We need to start asking why.

[NotOneOfTheInCrowd]

So trump has won. In the UK elections reform gained good ground. In the rest of Europe the far right are gaining ground.

It’s clear that the world as a whole is leaning further towards this stance, and instead of expressing horror and insulting those who are voting that way, we need to start asking why that is. Because clearly it is.

it’s easy to say that people voted for Farage because they didn’t want to vote Tory.

Or that they voted for Trump because they didn’t want a woman.

But it has to go further than that. There are too many of these votes for it to be that simplistic. so it’s time we looked at what the realities and the reasons are, and how they can be resolved without putting it in the hands of people like Farage or Trump to resolve them.

Really? He's only got 4 million more votes than her. It's 51:48. Not really the landslide he's touting it to be.

(Sorry if someone already posted this)

For my British and European friends who are "shocked" and "surprised", here are 10 reasons you didn't see this coming:

1. Americans love their country and want it to be the best in the world. America is a nation of people who conquered a continent. They love strength. They love winning. Any leader who appeals to that has an automatic advantage.

1. Unlike Europeans, Americans have not accepted managed decline. They don't have Net Zero here, they believe in producing their own energy and making it as cheap as possible because they know that their prosperity depends on it.

1. Prices for most basic goods in the US have increased rapidly and are sky high. What the official statistics say about inflation and the reality of people's lives are not the same.

1. Unlike you, Americans do not believe in socialism. They believe in meritocracy. They don't care about the super rich being super rich because they know that they live in a country where being super rich is available to anyone with the talent and drive to make it. They don't resent success, they celebrate it.

1. Americans are the most pro-immigration people in the world. Read that again. Seriously, read it again. Americans love an immigrant success story. They want more talented immigrants to come to America. But they refuse to accept people coming illegally. They believe in having a border.

1. Americans are sensitive about racial issues and their country's imperfect history. They believe that those who are disadvantaged by the circumstances of their birth should be given the opportunity to succeed. What they reject, however, is the idea that in order to address the errors of the past new errors must be made. DEI is racist. They know it and they reject it precisely because they are not racist.

1. Americans are the most philosemitic nation on earth. October 7 and the pro-Hamas left's reaction shocked them to their very core because, among other things, they remember what 9/11 was like and they know jihad when they see it.

1. Americans are extremely practical people. They care about what works, not what sounds good. In Europe, we produce great writers and intellectuals. In America they produce (and attract) great engineers, businessmen and investors. Because of this, they care less about Trump's rhetoric than you do and more about his policies than you do.

1. Americans are deeply optimistic people. They hate negativity. The woke view of American history as a series of evils for which they must eternally apologise is utterly abhorrent to them. They believe in moving forward together, not endlessly obsessing about the past.

10. America is a country whose founding story is one of resistance to government overreach. They loathe unnecessary restrictions, regulations and control. They understand that freedom comes with the price of self-reliance and they pay it gladly.

— Konstantin Kisin

Unfettered global oligarchy created increased inequality and poverty at the very bottom of the totem pole. The pandemic accelerated this effect, both because it is now causing increased and unending disability, with health declining across the population, and also because of economic disruption. Increased poverty means increased support for the far right, because those in power encourage far-right explanations for the poor conditions inflicted on the masses ("these foreigners are stealing your money!") to divert scrutiny from themselves. The masses buy it because they are hungry, and nobody is thinking straight when they're hungry.

In a nutshell it's about empty bellies. Everything in politics is always about empty bellies. We can discuss philosophy, ideologies and theories until the cows come home, but stuff like culture wars, outrage over "wokeism" and other such nonsense only becomes important enough when people are hungry and therefore already inclined to become angry. When leaders fail, it's usually because they have starved their people too much. The average person doesn't need intellectual freedom.

Ultimately, there is no left and right in politics at the moment because even the "left" don't seem concerned enough with economic inequality. Instead, they worry about language, diversity quotas, feelings and other superfluous things.

This response nails it. I would not have voted for Trump as I prioritise other issues, but these points are very significant. Gordon Brown failed to grasp the immigration point in 2010. A person who questions policy on immigration and work because her son is facing minimum wage competition from Eastern Europeans after he’s trained and is certified in the trades is not a bigot. That is a reasonable concern to have for your children’s future. The response ought to be to look at wage rates - but it is not acceptable to simply do nothing and accuse people of bigotry. Neither is it acceptable to leave the gender identity issue unchallenged. I have never really been a fan of home schooling but I would remove my DC from any classroom where a teacher is claiming that people can change sex. And neither is it acceptable to permit a housing system that forces people to move their DC from schools, nurseries etc because the landlord wants to sell up. I grew up in a council house. My parents could not be kicked out as long as they paid their rent and looked after the property. They could decorate it how they liked.

