I could call the recent right-shift in the west a coordinated effort too and in many cases, this would be a decent explanation, catching private media outlets,

I could call the recent right-shift in the west a coordinated effort too and in many cases, this would be a decent explanation, catching private media outlets, biased and centralizes social media, spineless populistic politicians and the donor class behind them but ... Some cases are much more benign. Like the police, only seeing their need for more privacy invasions to achive their goals, meeting a tumbling elected politician with the need to pose as tough on crime. Both sides ignore anything beyong their horizon. Here, you have good old incompetence, esp on the politicians side. Pair that again with the populus feeling the need, that something drastical has to be done and you would have an alternative explanation. As sad as it sounds, but a fascistic government, comming out of a democracy is not a failure of democracy. Many people dont care about big topics, correlations and history repeating itself. They are willing to sacrifice rights, piece by piece, others have fought died for. Besides a lack of governmental transparency, this ignorance, small and large scale, and its todays normalization are the problems i see here. I cant help it, but i realized first hand (as i assume, many others did too) that this ignorance is often more than just a small mistakem done by individuals. Today, i see it as a cognitive deficiency. Take one extreme for example, flat earthers. There are many simple physical experiments or celestial observations one could do, to conclude, that the earth is a sphere, but not for them. Confronting FEs with contradictions will only lead to reactance (ad hoc rejection), no matter how polite or enduring you are or striking your arguments are. I know this first hand. If you are lucky, you might encounter and open state of mind that struggles with the cognitive dissonance, you have induced, but only for a short time. Having lasting effects on some strongly biased mind resembles something like a long term therapy: an open mind / willingness for therapy and regular confrontig sessions. If all those self proclaimed critical thinkers were able, to not only change their minds on a whim but would actively seek contradictions in their believes on their own, the world would be a much better place. Can you tell me any historical atrocity commited by societies, where some believe about a superior truth or some absolute good/evil was not at the very core of it? I cant. The same biased reasoning about a superior truth can be found in modern politics today. In essence, its people rallying around some vague group identity or against some other group (in/out group characteristics) and irrationally attack/discard $symbol criticism as if its fight-or-flight time because the apes survival dependeds of the tribe. MAGA accolytes could realize them selfs, that 1st gen. mexican migrants have a significant lower crime rate and thus crime emerges from within the US, but they dont. It doesnt cross their mind 0, that someone willing to migrate is also willing to work for a stable future. Instead, they rally arround "mass deportation" and will post hoc rationalize any atrocity of their supreme leader. After Nazi-germany lost the war, the tribe was shattered and it was tabu to speak about or do $symbol in public. For a brief moment in time, it looked like the populus could actually learn, that history is not a loop but even though most AFD accolytes agree on the evil atrocities of that time, they still fall for the nostalgic unity strength and role model of it, they would like to see "tribe great again" and absolute evil being dealt with and ignore anything beyong, including your well-meaning, factual arguments. So why even try? I cant help it, but i think changing the message to a primarily emotional one might be a better strategy. I am not saying we should ignore factual arguments but since disgust towards out groups can be such a strong source of bias, why not use it against them and make xenophobia disgusting again, like its 1945. I like Gavin Newsoms recent trolling and hope he doesnt degrade into simple insults only. He does, what is neede, wresling with a pig and i think we all should convey the same derogatory message, while the communication channels are still unfiltered. The other side does not want to have a truley open discourse, they want us to be silent. I know, this can be seen as inflammatory and counter productive but i think the polite approach is even more futile. Now you know about my ideas :)