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The Finnish election happened last Sunday. The ruling centre-left government and its parties lost seats, though the Social Democrats could recoup some of their losses from other governing parties. The right-wing parties won a resounding victory, though it remains to be seen whether the neoliberal National Coalition, now the top party, will build a right-wing government with the nationalist Finns Party or a centrist liberal government with the Social Democrats. Many options will be considered.
More on this and the past four years can be read from the following article.
Culture-war-wise, this election probably confirmed that 1. economic questions (the base for National Coalition's victory, particularly debt) still come first in Finland and 2. while immigration probably played a role, and perhaps stuff like trans issues or generic anti-wokeness, the main culture war in Finland still is basically what could be described as "environmentalism vs. standard middle-class way of life", ie. whether the so called green shift and strict climate targets are electorally compatible with people's fears over losing their job, seeing costs of living (fuel, electricity, food etc.) go up, and generally whether environmentalism is just an urban academic fad incompatible with normie life, particularly in rural areas. It's hard to see this one winding down in the future, either.
The dilemma facing progressive parties everywhere is that while saying "We need to address climate change" is popular, measures to address climate change aren't. In recent years, Covid has good and well emptied people's tank of virtuous self-sacrifice. Even if it hadn't, climate change doesn't present a visible immediate threat like Covid did. If you mess with food and fuel prices, the apolitical masses will leave the sideline.
The ideal strategy, of course, is to pay lip-service to the cause, pass a few paper straw initiatives, and let be. Unfortunately, this strategy risks you getting overrun by True Believers who grab the wheel and try to steer you into an iceberg. (See: "Defund the police")
If there's one thing I know is a popular opinion among the apolitical masses, it's that paper straws genuinely made everything worse for absolutely no tangible benefit. It's like sucking on an Argos catalogue. And they come packaged in plastic most of the time anyway!
Hmm. Maybe that's a new opportunity. Sell individual paper straws where the packaging is useful as a plastic straw once you remove the paper.
A boba straw. Inside it is a regular size of paper straw. Inside that is a plastic coffee stirrer.
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