cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/21429342
Quite amazing isn't it how hard it is for workers to "unite". But then at the same time in the years after the great depression, when communism still might have seemed an experiment worth trying, you get people easily giving in to fascism instead.
I know, I know, Reichstag fire etc. But fascist movements were not unique to Germany and even in socially conscious Britain the communist party never got traction.
In short, I think historically speaking people in the Western world are a bit "right of centre", esp concerning scapegoating foreigners and seeing something 'natural' in monopolies being built.
One interpretation of what we're seeing is the slow natural death of the left leaning post war social consensus, which was in some sense "artificially" created by the circumstances of the war, and we're now returning to the historic right leaning trend last seen at the end of the Victorian era.
Obviously it's not like people don't dislike the downsides to being "right of centre" but I've often found that, given the chance to mull the idea of a much more socialist country, people are surprisingly resistant to governments having the kind of monopoly that many companies do. I don't know, perhaps they've seen companies rise and fall, but once you give power to a government there's no going back?
(I'm not talking about your average Fox news intoxicated American, my experience is with regular working people in Britain, Germany, Italy etc)