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Pandemics causing death are linked with increases in support for radical political movements, all the way back to the 1918 flu pandemic and the birth of 20th century fascism (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago

Evidence linking past experiences of worsening health with support for radical political views has generated concerns about the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The influenza pandemic that began in 1918 had a devastating health impact: 4.1 million Italians contracted influenza and about 500 000 died. We tested the hypothesis that deaths from the 1918 influenza pandemic contributed to the rise of Fascism in Italy. To provide a “thicker” interpretation of these patterns, we applied historical text mining to the newspaper Il Popolo d’Italia (Mussolini’s newspaper). Our observations were consistent with evidence from other contexts that worsening mortality rates can fuel radical politics. Unequal impacts of pandemics may contribute to political polarization.