Europe’s Far-Right Revival Isn’t Nazism
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Ian Buruma, Los Angeles Times, October 3, 2008
Two far-right parties, the Austrian Freedom Party and the Movement for Austria’s Future, managed to win 29% of the vote in Sunday’s general elections in Austria. This is double what they got in the elections of 2006.
Both parties share the same attitudes toward immigrants, especially Muslims, and the European Union: a mixture of fear and loathing. Because the leaders of the two parties, Heinz-Christian Strache and Jorg Haider, can’t stand each other, there is little chance of a far-right coalition actually taking power. {snip}
{snip}
Yet to see the rise of the Austrian right as a revival of Nazism would be a mistake. For one thing, neither party is advocating violence, even if some of their rhetoric might inspire it. For another, it seems to me that voters backing these far-right parties may be motivated less by ideology than by anxieties and resentments that are felt in many European countries, including ones with no Nazi tradition, such as the Netherlands and Denmark.
In Denmark, the hard-right Danish People’s Party is the third-largest party in the country, with 25 parliamentary seats. Dutch populists such as Rita Verdonk, or Geert Wilders, who is driven by a paranoid fear of “Islamization,” are putting the traditional political elites—a combination of liberals, social democrats and Christian democrats—under severe pressure.
And this is precisely the point. The biggest resentment among supporters of the right-wing parties in Europe these days is reserved not so much for immigrants as for political elites that, in the opinion of many, have been governing for too long in cozy coalitions, which appear to exist chiefly to protect vested interests. In Austria, even liberals admit that an endless succession of social democrat and Christian democrat governments has clogged the arteries of the political system. {snip}
{snip}
All this is linked to resentment about immigrants. When the offspring of workers from countries such as Turkey and Morocco in the 1960s began to form large Muslim minorities in European cities, it caused tensions in working-class neighborhoods. Complaints about crime and unfamiliar customs were often dismissed by the liberal elites as racism. People simply had to learn to be tolerant.
This advice was not necessarily wrong. Tolerance, European unity, distrust of nationalism and vigilance against racism are all laudable goals. But promoting these aims without discussion, much less criticism, has resulted in a backlash. When the Dutch, the French and the Irish voted against the European Constitution, they were expressing their distrust of the political elites. And populists who promise to restore national sovereignty by rejecting “Europe,” fighting “Islamization” and kicking out the immigrants are also exploiting this distrust.
{snip} But the new populism is not yet undemocratic or even anti-democratic. The phrase most often heard in Austria among those who support the right-wing parties is “fresh air.” People say they voted for Haider or Strache to break the stranglehold of the ruling parties.
This is not an illegitimate motivation. And there’s certainly a case to be made that if people are anxious about their national identities, the sovereignty of their governments or the demographic and social complexion of their societies, such fears are best heard in the political arena. {snip}
{snip}
(Posted on October 10, 2008)
Comments
This article could very well describe the middle white class in the US. “A breath of fresh air” is exactly what we need, too. We have a stagnant two-party system which cannot think outside of a rigidly imposed set of ideological constraints enforced by a media class that cracks the whip on any who go astray. It is sucking the life out of our nation and strangling its spirit.
Posted by Xenophon at 7:01 PM on October 10
Why do such top-lofty writers always airily dismiss feelings of fear and distrust on the part of those who feel threatened — assuming those people are White, that is — as “xenophobia” and “racism”? If any people feel genuine discomfort and danger at seeing tens of thousands of people who differ from them and who they, personally, never invited, come flocking into their country, then that fear and discomfort are legitimate feelings, and should be treated as such, not treated as if they were symptoms of leprosy which require quarantining.
When people don’t like what they see their country turning into — when they see it becoming, not the country they grew up in and loved, but something alien, threatening and unpleasant — they have every right to speak out about those concerns, to elect representatives who share those concerns, and NOT to be treated as if they are the reincarnation of Adolf Hitler.
Posted by Wayne Engle at 8:21 PM on October 10
“Dutch populists such as Rita Verdonk, or Geert Wilders, who is driven by a paranoid fear of “Islamization,” are putting the traditional political elites—a combination of liberals, social democrats and Christian democrats—under severe pressure.”
This is not a “paranoid” fear of “islamization.” If things continue in these countries, they could have muslim majorities. Then these countries would end up under muslim rule. It’s scary and very real.
Posted by at 8:46 PM on October 10
Geert Wilders, who is driven by a paranoid fear of “Islamization,”
—————-
Well, when you have muslim nutcases killing people like Theo Van Gogh right in the streets of Europe I would say the “paranoia” is justified. But, this article is right in the sense that it is the white liberal/leftwing political elites that are the real enemy. Get rid of them and you rid of the other problems they have allowed to fester in these what were once “white societies”.
