Less than a quarter of schoolboys in the Netherlands have a positive view of homosexuality, almost half the proportion of four years ago, according to a Europe-wide survey. The HBSC (Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children) poll found that just 22% of boys aged 12 to 16 had a positive view of homosexuality, compared to 40% the last time the survey was carried out in 2021. Gonneke Stevens, professor of Social and Behavioural Sciences at Utrecht University, said there was a...
The sad reality is that the left has been focusing on the wrong issues for some time now and when people are getting really worried about housing and healthcare they don’t see politicians waving rainbow flags as the people that can help them. The far-right obviously is not going to fix anything either but in tough times people look for strong leaders that offer simple solutions so more and more people are slowly drifting to the right.
However, the last left-wing cabinet in the Netherlands was in 1973, and the last cabinet with significant left wing participation ended in 2002. So 24 years of center/right coalition. Seems people have to be pretty much brainwashed to believe some left wing party is the cause of their suffering.
I didn’t say the issue is that people blame the left for all their problems. I said they don’t think the left has any solutions. It sounds like in Netherlands the center/right coalitions also didn’t solve their problems so they are slowly drifting father to the right. Not because far-right is so great at solving problems but because the narrative they have is easy to understand and it appeals to people in tough times.
Seems like something is missing in this explanation though. If people don’t blame left wing, and are just voting right to find a solution to their problems, then why is LGBT support plummeting (topic or this article)? There is no relationship between LGBT rights and the housing shortage.
Because right wing ideology is a package. Conservative politics claim that traditional values are the way to go and that everything was better when everyone was white and Christian, women stayed in the kitchen and gays couldn’t marry. You can see it right now in Spain were young kids are suddenly supporting Franco claiming that “back in the day” everyone had a job, there was no crime and everyone was happy. It obviously not true but young people believe it and buy with the entire “traditional values” package. Attacks on LGBT people are also up in Spain because of that even though the main concern of young people is housing.
The sad reality is that the left has been focusing on the wrong issues for some time now and when people are getting really worried about housing and healthcare they don’t see politicians waving rainbow flags as the people that can help them. The far-right obviously is not going to fix anything either but in tough times people look for strong leaders that offer simple solutions so more and more people are slowly drifting to the right.
However, the last left-wing cabinet in the Netherlands was in 1973, and the last cabinet with significant left wing participation ended in 2002. So 24 years of center/right coalition. Seems people have to be pretty much brainwashed to believe some left wing party is the cause of their suffering.
I didn’t say the issue is that people blame the left for all their problems. I said they don’t think the left has any solutions. It sounds like in Netherlands the center/right coalitions also didn’t solve their problems so they are slowly drifting father to the right. Not because far-right is so great at solving problems but because the narrative they have is easy to understand and it appeals to people in tough times.
Seems like something is missing in this explanation though. If people don’t blame left wing, and are just voting right to find a solution to their problems, then why is LGBT support plummeting (topic or this article)? There is no relationship between LGBT rights and the housing shortage.
Because right wing ideology is a package. Conservative politics claim that traditional values are the way to go and that everything was better when everyone was white and Christian, women stayed in the kitchen and gays couldn’t marry. You can see it right now in Spain were young kids are suddenly supporting Franco claiming that “back in the day” everyone had a job, there was no crime and everyone was happy. It obviously not true but young people believe it and buy with the entire “traditional values” package. Attacks on LGBT people are also up in Spain because of that even though the main concern of young people is housing.