Far right extremists claim easy solutions to complex problems. With housing etc pricea going through the roof it's easy to demonize foreigners etc.

Look what happened in Germany with hyper inflation.

This is the first generation with worse prospects than the previous one. Wealth inequality is growing, and robber barons are back. Climate change is making any prospects even worse.

Combine that with a communication revolution (social media, to be exact) which allows anyone to pretty much target anyone else with any message they feel like, means disinformation pushing narratives is everywhere. And not to forget, there people in charge of these platforms are among the aforementioned robber barons.

It's easy to offer simple solutions to these problems and push disinformation to people who don't have the knowledge, time or energy to debunk everything and think deeply about things, since they're busy slaving away to put food on their tables, struggling to build a future, and looking for solutions. And simple answers give people a sense of control or explanation over their difficult situation.

It's why I have completely removed myself from every social media platform there is, except this one and I'm only on here intermittently.

Good question. But honestly you just got to look at history for the answer. Far-right extremism often do better when it's hard times like we have right now.

Amongst other things: Russia.

https://www.amazon.com/Putins-Trolls-Frontlines-Russias-Information/dp/1632461293

And in this specific case, it's literally Russia: https://nltimes.nl/2023/10/19/leaked-documents-show-connections-pvv-russia -- this is often the case for far-right European parties. Russia supports them quite significantly. This is one of the thousand reasons why Russia needs to be stopped and seriously discouraged in Ukraine. I have some hope that now that Putin has played his hand, his influence in European parties will start to diminish. But it's not looking good yet.

We are unfortunately in one of those moments in history where far right authoritarianism is troublingly in vogue.

The right has a cohesive strategy for getting and keeping an animated base, while the libs are focusing on maintaining a status quo that people hate and are creating voter apathy.

Capitalism makes living harder, populist fascism fools voters, cycle repeats

Everyone thinks that Russia became hostile with war in Ukraine. They were already fighting war with the West for years and it is bringing fruits. It is the war of disinformation and unlike the traditional hot war, they are very good at it and it is now bringing fruits.

It's going fascist.

Other parties haven't taken any called for measures when it comes to immigration, now far-right is reaping the benefits.

It's pretty shit but sorta expected if you just stubbornly avoid addressing the issues people have.

Social media, mostly.

Don't worry, the headline is too sensational. (Which is a pet peeve of mine anyway: headlines should be objective. I can make up my own mind please)

He didn't win a majority. He won't form a goverment. If he does, he will be powerless in the coalition. If he does get to make laws, they won't pass the senate (called "1ste kamer" in NL). And if he does, the government will fall anyway (which is a Dutch tradition anyway).

So a lot of 'outs' :)

No worries!

Agreed “win” is too simplistic. Still good shot at forming government though. I’m not familiar with the Dutch system, but, even in systems with proportional representation, the plurality winner usually gets first shot at forming government, and by convention usually does form government. They need 76 seats to govern and are more than halfway there with 37.

Also the Dutch political system relies very heavily on coalitions and the "polder model" since no party can ever win a majority of seats in their House of Representatives.

The headline seems much more sensational than the numbers lead me to believe.

Things have been going shit here actually, and blaming minorities for a country's problems is still a surefire way to win votes. As a dutch person I'm sad, embarrassed, and scared.

At this point, it's not even weird. I'm just glad they aren't tarnishing any look I would miss. I mean, in an alternate universe, I could see myself rocking a Chaplin moustache. But they can have the thinning, wiry, bizarrely-styled blond look all to themselves.

More like "politics of being to dumb to see further than the tip of if my own nose".

Shit's contagious, like covid