The Dangerous Nationalism of Europe's Left

[Peter1469]

The Dangerous Nationalism of Europe's Left (http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/essay-the-dangerous-nationalism-of-europe-s-left-a-1152319.html)


So few people understand that right versus left politics is over. It is nationalism versus globalism- and that means the current brand of elitist globalism. This article helps to show this.

The title doesn't need to say left. Nationalism and globalism transcend the L / R paradigm.


These leftist nationalists claim to be progressive and class conscious. They regard themselves as the champions of disenfranchised pensioners and unemployed Southern Europeans and wage their battle under the banner of democracy. But they cannot hide the fact that their answer to Europe's unresolved currency crisis, at its core, is the same answer given by Marine Le Pen and Geert Wilders. Like the Continent's leading right-wing populists, they believe Europe's future lies in its past, in borders and capital controls along with the reintroduction of the deutsche mark, the French franc and the Spanish peseta -- as if all this could even out the Continent's economic conflicts like some kind of spa treatment.




Read the entire article in light of my preface.

[spunkloaf]

I don't really buy this "right is the new left." It sounds like a bait-and-switch propaganda story to me.

Consider the audience. Us...in a different part of the world. We're supposed to take this at face value, we can't immerse ourselves into their world and see it for ourselves.

I think it's good for a single perspective.

But we have had our own left/right switching happening in America. A republican president freed the slaves in the democratic south. But, which side does the confederate flag and the KKK support today? The right.

It's all so confusing. I wish people would just stop playing games, and stop with their paranoia. Paranoia gives us dumb presidents, Alex Jones and pizzagate.

[Peter1469]

You don't particularly seem to understand reality. Slaves?

Cease the crazy talk.

The real debate today is over globalism v. nationalism. Do people want to subordinate themselves to efforts to uplift the developing world, or do they want their nation to protect its citizens?

Thank you for not repeating that nonsense above.


I don't really buy this "right is the new left." It sounds like a bait-and-switch propaganda story to me.

Consider the audience. Us...in a different part of the world. We're supposed to take this at face value, we can't immerse ourselves into their world and see it for ourselves.

I think it's good for a single perspective.

But we have had our own left/right switching happening in America. A republican president freed the slaves in the democratic south. But, which side does the confederate flag and the KKK support today? The right.

It's all so confusing. I wish people would just stop playing games, and stop with their paranoia. Paranoia gives us dumb presidents, Alex Jones and pizzagate.

[Mister D]

Like some of our other progressives, Spunkloaf fears the increasing obsolescence of the left/right paradigm is some kind of right wing rhetorical strategy.

[Peter1469]

Like some of our other progressives, Spunkloaf fears the increasing obsolescence of the left/right paradigm is some kind of right wing rhetorical strategy.

Most have not caught onto the shift.

It pains me as a fiscal conservative.

[Mister D]

Most have not caught onto the shift.

It pains me as a fiscal conservative.
I get it with the old men but I'm surprised a younger man like Spunkloaf is so resistant to this reality.

I never thought the distinction between fiscal conservatism and social conservatism had any validity. At best, it's the ideology of east coast snobs who are as contemptuous of America as their progressive acquaintances.

[Peter1469]

I get it with the old men but I'm surprised a younger man like Spunkloaf is so resistant to this reality.

I never thought the distinction between fiscal conservatism and social conservatism had any validity. At best, it's the ideology of east coast snobs who are as contemptuous of America as their progressive acquaintances.


I think most young people get the shift. Spunk is stuck. Pun intended.

The hate inside him stains his posts. And likely his life.

[Mister D]

I think most young people get the shift. Spunk is stuck. Pun intended.

The hate inside him stains his posts. And likely his life.
Not sure what is wrong this kid lately. Not making a good impression.

[Peter1469]

Not sure what is wrong this kid lately. Not making a good impression.

Understood.

[Mister D]

Anyway, it's quite clear that at the very least we will have to redefine what the terms right and left refer to. That shouldn't be a difficult task because after all right and left have always been contextual and have never referred to anything universal.

[Peter1469]

Anyway, it's quite clear that at the very least we will have to redefine what the terms right and left refer to. That shouldn't be a difficult task because after all right and left have always been contextual and have never referred to anything universal.

good luck with that

[Mister D]

good luck with that
Some of us do seem deeply committed to the old paradigm but it's a fact that this paradigm is being questioned by many intellectuals. It's not a libertarian scheme. Our diehards will have to accommodate themselves to it sooner or later.


BTW, one of the most amusing sights over the last few years has been the inability of progressives to wrap their minds around libertarianism.