Summary
Donald Trump’s influence on global right-wing politics is waning as his association increasingly becomes a political liability.
In the UK, Nigel Farage’s popularity has dropped, with 53% of Reform Party supporters now viewing Trump unfavorably. This shift undermines Farage’s chances of political success.
Internationally, leaders like Canada’s Pierre Poilievre and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni are distancing themselves from Trump.
Meanwhile, Trump’s economic promises have faltered, with US growth forecasts down and stock markets struggling.
The fading appeal of Trumpism marks the end of his ideological hold on Westminster politics.
It’s weird, because there’s inarguably been a ‘vibe shift’ away from the more authoritarian side of progressive ideas and politics, and for a while it seemed the backlash was unstoppable and far-right. I hope we are starting to see a ‘vibe shift’ away from the extremes of the right, too. It can’t be healthy for a society to swing from one extreme to the other. I suppose social media, and the difficulty with communicating nuance on such platforms is partly, maybe wholly, to blame.
I’m sorry, but what “authoritarian side of progressive ideas and politics” are you talking about? I’m a progressive (not a tankie), and genuinely have no idea what you might be talking about. Most everything that people have wanted passed is protecting individual rights and liberties for everyone…not just white men.
“You’re FORCING us to respect people’s rights?? Definitely authoritarianism.”
Holy fucking shit. I was just thinking of that voodoo guy on ATHF yesterday and I hadn’t thought of that in more than a decade. Arise chicken, arise.
There is a tendency amongst those on the political extremes to:
Silence opposing voices; Push for, and sometimes implement the policing and criminalization of certain speech; Root out ‘enemies’ through witch-hunts and humiliation rituals or ‘struggle sessions’; Enforce a conformity of ideas and opinions through the threat of ostracization, humiliation or violence. Instill a culture of fear around speech or activities contrary to the ‘party line.’ Amongst other things.
So, there can be no consequences for speech? That’s bullshit.
Are some overly zealous in their response? Sure. Is that authoritarian? Hell no.
There are always consequences, some more productive that others. Note that I am not claiming that progressive politics are authoritarian, only that there are authoritarian tendencies on the far left end of the progressive spectrum. I would probably class myself as progressive. Green/Labour left is probably closer.
Where one might say ‘overly zealous’ another might say ‘authoritarian.’
Only if you consider Marxist leninism Etc as far left. Which by all accounts you shouldn’t. They have very little issue working with the other authoritarian groups such as fascists. And even straddle the line with fascism in modern day with countries like China . They are authoritarian more than anything else. I don’t see actual far left groups like anarchists or left libertarians advocating any sort of authoritarianism. Just authoritarian groups.
Progresses have never outlawed language or those that use it either. I really got to say it seems like you don’t know much about what you’re talking about. Instead just trying to both sides things. And create some false Center. In which to feel better about yourself.
I think that left politics are more compassionate and probably better for more people, particularly working class people so I absolutely am not a centrist in that regard.
In terms of extremism/authoritarianism; everyone’s susceptible to it and I don’t think online discourse helps things, particularly when it comes to assumptions about others’ motives and our lack of charitability.
It’s really hard to respond to this, as none of those things really exist in a remotely popular context in American Progressivism. Freedom of speech has always existed (i.e. your protected from the government), however you were never free from the repercussions of what you said in a public setting. If you say something morally reprehensible, as a public figure, or even as an employee, you have to expect that there will be fallout.
“Struggle Sessions” was a Maoist/Red China thing back decades ago. Not sure why that was referenced…
“Enforce a conformity of ideas and opinions” I’m assuming is a reference to “cancel culture”. As a “consumer” why am I responsible for consuming content or a product made by a controversial figure or company? There’s thousands of people that are just as good, or better than someone that caught a lucky break and became famous for something. For example, Kevin Spacey, Kanye, Dixie Chicks, etc.
As far as I’m aware, there has never been a “party line” in the general population. Sure, the Democrat political party has a sort of “party line” but you can see even that’s not exactly holding up as people like Sanders, AOC, and Jasmine Crockett have been trying to break that apart for the last decade.
To be frank, none of those things remotely exist as you think, they come off more as conservative talking points about how evil “progressives” are, but in reality I’ve never once seen anything like that either on a public front or in my personal life…ever. not trying to be insulting here, but I’m worried that you have an extremely warped view of what you think “progressives” and the “left” represent.
Well, I hope you can afford me the benefit of the doubt when I say that my critque comes from a left leaning perspective. I see this kind of response a lot online, particularly in left leaning spaces: “the left’s authoritarianism is a conservative conspiracy” with a generous helping of accusations of ‘both sidesing.’ I don’t think those characterizations are true or helpful.
The general public in most western nations all more or less agree with the flagship policies of the left. Whether that be universal healthcare, freedom of choice, marriage equality etc. The question then becomes; why do people vote against their own beliefs? What is it about “The Left” that is so unappealing that people would rather vote for fascists?
It seems to me that the reason the left is doing so poorly in Europe and NA is because we’ve been hijacked by purity spirals, exacerbating our already greater proclivity to fracture. Our message is not reaching the people who would be inclined to vote for left leaning policies because it is drowned out by so much of the more authoritarian online discourse, some of which has spilled out into real life politics. That’s not to mention our aversion to recognizing or admitting fault in our own movement. We’re each like the proverbial frog in boiling water; complacent to the growing failings and dangers within our own movement because we’ve slowly become acclimatised to it.
The authoritarian tendencies of the left’s flank are, in my opinion, partly to blame for some of what we are seeing unfold and my fear is that unless we can acknowledge and reign in some of that we will, as a society, continue to careen toward something considerably more awful than Trump, Le Pen, Farage, Poilievre, Meloni etc. The backlash to the backlash will compound and compound until society ruptures.
Of course it could be that I am entirely too pessimistic and the future will be bright and rosey.
I can sort of see what your saying, but I disagree that it’s “left authoritarianism”. Maybe I’m just an optimist lol. I can 100% agree on “purity spirals” atleast. A progressives worst enemy is another progressive at times. However. I will point out that I’ve only ever experienced discourse like that online. I think it comes from a good place, that people are trying desperately to push people further to the left as much as they can…an effort to “convert” people, if you will. I can see how people may see it as trying to be controlling. It’s like, wherea the line though?
I think it’s easier to be conservative in a sense because your allied to essentially “stop the left”, but for the left it’s never been about “stopping the right” it’s about how to we make x,y,z better. I think we lose ourselves when other people are like 18 steps ahead, and arguing for things that are so far left that it sort of screws up any sort of core, party message.
I think the best that a progressive can do in times like these is to have humility and be humble. There’s so many things that need to happen that it’s impossible to have a stance or understanding on literally everything. Just because people don’t protest or push for the things someone else supports or understands, doesn’t mean that they aren’t progressive enough.
I don’t think your wrong that our messaging needs a lot of work though.