Why has there been an uprise in right wing politics in the last 15 years?

Question

Historically people who would never have gotten into postions of power such as Trump and Johnson to name a couple but have done in recent times. Is this down to a simple changing of the times where society is more accepting of language that historically woudnt be tolerated as presedential matierial. Such as Donald Trump accusing Obama of not having a US passport, something he knew wasn't true when it came out of Trumps mouth but he felt the need to because in his worbed mind and a section of his followers would undermine the legitmatcy of Obamas Presidency.

WhiteSteve · Accepted Answer

I think social media has a lot to do with it, exchange of ideas or of information (or often misinformation) creates reaffirming echo chamber environments that embolden people in their beliefs, plus it’s online and largely anonymous, so hateful attitudes can be openly conveyed through media like memes…

https://www.youtube.com/embed/gc2fIeVsucM

And relevant to hateful attitudes, the last fifteen years you reference have also been arguably the biggest societal shift in most of our lifetimes, save for the older generations who were alive for the Civil Rights Movement. An era of broad acceptance is upon us. We’re trying to evolve into a more decent society of “do you”, “that’s all of your business and none of my own”, and “if you like it, I love it.” We aren’t judgmental of anyone but those who are judgmental; we aren’t intolerant of anything but intolerance. Always retaliatory, never instigatory. Live and let live, don’t be shitty about how anyone else goes about their lives. To think that anyone could have a problem with these basic principles of decency, I just have a hard time understanding and excusing that.

But unfortunately, certain factions of the right WOULD have a problem with that, and the more years that pass, the more obvious it becomes that they will be the ones on the wrong side of history in these social matters. But most people’s egos won’t permit them to reevaluate their beliefs from a more considerate angle, so in the face of increasing criticism, they’ll manufacture whatever reasoning they need to to try to justify their position as unquestionably noble or logical, when in reality it’s a much simpler reason of them just simply not liking a person, a group, an idea, or whatever. And now with social media and other internet-accessible right wing media, someone will devise a way to articulate one of these justifications semi-cogently, and everyone else sees it and parrots it, even though their brains could never think it as original thought.

And I think there’s a lot of validity to the concept of “white fragility.” Obviously not all right wingers are white, but I would seem the majority are, more homogenous than the left wing, at least. There’s all kinds of talk of race and the like, and many white people are simply unwilling to have honest and, frankly, uncomfortable conversations about these issues, and additionally are unwilling to do most of the listening, without getting defensive and taking it as a personal attack or accusation. They’ll fight it and kick and scream about how they aren’t racist, and the point is just flying over their heads while they’re simultaneously EXHIBITING the point. Point is, there’s a lot of resistance. The hard thing to do is check yourself and address your bullshit, but that’s heavy lifting. The light lift is “fuck that! I’m not wrong! I’m FINE! THEY’RE all wrong!”, and we all know most people do shit the easiest way. And to do that, you need support. Enter: the right wing on the internet. That’s where people will convince you that you, of course, aren’t an ignorant douchebag with no empathy. No, to the contrary: you’re one of the brave and noble stewards of the old school, and the old school is above reproach, because reasons🤦‍♂️😂

normalice · Accepted Answer

Right wing entities traditionally know their policies are unpopular - the poor generally don't want the government to take their money and give it to the rich, instead preferring it thenother way around - and so have been forced to explore other ways to gain power.

Under Reagan, I don't know if they knew it would work or were just trying a new thing, but they decided to focus on PR. Reagan was an actor, after all. They just wrote whatever script they needed him to say, and left it to him to say it with sincerity. I don't know how well they expected that to turn out but surely they noticed that it worked incredibly well. Reagan slashed the tax rate on the wealthy from 90% to 28%. Reagan eliminated the fairness doctrine which required media to report both sides of any opinion. Reagan tripled the deficit and gave all the money that was printed to the rich. Reagan added rocket fuel to the war on drugs and started locking people up en mass for victimless crime. Reagan effectively ended all funding for mental health natiowide.

Any one of these things would get most leaders frog marched to the gallows. Combined it's frankly bizarre there was only one assassination attempt. But not that bizarre because one thing Regan did do was make religious zealots feel like they were being paid attention to. And so an unholy union was forged: a tacit agreement that republicans turn all PR over to the worst most power hungry elements of Christianity so long as they just agreed to stay out of the way of the acceleration of money from the poor to the rich. And since that's most of what Christianity had been doing in the US for the last few centuries anyway, they had no moral objection.

