Old World Politics

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Re: Old World Politics

Post by Cornuck »

UW - what is your opinion of the current state of the Republican party?
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Re: Old World Politics

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Cornuck wrote: Wed Sep 21, 2022 12:12 pm UW - what is your opinion of the current state of the Republican party?
That it is comprised of three factions that sometimes overlap but lack a cohesive governing philosophy: (1) social conservatives; (2) populists; and (3) anybody but the Democrats.

The social conservative faction is identifiable as a group that's been largely Republican since the 1980s, about the time the socially conservative Democrats became more rare (voted for Reagan), and that trend has only increased over time. These days, this group is focused on issues like abortion and education specifically and the culture wars more generally, believes "fairness" is a matter of just desserts and not equity, and believes God exists and that matters. Social conservatives are prototypically conservative in governance issues to the extent they more or less believe that change has a high propensity to be negative or at least disruptive and therefore tend for no change, reversing recent change, or slowing change.

The populist faction is comprised of the politically disaffected. These are people who might not be as socially conservative as the social conservatives, but they are not as progressive as the the democrats who many used to identify with. They have broad sentiments of patriotism, respect for the military, respect for institutions, but they also broadly feel that government or political parties or culture or the elites are letting them down. And many in this group feel that their current lot is because they've been let down. (If they do not have the broad positive sentiments, they are populists who are not part of today's Republican Party). This group is the most likely to either not have a strong partisan affiliation or they formerly considered themselves democrats. Socially, they are anywhere from moderate to conservative; economically they range from "leave me alone types" to "lots more government intervention," fiscally they are different than the Tea Party populists because they have no interest in the national debt or limiting government spending.

The anybody but the Democrat crowd are the remnants of the prior republican party coalition that believes in things like liberal economics (i.e., free trade, free markets), "realism" in foreign affairs, and Constitutional values (federalism, separation of powers, limited federal government, constitutional rights). These are the people that "vote against" democrats as much or more than they "vote for" Republicans. This group is the group that used to be in control of the party, and were displaced by Trump in the public rhetoric while continuing to influence policy in the Trump administration.

It is the second group that contains many people that Trump brought into the Republican Party, and if people use the term "Trump voters," this is who they are talking about. While Trump brought those voters into the Republican Party, this group also scrambles the Republican party's coherence.
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Re: Old World Politics

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Topper wrote: Wed Sep 07, 2022 6:06 am Late 1980's? Are you trying to get me arrested?
You should be arrested for having a pigtail
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Re: Old World Politics

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Truly Old World, as in ancient Persia…

Rioting in the streets in various cities in Iran after moral police arrested a 22 yo girl for not covering her hair properly and she died while in their custody. Women are burning their hijabs in public and members of the moral police are attacked and lynched. People are shouting ”death to the tyrant”.

Apparently the dead girl was Kurdish, which also helps foment ethnic tensions, apart from the outrage from women in general.
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Re: Old World Politics

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UWSaint wrote: Wed Sep 21, 2022 9:39 am
File this under things to consider before abandoning first past the post elections and/or adopting proportional representation.
Yes, fptp elections tend to result in stronger governments with more consistent agendas. But they leave a fair chunk of the electorate without representation.

Proportional elections means (almost) everyone gets representation, but often result in weak coalition governments with an agenda based on compromise.

Both systems have their pros and cons. Most English speaking countries have some form of fptp system, but eg Germany and the Nordic countries use proportional systems and tend to do fairly well. Compromises often sound like less than perfect, but it also means that you tend to avoid extreme measures and have to find a balance between different interest groups that everyone can accept.

