Europe

Voting isn't enough. You need to shut down the foreign propaganda that's creating these movements in the first place.

Unfortunately this requires dipping into authoritarianism a bit, but I don't see the alternative. Sedition needs to be dealt with properly, and the majority of these far right movements are seditious and should be treated as such.

As someone invested in following women’s lib, it’s important to note that a large swath of the radical right has risen in direct reaction to women’s lib. I hate that this is true, but that won’t make it not so. Fuck my feelings.

Women’s lib is 50yrs new. Owning a bank account. Medical and financial privacy. The right for no cause divorce (to be fair, this benefits everyone). Marital rape being illegal, some places. Equality to pursue almost any career or any education, money permitting. And any modicum of choice regarding whether or not we become pregnant. ALL 50yrs new.

We’re still working on child marriage, even in the United States.

The reaction hasn’t always been positive. Men controlled the wealth and bodies and pregnancies of women for centuries. Hundreds of years. Thousands. Dads giving away a bride in a wedding is traditional for a reason, as is taking the male surname. We’ve had 50 years. Just 50. To think there’d be no impactful reaction even in that short time is naive at best. Sure, many are going to say, great, I don’t want to be the only one working, and she’s better than me at electricity (or whatever), so better her than me. You mean I’m free to be a stay at home dad now?!? Fantastic.

Others will and do say: my life is shitty and I can’t get ahead, this damn DEI is taking my chance of a promotion. Not my lack of skill or personality, or even ambition, but DEI.

I can’t have kids, these women would rather pursue a career than be a mom. Alternatively, no one likes you because you have the personality of an angry turnip, but let’s not focus on that, it’s uncomfortable for you. Or let’s focus on that and say I deserve it anyway. Why? Because you exist? That’s another human you’re talking about. And yet.

Inability to cope, there’s where it gets quite uncomfortable. Centuries of coping with rape, ownership, lack of equality does create some resilience over time, resilience and skills passed from mom to daughter in some cases. Ofc it’s not all inclusive, dipshits and people who lack the internal framework for resilience exist everywhere, I’m talking trends. On the other side, 50yrs isn’t that long to establish a new way of being, of coping outside of dumping on a wife (formerly a foregone conclusion). More so if you make zero moves to pursue the development of coping skills and take a hard line on being entitled to things that now legally belong to people recognized as independent human beings. But hey, Dad was an enigmatic stranger who taught no coping skills, why should I be any different? Or, my personal favorite: “therapy is for pussies.” To be fair, trying to teach people to seek this level of help is also needed.

Yes, immigration has impact on the far right movement, aggravating this internal sense of displacement, but to think women’s lib does not does a disservice to everyone hoping to fight the far right. As insidiously oppressive as the pre women’s lib ideology may be for women, it doesn’t appear so to these guys. Moms tend to kids. Moms happen. Husband comfort is emphasized. Mommy factor extends to the whole household with chores and cooking, how comfy!

And for guys that lack all community they can still rely on a family unit to be that community. And we all know how ripe for radicalization people are when they lack community. In addition, these guys can feel “cast out” from a life they see as the ultimate destination.

We are talking fringe far right, trends, and the broad strokes timeline of human history. None of what I’m throwing out here is intended as all inclusive.