Posted by RHG at 9:40 PM on October 10
We had something like this with Pat Buchanan and, perhaps, with Ron Paul’s recent campaign. The thing is,with the two-party system in the USA it is difficult to impossible for third parties to get anywhere. This is abetted by the media which collaborates with the two-party system to exclude challengers.
The article has a real point, though, that liberalism is the establishment party in the West, having become an elite which does not rule in the interest of the people.
Posted by Californian at 10:04 PM on October 10
“This article could very well describe the middle white class in the US. “A breath of fresh air” is exactly what we need, too. We have a stagnant two-party system which cannot think outside of a rigidly imposed set of ideological constraints enforced by a media class that cracks the whip on any who go astray. It is sucking the life out of our nation and strangling its spirit.”
This is so true. There is very little political choice here anymore. The USA is also no longer a democracy. We just pretend to be one. In truth, the USA is run by elite politicians and special interest groups and lobbyists who have these politicians in their pockets. It’s also run corporations and ethnic voting groups. The average american has little say. The Founding Fathers would be turning over in their graves if they saw the way things are today.
Posted by Jane at 10:51 PM on October 10
“it seems to me that voters backing these far-right parties may be motivated less by ideology than by anxieties and resentments that are felt in many European countries”
Heaven forbid these people find a political, social or even religious ideology. Anything but ideology… outside the current one of anti-racism and hating everything that is white, that is.
Posted by at 11:41 PM on October 10
“Dutch populists such as Rita Verdonk, or Geert Wilders, who is driven by a paranoid fear of “Islamization,” are putting the traditional political elites—a combination of liberals, social democrats and Christian democrats—under severe pressure.”
It is not paranoia but legitimate fear and a struggle for survival because the political elite liberals, social democrats and Christian democrats are pushing the Marxist agenda and destroying everything that stands in their way!
Posted by Lisette at 11:53 PM on October 10
> Why do such top-lofty writers always airily dismiss feelings of
> fear and distrust on the part of those who feel threatened —
> assuming those people are White, that is — as “xenophobia” and
> “racism”?
The media loves loaded words because to them it’s all about sensationalism because sensationalism sells newspapers. They don’t care who they trample over with their words, they just want to keep their jobs.
Posted by A. Windaus at 12:27 AM on October 11
If all these invaders were devout Christians it wouldn’t make me feel any better about their presence in(formerly)white nations. I don’t give a damn what they believe in. Blacks and Hispanics in America overwhelmingly self-identify as Christian…it doesn’t make me want them around any more than if they were Muslim, Hindu or what have you! Let’s not get caught up in this religious business - non-whites are the problem, not what mythical skyman they worship.
Posted by HH at 2:22 AM on October 11
Good heavens! I’m not big on conspiracies and such things, but this is either the tragic coincidence of the decade…or something else entirely…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7664846.stm
Posted by HH at 6:16 AM on October 11
Breaking News:
Austria’s Right-Wing Leader, Haider, just died in a car accident today (Saturday). I then read where this may unite the two bickering right-wing factions there, which would be a positive development out of this tragedy.
Posted by at 9:56 AM on October 11
The term ‘far-right’ is trotted out in reflex by the Left-Liberal consensus whenever an electorate votes for its own survival.
Here in Britain, on the other hand, nobody talks of the ‘far-left’, even though we are ruled by a corrupt cabal of Marxists and Trotsky-ites.
Posted by Robert Sharpe at 10:03 AM on October 11
Yes, Joerg Haider has been killed in a car accident the moment the ‘far right’ was gaining momentum.
Posted by sbuffalonative at 9:37 PM on October 11
Here in Britain, […] we are ruled by a corrupt cabal of Marxists and Trotsky-ites.
Posted by Robert Sharpe at 10:03 AM on October 11
It begins to look more and more like this here in the U.S. Could that be that some immigrants cary with themselves this carcinogenic pathogen wherever they go? Trotsky, for one, ended up in Mexico. It’s something definitely to think about.
Posted by A Reader at 12:01 AM on October 12
Here we see Mr. Buruma defending the old leftist institutionalisms within the framework of their artificial social constructs but making a feeble effort to be inclusive. True to his learned biases, he denigrates rational nativism as an insidious canard. That’s leftist jargon for “he let a smidgen of truth slip by despite himself”.
