ? well it just does not exist. No statistics, no data, nothing to prove it. So with that in mind. Baudet speech collapses and is worthless in my opinion. Cheers
If there's no material basis for it, which is entirely possible, where does this apparent xenophobia come from then? Seems to me that it's a reaction to the particular form globalism has taken in recent decades, with its glorification of individualism and the resulting atomization society and breakdown of traditional societal bonds. This globalism insists that Western liberal values are universal ones, to the point where our form of "democracy" must be adopted by everyone, at gunpoint if need be. Is it any surprise that this results in weird and lamentable pathologies, such as xenophobia? Not justifying it, simply trying to understand it.
Yes indeed, I agree with you.I believe xenophobia is part of human nature, just like tenderness or hatred. At the current stage of the civilization, we humans agree to condemn xenophobia, as we did in the past for murder and theft. Some people appeal to the our xenophobic core, aim to ignite it, aim to explain the world with a us against them. We know who they are : Trump, Baudet, Lepen, ... . The neo-liberal establishment, the globalists are not xenophobic per se but they create so much suffering (alienation, individualism, cutting public services, profit before people, ...) that many of us are looking for an alternative. The quickest, simplest and most satisfying alternative is the far right. So indeed its not surprising that many fall for it. But it is a fight and citizens should remember the horrors fascism will bring before siding with these ideas. Thx.
In the 2016 US presidential campaign, Trump made some vile comments about Mexican immigrants, but once elected he undertook no "ethnic cleansing" policies against minorities or anything of the kind. In 2020 election, his support among Latino voters actually increased; they apparently could see that his demagogic campaign rhetoric of 2016 was just that; many more voted for him in 2020 because of the bread-and-butter issues most working-class voters are concerned with.
Whether Trump, Le Pen, and Baudet are crypto-fascists and militant ethno-nationalists might be an issue where you and have to agree to disagree on; I do not think so. Who most certainly are, are Ukrainian ultra-nationalists whose avowed policy is the ethnic-cleansing of Ukraine of Russian-speaking people; this is reflected in not just their hateful rhetoric, but also their actions: the attacks on Donbass that started in 2014, what finally provoked a full-blown military response by Russia in February of this year. Russian public opinion was ambivalent at the start of the military opposition, but their resolution was hardened when video clips posted on social media by the perpetrators showed Ukranian Azov types torturing and killing Russian soldiers; the Russian public saw clearly what they are up against: yet another outbreak of fascism in Europe. Here in the West, to the best of my knowledge, neither Trump, Le Pen, nor Baudet have come out in support of these Nazi swastika-tattooed "heroes"; certainly Baudet and FvD have made clear their opposition to NATO support of this real, actual, full-blown fascist movement in continental Europe, whereas our bien pensant Left, such the odious Jessie Klaver of the Dutch Greens, have expressed their full-throated support for the Ukraine ethno-nationalists against that "evil dictator" (LOL) Putin. If I had to chose between the Greens and the FvD, I wouldn't think twice.
All this is to say is that we live in a time in which previous certainties are gone. The familiar language of Left/Right, progressive/liberal/conservative no longer seem to correspond to reality; we need a new political vocabulary. I still consider myself a Leftie, but I loathe the contemporary Left.
Thank you for commenting, Olivier; if you have anything to add, please feel free.
I don’t see the issue with calling those guys fascists, and therefore right wing dangerous extremists. They are all far right and therefore they sit on the right, opposite to my lefty ideas. Of course they have not implemented mass genocides yet but how many people died as a result of Trump violent are careless executive orders: immigrants at the border, droned Arab families, left-wing activists in protest, Black Americans victims of school shooting, Palestinians, … . For the rest they tick all the boxes : extreme conservatism to preserve a pristine order or culture that never existed, hatred for the minorities who endanger this natural imaginary state of society and at the same time hatred for a conspiratorial elite club (deep state/globalists/jewish bankers/…) that rules everything in the shadow, exaltation of capitalism, revering the employer class, shaming the unemployed, bowing to big capital and of course the affirmation (and enactment in the case of Trump) of violence as a necessary mean to solve the problems. Seems pretty close to fascism to me.
I think the populist right is onto something with the suspicion/hypothesis that there's a warped spiritual element to the neoliberal agenda. They behave like believers in a utopian cult. They envision a perfect world of managerial aristocrats. These aristocrats are selected from a pool of people who did well on standardized multiple choice tests. Any doubts or questions are insults. No real world outcomes can be permitted to factor into their thinking. It's a holy cause, in its fatuous, constipated way.
