• Pope Warns That Rising Populism Could Produce a New Hitler
    37 replies, posted
[QUOTE=Talishmar;51747817]But Britain, for one, is tired of experts as you know! US is following suit too.[/QUOTE] Idiocracy was supposed to be satire, but now it seems slightly plausible.
[QUOTE=Van-man;51747837]Idiocracy was supposed to be satire, but now it seems slightly plausible.[/QUOTE] All in favor of changing the name of the "House of Representatives" to "The House of Represent'n" say Trump.
[QUOTE=SelfishDragon;51747142]There's a growing populism movement here as well though. It's a problem happening throughout the western nations.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=Wikipedia]Populism is a political style of action that mobilizes a large alienated element of a population against a government which is seen as controlled by an out-of-touch closed elite that acts on behalf of its own interests. The underlying ideology of Populists can be left, right, or middle. Its goal is to unite the uncorrupt and the unsophisticated (the 'little man') against the corrupt dominant elites (usually the orthodox politicians) and their camp followers (usually the rich and the intellectuals). It is guided by the belief that political and social goals are best achieved by the direct actions of the masses. Although it comes into being where mainstream political institutions fail to deliver, there is no identifiable economic or social set of conditions that give rise to it, and it is not confined to any particular social class.[1][/QUOTE] So populism isn't really bad, but what we see is growing fake populism that resonates with 'little man' but is actually just a trick / con so other people get to the power.
[QUOTE=Zephyrs;51746154]He's not wrong, but it's important to address [i]why[/i] people move towards nationalistic parties and organizations. They do so when they feel threatened/attacked from external forces, and when they feel that their current leaders have failed to listen to them. It's a reaction where they discard everything else because of genuine fear for their own safety. They frequently know that the choice isn't a good one, let alone an ideal one, but they don't see an alternative. My point is that you can't simply say, nationalism is the problem, and rip into it. You have to work on the root cause. Anything else just feeds the insatiable fury of the people who don't feel like they are being listened to.[/QUOTE] The problem is that the government has the tools to create fear and make People feel unsafe.(media) while they actually are safer than ever. Quote from Herman Göring, one of Hitlers highest generals: [img]https://i2.wp.com/theglobalelite.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/hermann-goering-quote.jpg[/img]
this fear of imaginary threats is absolutely insane
[QUOTE=taipan;51747915]The problem is that the government has the tools to create fear and make People feel unsafe.(media) while they actually are safer than ever. Quote from Herman Göring, one of Hitlers highest generals: [img]https://i2.wp.com/theglobalelite.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/hermann-goering-quote.jpg[/img][/QUOTE] Indeed. Which is why things like the immigrant crisis have added so much fuel to the fire. It's a real world example of a problem that cannot be cleanly dismissed out of hand. It is not a lie to say that it was handled exceptionally poorly. The best lies have elements of the truth in them.
[QUOTE=Killer900;51746299]Stop comparing Hitler to Trump that's like apples and [I]oranges[/I][/QUOTE] HA! Seriously, that made me laugh pretty hard. I'm so afraid for the future.
[QUOTE=Fourier;51747877]So populism isn't really bad, but what we see is growing fake populism that resonates with 'little man' but is actually just a trick / con so other people get to the power.[/QUOTE] I mostly agree, but note that there are two distinct definitions in use for the word, so both the honest and the dishonest kind can be meant when someone says 'populism' without that being a technically incorrect use of the word. In the US, people usually mean the honest kind when they use that word if I'm not mistaken. Here in Germany, when we use the word we usually mean the fake kind. As far as the 'populism' that rises now in Germany is concerned, it's the fake kind, because the honest populism has been continuously represented in our democracy for a pretty long time now. France seems to experience a strengthening of both kinds though, from what little I know about the political landscape there. The UK already did and continues to run with the fake kind, by the looks of it(, but at least it hasn't gone as out-of-hand as in the US). As usual, it's quite the heterogeneous mix.
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