I don't know what to make of European "right wing" parties or "neo-nazi" parties. Its just so foreign to me. Historically, the right wing in the United States oscillates between conservatives and free market types; both of these types are devoid of national (or supernational) collectivist impulses (which marks the 20th centuries alternatives to liberalism -- fascism and communism or true socialism (state-ownership of significant industry)). Collectivist right wingers are fringe fringe fringe in America, and the corporatism strains of American politics have always been more a part of the progressive left than the right (though both parties mistake "public-private partnerships" as something to be fostered rather than viewed skeptically as potentially dangerous conglomerations of power).
Yes, nazism and fascism never really got a good foothold in North America, even if Henry Ford, Charles Lindberg and Joseph Kennedy all had such leanings. In Europe the strong nationalist movements of the 19th century in some places converted into nazism or fascism which are based on the notion that your own nation is superior to all others and has an inherent right or even duty to disregard the interest of others. The original America First movement of the 1930’s did have fascist traits though, which is why many found it shocking to see that slogan revived. Anyway, after WW2 nazism more or less disappeared, but fascism survived in the Greek, Spanish and Portuguese dictatorships that lasted well into the 1970’s, and in Italy MSI, the Movimiento Soziale Italiano (sp?) was formed in 1946 by former fascists and never really abandoned their old ideals. The new political party, the Italian Brotherhood, that many expect will win the upcoming elections, is descended from that movement and still use their old party symbol, a green, red and white flame, symbolising the fire burning at Mussolini’s tomb. Their leader, Meloni, denies any ties to fascism, but was a member of the MSI youth organisation and has in her youth praised the policies of Mussolini. I don’t know. I haven’t read up on her, but it seems her party will be able to form a government backed by Liga Nord and Forza Italia (Berlusconi’s party). Both are right wing populist parties rather than traditional conservatives, and the Liga leader has been a huge fan of Putin, even if he has toned it down since the war started.
There has been some concern in the EU that a new Italian government, formed by those three parties, may weaken the stance against Russia. Meloni has made it clear though that she supports the Ukrainians in their fight to maintain their sovereignty.

Italian politics tends to be very dramatic, with both communists and fascists being part of the spectrum, and I don’t really know when to take them seriously or just dismis what they say as posturing. They're almost constantly in political crisis, yet still seem to chug along at a reasonable pace. Not a powerhouse like Germany, but seldom crashing and burning in the way that Greece and Spain are prone to.

Anyway, even if no fascist regime survived, fascism as a political idea did and occassionally still rears it ugly head. And nazism survived especially in Eastern Europe as a sort of misguided opposition to the communist dictatorships. We in the west are shocked and appalled when Putin refers to Zelensky as a nazi, but in Russian usage anyone opposing Russian hegemony is a nazi, and thus many east Europeans started self identifying as such.

As for corporatism - that’s a strange animal. It was basically invented by the Italian fascists, but inspired by communist ideas that Mussolini picked up while being a member of the communist party, before switching to fascism. It was then copied by the Spanish falangists under Franco and spread within the Spanish speaking world to become important elements within Peron’s version of socialism and Castro’s brand of communism. So, you find it as sort of a surrogate for democracy within dictatorships both on the left and the right. Further confirming that if you move far enough in either direction you end up going full circle.

Its quite difficult for me to accept the idea that people who are for increased immigration control or are skeptical of the UN or the growing power of the EU are necessarily fringe; in fact, I can see left wing and right wing arguments for increasing controls on immigration or for less deference to international organizations. (And I can see extremists also wanting these things). I think the liberal/globalist/media/financial classes make a big mistake when they presume that the sentiments motivating immigration control or thinking there can be a negative from international "cooperation" are the ideas of extremists and can be dismissed or demonized accordingly. Fact is, so long as there are borders and people see a value to them, the question of immigration and international cooperation are always practical questions of balance and degree that can't be dismissed by assigning extreme ideology to people that weigh the balance differently.
People who are for increased immigration control are not necessarily fringe. Fear of what is unknown or different is intrinsic to the human psyche. They are misinformed though. Free trade and free movement of labour tends to make countries thrive, whereas trade barriers and strict border control tends to render countries stagnant and less competitive. There are centuries or even millennia of evidence for this.
Being sceptical of the UN is mainly widespread in the USA, Russia and China. Countries that figure that international laws hold them back and they could do better in a dog eat dog world. For small countries a rules based international community is more of a life insurance. Something that can be used to gain the moral upper hand against the superpowers and to some extent keep them in check.

I mean, just look at the current war and the speeches held at the UN yesterday. When more than 140 nations express their support for Ukraine’s right to sovereignty and territorial integrity and noone but a handful of failed states back Russia, it really makes it harder for Russia to look good, and this does have effect on their international relations in more than one way. Without the existence of these international organisations, small nations would live in a far more dangerous world. And the concept that it is illegal to change borders by force would just be an opinion if the UN did not exist. Now it is a binding international law.

