Emmanuel Macron makes shock decision to call election for 30 June after National Rally makes huge gains in France
"Emmanuel Macron, the French president, has announced that he is dissolving the national assembly, and calling for legislative elections on June 30 and July 7.
The French president said that he can’t pretend nothing has happened, that the outcome of the EU election is not good for his government and that the rise of nationalists is a danger for France and Europe."
Look, I know the way the left has been handling immigration has you upset, but could you please take a closer look at the absolute freaks you're electing today?
I mean, just take a good look at the United States, circa 2017 through 2020. Did we look like electing an absolute freak worked out for us? Did it fix our own immigration problems? Did it make electing your own Donald Trumps look like a good idea?
When people feel ignored in a democratic country, they begin to feel like the democracy they live in is a sham or that democracy itself doesn't work.
Votes like this aren't necessarily about "we need a different direction" and more about desperation and/or anger. They want to show the elites of their country that they still have the power, they want to cost them something for treating the population like it's there to be harvested from, they want to shake up the status quo at all cost.
They want to prove to themselves that their vote still matters.
Letting it get to this point is really bad governance. Once you get here, either they win, or they don't. And of they don't, most of the people who support them have their suspicions confirmed, they don't live in a democracy, they voted and didn't get what they want, again. This creates a division that is difficult to come back from.
These right wing parties need migration. Their whole existence depends on there being immigrants to blame so actually closing the borders and "sending them home" is the worst move they can make politically speaking.
Correct, the next step in the strategy is to blame the immigration on any random external entity (cf Brexit). Eventually this may devolve into full blown war, genocides, etc etc.
Well, that's dismissive. You don't think that these people are reacting to genuine concerns they have? Not even some of them, some of their concerns?
In an environment where nobody controls the information, people will lie. If democracy doesn't work when information flows freely, doesn't that mean democracy doesn't work?
What do you mean nobody controls the information? We're sitting here talking on lemmy, but most people (or at least most vooters) get their information from capital intensive sources controlled by the ruling class. Television is captured and subject to manipulation, mainstream "algorithmic" social media is captured and subject to manipulation, independent (local) print media is dead. I get really depressed when I think about it
So I was responding to the parent statement, he said when there's disinformation democracy doesn't work. Well in order to avoid disinformation, you need strong control of information flow. That sounds a lot like a dictatorship. The people you vote for control what you know about them, that's not democracy. So if democracy doesn't work because people lie, and democracy doesn't work if information is controlled, then democracy doesn't work, right? Interestingly, he confirmed lower in the thread that he does not believe in democracy.
I'm with you, all news is controlled propaganda. I don't follow any of it as a result. It is sad, but all we can do is try to live in the world we are in. I don't let it get me depressed, I just carry on.
It is a sham. An arrogant 3rd term fool imported a population increase of 3 percent in 18 months during a housing crisis and can't figure out why people hate him. Successfully lowered wages across the whole country after devaluing the currency intentionally. This is not a mystery why people wants see him at a minimum out of office immediately. I think you all know what a lot actually think should be done with him.
It's truly bizarre. Every couple of decades or so, either the United States or significant chunks of Europe decide, "What the hell, let's give the right-wingers another chance, they say they'll fix immigration," and then we end up cutting funding for services and giving tax cuts to the rich. They pull this shit every goddamn time, and we keep falling for the bait-and-switch.
The recent success of the European far right is precisely because they've revised their image to get rid of the freakshow aspects. The days when you could dismiss these people just by calling them "absolute freaks" are over.
If you look a little closer, it’s not. Educated European people do not want to copy American culture, or at the very least try to pick out the good stuff. They are those who criticise the US for the bad stuff, though.
Our dummies, deplorables, low class people on the other hand have eaten up American culture hook line and sinker, they are culturally in sync with basic bitch Americans and their lifestyle and hobbies (minus guns because of laws)…music, movies, food, holiday destinations, political views, clothing, hobbies is all copied from the US. American soft power works wonders on soft European brains. These are the people who don’t criticise the US but the US shouldn’t take that as a compliment, because they’re morons.
So there is a huge class divide in Europe between people who want to turn Europe in the US, end those who think that’s not a good idea. No hypocrisy.
In that case "we" are at 53%, the US were at least at 55% in the early 90s, which is 35 years ago. I think that's a long enough timespan to make any comparison moot.
It makes me want to mock the EU considering how much, deserved, shit the US gets. But this is just depressing. I would much prefer the US to be mocked as we get our shit, hopefully, together. Not fucking join us.
I'd actually give the Catholic Church a few points in the "Good" column if they made Carlin a saint. He could be the patron saint of jesters and fools.