What can we do to stop the far right?

[Peter Zemskov]

There's a lot of talk about how horrific Trump's presidency is, but I see very few suggestions of what should be done to effectively fight the far right tsunami that is sweeping over Western countries. This situation isn't just a random turn of events, there are objective reason for why Trump won: liberal democracies have a serious crisis of trust in institutions, economic inequality and exclusion, untethering of social bonds, breaking down of old social identities due to globalization, lack of societal vision for the future, etc and on top of all that an extremely dumb, spoiled population that doesn't even recognize that it's shooting itself in the foot. Trump is just a symptom of underlying problems. If the causes of this crisis aren't addressed leaders like Trump will become the new normal. So what can we do about all this both at the individual and societal levels? How do we protect liberal democracies against people like Trump?

[Salvijus]

Rip left. Ggwp. 

Edited April 15 by Salvijus

[PurpleTree]

I don’t know but some say in the US for example the Democrats need to win back the working class with policies that really help the working class.

And less identity politics.

[sholomar]

Create policies that help the majority afford to live rather than use gaslighting and psyops to enrich the ruling class.  Basically you have to change human nature. As that takes evolution or genetic engineering, remember enlightened masters tend to preach radical acceptance, not getting caught up in world events... Its okay if it happens, its okay if it doesnt.

 

[Raze]

I would say

- delay, distract, throw sand in the gears. Among young people it is largely far left vs far right, whereas older people lean more conservative and this becomes the backbone of support for the far right if they bust through to elections and government. Just delaying things and slowing it down as much as possible can minimize the effect until in 10-20 years when perhaps the situation has changed.

- abandon unpopular left positions. Neoliberalism, victim Olympics, reverse racism, misandry, and utopian ideas like defund the police and gender ideology etc. were extremely unpopular to the majority of the public and alienated huge swaths of people.

- counter forces in society such as income inequality and atomization which give power to people who enable the far right or undercut organizing of forces that counter them

[Joshe]

I doubt we’ll ever see another politician who comes anywhere close to Trump’s depravity. Trump was a total fluke. No one else can emulate his strategy. Once he’s gone, if he leaves, and if the Dems don’t run AOC or Kamala, MAGA will wither and die by the next election. 

[Twentyfirst]

Iran needs to invade USA to liberate you guys lmao. Blow the whole place to smithereens and take all the gold while they are at it

For your own good of course 

[Breakingthewall]

Trump is there because he once faced Hillary, who is perhaps one of the least popular people in the world, and secondly, Kamala, who is basically nothing. If he had faced someone like Obama, or even Clinton, he would have lost. So what's the solution? Having a quality opposition. In EEUU and around the world.

[Apparition of Jack]

Unrelenting force, vision, and commitment to victory. 

Don’t give fascists an inch. Oppose them at every corner, jump on every chance to undermine them, and take every win you can get.

Know that you can win, know that Trumpism can be defeated, and work every day to make that a reality.

Know that love will always trump hate.

[Rafael Thundercat]

I dont know. Maybe a bit of Passion help. Mainly among the Young people. 

This sort of passion. I dont like to be among crowds, but I feel like I would love to be in this stadium. 

 

[PurpleTree]

25 minutes ago, Rafael Thundercat said:

I dont know. Maybe a bit of Passion help. Mainly among the Young people. 

This sort of passion. I dont like to be among crowds, but I feel like I would love to be in this stadium. 

 

She’s good

[DocWatts]

Less intellectualizing and more instrumental action in the real world, for one. Find a way to integrate civic engagement into your life. The way we get through this is by organizing into a network of resilient communities with a solid political strategy behind it.

Find a group that shares your values and attend an in-person gathering. If you live in the States, Indivisible is a great place to start - it's a broad-tent pro-democracy movement which has local chapters in most major metropolitan areas.

Bernie Sander's Fighting Oligarchy Tour is a class act on how to do this well - regularly drawing in crowds of tens of thousands of people in a year when there's not an election. 

No one is coming to save us - the public rising up through a sustained nonviolent civil resistance to make it through to the next election is how we perseverance against fascism in a modern context.

Edited Sunday at 04:49 PM by DocWatts

[AION]

[Schizophonia]

Integrate. 

[Hojo]

Just wait.

[Yimpa]

Save yourself. Stop allowing Trump to distract you!!!

[Aaron p]

In Leo's video making sense of Jordan Peterson he says that certain political figures can come into existence naturally and energetically to stabilize both sides of the political spectrum...I mean the left was going a bit nuts there for a while (I think it was the left) you know with basically limitless emotional subjectivity and supporting anything because it offends someone...I'd say trump is an extreme form of this. Possibly.

Also check out leos episode "when does the left goes too far."

 

 

Edited Sunday at 07:49 PM by Aaron p

[Breathe]

On 4/15/2025 at 5:17 PM, Peter Zemskov said:

How do we protect liberal democracies against people like Trump?

In the US, that's what the constitution was supposed to do. However, democracy is fragile, and corruption is rampant and sneaky.

 

You already named a few factors that made Trump's election possible, but I think the biggest problems we need to address and weed out corruption is:

 

• Forbid corporate money in politics
• Donor transparency in elections (foreign influence)
• Poorly educated citizens
• Disinformation and fear mongering
• Voter suppression
• Lack of term limits in congress and the judiciary system
• Lack of background checks and ongoing monitoring of public servants
• Insider trading
• Tolerance for racism and sexism
• No separation of church and state

 

In the US what we need is to revise the constitution and weed out corruption. We can't do a damn thing until this happens.

Trump is not the problem. It's the system.

This was a well-planned and executed strategy that's played out for many years. Russia played a huge role in Trump's win in both his first and second terms. We are talking about a multi-national conspiracy that was investigated but no-one was held accountable.

How in the fuck do we fix that?

We knew it happened, but nothing came of it.

Then we had the Jan 6 coup attempt. Nada. No accountability, once again.

Edited Tuesday at 10:31 AM by Breathe

[Leo Gura]

On 4/15/2025 at 10:17 AM, Peter Zemskov said:

How do we protect liberal democracies against people like Trump?

Require all political candidates to pass a basic history, geography, and political science exam.

[Husseinisdoingfine]

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

Require all political candidates to pass a basic history, geography, and political science exam.

In China, they actually have a system like this where all politicians have to pass a civil service exam to serve in the government. It began in the imperial era.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_examination