German teenagers and young adults find themselves increasingly unsatisfied and likely to vote for the far right, according to a survey. Fears about prosperity are highlighted as a possible cause.
Young people are more likely to vote for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) than previously, a study on Tuesday showed.
Authors of the “Youth in Germany 2024” study said that under-30s were increasingly disgruntled with their social and economic situation, and that fears about future prosperity were driving a shift to the right.
The AfD’s signature issue is a hard-line anti-immigration stance, and the data showed that migration was among young people’s main concerns.
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The online study, conducted in January and February, found that young people were becoming increasingly dissatisfied, especially with their social and economic situation, compared with previous years.
After the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the authors said economic and political worries for example due to inflation, high rents, the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East or the division of society had taken center stage.
Actually the pessimism turned me left. How can one be pessimistic about the future and turn to those who will make it even worse? Stupidity or self harming behaviour?
Guess they buy into the simplistic views shouted by the far right.
People are not good at critically evaluating options and don’t have the time or attention to do so. Not a knock on young people, pretty much everyone in 2024 has divided attention 24/7.
So we turn to heuristics, ways to short-circuit decision making. Like looking at what arguments experts make, how often we hear arguments, who is the most confident, etc. Those are easily exploited by right-wing populists.
My observation:
They position themselves similar to classic revolutionaries - they claim to be the counterpoint to the “establishment” or to the “out-of-touch elites.”
That’s pretty tempting for people who don’t like the direction the world is heading in. Most don’t see or don’t want to see that the AfD is chock full of the exact people who rule them from the top down, police their opinions and take away their personal liberties.
What’s tragic is that, historically, a left wing group would normally find itself in the position the AfD is holding now. Yet here we are, after 50 years of slowly shifting rightwards until the social contract began breaking, with a party that offers a harsh jump further right as the revolutionary cure.
They’re either very selfishly shortsighted or dangerously sarcastic.
They are not very smart
If you go with the worst POV on far-right, it’s the same promises that lead men to war: after the war you’ll have money and will be able to marry
In a world where money is hard to come by, and society and culture are deconstructed (and nothing is built to replace it), there is no much else they hold dear. So “war” is all that’s left
It’s been this way forever
Another contender would be accelerationism. I’ve seen a lot of that online.