Xenogears15 posted... I'm more worried about local EU elections, honestly. The right populists are most definitely going to take this momentum to the polls when those elections come up. Germany and especially France are of particular interest.
Like with most EU countries there's a concerning growth in radical rightwing populism, but for now it looks like they're not taking over anytime soon over there.
France on the other hand is a different story. Macron has dissolved his cabinet and called for new elections. With the current political climate there, it's pretty much a guaranteed win for the radical right. Considering the role France plays and influence it has in both European and world politics, this looks pretty bad.
Humble_Novice posted... What exactly is driving voters there away from the left? It can't be solely due to propaganda, right?
As with most socio-political developments, there are various factors, but I believe that one influence that is grossly underestimated is algorithms, specifically by bombarding people with easy-to-read clickbait articles/videos, often containing misinformation or fake news.
People click a few articles or videos on a subject with a shocking title. They may or may not believe it right away, but an algorithm will assume they find this kind of stuff interesting and present them with more. Eventually the people clicking that stuff will assume that whatever views are talked about in that content is probably true. It's quicker and easier than actually researching several different views and sources involving critical thinking, fact-based evidence and feedback through peer reviews.
It's for this reason that I prefer to vote specifically for people with digital expertise, as I believe we definitely need to have more of them in governmental positions if we want to get a grip on this.
Don't get me wrong, I definitely don't want to go as far as the government controlling and checking everything we do online, but giving people pretty much free reign in spreading their views quickly to large masses of people (regardless of whether or not those views have any fact-based merit) can have significant consequences, including what people for for during elections. It's literally how Trump won.
I went on a little longer about this than I anticipated, but I feel that the factor of algorithms is often very much overlooked in this matter, considering how much it can impact what people vote for.