So, in so many words, PR was fully explored. Since the fairness doctrine was vetoed, whole think tanks were funded by the rich to figure out how best to keep people from deciding they wanted to put an end to the rich taking all their money. And keeping us divided and fighting over bullshit was the obvious conclusion. The rich had funded the studies, then they funded the training (turning point, heritage, etc..), all that was left was to fund the media they needed to push the message. Turns out they only really needed to fund the startup of these entities, as they mostly paid for themselves with ad revenue. And so thousands of far right podcasts, meme makers, troll farms, journals, radio stations, cable news stations, and even local news stations bought up by central messaging entities (Sinclair) came to fruition. A hard right tilt is part of the media landscape, now. And there isn't really a lot we can do about it.

TrueConfection · Accepted Answer

Passport and birth certificate are not the same thing. Obama's own brother produced Barack Hussein Obama's foreign birth certificate.

Trump was a Democrat supporter and an independent. He ran on the Republican ticket because he knew voters hardly cast their votes for any of the other parties' candidates. Both democrats AND Republicans tried to stop him.

Aerissa_Jade · Accepted Answer

The pendulum swings, it went too far to the left and thus it is now society is trying to balance things out.

This is why people I know in their 40's and 50's say they use to be liberal, Democrats and now they are consider conservative right wingers but their political beliefs have not changed at all.

N192K001 · Answer

lol Where is "here" exactly?

But that doesn't matter, really. The "liberal word order" established at the end of World War Ⅱ is collapsing.
https://cup.columbia.edu/book/undoing-the-liberal-world-order/9780231202251
https://www.ice.cam.ac.uk/course/return-history-liberal-world-order-retreat
https://direct.mit.edu/isec/article/43/4/7/12221/Bound-to-Fail-The-Rise-and-Fall-of-the-Liberal
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/autocracy-could-destroy-democracy-russia-ukraine/629363/

The Euro-American Left has had its fun, rampaging across the globe and imposing its standards over the locals' until the rest of the Earth got fed-up with it. But, what's new? The rest of the world will do the same, until another opposing force rises and takes its place.

And Presidential foul language? Behold election attack-ads from 1800 (Thomas Jefferson vs John Adams), but in video-format!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y_zTN4BXvYI

The 2 were frenemies to the end! (Yes, they got historians drunk to discuss history!)

https://www.youtube.com/embed/l6Ove4_JsCM

History can tend toward a "good o' days" vibe. Sometimes right (in some aspects), but not always (hence, the need for improvements & reforms)!

Lliam · Answer

Because "the left" has driven them away. Democrats have become transparently evil and the "woke" crowd has broken with sanity.

I'll add that whatever Trump may have said about Obama pales in comparison to the left's incessant attempts to assassinate his character even now. They say horrendous things about the president and those who voted for him. It has become a common practice to tar anyone who doesn't support Democrats as a far right wing radical, white nationalist, racist, transphobic, misogynistic, insurgent, domestic terrorist, yada yada. It's ridiculous.

So the problem is, the Democratic party has become an enemy of the American people and must rely upon fear, hatred and divisiveness to attract votes.

I, and a lot of people I know, have 1960's and 70's liberal values and detest what modern liberals and Democrats have become. That doesn't mean that we have become right wing, conservative or Republican. That's just what Democrats call people who support free thinking, open mindedness, tolerance, liberty and freedom over rapacious neoliberalism and police state authoritarianism.

slatyb · Answer

I think a lot of it is due to the economic losses of the working class. It used to be possible to take a high school diploma and get a job manufacturing steel or cars or whatnot for a union wage sufficient to support a family. Those jobs are mostly gone due to automation and globalization. People are suffering, and they are easy marks for demagogues like Trump who promise easy solutions.

Chazmatazz269 · Answer

As either extreme drifts further from center, the mass of moderates tend to lean the opposite direction to compensate. It’s a perfectly natural reaction to shy away from fringe behaviors. The “minority” party gaining momentum from the center always seizes the opportunity to gain ground.
We often compare our two-party system to a pendulum that swings left and then back again to the right, to and fro possibly endlessly. I think it’s more like a skyscraper with a counterbalance. The extremists are the wind and geological forces that shift the tower to and fro, and the middle is the counterbalance that keeps it from toppling over. This is an important analogy because if either extreme gains too much momentum, the entire system WILL come crumbling down.

NewsReader · Answer

Policies and beliefs change within each political party over time. The world changes over time. Everything changes. Looks like more and more people disagree with left wing policies and other things so voters shifted their views to the right. Good for the country and the world. The rise of Trump for example was thanks to his harsh criticism of mainstream media, a boost in popularity from cnn (believe it or not), toughness on China, and he connected with the people as a person instead of just a politician. The left have moved further left which majority of Americans don't like. So voters shifted to the right.

BeMuse · Answer

There hasn't, you're just uneducated. To be a moderate in America is to be a Classical Liberal. That is the foundation of our country's principles. American conservatives are just a smidgen right of that. Democrats on the other hand are hard core communists. Being that you are an authoritarian extremist, American conservatism seems very distant from your views, but they are relatively moderate in an in line with American culture. You however are way off the side of the map with extremist anti-American positions.

