Conservative populism or just crypto-fascism?

So, here we go again—yet another misguided ideology built on the flawed assumption that "the common good" can just be defined by a government decree.

Nicole James said:So, here we go again—yet another misguided ideology built on the flawed assumption that "the common good" can just be defined by a government decree.

Nah, it's not about decrees... it's actually about how you go about building consensus around the core issues facing a community.

The truth is—and plenty of authoritarian leaders have leaned into this too (in their own twisted way)—communitarianism is often used to push things like those "Asian values" tropes.

Just one example from an American perspective... The Forgotten Communitarian - Why Bill Clinton's contributions to restoring the language of civic obligation so regularly and casually overlooked?

Lisa Jackson7 said:Nah, it's not about decrees... it's actually about how you go about building consensus around the core issues facing a community.

The truth is—and plenty of authoritarian leaders have leaned into this too (in their own twisted way)—communitarianism is often used to push things like those "Asian values" tropes.

Just one example from an American perspective... The Forgotten Communitarian - Why Bill Clinton's contributions to restoring the language of civic obligation so regularly and casually overlooked?

I am referring back to the link you shared. It discusses the idea of placing this mythical "common good" above individual rights. For that to actually work, you would need to be able to clearly define what that common good even is—and that is exactly where all such systems, whether they are social or economic in nature, inevitably hit a wall. People aren't some monolithic block; we are a chaotic collection of vastly different individuals with wildly varying traits, interests, and affinities. Declaring a specific "common good" (except in very rare instances) essentially means declaring the values of one specific group—or more often, a single individual or a political party that has managed to convince a crowd that they are speaking for them—as mandatory values for everyone. Of course, even a liberal democracy adopts this practice occasionally—take, for example, when we decide that life is preferable to death, health over sickness, or safety over danger... But once a system wanders too deep into that philosophy, it turns out that nobody in a chaotic system like human society has the capacity to identify or calculate all the necessary factors to realistically determine what constitutes the common good. Nor can anyone declare an individual's conflicting interest to be a value for the collective without injecting a massive amount of internal tension into society. This is why every collectivist and authoritarian system has ultimately ended in either stagnation, a bloody revolution, or even bloodier repression.

So, I was grabbing a drink with this person from Germany recently—someone from the upper-middle class, you know, well-off, owns their own house and all that stuff. And get this: they’re totally backing pro-immigration policies and those high-flying public sector elites while absolutely tearing into bank executives. Their whole logic? Oh, we gotta tax the bankers because capitalism is "dangerous," meanwhile, immigrants are supposedly here to save the economy, and the American working class is just a bunch of failed losers fueled by populism. Honestly, the whole thing gives me massive Roaring Twenties vibes—back when the German patrician classes felt forced to embrace the national socialist movement just to escape the grasp of Stalinist influence, which eventually triggered that huge baby boom. Is it actually populism, or just reality hitting them in the face?
Look, collectivism always wins over individualism. Every single time. Individuals might lead the group, sure, but they don't wander off from it. People have fallen for this fairy tale about the "individual" instead of realizing that humans are fundamentally shaped by the genetic and cultural heritage of their collective group. You want the best example of a liberal collective? Look at a corporation. It's a collective effort where individualism only exists if the boss says so. Even the supporters of liberalism are basically just filling up the state treasury, which—let's be real—is a collective entity. Personally, I think if you aren't a liberal in your youth, you lack sense, and if you haven't turned conservative in your old age, you've lost your mind. You can't even build a society, let alone post on a forum, without collectivism. The only question is: who do you belong to? Now, the dam has broken. Liberals are chasing extra profits, Marxists are screaming for more redistribution to "save the proletariat," and the Right is finally waking up to how this all hurts them. They're pushing for a traditionalist system—something that actually works in non-Western nations. Those traditionalists from the Third World aren't going to follow Marxism or liberalism either; those are just brutal ideologies that treat human beings like objects.

They used to throw around accusations of crypto-fascism at Google, but now they're just making excuses about technical glitches.
The racial bias issues at Google say a lot about where things stand.

