I am certain that by now, most of the globalised world is aware of the fact that the US has a new president elect, Donald Trump. 

2016 took away Bowie, Rickman and Cohen. We lost a great deal of people, perhaps they saw something we didn’t and thought “Fuck this”. Because while these people peacefully left the world, the western world is seeing a terrifying shift towards the extreme right wing of politics. While the world lost Bowie, Rickman and Cohen, the US and UK lost its minds. 

I will make this a multipart series now, because I feel that this needs to be adressed in the most delicate and well though out way. Please make sure to come back for the other parts, as they only together will make up a full view of my opinion. Be noted that this also means that it will be a more heavy read.  

Disclaimer because of reasons that will become clear if I don’t: I would never ever vote Trump, nor would I ever vote Leave. I will never vote for SD in the Swedish elections, and I will never accept racism, homophobia or sexism as a way of life. That said these issues all stem from something and this something needs to be discussed so it can be rectified before we go into a very dark place of human history.

 

EUROPE AND THE POPULIST RIGHT

We have seen it for some time now. The rise of the so called “alt-right”. All over Europe and now in the US as well, these white power movements are gaining traction and has been doing so for a long time.

Through the early 2000s and especially after the Great Recession in 08-09 we can see a clear rise in Nationalistic/Right Wing parties in the polls in Europe(Al-Jazeera, 2013). 

As of November 2016, 29% of the 44 recognised countries in Europe, has a populist/nationalistic party in government position. That includes all of the Scandinavian parties, save from Sweden, where despite being the 3rd biggest party, the Sweden democrats have been left out of parlimentary discussion. Expect that to change in the 2018 elections. These graphs from The New York Times (2016), shows clearly how these parties have gained traction over the last 15-20 years (The exceptions to this being Italy and Belgium). 

 

Klapsis (2015), writes “ Despite their diversity, a mixture of anti-liberalism and social conservatism, profound Euroscepticism, xenophobia and ultranationalism—not necessarily in exactly the same proportions—is more or less the cornerstone of their ideological beliefs. In some cases these features are coupled with secessionist tendencies or dreams of territorial expansion at the expense of neighbouring countries.”. 

 

UK AND BREXIT

To me however the important thing to not, is not necessarily what these parties stand for, but why they despite their obvious roots in nazi/fascism, keep getting followers even in this “enlightened age” of the technological revolution. The days after Brexit, and now again after Trumps election, people are very quick to run to conclusions about the voters of these parties. It is a lot easier to call these people uneducated, racist, bigots and misogynists than to start getting a bigger understanding of the reasoning behind these votes. The truth is that that kind of talk, is what brought us into this mess in the first place. 

 

You know that one person in school that you always hated just a little bit? The guy/gal in class who ALWAYS had to be the best and tell everyone what was right and what was wrong? For starters, that was probably me sorry bout that, probably still is to some extent.. Sorry again. But that is how every single person sounds when trying to talk about this subject, whether you are right, left, up or down or whatever the fuck you want. 

 

We patronise, make fun of and ridicule our opposition, instead of talking about the issues at hand. Why did so many people start researching Brexit until after the vote was already cast? Because that brat in class laughed at you and put you down in your seat when you tried to ask. And at the same time that same asshole (sorry again), keeps getting further and further into his or hers own personal echo chamber. 

The truth is that most people voting to leave the EU, said that they did so because of “The principle that decisions about the UK should be taken in the UK.” (Ashcroft, 2016). 

Again this is a point that is extremely easy to ridicule and make fun off, something a lot of self proclaimed UK comedians and celebrities took to the streets with after the vote. But again, this diminishes a large portion of the concerns of an entire nation down to the talk of kindergarten kids. 

But the Leave vote, shows that there is a large portion of the population, that is afraid and/or uninformed about the way the EU operates. In the 2014 election for the European parliament, only 35,6% of the population voted. In contrast 72,21% of the population voted in the 2016 Referendum.  This shows a clearly disjointed perception about the EU.  

 

US AND TRUMP

 

As of today, 28th of November 2016, Donald Trump is still the President Elect of the United States. I say as of now, as there is currently a recount being called for in a couple of states, and however extremely unlikely it is still a theoretical possibility that this will change the results (Hint, it won’t). 

 

The US election cycle of 2015 and 2016 has been a complete and utter mess. At the start of the primaries, I wrote a blog post about how this was the start of the biggest reality TV show in the world, and in hindsight I wish I was wrong. 

Let us put up a list of some of the things that happened: 

 

• Donald Trump becomes the republican nominee, easily beating every other candidate. 
• Bernie Sanders manages to snatch 22 states of Hillary Clinton in the primaries. 
• Leaked Documents from the DNC shows that big parts of the primaries were manipulated to make sure Hillary won. 
• Donald Trump proclaims that he will build a wall against Mexico. 
• Hillary Clinton is under investigation from the FBI for a private email server, but no allegations were found. 
• Clinton investigation is reopened 1 week before elections, but dropped again because no allegations were found. 
• Donald Trump says he may not accept the results of the election, threatening the fabric of democracy in the US. 
• Donald Trump is elected president of the United States. 
• Hillary Clinton wins the majority vote, but still loses the general election due to having far less electoral votes. 
• Jill Stein files for recounts in 3 swing states. 

 

To be fair, this is just a small list of the top of my head. 

 

If Brexit officially was a referendum about sovereignty and the fight against centralisation, the US elections quickly became the fight between us and them. Democrats agains Republicans, Mainstream media against Alternative media, “real” americans against immigrants, urban against rural. The list goes on. 

 

While the issues differ somewhat, and the major points of contention during debates are different, both elections stem from the same problem; Fear and disinformation. 

 

 

 

Conclusion: 

It is safe to say that we are at somewhat of a crossroads in modern western politics. The truth is that fascism and tyranny won’t come barging in the door with guns blazing. We won’t be able to call in the good guys. Because this time, tyranny will come slowly. And the good guys won’t come, because in a world where people elect their own dictators, there are no good guys.

Game over? 

 

Continued in part: 2