Political Memes

Our election favourite (Canada) got the leadership by photo-opting with white supremacist groups and the notion one of his party rivals was a communist

Disclaimer: not a historian. I only know enough to be dangerous.

I had a longer reply typed up, but then I blundered into this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism_in_North_America#United_States

In the 1920s, American intellectuals paid a considerable amount of attention to Mussolini's early Fascist movement in Italy, but few of them became his supporters. ...

According to Noam Chomsky, the rise of fascism raised concerns during the interwar period, but it was largely viewed positively by the U.S. and British governments, the corporate community, and a significant portion of the elite. This was because the fascist interpretation of extreme nationalism allowed for significant economic influence in the West while also destroying the left and the hated labor groups. Hitler, like Saddam Hussein, enjoyed strong British and U.S. support until his direct action, which severely damaged British and U.S. interests.[21]

My unqualified opinion is that there's still remnants of this that track with old money. If this was possible, culturally, 100 years ago, there's no reason why it can't be true today.

It's all downhill
It's the way things run
Because the old have illusions
And the young have fun

AFAICT all of what's happening now can be traced back to Reagan and Murdoch.

Patriotism is a hell of a drug. None of our countries were fighting fascism, exactly. That generations governments were trying to maintain their power, and it was a close fought battle both times. It was stopping the squareheads, krauts, bohunks and nips taking over then. It's not like our governments don't do fascist shit anytime they feel like, and can get away with it, but it is more that you think the governments over there, then, weren't also riding that same line of how far they can push it.

Fundamentally: Boomers keep fucking over every generation after them. Literally every problem we're discussing is a result of that fact.