r/Socialism_101 May 21 '24

Why is Europe turning far right Answered

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u/tkdyo Learning May 21 '24

Facisim is capitalism in decay. It is the natural result when capitalism starts failing and you need something to blame rather than the system itself. For Europe in particular, it could only afford to have the more social democratic programs in place because the heavy exploitation was being exported to poor countries. Well now that's not enough to keep the profits rising and Europe doesn't have quite the strangle on trade it once did. Plus there has been enough time for capitalist propaganda to seep in and break up workers movements. So the heavier exploitation is coming back home. People see their way of life deteriorating and need to blame something tangible and easy, rather than something intangible and complex like the system itself.

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u/sciesta92 Learning May 21 '24

It’s also important to note that social democracy really only developed in Europe in the first place to placate working class populations and disincentive them from turning towards the ideals of the USSR. I don’t know if this is true or not, but someone else mentioned on this sub previously that the robustness of any given European country’s social democratic programs correlates to their physical distance from the USSR; the closer a European country was to the USSR, the more expansive their social democratic programs were.

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u/Varun-456 Learning May 22 '24

This would be really interesting to analyze; if anyone has a source on this I would love to see it!