If you've been following the news practically anywhere, you may have noticed that in more and more places, right-wing governments are slowly but surely taking control, enacting laws and policies that go against everything we've worked and fought for over the past 70+ years. As we fight for equality on all fronts, against climate change and for progress, right-wing parties are still gaining popularity, even though many people don't know what they want to do. In fact, many people who would vote for the AFD in Germany are actually negatively affected by the policies they want to introduce.

But if the voters are so misinformed, it begs the question: why is that so? Surely if the voters themselves were negatively affected, they would know, wouldn't they?

Well, although this is far from professional, let alone scientific, research, I have a few theories; one of which is that their choice of words is explicitly hand-crafted to do similar things to what headlines do these days: cause anger. They don't choose their words to inform people, but rather to abuse their state of mind and their prejudices, to make them angry. And when they're angry, they'll follow someone who tells them their problems can be fixed. We've seen this applied in history before, what Hitler did was similar in some ways, where his choice of words made people think he had found "the culprit", when in fact it was all lies to justify genocide and war crimes.

We're seeing a lot of similar things today, the prime example being the AFD in Germany: they're demonising queer and trans people and using the anger that's built up because of echo chambers and people's false views to gain power. And that in itself has brought them to a place where they now have a significant proportion of the votes in the election polls. If I had to guess, I would say that similar things have happened in other countries; politicians pick a minority or a problem, blame everything on it and win voters with it. They don't get people over on their side because what they're saying is actually changing something for the better.

This trend has been global in recent years. Several US states aim to forbid abortion, gender affirming healthcare, and drag queens/shows. They don't have proof to back up their allegations of paedophilia or other adverse consequences. The AFD in Germany, the PVV in the Netherlands, and the PiS in Poland have followed suit. And the list doesn't end there.

This is where it gets bizzare...

You would think that means the majority believe them, right?...well, no. While this is only from personal experience, my friends and family and practically everyone I know are predominantly progressive and more left-leaning when it comes to politics. We want to involve people, encourage change on this planet and make sure it's the best it can be. Meanwhile, the whole planet seems to be going the other way, stopping progress on climate change programmes, renewable energy and more. Every time a change like this goes through, there is a HEAP of individuals, but also professionals in the field, saying "No, this is a bad change", but it almost always seems to be ignored.

Of course, it could be that I have trapped myself in my own echo chamber and am as such not seeing the full picture, but at least in the places I hang around at, nobody wants to build a nazi bar.

Honestly, I believe that I'll have to look into it for a bit further, but right now all seems to point to them abusing human emotion to gain followers. This may not definitively answer the question, but it's just my 20 cents anyways.

---

Thanks for reading! I wish you a good rest of the day, evening, night, or whatever other time you're reading this!