Posted by jewamongyou at 8:08 AM on October 12
Good heavens! I’m not big on conspiracies and such things, but this is either the tragic coincidence of the decade…or something else entirely…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7664846.stm
That’s how they do it in Europe….make things look like an accident….in the Netherlands the same thing happened to Martin van Traa who spilled the beans on the drug-trafficking of the left-wing cabal. Because they couldn’t stop Pim Fortuyn with these tricks they used bullets.
Posted by Lisette at 9:43 AM on October 12
While I certainly did not wish such a horrible tragedy on Joerg Haider, the fact is that he did everything possible to make life uncomfortable for us immigrants.
Some people were beginning to yell at us on the street, follow behind us closely if we went into a cafe, bakery or other public place and make nasty xenophobic comments. I actually had a chinese friend who was almost ran off the road by a hostile native.
Hopefuully his death will result in the demise of the far right party in europe.
Posted by African Immigrant at 3:23 PM on October 12
The whole problem with Americans is that they
disdain the idea of conspiracy. And why? What is their reasoning
for this attitude? Oh, well they don’t want to be a laughinstock.
And why would this make them a laughingstock? Because the media
has conditioned people to disbelieve in conspiracies and to in
fact laugh at them. Laughter is a very potent form of condition-
ing and social control. And one last question: who owns the media? Are there thousands of independent newspapers as there
once was? Or are there in reality, just a few chains owned by
billionaires of a specific ethnic group?
People who don’t believe in conspiracy are ridiculous-as
is evident from what’s going on lately. Who wins if McCain wins,
Goldman-Sachs. Who wins if Obama wins, Godman-Sachs. Who is the
acting CEO of America, Godman-Sachs. People, come on. Conspiracy
is the very nature of life. That’s why Franklin said that vigi-
lance is the price of liberty. Read. The Founding Fathers all
believed in Conspiracy-having been Conspirators themselves. And
also they had a great fear of the French Conspirators and the
Central Banking/Anglophile Conspirators. The latter Conspiracy
has now completely triumphed while we slept. Better generations
than our’s fought them back. Thus Jefferson’s prophecy is fufilled: we shall become slaves in the land that our ancestors
conquered.
Posted by Freyr at 4:41 PM on October 12
Here in the USA, for decades the far-left was saying that gun-owners who feared the government taking away their firearms, were paranoid - then, a Bantu in New Orleans tried to disarm the citizens of that city, during an emergency.
Who’s paranoid now?
P.S. - Since when is distrust of nationalism a laudable goal?
Posted by Soprano Fan at 5:01 PM on October 12
There is the historical Nazism, rooted in a certain culture and nation, then there are the words Nazism, Nazi, etc. that are used as a part of the psychological arsenal of “trigger words”, that liberals mostly, and others use to try and win arguments with. These words are so effective simple because people have been brainwashed into believing that if you are tainted with them you will pay heavy consequences. All of this is really very evil and proves the power of the Main Stream Media and why there cannot be enough alternatives to the MSM sources, such as the internet,for people to access. In so many instances where people NEED CHANGE, the power of these words literally have the ability to stop cold, any change for the better.
Posted by Bobby at 7:21 PM on October 12
Joerg Haider has been killed in a car “accident”, and the reason I put quoutes around the word “accident” is it made me remember what a certain politician said concerning politics, that, “In politics, there are no coincidences or “accidents”.
Posted by Bobby at 7:24 PM on October 12
Hopefuully his death will result in the demise of the far right party in europe.
Posted by African Immigrant at 3:23 PM on October 12
The assassination of Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh got the electorate in the Netherlands out of the twisted multicultural coma and I think the same thing is going to happen in Austria….the radical left-wing socialist cabal is being exposed for what they really are…Marxist oppressors…their house of cards is crumbling one step at the time. The truth is catching up with the lies and the liars pants are on fire.
RIP Joerg Haider
Posted by Lisette at 10:31 PM on October 12
African Immigrant whilst I would not condone violence against anyone I can understand the frustrations of the Austrian people. They have a right to preserve their culture and their national identity and if the liberal elites transform their societies without the consent of the native people then those people will do what they can to defend their ancestral homelands and way of life.Why are you surprised by this?
Posted by Alfred the Great at 4:08 AM on October 13
The left actually shot themselves in the foot by killing Haider, (if he was killed). Now the two competing far right parties will merge into one, ensuring them a place in government and more power.
Posted by at 6:47 AM on October 13
“Neonaziism” is simply a code-word by the liberals with which to brand anyone not espousing the liberals’ cherished beliefs. To the rest of us, the beliefs shared by these two parties is simple common sense. Based on the unalterable reality White Christian Europeans and Muslims simply cannot be blended anymore than oil and water.