MarkRet · Answer

It's the effects of right-wing media. They've been spewing lies and gaslighting for decades, repeating the same messages over and over, and now there's a large section of the population that blindly follows every word. When you try to fact-check this bullshit, and call them out on it, their followers will close their ears and yell 'Fake News! Fake News!'. If you go after the right-wing media on this, they'll claim they're not a news channel, but an 'entertainment' channel. There's also an element of meanness in their 'news'. They not only call their selected target wrong, but also make fun of them as well.

DaveJord · Answer

Well honestly this goes hand in hand with the rise of social media. You got so many people pushing their agenda's and distorting facts on the internet that people don't want to listen any more. Honestly they just don't want to hear in anymore, so as soon as someone says something triggers they embrace the swipe right or block them mentality.

I mean it happens all the time on here, you say something and they block you. And therefore they feel empowered in their own believes and they just don't want to hear it. They don't really want to have a discussion, they just want to hear what they want to hear or they don't want to hear it, because they have heard it all before. Healthy dialog in the public sphere doesn't exist any more.

RavVid · Answer

I think world wide, political discourse has degraded badly. In more halycon days It was more about putting forward ideas ideas and promoting them as beneficial for the whole country (which ever that might be).

Now it is more about denigrating opponents rather then criticizing policies. I have negative respect for playing the man rather than the ball which means I have negative respect for nearly all politicians.

Overall I would say the left is far more addicted to denigrating opponents and it is to a degree that I will respond to now with counter denigration. It all stems from Marx I believe because he used vilification very effectively to dispose of his political enemies in the communist party and was stock standard in Russia and China.

I can't say anything about the US specifically because I am not a citizen.

andreasderjuengere · Answer

Well... Barack Obama was born in Hawaii.

Historically, this group of islands was tricked into U. S. possession, where actually it is a nation of its own. Trump therefore indicated and admitted a land theft.

That isn't your question - I know. :)

I don't support 'right wing politics' - but for fairness: as long as we communicate our ideas in a civilized manner, I will be open to make arrangements with the other side, or to accept compromises.

''Far'' right is some kind of tribalism. Our instincts make us feel best within our OWN (restricted, and dominant if possible) group. If my -tribal- culture can't be successful with wits - I can always beat the shit out of everyone else.

Anonymous · Answer

As a guy who went from left to right, I don’t think that the left can understand us at all. You guys give too much credit to Trump, and you’re usually way off when you try to explain what you think the cause really is.

What you have to realise is that you have it backwards. Trump didn’t shift people to the right. Nothing he said convinced people to shift right. It was happening with or without him. All he did was say things that the people who supported him already agreed with. That’s all that politicians do to win votes.

The shift is happening because as the left continue to become more and more extreme, they push people to the right. That’s basically all there is to it.

Anonymous · Answer

Because the left has done everything in its power to take away our fundamental rights, including stomping on freedom of speech and the right to defend ones self. Additionally the antifa riots, and blm terrorism have made it so that the left is just disgusting.

Plus those of us that use to be liberal are more accepted by the right than the left..

Why has there been an uprise in right wing politics in the last 15 years?

LilyoftheLake · Answer

I think the increasing activity and extremism on the Right is a reaction to the increasing activity and extremism on the Left. Frankly, the Right doesn't seem to dislike the status quo, UNLESS they feel like the Left has changed it.

nachosaresexy · Answer

i'm not an expert on the topic but the internet is definitely a big part of it. I will give credit to these extremists for using da internetz to recruit and attract gullible/vulnerable types. They turn them into full on derp-derps, committed to the right wing mission of, uh, blaming anything bad that ever happened on people who aren't white.

vald9inches · Answer

If you would like i can send you a bunch of videos that sums up Americans politics pretty well but i would argue it was because of McCarthyism and that son of a bitch that made the US so polarized and paranoid and turned every American citizen into a spy against their neighbors and turned everyone against each other! Thats why the left does not exist anymore because of that sob and among other forces that wanted to destroy the left in the name of profit

I_Can_Help · Answer

The internet and cable "news" has spawned a generation of far-right weirdos. Now extremists can find each other online (like the Nazis here on gag) and form hate groups based on the lies they hear their cult leaders spew. These people generally have no real friends and are easily seduced by the words of a sweaty fatso with bad hair. That's really all there is to it.

CloudMassacre · Answer

Politics have been moving to the right for a very long time. The democrats and republicans are largely authoritarian right on the political spectrum. Even Bernie Sanders is fairly close to a centrist on the global political stage

888theGreat · Answer

Because people are tired of their freedom of speech be taken away and having less rights then gays, women, blacks, and Hispanics. Having their guns restricted. Being taxed rather than cut spending. Environmental bull shit. And seeing God cursed and removed from society. It is time for us to take our country and rights back even if that means civil war.