As for the EU, extremists on both sides of the spectrum oppose strengthening it, but most others support it. Once again, if the EU did not exist, it would have been much harder to take a common stance against Russia. Also, try to find a period of 70 years of peace in western Europe prior to the creation of the EU. You can’t. Since the dawnof time there has been war after war after war. The creation of the EU was specifically aimed at stopping the constant wars between mainly France and Germany, and it has been a huge success story. The creation of a European internal market is also boosting the economies in an amazing way. I recently, at the start of the war, took a look at the GDP per capita of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia and the Baltic nations in 1990, just before the breakup of the Soviet Union, and 2020. The gist of it is that the GDP per capita of the countries that have joined the EU has sky rocketed compared to the others. Now, they started out from different positions, but Poland, Hungary, Belarus and Ukraine had almost identical numbers in 1990. In 2020 the GDP per capita of Poland, who has truly embraced the opportunities given to them by the EU, was four times that of Belarus and the Ukraine, and Hungary’s three times higher. I personally think this is the main reason for Putin’s attack on Ukraine. The Ukrainians have made it clear they’d like to join. 40% of their population is Russian speaking. A thriving democratic Ukraine would be a nightmare for Putin and would quickly rob him of any legitimacy in the eyes of his people. Better carpet bomb them and do whatever necessary to prevent their success.
Last edited by Per on Sat Sep 24, 2022 1:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Old World Politics

Post by 2Fingers »

Per I am ok with a chunk of people not being represented, since these chunks are usually 1 side of the extremism.

And then of course we have to define "chunk", what is the %?
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Re: Old World Politics

Post by Cousin Strawberry »

2Fingers wrote: Fri Sep 23, 2022 1:16 pm "chunk"
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Re: Old World Politics

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Good article in the NYT on the Swedish election:
Sweden Is Becoming Unbearable
by Elisabeth Asbrink

STOCKHOLM — “Helg seger.”

Those two words, spoken by Rebecka Fallenkvist, a 27-year-old media figure and politician from the Sweden Democrats, the far-right party that took 20 percent in Sweden’s general election last week, sent shivers down spines throughout the country. It’s not the phrase, which is odd and means “weekend victory.” It’s the sound: one letter away from “Hell seger,” the Swedish translation of the Nazi salute “Sieg Heil,” and the war cry of Swedish Nazis for decades.

Ms. Fallenkvist was quick to disavow any Nazi associations. She meant to declare the weekend a victorious one, she said, but the words came out in the wrong order. Perhaps that’s true. But the statement would be entirely in keeping with the party Ms. Fallenkvist represents, which, after a steady rise, is now likely to play a major role in the next government.

For Sweden, a country that trades on being a bastion of social democracy, tolerance and fairness, it’s a shock. But perhaps it shouldn’t be. Steadily rising for the past decade, the Swedish far right has profited from the country’s growing inequalities, fostering an obsession with crime and an antipathy to migrants. Its advance marks the end of Swedish exceptionalism, the idea that the country stood out both morally and materially.
There’s no doubt about the party’s Nazi origins. The Sweden Democrats was created in 1988 out of a neo-Nazi group called B.S.S., or Keep Sweden Swedish, and of the party’s 30 founding fathers, 18 had Nazi affiliations, according to a historian and former party member, Tony Gustaffson. Some of the founding fathers had even served in Hitler’s Waffen SS.
Step by step the party changed its image — in 1995 uniforms were forbidden — but the core ideology remained: Immigrants should be persuaded to go home, Swedish culture should be protected and neither Jews nor the Indigenous Sami people were to be considered “real Swedes.” Not even the soccer star Zlatan Ibrahimovic secured the party’s approval, although he was born in the country and is the national team’s record goal scorer. The stances of the current leadership, which has sought to sanitize the party’s reputation, are equally worrying.

Take Linus Bylund, the party’s chief of staff in the Swedish Parliament. In an interview in 2020, he declared that journalists for the national public service radio and television ought to be “punished” if their reporting was biased. Such people, he stated previously, would be “enemies of the nation.” Proximity to power hasn’t softened his views. The day after the recent election, a reporter asked him what he now looked forward to. “Journalist-rugby,” he replied.

Jimmie Akesson, the party’s leader, also surprised a television audience in mid-February when he refused to choose between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin. It’s of a piece with the party’s accommodating stance on Russia: The Swedish Parliament was so concerned about a journalist who used to work in the party’s office and had contact with Russian intelligence that it denied the journalist accreditation. Add in a cohort of representatives more prosecuted for crimes than any other, organized troll campaigns against opponents and even attempts to undermine faith in the electoral system, and you have the image of a deeply unsavory party.

