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Reminder that the most reliable way to prevent the rise of the far right is to implement robust safety nets and low inequality, to reduce status anxiety and gri
by Herring 6mo ago
Reminder that the most reliable way to prevent the rise of the far right is to implement robust safety nets and low inequality, to reduce status anxiety and grievance.
Support for such measures (welfare, healthcare, unionization, high taxes etc) is usually low among Americans.
https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/10/welfare-cuts-are-fuelling-far-right-rise-warns-un-expert https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/10/welfare-cuts...
- tayo42 6mo agoConfusing, the right are the ones advocating for cutting these things?
- greedo 6mo agoYes? At least in the US, the GOP has been working relentlessly for most of my life to reduce welfare, to reduce Medicaid, to make unionization difficult and to neuter existing unions, and most of all, cut taxes on the rich.
- tayo42 6mo agoRight, so the idea is that right wing policy of cutting support systems is fueling right wing growth. People are dumb, or this is what they want? Both? Lol Seems weird though
- watersb 6mo agoThe playbook has been to manipulate "low-information voters" by promising that you will attack a marginalized group of people. Get the voters to believe that you are on their side by echoing the fear and hatred they have for The Enemy. Action against The Enemy replaces any action to directly address economic and social marginalization. It's how we process information. Avoiding this cognitive glitch takes practice.
- Herring 6mo agoAsk a lot of software engineers what they think about European-style salaries and taxes to pay for a welfare state.
- andrewjf 6mo agoI would be very happy to do so if we had working infrastructure, education, and health care not coupled to the generosity of your employer. Isn’t it the case anyway that if you add state, federal, local, property, capital gains, and sales taxes, add the money that you and your employer pays for healthcare, that you’re basically paying slightly more in taxes all-in?
- tomrod 6mo agoHuh. Most software engineers I come across am at worst ambivalent and at best highly desiring of unions.
- jmye 6mo agoWhat do you think “welfare state” means? Do you think “European-style” salaries solely occur because “European-style” people, for instance, have a different healthcare system?
- georgemcbay 6mo ago> Confusing, the right are the ones advocating for cutting these things? This is where the racism comes in. As long as you believe that the social safety net cuts are disproportionally hurting the "other" more than you, you have plenty of space for the cognitive dissonance required to support the cuts even when they are negatively impacting your own situation. Combine this with the fact that the right has two tiers, one of them made up of wealthy asset owners who politically push for the changes (and benefit from them in the form of extremely low taxes) and the second made up of working class people who can be convinced the changes are good as long it allows them to think those they see as below them will suffer more than they will. Get yourself a nice feedback loop going in the form of hurting the poor, convincing them the source of their oppression is the "other" to get them to support even more austerity, repeat and you can explain a lot about the politics of much of rural America.
- jeffbee 6mo agoI thought it was to simply throw fascists into the sea. Simple Effective Affordable Ethical
- nine_k 6mo ago"Why won't all good people rally together and kill all bad people?"
- SV_BubbleTime 6mo agoIt’s so strange because obviously my people are the good ones and everyone knows that!
- gruez 6mo ago>Effective The problem with political violence is that the other side will do the same thing, and you end up with an IRA situation where the country descends into sectarian violence.
- ceejayoz 6mo agoThe IRA situation had a slightly lower bodycount than the not-throwing-1930s-fascists-into-the-sea one, did it not?
- Terr_ 6mo agoI think a lot of the people behind the rise of fascism are ones who experience "status anxiety" as a constant baseline. Actual safety through a government of laws will never appease them.
- newfriend 6mo ago[flagged]
- Tostino 6mo agoYou mean like both Obama and Biden did, much to the dislike of people on the left of the Democratic party?
- Sl1mb0 6mo agoI always wonder what people who say these things think about the fact that we have someone in the white house who was mentioned in the Epstein files more than Jesus was mentioned in the bible. Whatever it takes to get rid of those pesky aliens right?
- nostrebored 6mo agoThese are completely orthogonal. That’s cool if you want to appeal to an in group, but I think you’ll find that a huge portion of the country thinks that we should have rules around immigration. So do most other countries. You should probably argue your actual position instead of “your guy bad my guy good”. This comment is more Reddit than HN.
- JuniperMesos 6mo ago[flagged]
- Herring 6mo agoFascism always needs an enemy/excuse/scapegoat, and if it can’t find one it makes one out of thin air. It can’t actually solve societal problems, that requires progressives.
- SV_BubbleTime 6mo ago[flagged]
- gusgus01 6mo ago
- parineum 6mo agoThe right is rising all across European countries that have all of these things.
- gzread 6mo agoYou think they have these things, but they don't. I am theoretically eligible to get 60% of my income for 3 months after losing my job, while I look for my new job. But if I actually try to claim that, they demand so many documents and meetings that it's not actually practical to receive that benefit. The only people who can receive benefits are the people who are experts at navigating the benefit system. For instance, if you do not file a certain form on a certain exact day, then your benefits will not start until 3 months after you became unemployed. That is exactly the same time period this unemployment insurance benefit normally covers. By that time you should already have a job anyway and they will ask you to explain why you couldn't get a job in 3 months, since the benefit normally only covers 3 months. Nobody will tell you how to navigate this. Nobody will tell you the correct form to fill out on the correct day. If you don't already know the arcane rules, you don't get the money. This is how most European social benefits work. They aren't actually provided to normal people.
- genxy 6mo agoSounds like a startup opportunity.
- BoingBoomTschak 6mo agoThat's perfect, actually! We should do that in France, so only people who actually need the money will make the effort. As is, we have some middle class "hippies" finding ways to backpack travel across the world on the taxpayers' dime.
- justin66 6mo agoThe main thing I’m getting from this comment is that Fox News must exist in France.