/228/ Three Articles: Popular Backlash in Chile, India, Europe
Added 2021-11-30 07:00:04 +0000 UTCOn people power on three continents.
We discuss Chile's landmark elections, the first after the uprising of 2019-20, which see a face-off between left and far-right; Modi's repeal of controversial laws that provoked a huge mobilisation of farmers in India last year; and protests and riots against new lockdowns and vaccine mandates across Europe.
Articles:
- Has the Backlash to Progressivism Come to Chile?, Lili Loofbourow, Slate
- In Rare Show of Weakness, Modi Bows to India’s Farmers, Various, NYT
- Violence in Belgium and Netherlands as Covid protests erupt across Europe, Jon Henley, The Guardian
Other relevant episodes
- /93/ Hot Chile and Other Neoliberal Failures ft. Pablo Pryluka
- /198/ Universal India ft. Achin Vanaik
Comments
Speaking of unedifiying, I find the Mundus contra Georgium bickering increasingly so. Please stop.
Paul Brewer
2021-12-19 16:01:36 +0000 UTCSo perhaps you should be more worried about the "lockdown right". After all, in many countries, including the UK, it's the right that's in power, not the left. And from talking to people I know, and from what I see on social media, much of the support for Covid certificates and even mandatory vaccination comes from people with right-wing views. The rhetoric is reminiscent of what you see with crime, like "it’s time to take the gloves off when dealing with the unvaccinated". The fact that vaccination rates are much lower among many immigrant groups than among non-immigrants makes it even easier for the (populist) right to take a hard pro-vaccine line, even for people who are otherwise critical of Covid shutdowns. On the other hand, it seems to me that "soft on Covid" increasingly align with liberal, soft leftist "soft on crime" attitudes. Here in Norway, over the course of the last month, the right wing, in particular the recently out-of-power Conservative Party, has been criticizing the newly elected centre-left government for not introducing enough restrictive measures. And when the government has done so, the criticism of this has tended to come from people on the left and centre-left, and from the centre-right Liberal Party. This also means that much of the socio-political analysis I see on English-language Twitter etc., that the left is pro-lockdown because of the PMC and so on, isn’t really up-to-date with developments. If anything, the groups that have been hit hardest economically by the pandemic and the shutdowns are groups where the left is over-represented. Take performing arts, for instance. Perhaps the group that has lost the most, and one where there is a lot of leftists. The same is also the case among workers and of patrons of the bar and nightlife industry, which also has been hit very hard. Moreover, left-wing (and liberal) voters tend to be younger, and are more likely to live in small apartments in the large cities that have been the most negatively affected by the shutdowns. On the flip side, older right-wing voters with large houses in the suburbs have been less negatively affected by the shutdowns. They're also more likely to work in manufacturing or other industries where Covid has had less of a negative impact. It’s such a common mistake to forget that the PMC, particularly in the private sector, always has been the core electorate of right-wing parties, and that this still to a large extent remains the case.
Sosialisten_
2021-12-14 16:35:20 +0000 UTCLooks like the comment disappeared. Perhaps it was too long, reposting in two parts: I don't necessarily think Covid certificates/vaccine passports are a good idea, but you're wrong to call them undemocratic. On the contrary, it's an example of the vaccinated majority imposing its will on the unvaccinated minority. This podcast is usually very supportive of majority rule, and quite dismissive of minoritarian concerns, so this was a rather weak argument on your part. It also looks like they enjoy fairly wide support where they have been introduced, Switzerland even had a referendum that approved of its Covid certificate. I think this makes it relatively easy for governments to dismiss the protesters as fringe weirdos. And the fact that they come from both the left and the right probably makes it easier for mainstream right-wingers to do so. Don't forget that the governments of the Netherlands and Austria that you mention are right-wing governments. Indeed, at least in Europe, both left-of-centre and right-of-centre governments have adopted the exact same kind of policies in response to Covid. Looking at this through an American lens of "red states" and "blue states", "conservatives" and "liberals" is, as usual, very misleading. For instance, Sweden, which had some of the least restrictive policies during the first wave of the pandemic, arguably had the most left-liberal government in Europe (a Social Democratic/Green coalition). So much for the "lockdown left"!
Sosialisten_
2021-12-14 16:34:58 +0000 UTC