Even so, the Sweden Democrats’ rise is an impressive right-wing success story. The party entered the Parliament in 2010 with just over 5 percent of the vote — but, under the leadership of Mr. Akesson, it built an efficient, nationwide organization. It more than doubled its share of the vote in 2014 and, after Sweden admitted over 160,000 Syrian refugees, grew even more in the 2018 election. But it’s in this vote that Sweden Democrats secured a sought-after breakthrough with a stunning 20.6 percent of the votes, surpassing the conservative Moderaterna, which had been Sweden’s second biggest party for over 40 years. Now only the Social Democratic Party, Sweden’s historic party of government, has more support.

This monumental rise is thanks to the dramatic changes in Swedish life over the past three decades. Once one of the most economically equal countries in the world, Sweden has seen the privatization of hospitals, schools and care homes, leading to a notable rise in inequality and a sense of profound loss. The idea of Sweden as a land of equal opportunity, safe from the plagues of extreme left and extreme right, is gone. This obscure collective feeling was waiting for a political response — and the Sweden Democrats have been the most successful in providing it. It was better in the good old days, they say, and people believe them. Back to red cottages and apple trees, to law and order, to women being women and men being men.
For opening this door, the major parties have themselves to blame. Bit by bit, the traditional parties have adopted the point of view and rhetoric on crime and immigrations of the Sweden Democrats Party — but this strategy hasn’t won back any votes. On the contrary, it seems to have helped the far right. In a little more than 12 years, Sweden Democrats has managed to compete with the Social Democrats for working-class voters, with Moderaterna for the support of entrepreneurs and with the Centre Party among the rural population.

The media is culpable, too. In an attempt to protect traditional Swedish democratic values, the mainstream media has often shunned and canceled Sweden Democrats officials and supporters, especially in the party’s early years. But now it seems that this response actually might have had the opposite effect. Individuals leaning toward the Sweden Democrats for various reasons have felt stigmatized: Some haven’t been invited to family gatherings, and in a few cases have even lost their jobs. This has not only fed the party’s self-image as a martyr but also nurtured even more loyalty among its supporters.

One could argue that the traditional parties have had their part in creating the perfect storm. The Social Democratic Party has named the Sweden Democrats their main enemy in the election campaign, making other alternatives almost invisible in the public debate. Us or them, was the strategy. Many, predominantly male Swedes, chose the Sweden Democrats. As for a conservative party like Moderaterna, they have seen their voters abandon them for Sweden Democrats, and so Moderaterna reacted by emphasizing the similarities between the two parties until it reached a point where it became hard to distinguish any differences at all.

The result is now plain to see. The Social Democrats, though the largest party, are unable to form a government. Instead, a conservative bloc, led by Ulf Kristersson from Moderaterna, will attempt to take office — as long as it has the support of the Sweden Democrats. Effectively a kingmaker, the party is now one of the most successful far-right parties in Europe since World War II.

It’s a terrifying truth. But we must bear in mind that the majority of the country’s population is not among the Sweden Democrats’ ranks. These people want solutions to real problems — such as a worrying spike in gang and drug-related shootings in several cities — without recourse to ethnic blame games and the vilification of “un-Swedish” culture. As a liberal democrat I will never approve of a party that celebrates its success with references to Hitler’s Nazi ideology, no matter the claim that only by sheer coincidence was the exclamation “Helg Seger” just one letter apart from a Nazi war cry.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/20/opin ... lda-unique
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Re: Old World Politics

Post by Cousin Strawberry »

Extreme Liberalism (like Sweden has apparently suffered through) only serves to galvanize a rise in right wing popularity Per. I have first hand account of what this mass migration bullshit has done to a peaceful, idyllic society where harmony was promoted, fostered and enjoyed for decades before the masses of disrespectful, violent, economic migrants posing as refugees came along.

Legitimate refugees wouldn't treat their new home like a toilet like you guys have there. There's no respect for Swedes from these hordes
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Re: Old World Politics

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Cousin Strawberry wrote: Sat Sep 24, 2022 6:03 am Extreme Liberalism (like Sweden has apparently suffered through) only serves to galvanize a rise in right wing popularity Per. I have first hand account of what this mass migration bullshit has done to a peaceful, idyllic society where harmony was promoted, fostered and enjoyed for decades before the masses of disrespectful, violent, economic migrants posing as refugees came along.

Legitimate refugees wouldn't treat their new home like a toilet like you guys have there. There's no respect for Swedes from these hordes
Great post Cuz. It's so true.

