For the first time since the good old days, a far-right Nazi-affiliated party has won a state election. Both states are located in the East. The party is buoyed by anti-EU and foreigner sentiments (though, as per usual, in these areas the percentage of foreigners is very low). Also, they are pro-Russia, as it is often the case in European far-right parties.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/01/europe/far-right-germany-regional-election-win-intl-latam/index.html

Surveys suggest that especially young people are voting for the extremes and about half of the voters indicated that they did not vote for them out of protest but out of ideological agreement. Considering that they, similar to Trump as an example, provide a bizarre view on society, which is disconnected with reality (e.g in terms of crime rates), it does not bode very well for traditional parties. I suspect that there is a big role for social media to be uncovered, and as it turns out, the young ones might be more likely to be susceptible to disinformation.

Another troubling example in a larger trend that’s being amplified by bad actors intentionally tuning media diets 

I wonder if it is right wing Christian base like the GOP is in the US?

23 minutes ago, nec209 said:

I wonder if it is right wing Christian base like the GOP is in the US?

Nope, it glorifies European culture, is anti-Muslim but not explicitly Christian (other than claiming that Europeans, and Christians are suppressed). However, due to their past, East Europe is generally very atheist.

People who don't learn from history ...

Strange how 'traditional' NAZIs hated and opposed Communist Russia, while the 'new improved' version seems to admire Russia's style.

Well, they do not pretend to be communist anymore. It is now a happy authoritarian family.

6 hours ago, MigL said:

People who don't learn from history ...

Strange how 'traditional' NAZIs hated and opposed Communist Russia, while the 'new improved' version seems to admire Russia's style.

Same shit, different labels.

Also, the practical line between capitalism and communism has mostly eroded. Heck, folks nowadays are getting confused that Nazis had "socialist" in their name. The distinction is mostly to establish ideological lines, it seems to me, with very little practical impact. While xenophobia being an unsurprising aspect, it seems that gender roles plays a surprisingly high role of far-right pro Russia sentiments (and which also shows in the gender gap in voters).

Just to getting back to OP: in Thuringia the AfD won 38% of the male voters, but only 27% of the female voters. This 11% gap is more than double of the next largest gap (4%, then 2%).

It feels strange as intuitively it does not seem to be such a big thing, but it is something that starts to be persistent in multiple countries (we see similar trends with Trump voters). For the US it was assumed that overturning Roe v Wade was a critical point, but the trend was already there before, and it does not apply to Germany (and other countries).

12 hours ago, StringJunky said:

Same shit, different labels.

Yep. Under capitalism humans exploit other humans. Under communism, it is the other way round.

(Not mine of course...)

22 hours ago, MigL said:

People who don't learn from history ...

Strange how 'traditional' NAZIs hated and opposed Communist Russia, while the 'new improved' version seems to admire Russia's style.

Isn't that all of us? 

We can't even learn from simple fiction, it seems...

The grapes of wrath, et al... (the clues, often, in the title.)

On 9/1/2024 at 6:29 PM, CharonY said:

For the first time since the good old days, a far-right Nazi-affiliated party has won a state election. Both states are located in the East. The party is buoyed by anti-EU and foreigner sentiments (though, as per usual, in these areas the percentage of foreigners is very low). Also, they are pro-Russia, as it is often the case in European far-right parties.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/01/europe/far-right-germany-regional-election-win-intl-latam/index.html

Surveys suggest that especially young people are voting for the extremes and about half of the voters indicated that they did not vote for them out of protest but out of ideological agreement. Considering that they, similar to Trump as an example, provide a bizarre view on society, which is disconnected with reality (e.g in terms of crime rates), it does not bode very well for traditional parties. I suspect that there is a big role for social media to be uncovered, and as it turns out, the young ones might be more likely to be susceptible to disinformation.

Pro-Russia? That's ironic given the history German has had with Russia in WWII.