Thx for the article. Very interesting to hear the xenophobic right in English disseminate their conspiracies. This one is quiet nice I must say (its fresh) tho I think at this specific moment I would warn not to fall into the trap. His argument revolves around the mass immigration of non-white, non-european, non-christians. One should ask where is this mass immigration ? well it just does not exist. No statistics, no data, nothing to prove it. So with that in mind. Baudet speech collapses and is worthless in my opinion. Cheers
If there's no material basis for it, which is entirely possible, where does this apparent xenophobia come from then? Seems to me that it's a reaction to the particular form globalism has taken in recent decades, with its glorification of individualism and the resulting atomization society and breakdown of traditional societal bonds. This globalism insists that Western liberal values are universal ones, to the point where our form of "democracy" must be adopted by everyone, at gunpoint if need be. Is it any surprise that this results in weird and lamentable pathologies, such as xenophobia? Not justifying it, simply trying to understand it.
Yes indeed, I agree with you.I believe xenophobia is part of human nature, just like tenderness or hatred. At the current stage of the civilization, we humans agree to condemn xenophobia, as we did in the past for murder and theft. Some people appeal to the our xenophobic core, aim to ignite it, aim to explain the world with a us against them. We know who they are : Trump, Baudet, Lepen, ... . The neo-liberal establishment, the globalists are not xenophobic per se but they create so much suffering (alienation, individualism, cutting public services, profit before people, ...) that many of us are looking for an alternative. The quickest, simplest and most satisfying alternative is the far right. So indeed its not surprising that many fall for it. But it is a fight and citizens should remember the horrors fascism will bring before siding with these ideas. Thx.
In the 2016 US presidential campaign, Trump made some vile comments about Mexican immigrants, but once elected he undertook no "ethnic cleansing" policies against minorities or anything of the kind. In 2020 election, his support among Latino voters actually increased; they apparently could see that his demagogic campaign rhetoric of 2016 was just that; many more voted for him in 2020 because of the bread-and-butter issues most working-class voters are concerned with.
See: https://presearch.com/search?q=latino%20support%20trump
Whether Trump, Le Pen, and Baudet are crypto-fascists and militant ethno-nationalists might be an issue where you and have to agree to disagree on; I do not think so. Who most certainly are, are Ukrainian ultra-nationalists whose avowed policy is the ethnic-cleansing of Ukraine of Russian-speaking people; this is reflected in not just their hateful rhetoric, but also their actions: the attacks on Donbass that started in 2014, what finally provoked a full-blown military response by Russia in February of this year. Russian public opinion was ambivalent at the start of the military opposition, but their resolution was hardened when video clips posted on social media by the perpetrators showed Ukranian Azov types torturing and killing Russian soldiers; the Russian public saw clearly what they are up against: yet another outbreak of fascism in Europe. Here in the West, to the best of my knowledge, neither Trump, Le Pen, nor Baudet have come out in support of these Nazi swastika-tattooed "heroes"; certainly Baudet and FvD have made clear their opposition to NATO support of this real, actual, full-blown fascist movement in continental Europe, whereas our bien pensant Left, such the odious Jessie Klaver of the Dutch Greens, have expressed their full-throated support for the Ukraine ethno-nationalists against that "evil dictator" (LOL) Putin. If I had to chose between the Greens and the FvD, I wouldn't think twice.
All this is to say is that we live in a time in which previous certainties are gone. The familiar language of Left/Right, progressive/liberal/conservative no longer seem to correspond to reality; we need a new political vocabulary. I still consider myself a Leftie, but I loathe the contemporary Left.
Thank you for commenting, Olivier; if you have anything to add, please feel free.
I don’t see the issue with calling those guys fascists, and therefore right wing dangerous extremists. They are all far right and therefore they sit on the right, opposite to my lefty ideas. Of course they have not implemented mass genocides yet but how many people died as a result of Trump violent are careless executive orders: immigrants at the border, droned Arab families, left-wing activists in protest, Black Americans victims of school shooting, Palestinians, … . For the rest they tick all the boxes : extreme conservatism to preserve a pristine order or culture that never existed, hatred for the minorities who endanger this natural imaginary state of society and at the same time hatred for a conspiratorial elite club (deep state/globalists/jewish bankers/…) that rules everything in the shadow, exaltation of capitalism, revering the employer class, shaming the unemployed, bowing to big capital and of course the affirmation (and enactment in the case of Trump) of violence as a necessary mean to solve the problems. Seems pretty close to fascism to me.