Leaving people in very insecure housing and health situations and ignoring their employment and women’s safety concerns is not going to encourage faith in the mainstream parties.

I really think it's because people are struggling and many live in poverty without hope. It's under these conditions that populism gains momentum and fascism breeds. Just look at the parallels with Nazi Germany.

people are tired and pissed of being name called by extreme left for any sensible conversation.

using money that many citizens and legal immigrants do not have to treat illegal immigrants is just unfair and stupidity for any country. so yes, labour should be careful, use people's tax money and the borrowed money from next generation wisely, for rational usage, rather than ideology usage.

We have to look beyond the insults, because there are reasons, and without addressing those reasons, we are powerless

Looks like everyone remains powerless because that’s what you will get from a lot of the left - stupidity, arrogance and insults.

The main problem is that both sides (especially in the US, but increasingly elsewhere) are so deeply entrenched in their worldviews that the notions of respectful disagreement, aiming for the same things but disagreeing on how to get there, or listening to one another are now distant dots on the horizon.

At the moment, political discourse has become:

The left - ‘everyone who disagrees with me is an uneducated bigot just slightly to the right of Hitler’

the right - ‘everyone who disagrees with me is an out of touch woke pervert’

It’s pathetic, really 😕

Pro life people who don't even care to do a quick google and find out that Trump is FAR from consistently pro life? Pro life people who (the VAST majority of them) literally don't care what happens to a baby once it's born, so long as it is? Pro life people who are against government assistance and pro gun?

It'd be laughable if it weren't so serious. See also "I voted for Trump because he's a Christian". A Christian who has consistently failed to uphold the sanctity of marriage, has multiple felonies to his name and can't even quote ONE bible verse? Yeah, great Christian he is.

As far as I'm concerned the whole right / left posturing is redundant and part of the smoke and mirrors handbook.

We now live in a corporate dystopia. It's capitalism in It's rawest form. Social problems are created and "cured" purely to feed the machine. Only they're never meant to be cured. Everything is an industry and we're just the pawns on the chessboard facilitating "growth". It doesn't matter much which stripe of government any country has, because it's now a worldwide economy. Honestly I think we're complicating ourselves into oblivion.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the "end of the world" will be collective nervous breakdown.

I thought this comment was interesting:

'I'm interpreting the results tonight as revenge of just the regular old working-class American, the anonymous American who has been crushed, insulted, condescended to,' Jennings said.
'They're not garbage, they're not Nazis. They're just regular people who get up and go to work every day and are trying to make a better life for their kids, and they feel like they have been told to just shut up when they have complained about the things that are hurting them in their own lives.'

People are feeling disenfranchised and insulted. Their concerns are dismissed with a wave of the hand. The Dems have become a party of elite dictators not liberals. They’ve left their commonsense behind and have become zealots, sneering at people for wrongthink.

Rightly or wrongly, a lot of people, here and in the US, are worried about undocumented immigrants pouring into the respective countries.

It’s not complicated. 🤷‍♀️

The whole thing boils down to race and identity in my opinion. The western world as a whole is now so diverse that it's native populations no longer feel secure in their own culture and they are seeking to stop the invasion from foreign countries and re-establish their status quo.

This nails it for a lot of people

There is too much power in the media to twist the narrative.

People have been squashed for so long and have been sold 'more is better'

It’s astonishing that you claim to know personally what the thoughts are of “the VAST majority” (sic) of pro life people.

A prodigious achievement. 🙄

I don't have to know their thoughts. I just have to know how many of them are adopting children, including medically fragile children. That number is certainly not the same as the number of people who claim to be pro life, not anywhere close.

I know a lot of lovely Muslim people. Hardworking, tolerant and generally keeping their head down.

Like my husband: he's lived in the UK for over 20 years and is originally from Iran.

He's modern, an atheist and supports the rights of women.

I also had a fantastic doctor that treated my injuries after birth. She wore a veil.

I find the original, quoted post simplistic, generalising and ignorant.

Ahhh, so only those who are actively adopters of (preferably medically fragile) children are allowed to have any opinion on the prolife / prochoice debate.

How very tolerant of you. 🙄

Ooh this is interesting. I'm not sure how much of it reflects my own values ... but I suspect there is a lot of truth to it.

200 reason why -

www.instagram.com/p/DB9OXvUuU2k/?igsh=NXo5dnhrNDE3YXl3

America gave the Democrats four years and they made America worse.

President Trump will make America great again.

Yep I agree with this. ^

You can't be a muslim and an atheist!

The people you know are clearly not the same as the people mentioned in @MumtananoBay's post. That's pretty obvious.