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> The US (and the West) have issues with an imbalance of power and wealth, and growing numbers of disillusioned, young voters - this is the problem statement. W
by sofixa 4y ago
> The US (and the West) have issues with an imbalance of power and wealth, and growing numbers of disillusioned, young voters - this is the problem statement. What is the solution that the non-aligned movement can offer? Worse inequality? Fewer rights? What?
The problem is that with modern politics and all its tools, logical (proposed) solutions aren't needed. Éric Zemmour, multiple times found guilty of stoking racism on TV, got 2.5 million votes/7% of the presidential vote in France on a platform that basically consisted of "France is no longer France, let's ship everyone of foreign descent to where they come from, ban Muslims, rename every person with a foreign name, screw the EU". If you think about it for more than a few seconds, that's just terrible on multiple levels and would ruin the country alongside millions of lives. Yet 2.5 million agreed with him? Yeah, he was heavily sponsored by a shithead billionaire, but still. Similarly with Le Pen, who got 8 million for 23%, had a vague populist "foreigner's fault, EU's fault, we'll give money to the poor to subsidise fuel consumption, etc." platform, while literally being bankrolled by Russia (multiple favourable loans from banks close to Putin and friends which saved her party).
Brexit was merely the first major "Western" own goal. We'll see also how climate change changes the field.
- monkeydreams 4y ago> The problem is that with modern politics and all its tools, logical (proposed) solutions aren't needed. Éric Zemmour, multiple times found guilty of stoking racism on TV, got 2.5 million votes/7% of the presidential vote in France on a platform that basically consisted of "France is no longer France, let's ship everyone of foreign descent to where they come from, ban Muslims, rename every person with a foreign name, screw the EU". In other Western countries it is not uncommon for 7-10+% of the vote to go toward extreme right-wing parties. This is not the death knell of Democracy. 10% of the vote is a long way from winning government. The problem for would-be dictators who are trying to usurp the West's governments is that, once things get tough under their leadership, the population turns against them very quickly. Take the Tories in the UK - if an election were to be held today they would likely become only the third largest party in the UK lower house. Similarly the conservative Coalition in Australia; they were trounced in both state and federal elections after their competence and corruption became clear. The West takes some hits from time to time. It's strength is in its ability to recover.