Anonymous · Answer

Because this is what Americans want to see. When Americans see a guy cutting another guy off in debates, they think he is a strong man. When Americans see a guy talking about women like they’re trash they see that guy as a dominant alpha male. Come on now you should know this he’s from New York. If you try to jump into an oncoming train in New York, the people will let you. Just recently a women was assaulted on the subway and no one did anything. This is how Americans act. They act like they like the blacks. They act like they like the Asians. But they really don’t. In fact they would be angry that these foreigners are stealing their jobs. They have this superior feeling to the rest of the world. Most of the world thinks of them as an embarrassment to humanity anyway and I’m pretty sure that even they know that as well. Anyway you get the point. If the people are trash, then you are highly likely to get trash candidates like Brandon and dump.

msc545 · Answer

This is a very complicated question with no easy answer. I think it mostly is due to the right wing, initially made up of poorly educated people living in rural areas, feeling that they were being left out and ignored by modern society, and it then metastasized when smarted, more educated people figured out they could take political advantage by catering to the right wing. Thus, we got Trump and silly organizations like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.

Anonymous · Answer

Women gotten to much power on this country.

And so have the LGBT. And the lazy are taking away from the hard-working.

That's why.

Even the broke men or average men would rather side with rich people screwing them over financially then live in a patriarchy.

maximumpower · Answer

Have you read what you posted?
Please tell me you have more going on upstairs than your posting indicates.
Obama has been out of office for 5 years. Trump has been out for over a year and a half.
PLEASE - for the love of God - find SOMETHING else upon which to fixate.
While you're at it, please get an education. Learn how to write and clearly formulate and convey a clear thought. Wouldn't hurt to read up a bit on WHY your claims have made it to the news in the first place.

Avicenna · Answer

There’s been a rise in WEF stooges in power in the West and Obama initiated the Democrats‘‘ targeting of political opponents using the power of the federal government. That’s what’s new in the past 15 years.

Anonymous · Answer

You sure that is even true. The above 3 clowns are all gone.

KatherineJ · Answer

Because politics are cyclical. If the left is in power, it fuels the right. And vice-versa. Meanwhile, those of us in the middle get screwed by both kinds of ideology.

Hispanic-Cool-Guy · Answer

One extreme triggers another extreme. The political left has gone extreme in their politics, so the political right has no choice but to go extreme to fight back for power and influence.

RealMarek · Answer

It’s called populism. It happens when an elite class hoards the vast majority of wealth to itself and treats the original population it rules over with contempt.

Anonymous · Answer

How do you define "right wing politics?" Conservatives aren't doing any better than they were twenty or forty years ago. George W. Bush got more support than Trump. And Reagan got more support than both of them. And they were definitely on the right politically.

Slartybartfast · Answer

Fox propaganda machine. Fear hate and appealing to their audiences bigotries and anti science mindset.

exitseven · Answer

Everyone knows that Obama is not a real citizen.  why else did he try to burn down America?

EnglishEuropean · Answer

It's a reaction to economic decline and increasing poverty and inequality. It's cyclical and it's been happening throughout history.

In other news the peasants are coming and they sharpened their pitchforks.

Anonymous · Answer

Trump never accused Obama of not having a US passport. If you're going to be a Russian troll, try harder.

driven159 · Answer

He says shit like that for the attention like the election if he didn't say it was stolen, he would not be getting any attention he would just be another old ex president

FunkyMonkee · Answer

Because the lefties have all become a raging bunch of psycho lunatics!

OddBeMe · Answer

Fox News. Simply theyve invigorated unhinged right wing media, made anti-intellectualism popular and primaries divisive.

Tamera952 · Answer

TrumpTard normalizing it

OnTheLevel · Answer

It's backlash against government overreach and politicians enriching themselves while in office.

MissingAWoman · Answer

You talk about the right, but what about the fuckwad, libtard, left-wing extremists that have popped up?

Guardian45 · Answer

Because Populists are running the world or should I say screwing it up!

Gangactivities911 · Answer

Because it’s either that or our society will collapse

Anonymous · Answer

We're tired of sitting back and living our lives while Washington screws it up for us.

Anonymous · Answer

I would agree with you. In my life time in the last 30 years. There has been both right-wing and left-wing groups trying to swaying the public.

FreyaRed · Answer

It's counter reaction of society.

Plinko · Answer

The pendulum swung too far left.

Agape93 · Answer

You can thank the tea party

Anonymous · Answer

Because of an over-reach from the Left.

crmoore · Answer

Because many left-wingers shifted far left.

TexasRed95 · Answer

Because of social media.

Why has there been an uprise in right wing politics in the last 15 years?

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