As Yanis Varoufakis says: our times are of Twin Authoritarianism – the Liberal Establishment on the one side and the Nationalist International on the other. Thomas Piketty (2020) refers to these as Brahmin Left and Merchant Right.
In this short post, I would like to provide an observation about the Nationalist International that sometimes is called alt-right. This movement can be recognized by nationalist policies, homophobia, “family values”, “taking one’s country back” (as Reagan, Trump, Brexit etc.), as well as ultra-rich donors hiding behind the scenes. What is interesting, is that this side often peddles to the views of the unprivileged people. The rhetoric is often brazen and direct. Among various nonsense, they talk about oligarchs controlling the government or media, mention failures of the system, they also identify the helplessness and hopelessness of the people and the systemic inability of the liberal establishment to improve the quality of life of most people. These are basically the things that many people in the context of deepening inequality so desperately want to hear. Alas, the nationalist international are not saviours as it stems from a very rich background and only represent the interests of the privileged.
Now, this post is no way a promotion of the right wingers, nor of the liberals, because it is true that they are incapable of properly addressing inequality issues – both liberals and nationalists are different sides of the same establishment coin. Nevertheless, it seems interesting to me, to listen to what the right-wingers sometimes say.
Christian Lüth
The first example, is the former press officer of the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party in Germany – Christian Lüth. Let’s see his statements from the documentary Rechts. Deutsch. Radikal, and reported in this Zeit article (from German):
The worse it is for Germany, the better it is for the AfD.
If everything went fine <…>, then the AfD would be at 3%. That’s not what we want. Therefore, we have to come up with a strategy: How bad can it be for Germany? And: How can we provoke it? It is so. <..> It’s difficult, very difficult.
It does seem so, that it would be in your interest, that more migrants came?
Christian Lüth (2020)
Lüth’s answer: “Yes. Because then it goes better for the AfD. Afterwards, we can shoot all of them. That is no problem. Or gassing them, however you want. It’s all the same to me!”
Now, we can more clearly see the schism between public declarations of hate for the immigrants and silent Realpolitik. The AfD and right-wing pundits (which are often obscenely rich from propaganda, dirty money, worker exploitation) need the immigrants for cheap labor, social unrest and scapegoating. The problems of society are not caused by immigrants but by systemic exploitation and undercutting of wages. The only way to fix this is to address socio-economic inequality, improve conditions for all workers, as well as ensuring a proper minimum wage in the immigrant’s countries of origin.
Roger Stone
The second example, is the infamous political consultant for the Republican Party in the US – Roger Stone. Some quotes from the movie Get me Roger Stone (2017) for closer inspection:
This is the elites of the Republican and Democratic party who have driven this country into the ditch versus Donald J. Trump and the rest of America.
I’m proud of the job I did at Black, Manafort & Stone [lobbying organisation], because I made a lot of money, and I can’t think of anything I did that was either illegal or immoral. You play by the rules as they’re written. When they change the rules, you change the way you play the game.
Donald Trump is riding a crest of voter anger over 30 years of failed policies. Voter anger explains the entire rise of Trump.
If you look at the crime rate in place like Chicago, it’s out of control, yes. Trump is the law and order candidate. He does speak to the silent majority.
He (Alex Jones) has a bully pulpit that allows him to reach millions of people and they are Trump’s people. They are outsiders, skeptical about government, skeptical about the bullshit government is always trying to peddle you. Sure, it’s a non-elitist crowd, but they’re Americans and they vote.
Get me Roger Stone (2017)
As mentioned in the introduction, we see loads of references to the failing establishment and the discontent of many people. Also, we see the tautological, but in the mainstream presented as cynical, admission that one acts according to one’s conditions, order of society and power imbalances – “rules of the game”.
The conclusion
These were just a few excerpts of their statements and we can find many more that are ridiculous and preposterous. Talking about these statements, they provide reflection on political and social conditions. There is no useless talk about choice, morality, ethics, no ill-founded thoughts that elections and “going to vote” may challenge those in power. Right-wingers know (as do marketing specialists), despite their public statements to the contrary (choice etc.), that people are influenced by their living conditions and by advertisements and act accordingly. If the system is failing us, right-wing, nationalist, fascist movements will inevitably spring up and gather support.
One may call these people racist, sexist, homophobic, fascist etc., but it would be missing the point. In this case let’s listen to what these people say – they know the system, they know that the system is not working for most and they know that the worse it gets, the better it is for them. The only way forward is to end the psychologisation of all the issues and to focus on the socio-economic conditions. It’s not racism/sexism/homophobia that causes the proliferation of hate and violence – it’s the gaping social/political/economic inequalities.
Radical behaviorist leftist 