So in your imagination, the real American center (the median… citizen, if you wish to avoid voters) is to the left of both Democrats and Republicans.
Ok. Have fun.
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A few hundred years; it dates to the Enlightenment. The newly-powerful traders and industrialists of the Liberals pushed aside the previously dominant landholding Conservatives, and “liberal democracy” was born.
The working class didn’t get any say until the Radicals appeared, and they didn’t get a real say until Socialism got going.
Liberals have been around for quite a while. They’re the original capitalist party.
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Yes they are the Trump voters.
Yeah, I was about to note something about the working class* actually voting Trump rather than socialist. Not necessarily a new dynamic either, when you look at the Weimar Republic.
*Yes, it was preeminently the white working class. But Trump didn’t really underperform Romney among Latinos and I think he actually overperformed among African Americans.
All groups of white people supported Trump.
But the white working class supported Trump at a lower rate than any other economic group. And the overall working class, which is very much not all-white, were the only economic group in the country in which the majority opposed Trump.
Fascism is a middle class pathology. It is based in the defence of fading privilege and the suppression of the working class.
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Nonsense! America is the land of Honesty, Hard Work, And Non-Carcinogenic Apple Pie! Nothing bad could possibly come from it, or from a history built on about two genocides’ worth of death, misery, and injustice.
It was the Russians. All of it. Secret Russians. The worst kind.
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Yup.
Trump got the low-education middle class. Middle managers. Sales reps. Small business owners. Established self-employed tradespeople. Etc.
He also got the educated whites, just at a lower rate.
Highly recommended:
The audio version is particularly good.
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This is limited to 2016 likely voters, but even without the disenfranchised…
Full version at https://timedotcom.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/big_ideas-polling_pdf-1.pdf
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Also how were these ads targeted? Were they slightly lefty ads targeted at wavering centralists to push them over the edge?
Welcome to BoingBoing!
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Nothing about an avant-garde art background (other than a preference from Jackson Pollock) at Surkov’s Wikipedia article, FWIW.
However, “He came originally from the avant-garde art world, and those who have studied his career say that what Surkov has done is import ideas from conceptual art into the very heart of politics” reminds me very much of this:
E.g., “We will glorify war—the world’s only hygiene—militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of freedom-bringers, beautiful ideas worth dying for, and scorn for woman.”
IIRC one of the central Futurist figures lived with his mom.
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Ha! But it’s not a slippery slope, it’s an arms race-- one side does something previously unheard of that gives them an advantage, so the other side has to do it too. There’s no benefit in marrying a farm animal, no tax break, no improvement in health, otherwise people would do all the time.
Think of it like sports: coaches are always looking for an angle, so they pore over statistics, study videotape, run computer simulations, require their teams to eat special diets or do certain exercises, sometimes even cheat. Coaches 60 years ago didn’t get that involved, but when professional sports became big money the arms race began.
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I’m sure that revenge plays a part in Russia’s activities – the 1990s were a bad time economically for the average Russian, and Putin exploits this. However, I don’t agree with those who claim it excuses what the Kremlin is doing now in the service of promoting right-wing authoritarianism (and not only in the U.S.).
From what I’ve read about him, he dabbled in art, theatre, poetry and music in his rebellious youth and has maintained those interests. There’s also the possibility he’s a published fiction writer and perhaps a lyricist, but I agree that his arts background is not a professional one. It seems he saw their true potential for creating chaos in his first careers in Army counter-intelligence, PR for an oligarch’s bank, and TV advertising.
As for Futurism, while it is traditionally a favourite of right-wing authoritarians and fascists Surkov seems more interested in using artistic methods to spread their required precursor of chaos, something that Putin finds useful but isn’t necessarily his end goal. I would imagine “the destructive gesture of freedom-bringers” appeals to Surkov, though.
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It’s like the conflicting forces in American society are developing a harmonic resonance, and Russia is tapping at it at just the right frequency to keep it escalating. Very damn clever, and very hard to fight.
Also “Russian troll farms” makes me picture them harvesting ugly green humanoids out of the ground like Uruk-hai.
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Yep, but…
Don’t think of it as Russia vs USA. It’s fascism vs everyone. Trump and Putin are working together.
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Is there a country that does not have an interest in our electoral college outcomes? What Russia is alleged to have done (by the usual suspects) -“promoting right-wing authoritarianism”- is what your tax dollars have done exponentially since at least the days of the original Vlad. How many Russian military bases are within 500 miles from where you live?
“Yup, Putin tricking us Americans into being outraged at racism.”
NeoCon wet dream
