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Originally Posted by hippietears
I'm not really sure, I think we would have to find the center as to why people are acting like this, and I think it's fear. Fear of something that isn't a norm for someone that is looking in from the outside. So, what do they do in return? They shoot fear right back at us. It's a viscous cycle and it needs to be broken.
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Certainly. I think it's a multitude of factors right now that play into the far right's hands. I also feel like a lot of people feel disassociated with societal expectations or deeply unhappy with their lot in society. For generations, people have been told how to behave to succeed in life - career choices, romantic pursuits, gender norms and how to best cater to them, monetary independence - All grandiose, highly ritualized concepts.
But by now, a lot of people have realized that a lot of this is fugazi. People feel like there is something missing in their lives. And this is where organized religion, manosphere self-help gurus, vicious politicians and the like enter the picture. They try to gauge what it is they feel is missing in their lives and hence they adjust their rhetoric to it - promising a more prosperous future - once again enforcing the same tired ideas that made them feel so deprived in the first place - but more forcefully. Easy answers await them.
But in order to seal the deal, a scapegoat has to be declared. Surely, someone must be responsible for this undesirable state of things - it's not the economy that favors only the richest of the rich, it's not the judicial system or corrupt politics. No, it's that darn Woke culture and all them LGBTQIA+-folk, and the feminists and whatnot. The LGBTQIA+ seems to take the absolute brunt of the abuse right now. And instead of realizing that the very same insitutions that instigating their fear and anger right now are the cause of their anguish, people fall for the right's narrative. And instead of realizing, that their problems very much apply to those they are ostracizing right now, too - they fall deeper down the rabbit hole.
I think there needs to be someone able to gauge those people's fears, but who is able to talk to them with compassion and who can avert the conversion of a lot of people to the wrong path. It won't stop the most indoctrinated from continuing on that path, but it might just make a few of those who are merely on the verge and somewhat confused reconsider. And by someone, I don't mean a singular person - but more of an institutional discourse.
But that's just a very utopian idea. I wouldn't know who and how right now. Tbh., the pandemic years have made me pretty cynical towards the dynamics of masses of people. I still cling to ideals of humanism, but it's been a bit tough as of late.
In general: Allies are important. And to end on a more optimistic note: I have a good bit of faith in the current generation. The kids are alright. There are teens right now who care about things that hadn't even been on my radar when I was their age. And there's been a lot of action and positive societal change that benefited a lot from the younger generation's (I'd say up until the Mid-20s) strides.