That being said the same is also true regarding the extreme conservatives, when they push too hard it galvanizes the Left.

I find hypocrisy on both sides of the aisle, but it's definitely worse on the left right now.....perhaps because that's what gets the most headlines these days.

As for the immigrants, it is preposterous to condone a political mindset that wants to change our society and laws to accommodate an incoming culture. Anyone with half a brain should see that if you like your current cultural climate and way of life then you don't open the door to immigrants who want to bring their culture here and impose it on you. If I wanted to go to India, Japan, China, South or Central America, or South Africa or any Middle Eastern country, to name a few, I would have to assimilate to their country and laws. However, we open the door to these people and bend over to let them change our way of life. It's not making us a better country, it's dividing us.....and can be economically ruinous to boot.
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Re: Old World Politics

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Mëds wrote: Sat Sep 24, 2022 1:48 pm

That being said the same is also true regarding the extreme conservatives, when they push too hard it galvanizes the Left.

I find hypocrisy on both sides of the aisle, but it's definitely worse on the left right now.....perhaps because that's what gets the most headlines these days.

I very much agree on this and feel that the extreme right is generally more extreme than the opposite end of the political spectrum.

I worry about how obvious dumb fucks so easily associate with extreme right wing nuttery so well which has me leaning the other way a tad
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Re: Old World Politics

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Most pundits believe Giorgia Meloni and her Fratelli d’Italia will win the parliamentary elections tonight and be able to form a government with Forza Italia and Lega. This will be the first time a party with direct links to fascism will win an election and form a government in post-war Europe. Oh,and Giorgia will become the first female PM ever in Italy.
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Re: Old World Politics

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The liberal left governments, and their mainstream media lapdogs, are primarily responsible for what you are seeing right now on the political stage all over the place. They have pushed their woke agenda so hard that people finally have gotten fed up with it. I predict we are about to see the leftist side of the spectrum lose ground that they have "won" in their cause to advance their social agenda.....perhaps in some cases too much ground will be taken back. What we are seeing now is that the woke left (and that's not everyone on the left) are about to discover that the vast majority of people are capable of waking up and thinking objectively, and that things are not all about the individual, and that truth is not an internally defined thing in every case.

I hope it doesn't get too ugly.
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Re: Old World Politics

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Mëds wrote: Mon Sep 26, 2022 8:38 pm The liberal left governments, and their mainstream media lapdogs, are primarily responsible for what you are seeing right now on the political stage all over the place. They have pushed their woke agenda so hard that people finally have gotten fed up with it. I predict we are about to see the leftist side of the spectrum lose ground that they have "won" in their cause to advance their social agenda.....perhaps in some cases too much ground will be taken back. What we are seeing now is that the woke left (and that's not everyone on the left) are about to discover that the vast majority of people are capable of waking up and thinking objectively, and that things are not all about the individual, and that truth is not an internally defined thing in every case.

I hope it doesn't get too ugly.
The main concern in Italy is gay rights. Italy is in a bit of a financial crisis and are dependent on receiving money from the EU, so they probably will not challenge Brussels. Likewise, eventhough both Salvini (Lega) and Berlusconi (Forza Italia) are notorious Putin-huggers, Meloni has been vocal about supporting Ukraine in defending their rights as a sovereign nation within its recognised borders, so they probably will not create a breach in EU solidarity with Ukraine. So I do not hink there is any immediate threat to EU cohesion. But women's rights and gay rights in Italy could be threatened.

Since 1978 Italian women have had free right to abortion during the first 90 days of pregancy, and it can be allowed later than that if it is eg a life threatening situation, but then it is a decision by the doctor rather than the patient. Meloni and her party, however, oppose these rights. I assume it would be hard to roll back though. An earlier attempt, by referendum, was rejected by a resounding 68% of voters. But all in all her Brothers of Italy party is very much in favour of traditional gender roles and not so much in favour of equal rights.

Italy still has not passed laws allowing gay marriage, and LBTQ rights are not high on the agenda of the new right wing government. Meloni has been talking a lot about the gay lobby and is very dismissive of their struggle. There is a lot of fear that life will get harder and more restricted for gay people in Italy as a result of her victory.

As you can see in this picture, gay marriage is very much a western European thing:
Image

And of course there will be a crackdown on immigration. Salvini (leader of Lega) is btw currently under prosecution for when previously in government violating international laws of the sea by refusing vessels in need to dock in Italian ports.

