“Conservative sentiment is seemingly growing bolder”

In recent years, fascism has made a terrifyingly large comeback. While history does tend to repeat itself, especially with cases of far-right groups is still scary to bear witness to, nonetheless. From Trump getting elected in, his wingman instantly performing a Nazi salute, “Conservative sentiment is seemingly growing bolder”

The longstanding effort to keep these extremist forces out of government is officially over. Political parties have joined forces for decades to attempt to keep the hard right from power, but in today’s world, far right groups are threatening to take over. We have witnessed a harsh switch from the first black President of America to an orange, fascist sympathising, convicted felon.
After the mass destruction of World War 1, Italy and Germany turned from democracy to dictatorships, and scholars are seeing parallel in the current American democracy. UC Berkeley scholar John Connelly told “UC Berkeley news” that there is a “kind of disdain for democracy” during this time. He commented that “there’s a respect for strong leadership that many believe is lacking in a standard liberal democracy.” Another UC Berkeley scholar AJ Solovy commented that “even if there is not a one-to-one match, the themes that emerge – insecurity, crisis, a sort of existential political angst- can help explain why so many people are attracted to the MAGA movement”. We spoke with Professor Gillespie about the change from centre to right wing political groups. He commented that ‘Part of the problem with a portional representation is that you need 5% percent of the population to vote for you to get into parliament, and that means that some political parties have adopted extreme positions, because they will get enough votes to keep retaining power. You see this on the extreme left and the extreme right and I see Seymour’s bill as part of this problem, whereby you tap into a minority which does not represent the majority view, but it creates that agitation, and it keeps you in the public eye.” This ration applies to explain the rise of far-right groups in our society, especially groups such as the ACT party in New Zealand, and the MAGA political movement.

One similarity is that we are in challenging times – just as Germany and Italy were pre – dictatorship. With climate catastrophe, unheard of rates of inequality, and a genocide in Gaza. Aside from America we are seeing rises of far – right parties all over the world. Six European countries currently have hard-right parties in government. These being Italy, Finland, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia and the Czech Republic.

In the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte’s presidency sparked protests and attracted controversy from their citizens and people all over the world. His political positions have been described as populist, nationalist, and by some – fascist. His political success was aided by his support of the extrajudicial killing of drug users and other criminals. Duterte has confirmed to have personally killed criminal suspects during his term as Mayor of Davao. Despite his controversial opinions and human rights issues, he remained with high support throughout his presidency – ending it as the most popular post People Power Revolution president.

Narendra Modi has been the Prime Minister of India since 2014, and during his tenure the country has experienced a weakening of democratic institutions, individual rights, and freedom of expression. He is currently carrying out the most sustained attack on the freedom of the press by putting progressive journalists in jail and bringing charges against them.

In Brazil, an almost exact replication of the January 6th, 2021 insurrection was carried out. President Jair Bolsonaro lost the 2022 general election to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and on the 8th January 2023, his supporters stormed federal government buildings. The Superior Electoral Court has banned Bolsonaro from seeking office until 2030 for attempting to undermine the validity of the election through his unfounded claims of voter fraud and for abusing his power. Europe currently has seven countries where the far right has become a major presence both in parliament and in the streets.

“We’re a democracy, it doesn’t matter if you’re left wing or you’re right wing. Or if you’re going out to protest, you don’t set fire to the playground”

Social conditions play a huge part in the rise of fascist movements. They create opportunities for the ascent of far-right leaders. Neoliberalism and globalisation have played a role in the rise of the radical right. Neoliberalism mutated ideology into a market. With the likes of music (Spotify) and love (dating apps), Neoliberalism has transformed everything into a competitive market. Through social media apps, far-right political ideologies are advertised to a demographic or isolated individuals. Professor Gillespie commented on political parties and individual politicians use of social media “My greater concern is when you have people with such power in the media, and in social media in particular having influence in government, because I think you need more division between government and powerful individuals. There’s checks and balances over Trump and the constitution; I’d like to see the same checks and balances over Elon Musk as well.” This relates to our country as well, with the likes of the National Party’s out of touch campaigning through TikTok, prior to the most recent New Zealand election.

In this market, controversy sells, and political ideologies such as Nazism gather attention, therefore gathering force. Worsening living standards and greater inequalities spawned by Neoliberal policies created a feeling among people that liberal democracy had been captured by the rich, leading to distrust in centre – right and centre-left parties. These mixed with economic insecurity and hatred have allowed for the rise of leaders such as Duterte, Bolsonaro, and Trump. Trump has faced 91 felony counts across two state courts and two different federal districts and still has mass popularity across America.

Professor Gillespie commented on political foul play, stating “We’re a democracy, it doesn’t matter if you’re left wing or you’re right wing. Or if you’re going out to protest, you don’t set fire to the playground.”

Racism, ethnocentrism, and anti-immigrant sentiment have also fuelled these far-right movements. In the US today, white nationalism or white supremacy is the ideological expression of the fascist project, and in US and Europe, strong feelings against non-white migrants have been a key feature of this consciousness. Professor Gillespie commented on New Zealand’s recent politics, saying “New Zealand relies upon an international based order and at the moment what you’re seeing is a movement away from principles to a position of power. And this means that everything in the international architecture is up for grabs with its security, with its environment and climate. Whether it’s free trade, New Zealand thrives by global based order because we’re a small country and right now you’re seeing a shift that’s pushing all of that. Nothing is sacrosanct right now; the international order and it’s taken 70 years to build this up post-World War 2 and right now no one knows what’s going to happen next”.