this post was submitted on 23 Apr 2024
186 points (95.6% liked)

World News

39011 readers
2794 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News [email protected]

Politics [email protected]

World Politics [email protected]


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

German teenagers and young adults find themselves increasingly unsatisfied and likely to vote for the far right, according to a survey. Fears about prosperity are highlighted as a possible cause.

Young people are more likely to vote for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) than previously, a study on Tuesday showed.

Authors of the "Youth in Germany 2024" study said that under-30s were increasingly disgruntled with their social and economic situation, and that fears about future prosperity were driving a shift to the right.

The AfD's signature issue is a hard-line anti-immigration stance, and the data showed that migration was among young people's main concerns.

The online study, conducted in January and February, found that young people were becoming increasingly dissatisfied, especially with their social and economic situation, compared with previous years.

After the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the authors said economic and political worries for example due to inflation, high rents, the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East or the division of society had taken center stage.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 77 points 6 months ago (7 children)

Actually the pessimism turned me left. How can one be pessimistic about the future and turn to those who will make it even worse? Stupidity or self harming behaviour?

[–] [email protected] 42 points 6 months ago

Guess they buy into the simplistic views shouted by the far right.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

People are not good at critically evaluating options and don't have the time or attention to do so. Not a knock on young people, pretty much everyone in 2024 has divided attention 24/7.

So we turn to heuristics, ways to short-circuit decision making. Like looking at what arguments experts make, how often we hear arguments, who is the most confident, etc. Those are easily exploited by right-wing populists.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

My observation:

They position themselves similar to classic revolutionaries - they claim to be the counterpoint to the "establishment" or to the "out-of-touch elites."

That's pretty tempting for people who don't like the direction the world is heading in. Most don't see or don't want to see that the AfD is chock full of the exact people who rule them from the top down, police their opinions and take away their personal liberties.

What's tragic is that, historically, a left wing group would normally find itself in the position the AfD is holding now. Yet here we are, after 50 years of slowly shifting rightwards until the social contract began breaking, with a party that offers a harsh jump further right as the revolutionary cure.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

They're either very selfishly shortsighted or dangerously sarcastic.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

They are not very smart

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Another contender would be accelerationism. I've seen a lot of that online.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

If you go with the worst POV on far-right, it's the same promises that lead men to war: after the war you'll have money and will be able to marry

In a world where money is hard to come by, and society and culture are deconstructed (and nothing is built to replace it), there is no much else they hold dear. So "war" is all that's left

It's been this way forever