Xenophobia becomes dangerous new normal in world politics

[sufrommich]

The United Kingdom is not the only country that has politicians who veer into nationalism, isolationism and fury.

It appears xenophobia is becoming the new normal in world politics. From Europe to the United States, many politicians are acting the same way.

Take Germany. The far-right AfD (Alternative For Germany) is the rising political power in the country.

The party was founded as a marginal political movement but then became one of the three biggest parties in Germany in just three years. The AfD in March won major local elections in three states in the country......



More at link.....

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/article85633202.html#storylink=cpy

[sendero]

1. Sure..

.... this all happened in a vacuum and it not the results of bad decision made by "leaders".

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. That people would expect the citizens of a country to just accept millions of immigrants thrust upon them by people totally insulated from the consequences..... who could see that going wrong?

[PatrickforO]

3. What is the root cause of the refugee problem but the profiteering of a neoconservative

military industrial complex gone mad for profits?

Our own war policies created this refugee problem and now the very peoples these wars were supposed to protect are paying for this evil by being forced to accept refugees that hate us from countries we ourselves have destroyed with our shitty, immoral, greed-head policies.

[sendero]

7. I do..

... agree with you. As usual, the leaders fuck up and the rank and file are supposed to pick up the tab.

BTW, HRC has plenty to answer for regarding this situation.

[sufrommich]

9. The people in the UK who voted to leave come from

areas least affected by minority immigration. I don't care how you try to twist this into a force of good,it's not. Britain's problems were caused by their conservative government,not immigrants.This is a clear march to the right by people who will embrace right wing economics on the promise of a return to a whiter UK.

[Person 2713]

12. +1

[Igel]

13. It doesn't follow that this is relevant, however.

In the US, some of the least racist areas are those that are the least unmixed and those who are the most mixed.

Often the most racist populations are those with a fairly low but still significant population. This is the kind of area in which social trust is in freefall and is felt to be in freefall, in which the majority population is still accommodating the more recent arrivals to the neighborhood, in which those who are going to flee for the safety of being around those who look and act like them haven't yet up and left, in which the minority population isn't yet numerous enough to act as a kind of social police and in which many of the majority population members don't have close contact with minority members.

In other words, one possible prediction is that many of those areas least affected (but still possibly significantly affected) are those most likely to vote culture and ethnicity, the reverse of your claim.

Both seem like reasonable possibilities. I have no grounds for picking one over the other except the claim I want to be true, but I find that to be specious "reasoning."

[PatrickforO]

2. We have/had a real chance to bring the world together. What hurt that chance?

1. Religion
2. War
3. Capitalism
4. Corruption

Could these four things be the fabled 'four horsemen of the apocalypse?'

I wonder, because the Brexit represents the other tendency - to be ruled by fear of outsiders and to retreat into small tribal societies.

Hey, OUR war god is more powerful than YOUR war god!!!
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[Johnny2X2X]

4. A dark day

This is truly a dark day in human history. Xenophobia and tribalism are replacing openness and freedom. Humanity has been down this road before and it's a tragic finish. The world has come so far since WWII, I fear we are going back to the conditions that lead to conflicts.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

8. I would think openness and freedom would include respecting self-determination.

[cherokeeprogressive]

11. News for ya bruh... Xenophobia and tribalism have been here since the beginning of time.

Tribalism is hard-wired into the Human Condition.

[davidn3600]

5. This is what happens when leaders dont lead and make bad decisions

The simple reality is that the EU has handled the migrant crisis terribly.

That's just the truth. That situation is a complete mess. And it seems the only solution offered by the EU is to accuse people of being racist. That's not going to work.

[FLPanhandle]

6. +1

[cherokeeprogressive]

10. You mean it had stopped being the OLD normal?

[Igel]

14. What you see is all there is.

A lot of people don't notice tribalism when it's their tribalism or tribalism they like.

That a lot of people also think in terms of surface symbols without regard to referents allows them to damn "tribalism" and "protectionism" but hold "indigenous movements" in high regard. If Latvians protect their language, it's bad; if First People's do the same things in protecting their language, it's good. Preserving Sorbian from extinction isn't something most people even heard of. Preserving a West African language variety from extinction in the West is a good thing, even if it's under no threat in West Africa. The in both distinction is purely tribal in a lot of ways, goes to core traits of tribal identities, and is very often at the same time justified by superficial formalisms.

Yeah, the DU spell checker doesn't like Sorbian, high or low.

[Sunlei]

15. Humanity will never change for the better

[Initech]

16. Which I believe we can blame most of on our never ending wars in the middle east.

Thanks military industrial complex!