Is the “Greenlash” Real?
How the Left's Failures are Hidden under Far-Right Fearmongering
In the week when the European Union Member States vote for the next European Parliament (plus a host of regional and national elections at the same time), there has been an hysteria about the rise of the extreme right. But the tactics from parties like the Greens, Socialists and Far Left (former Communists) is to present any party that is not on the “social justice” side of the political spectrum as “extreme right”.
Their argument is simple: If you don’t vote for the parties on the left (who are nobly declaring this election as a fight to save democracy), then Europe will fall into a blind embrace of fascism. I never realized that being fiscally conservative meant having to button up my brown shirt or that wanting a business-friendly investment environment meant denying basic human rights and a return to Nazi repression. Such is the hysteria spread by activists on the Left.
The Left refer to the anticipated political backlash against their overly progressive policies as a “greenlash” by the far-right rather than considering it a result of their failed policies. The Green Deal was offering European consumers more hardship at a time when energy and food prices were already skyrocketing. Shutting nuclear reactors, making it impossible for farmers to earn a living and provide affordable food, restricting or phasing out widely used transportation and home heating means … these were all failures of left-wing policies and rather than confront this, the parties on the left are now trying to portray it as a fight to save democracy from the extreme right.
Who is a Fascist?
The Left is spreading an unwelcome poison into the to political discourse. They want to present any party that is not left-wing as fascist. Thus if a central or center-right party goes into coalition with a far-right party, like in the Netherlands, then they are fascist. They even identify the ECR – the European Conservative and Reformist party - as far-right.. In the US, they would be aligned with moderate Republicans.
The European center-right parties, like the Liberals or the Christian Democrats, cannot be trusted with your vote, the Left argue, because they will likely include the extreme right parties (like the Conservatives) into a coalition.
The European election then is not about what policies to have going forward, whether to continue to suffocate the European economy, consumers, agriculture and industry for some failed green ideology or to return to more traditional, pragmatic political leadership, but on whether democracy will be lost if you don’t vote for a left-wing party.
The left has lost the voice of the blue collar worker and has tried to identify itself with the affluent green activist striving to halt capitalism and shut down industry in the name of saving the environment. This blending of red and green has created a foggy platform with only a small portion of the electorate at its base. So the parties of the left have resorted to a tried and tested green activist technique: scaremongering.
Be Afraid … of the Greens
Green activists willingly lie to win on issues and advance their cause. Often they are not conscious of their lying – they so badly want something they believe in to be true that they disregard the facts (like their positions against nuclear energy, GMOs, herbicides and plastics). As zealots, they see their value system as of a higher calling than traditional values like truth and honesty. So it should not come as any surprise that when green activists enter the political arena, they care very little about political responsibility. If they can make the voters afraid in order to gain political influence, then their logic cannot provide any good reason not to.
So not only have they created a strawman to deflect from the failures of applying their political ideology, but the Greens are now stuffing as many of the other mainstream political parties into that terrifying historical image, creating an extreme right construct leaving voters with little choice but a lot of fear. But it is dishonest and those who see through their little fear game are further being put off by politics.
Ironically, the German Green Party was the only political party that has ever contemplated a joint cooperation with the German fascist party, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) over their attempt to stop the reauthorization of the herbicide, glyphosate. This prompted me to analyse how closely the German greens were aligned with fascist methods and principles. Hitler himself was one of the earliest environmental activists.
Normal Political Evolutions
Political spectrums have always had a minority (10 to 20%) on the extremes. Many feel disenfranchised and often don’t vote unless government policies have failed badly. The green parties had benefitted in the last European elections from the perception that the government policies on climate had failed (remember Greta?). This European election, the green policies will be held under the microscope, and failure is an understatement. The greens know this, thus they have created the term “greenlash” to deflect the blame while calling up their “You’re a fascist!” scare tactic.
In any case, it is not unreasonable to expect the extreme right to get a maximum of 15% of the vote in constituencies where green parties had influenced policy decisions. Center right and Conservative parties will likely do much better than that, thus the reason for the parties on the left to pull out the fascist card.
I am very much a democrat who believes that governments need to be responsible to consumers, promote a sound business environment, seek to protect societal goods and the environment in a pragmatic way. I want my leaders to be practical and responsible and, if possible not be chronic liars. Any politician who tries to scare me to get my vote will fail the integrity test. Needless to say, this coming European election, I will not be voting for any party on the left.