These elections also show a problem with fptp elections, which they have in Italy. The three coalition parties, Brothers of Italy, Lega and Forza Italia agreed to back a single joint candidate in each constituency, whereas the centre and left parties did not do this and all had separate candidates. This has resulted in a resounding victory for the right wingers, despite only receiving 44% of the vote, as the other 56% were split on multiple separate candidates. In a proportional system they would not have won.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63029909
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Re: Old World Politics

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Per wrote: Tue Sep 27, 2022 1:15 am
Mëds wrote: Mon Sep 26, 2022 8:38 pm The liberal left governments, and their mainstream media lapdogs, are primarily responsible for what you are seeing right now on the political stage all over the place. They have pushed their woke agenda so hard that people finally have gotten fed up with it. I predict we are about to see the leftist side of the spectrum lose ground that they have "won" in their cause to advance their social agenda.....perhaps in some cases too much ground will be taken back. What we are seeing now is that the woke left (and that's not everyone on the left) are about to discover that the vast majority of people are capable of waking up and thinking objectively, and that things are not all about the individual, and that truth is not an internally defined thing in every case.

I hope it doesn't get too ugly.
The main concern in Italy is gay rights. Italy is in a bit of a financial crisis and are dependent on receiving money from the EU, so they probably will not challenge Brussels. Likewise, eventhough both Salvini (Lega) and Berlusconi (Forza Italia) are notorious Putin-huggers, Meloni has been vocal about supporting Ukraine in defending their rights as a sovereign nation within its recognised borders, so they probably will not create a breach in EU solidarity with Ukraine. So I do not hink there is any immediate threat to EU cohesion. But women's rights and gay rights in Italy could be threatened.

Since 1978 Italian women have had free right to abortion during the first 90 days of pregancy, and it can be allowed later than that if it is eg a life threatening situation, but then it is a decision by the doctor rather than the patient. Meloni and her party, however, oppose these rights. I assume it would be hard to roll back though. An earlier attempt, by referendum, was rejected by a resounding 68% of voters. But all in all her Brothers of Italy party is very much in favour of traditional gender roles and not so much in favour of equal rights.

Italy still has not passed laws allowing gay marriage, and LBTQ rights are not high on the agenda of the new right wing government. Meloni has been talking a lot about the gay lobby and is very dismissive of their struggle. There is a lot of fear that life will get harder and more restricted for gay people in Italy as a result of her victory.
Ummm? Their leader is a woman. So what do you mean by "traditional gender roles"? Honestly it sounds like a smoke, mirrors, and fear mongering when looking at it through the lens of they just elected their first ever woman PM.

As for the LGBTQ rights, they should NOT be high on the agenda of any government. In the US only 5.6% of the population identifies this way, their demands and wants should fall in line representatively. They should be entitled to all the same rights as every other citizen of the country, no more, no less. Their agenda should not be advanced in public education systems as it does not represent the 94.4% of people. The only education that is appropriate based upon their numbers is that it is not appropriate/acceptable for them to be persecuted. Otherwise treat them as you would any other human. They want their pronouns? Let them have their pronouns, but stop them short of crying bigot if someone makes a mistake.

How is it going to get harder for them? They won't be liked? People will be uncomfortable with them? That's too bad, but it's life. They apparently don't have to be OK with someone else's views, so why should it be different for them?

Anyways.....I digress, my entire point is that it's a small fraction of the population and therefore prioritizing special treatment should be proportional.
And of course there will be a crackdown on immigration. Salvini (leader of Lega) is btw currently under prosecution for when previously in government violating international laws of the sea by refusing vessels in need to dock in Italian ports.
Good for them. I wish we would do this (not the refusing vessels in need part). Wide open immigration never goes according to plan (see Canada for one, and I think your own Sweden for two).
These elections also show a problem with fptp elections, which they have in Italy. The three coalition parties, Brothers of Italy, Lega and Forza Italia agreed to back a single joint candidate in each constituency, whereas the centre and left parties did not do this and all had separate candidates. This has resulted in a resounding victory for the right wingers, despite only receiving 44% of the vote, as the other 56% were split on multiple separate candidates. In a proportional system they would not have won.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63029909
Are the candidates on the 56% side of the vote all aligned just different parties in name? Or would it be like here in Canada where you have a small majority split between the NDP and Liberals? Two parties that are quite different in their platforms and goals yet simply uniting to oppress the right wing party and it's supporters?
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