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The Wrong Side Of History.
You've probably seen this by now, but just in case, the following video - it's from last year, but it started making the rounds again this week - shows League leader Matteo Salvini explicitly calling for a “mass cleansing” of migrants Italy.
If you're not fluent in "racist", here's what he said there:
We need a mass cleansing, street by street, piazza by piazza, neighbourhood by neighbourhood. We need to be tough because there are entire parts of our cities, en
Before immigration, there was no America. Without immigration, there will be no America.
It’s not like this conversation about truth and subjectivity hasn’t been had on a national level before. That’s not the problem.
The problem is that we are being asked to draw conclusions in order to evidence national loyalty (e.g., American democracy is dead so long as Trump is president), and we’re avoiding the necessary work to identify and fix the nation’s problems (e.g., how do I trade this chaotic mess in the market and make lots of money?).
The market and financialization are once again blinding us.
This is a good piece and it’s nice to see white hot from White. I think the populists/racists are winning because of an absence of leadership from their opposites. It’s back to “edukashun, edukashun, edukashun” to get people to stop being afraid of what is happening, and that’s not happening.
A few decades ago in Germany, while I was cycling around, the government put out a series of posters as part of a campaign of tolerance. It was really good! The campaign said that if you want respect, you’ve got to respect sort of style. Last northern summer – I live in NZ – I cycled around Germany and other northern European countries again and there was no campaign like that, but it was needed, not because there was a lot of trouble – there wasn’t – but because the racists were winning, capitalising on fear that was unnecessary.
Anyway thanks for standing up. It’s genuinely refreshing.
I’m not going to rebut this nonsense on a point-by-point basis, because – quite rightly – nobody gives a stuff what I think. What I will say is this: when you write about finance and macro, you’re clearly astute and well-informed. When you write about US domestic politics you’re clearly opinionated – but hey, it’s your blog, your country, and you’re on the spot. When you write about Europe your ignorance shows. As always, you’re entitled to your opinions, but if they are to be based on meaningful insight I suggest you come over and live for a while in today’s European reality rather than mindlessly throwing words such as ‘racism’, ‘xenophobia’, ‘fascism’, and ‘nationalism’ at complex phenomena you clearly don’t understand on anything other than the most superficial level.
As for Mr. Evans’ comment, I was in Auckland recently – a place I’ve known well since the 1970s – and the racism amongst some strands of the pakeha population in response to the last decade’s immigration influx was palpable. I would suggest that when he’s finished offering advice on how to manage Europe he might want to focus closer to home.
So what? You have a right to an opinion. So do I.
During the recent German election, I was in Saxony. The AfD party got 25 per cent of the vote in this state. I stayed in Dresden for a month after and have German friends and acquaintances of various political stripes. I think I might know a few things about what is going on there. Are you sure you know what you’re talking about?
As far as New Zealand goes, yes, there is a problem with racism here – as there is in probably every country on this Earth. I do my bit, and have done for some considerable period of time. Do you, wherever you are? . .whew!
As for Error’s erroneous comment here….
I’m a trained political scientist. As in: I paid tens of thousands of dollars for political science degrees from large universities. So yeah, I do indeed have an academic leg to stand on here.
There is nothing “mindless” about my analysis. It’s based on years of formal study under the supervision of PhDs.
If you can say the same thing about your political analysis that’s great, but somehow, I doubt you can.
I have to disagree with you on Europe’s immigration issues being solely race-related. There are plenty of very smart (and often dark-skinned) people out there who believe that Islam is incompatible with liberal democratic values, and I agree with them – and I do have a couple of degrees in political science from top-tier universities myself. Although I will add that I consider many strains of Christianity similarly incompatible, though perhaps to a slightly lesser degree.
But certainly racism is part of it. Definitely wouldn’t deny that. But so is the whole clashing worldviews thing.
The concern we should all have is that globalization is what has created wealth, increased life expectancies and a whole slew of innovations.
The only thing nationalism has brought is war.
With the systemic shift to nationalism across the globe, it’s most crucial the United States play a leadership role in shifting the narrative back to globalization. Unfortunately, the current administration is leading the charge against globalization. And in so doing providing license to all the crazies to push limits….
This, all while we are ignoring significant issues.
Like watching shadows on the wall!