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Samuel Burnside-Woods's avatar

Is there a link between far-right extremism and dementia? Could our demagogues both home and abroad be suffering from a case of the ol' melty brain? Does an ageing population mean voters increasingly vote against their interest in favor of someone who 'tells it like it is'? 🤔

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Janine McVeagh's avatar

I don't think Seymour or Luxon have dementia. They're just evil. While I'm aware that NZF originally built their base on Grey Power, not all of us were fooled. They have more recently targeted the anti-vax conspiracy crowd, some of whom were disaffected Labour and Green voters.

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Samuel Burnside-Woods's avatar

Calling Luxon or Seymour 'just' evil is pretty reductive. No one would vote for them if they were campaigning on kicking every puppy or burning down orphanages. Their platform speaks to an idea of 'politics' that I feel relates very strongly to an older, less educated demographic, which encapsulates people like anti-vax conspiracy people perfectly,

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Janine McVeagh's avatar

You're right of course- though I think it is evil to put corporate welfare ahead of Te Tiriti, the environment and the community. I think though that that demographic spans most age groups. I'm pretty old but have NEVER voted for anything but Values and Green and I do know much younger people who are supporters of various shades of right wing. I'm not even sure about "less educated", though that seems more probable than an age group. Maybe not dementia, but lack of critical thinking in general?

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Warren Stutt's avatar

Yes, I do think a lack of critical thinking in general.

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