Back in early 2019, Alphabet—Google's parent company—admitted that even after three years of deep dives, they still haven't fixed the algorithm flaw that misidentifies Black people as gorillas (per The Verge)

vividfox9 said:Local nationalism feels pretty macho—it’s just loud, crude, and honestly, a bit verbally aggressive.

Fascism in the West is such a fluid thing—it’s more like a messy collage of contradictions than anything else.
Time is actually the most dangerous thing we deal with.
This is just 21st-century fascism, rebranded for social media. It’s got a whole new name now— I’ve been thinking a lot about the rise of conservative populism lately. It feels like we're seeing this massive shift in how people connect with leadership, moving away from the old establishment toward voices that feel more raw and direct. I remember watching my dad debate these exact issues around the dinner table years ago, and while the players have changed, that underlying feeling of being unheard seems to be driving everything right now..

The Germans, who bore the brunt of responsibility for creating and consolidating Nazism as a threat to global civilization, came to a realization after losing the war: modern nations don't grow by expanding their borders, but by increasing their depth and sophistication.
Right-wing nationalist parties over here—many of which have been banned in the past—are starting to gain traction again, mostly because people are losing patience with the current immigration crisis.

People today act way too much like they belong to some exclusive club or elite tribe. If that’s really how things have shifted, then our best defense against the rise of the far right might just be rediscovering what it means to value the collective community and actually committing to it again. As the writer Ishay Lando says...

The only thing that actually justifies a government's existence is its ability to administer justice. That’s what separates a legitimate state from just a bunch of organized criminals, according to Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis of Tagaste (modern-day Algeria).

Come on, don't be so afraid.
It’s never too late to start again, even if you feel like you've let your creative side slip away for a while.
You can actually rebuild and sharpen your creative muscles pretty easily just through consistent practice and training. The real key is simply believing that the ability to create is already sitting there inside you, waiting to be tapped.
That’s exactly where true individual freedom comes from—it's about not being forced to bow down to those conservative populists who just want everyone to think exactly like them so they can control everything.

I'm with you on this. Individual freedom and humanity are the future of peace. Tribal thinking, and religious thinking too, just leads to war. People have drifted away from nature and built these virtual worlds of nations and religions, fighting wars over made-up concepts and killing civilians. How stupid can you get?

And then people refuse to give up these imaginary nonsense ideas, like these cults of nation and religion. Then they start talking about some non-existent "blood" tied to these invented things.

1. Genes, just like blood, existed on this planet long before a single nation was ever dreamed up.

2. Genes, like blood, were created by nature without any human interference.

3. Nations were invented by humans, just like plastic bags, computers, or cars... nature didn't make them; humans made them artificially.

4. You only share blood with your close relatives, not an entire nation—otherwise, we wouldn't be able to marry!

5. So, nation and religion are two invented cults that have nothing to do with biology or Mother Nature.

6. We share 98 percent of our genes with monkeys. Do you really think that tiny 2 percent is where all our differences lie?

7. Besides, the fundamental lie of linking blood to nation is the "blood and soil" ideology, which was the foundation of Nazism.

8. Genes exist, sure, but you can't label them with names of nations because they existed way before nations did and have nothing to do with them.

9. A nation is a cult of language, culture, and customs. That has zero connection to blood. The propaganda claiming it does is just used to manipulate the masses into war, convincing you that the "other guy" has different blood. It's manipulation. Because if they told you the other guy had the same blood as you, it would be a lot harder to kill him in a war.

10. People are divided into blood groups. Where have you ever seen a hospital blood bag labeled "American," "German," or "Jewish"?

This guy really hit the nail on the head regarding the issues we're seeing in America. But honestly, what’s his actual solution? Is he just suggesting we swap one tribalistic, religious way of thinking for another, just with different symbols on our hats? You can't just pick a side and call it progress if you're still stuck in that same narrow mindset, no matter how right you might be. Here is the link, it's about 10 minutes:

Check this out—some serious genius at work here:

http://motorhead.proboards.com/thread/3147/good-advice