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ZorbaTHut  1yr ago (text post)   Edited 1yr ago   38243 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 12, 2022

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One thing that does feel... maybe kind of new(?) this time, is that the media reaction also seems somewhat more subdued, both before and during the election. Of course, most traditional / legacy media will still be tell you, or at least hint to you, that the results are a Bad thing[1] and that Bad people just got a lot of votes, but on balance it still feels... a bit more subdued and less histrionic?

It very well may be, and it's likely because anti-immigration politicians are old news in today's Europe.

Over in America, Donald Trump won an election in large part just for being the one guy willing to take a stance against immigration. This was then touted as a RADICAL change that was UNPRECEDENTED and surely a HUGE upheaval. On spaces like this one and the defunct SSC comments, people were sure that anti-immigration sentiment in Europe was a clear effect of this, and..

.. No?

We've had anti-immigrant parties for decades now, as opposed to it being a thing in 2016. Sometimes they do well, sometimes they do not, sometimes they even get elected into governments. This has gone on for such a long time and with such regularity that it's become a little boring: it's really hard for something to keep its edge for such a long timeframe. There are people who disagree with the anti-immigration guys for various reasons, certainly, but the hysterics and doomsday rhetoric just isn't there anymore. It didn't work, the novelty wore off, and anti-immigration parties have become such a permanent fixture that even the negative coverage is more level-headed than it is apocalyptic.

I don't disagree, but I remember for example the most recent Macron vs Le Pen election as being covered a lot more apocalyptically.

Maybe my memory is just wrong though

Outside France, I think most of the "apocalyptic" views were more about her being pro-Putin and anti-EU. The immigration is only salient to both extreme pro-immigration and anti-immigration crowd, who make it a central thing about their platform / identity.

France is an actually important country (2nd tier at least) with a hyper presidential system. It is more or less the only country left in continental Europe that believes in some sort of national destiny, which gives its rulers the power to do great or terrible things if they choose to. In contrast, almost every other politician in Europe is not much more than middle managers intent on keeping their order and bereft of any actual ambition. Who cares if Swedish diluted Neo-nazis get 3% more votes every election after all? Honestly what can they do?

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