Posted by Fed Up at 7:36 AM on October 13
I’m not one to jump quickly at every conspiracy theory that comes along. And generally, I try to maintain a healthy skepticism.
But I don’t automatically rule anything out either.
In this case, one cannot help but note the extremely interesting fact that in each case where a “far right extremist” (to borrow the media’s terminology) arises and shows any sign of having some success (only successful ones, please note), he is suddenly eliminated from the scene — it’s been one of them after another — although in each case the causes of their deaths came about in very different ways. It’s hard to see any pattern.
Nonetheless, the final result in ALL cases is exactly the same: they are all dead and out of the way.
Posted by ghw at 10:20 AM on October 13
Is it “paranoid” to ask questions or is it paranoid to refuse to answer them except with smears?
Posted by Simmons at 4:25 PM on October 13
If you don’t believe that there is a conspiracy with these elections and this banking/mortgage/market disaster, I would advise you to immediately find yourself a tinfoil hat.
Posted by at 7:01 PM on October 13
“The left actually shot themselves in the foot by killing Haider, (if he was killed). Now the two competing far right parties will merge into one, ensuring them a place in government and more power.”
If he was killed it’s just as plausible it was done by the right for the same result.
Posted by at 7:51 PM on October 13
As in Europe, name-calling has become POLITICS in America. Eventually, anyone who evolves too prominently in the public mind, and opposes socialist urges in politics or socialist propaganda in the news media, is inevitably slandered as a “racist,” or a “nazi.”
The left have the sole advantage in this behavior, since fairness, decency and truth mean absolutely nothing to them.
Posted by Gary at 3:54 PM on October 14
Bobby said:
“…the words Nazism, Nazi, etc. that are used as a part of the psychological arsenal of “trigger words”, that liberals mostly, and others use to try and win arguments with. These words are so effective simple because people have been brainwashed into believing that if you are tainted with them you will pay heavy consequences”.
Exactly Bobby, and the worst thing about this disgusting and very successful method of intimidating Conservative people is that it has been used to conceal the close ideological relationship between todays Socialists and Hitler’s National Socialists. The “Right Wing” of politics has and never had anything to do with Conservatism, its a smear to shut us up. To distinguish the ideology of his former ally Hitler from his own, Stalin labelled any and all opposition to his brand of International Socialism as “Right Wing” and consequently the label stuck with the losing National Socialists. Hitler was a Leftist.
Arc.
Posted by Arcadian at 8:42 PM on October 14
“the words Nazism, Nazi, etc. that are used as a part of the psychological arsenal of “trigger words”, that liberals mostly, and others use to try and win arguments with.”
These are what people who oppose multiculturalism, mass immigration, or who dare to criticize people of color are called
-racist
-nazi
-bigot
-xenophobe
-narrow-minded
-mean-spirited
-ignorant
-redneck
-cracker
-white trash or just trash
-anti-immigrant
-anti-foreigner
-hysterical
-hatermonger
-right-wing extremist
-hater
etc.etc.etc.
Did I leave anything out?? Of course these buzz words are just used to win an argument and instantly shut people up. After all, nobody wants to be thought of as a nazi, hatemonger or extremist.
Posted by at 2:56 AM on October 15
First, I’d like to thank my white brothers and sisters for their intelligent comments. What is race but extended family?
Second, Americans could learn many things from the far-right parties in Europe.
———
Motto of white patriots everywhere: gens alba conservanda est (the white race must be preserved)
Posted by William Davies at 12:19 AM on October 16
It would help avoid the label of “Nazi” if European pro-white and nationalist leaders would avoid making common cause with Muslims for obviously anti-Semitic reasons.
Joerg Haider was good friends with Quaddafi and Saddam Hussein.
Posted by Irish at 1:55 AM on October 17
It would help avoid the label of “Nazi” if European pro-white and nationalist leaders would avoid making common cause with Muslims for obviously anti-Semitic reasons.
———————————————
Anyone who’s pro-white is going to get that label NO MATTER WHAT.
I have been looking at some of the videos were his death is being CELEBRATED (by the left). The comments from these hate-filled Marxists are unbelievable. They wish he died in slower agony. They wish he took his whole family with him. And more that’s unprintable here.
Posted by at 3:33 PM on October 17
“The comments from these hate-filled Marxists are unbelievable.”
If you take a pro-white stance and dare to speak out for your people, that’s what you’re going to get. Sadly, it goes with the package.
Posted by at 2:10 PM on October 19