Yeah, it's happening all over western liberal democracies. Inflation is going crazy and wealth inequalities are growing at an alarming rate. Because of that, people in power are afraid of a popular uprising, and they would rather see fascists rise to power and protect capitalism, than an economical shift to the left and lose some of their wealth.

It happened many times before. The more commonly known examples being:

Prominent industrialists and agricultural landowners providing financial support to Mussolini's party because they feared the rise of socialism, and saw in him a means to counter it.
German industrialists who were fearful of the rise of the Communist Party and provided financial support to the Nazi party.
Spanish landowners and businessmen who were alarmed by the social and economic reforms of the Second Spanish Republic and supported Franco's rise to power.

History tends to repeat itself.

[–] thoro@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago

Scratch a liberal...

[–] Candelestine@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

To add to this, it would simply be remiss for any actual rival of the west to not attempt to stir their democracies against them.

It's a fundamental weakness that only representative governments have, and authoritarians would simply be stupid not to target it. It's very inexpensive to operate in the modern information space.

I mean, we got all these checks and balances in the first place because our systems are fundamentally very vulnerable. If you'd like a story on a less-secure system, look into the fall of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

I mean, in the craziest of crazy scenarios, we could wind up with civil wars. Wouldn't there be some folks out there that'd just love to see that? You think they can't make bots, produce content, hire cheap labor?

[–] Pili@lemmygrad.ml 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh yes, voter manipulation is very concerning. Even the simple fact that foreign powers can legally finance a candidate for another country's presidential election is absolutely crazy to me.

But I think there is something even worse than that:

When participation is so low that barely 50% of electors cast a vote, with one category of people (the elderly) being massively over-represented.
When there is no possible recourse if the majority of electors isn't satisfied with their options, and blank ballots aren't even accounted for.
When the main platforms where campaigning happens are all owned by and handful of billionaires, who can choose to present in a good light the candidates that will be the most favorable to them, and do the opposite for others.
When political campaigns are funded privately (and as I said, sometimes even by authoritarian foreign powers), those who favor billionaires being again at a massive advantage.

The game is so strongly rigged, I'm surprised that the general population still widely considers us democracies. Starting by reforming our electoral systems would do a lot of good and would be a lot simpler than trying to stop social media bots in my opinion, even though we should also tackle that issue.

[–] Candelestine@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Main problem is election reform would permanently destroy one of our political parties in its current state, and they are fully aware of this. They will burn our country down with us inside before they let it go, so it is wise to proceed with caution.

I don't think the rest of the world wants to see not Russia's nuclear arsenal dispersed, but ours.

Fighting a foreign power, however, rings straight to a huge strength of my country at least, the good ole US--our love of righteousness, competition and victory. This leaves a gap in their strategy, where they intended to inflame tribalism, but that can be turned definitively against them at the drop of a hat.