UK Politics
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As always, extremism and populism take root in the disenfranchised parts of the population, and the traditional parties have nobody but themselves to blame, because they always promise to help the poor and they never do.
I can't remember exactly where I saw it and when but I remember in the last couple months seeing a poll where how important different issues and topics were to voters from each party were shown. Reform voters were very high on things like healthcare, affordability, nationalisation of industries and so on. Even more so than any other party besides the Greens, I think
Obviously immigration came out top for the Reform voters, but the poll as a whole says what leftists have been saying for so long now. Some will be voting for Reform from just a racist perspective, of course, but most will be doing it because they've been tricked into thinking that the reason they can't have those things that they really want is because of immigration. Especially in all the many poor, struggling areas Reform are doing best in
Our media has cooked so many people's thinking. And our electoral system is going to force us to have a strong chance of a fascist government when the majority don't want it
In fairness, scapegoating minorities - be it jews, romas, blacks, latinos or immigrants - has always been an easy argument for populists. It's nothing new: it's as old as humanity, and while the media doesn't help, it really isn't the primary cause of this.
The way to prevent people from shifting the blame for their ills onto others is making sure they don't have ills to blame anybody for. All the moderate parties have failed to do that.
Education also plays a role: somebody who's poor but educated will be harder to convince that some minority or other is entirely responsible for their being poor. And again, all moderate parties have failed to promote proper education.
I agree with everything you say here. I'm well aware it's long been a thing to scapegoat minorities of course, for centuries and centuries. The media isn't the primary cause, but it's the main thing that is driving us towards fascist ideas being legitimised, as I see it. Without them doing that we wouldn't be in nearly as bad a situation as we are today. We can't get to sorting out the ills as anyone who genuinely wants to is demonised and delegitimised