Remember social networks, grass-root movements, getting away from the big monopolies? The Internet, the web, blogs – they were going to save us. TelePolis writes that the opposite is true. The right wing has been fighting liberal media bias in the news, and won. ¹ And they are taking their efforts into the blogosphere. And they’re winning. Eight out of the top ten political blogs are right wing blogs, they quote Truth Laid Bear (but without a good follow-up URL). Let’s face it, most people in the West *deserve* the government they got because they *voted* for it. The web just reflects this.
#Web
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For me, a right-wing Web reflects the right-wing society of the Westof media monopolies and single-party political systems that shift our society rightward. I don’t blame people who were hoodwinked by the system with little to no alternative.
I do enjoy the sentiment of this post otherwise.
– AaronHawley 2005-12-13 02:11 UTC
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We’re marching to the right with our eyes wide shut.
I guess there are several reasons I am less apologetic: First, I know too many people that vote for the right and cannot be talked out of it. That’s very frustrating for me, because it makes me realize that my rhetoric skills need a lot more honing. I also feel that Switzerland is not (yet) a country where people have been cheated of their future. By and large, the population is well educated and is marching towards law and order, anti-terrorism, pro-big-enterprises with open eyes.
Plus we don’t really have a same-values political system, here (yet). Thus, even though I look at the USA as the future we’re trying to avoid, I realize that Switzerland is not there (yet). The newspapers are dying slowly, state radio is still strong, private schools are still a minority, gated communities are practically non-existing, etc. All the external factors seem to be missing. This is why I am concluding that people here actually *do* like the in right-wing conservative backwards-oriented pro-business anti-democratic tendencies.
They *want* it this way.
– Alex Schroeder 2005-12-13 02:56 UTC
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I guess I’d like to know what real (as in oppositional) alternative to the right do people have in Switzerland that they are denying themselves.
In the States, the left is succumbed at every elections by candidates who differ from the right on some issues like social security for retired people, abortion, church and state, stem cell research but differ little on issues like Iraq, Cuba, terrorism, Israel, free trade, empire, military weapons, labor rights and the expanding police state.
This hoodwinking party goes by the name of the “Democrats”.
– AaronHawley 2005-12-13 05:02 UTC
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In Switzerland, there are several big parties: FDP are the right-wing liberals, SVP are the right-wing conservatives, CVP are the Christians, drifting more and more to the right. The socialist party, SP, is rather close to the center, where as the Greens are more left than the socialists. Further on the left there are only smaller parties that have regional successes like the communists, left alliances, or green alternatives.
The key issue is that our voting system gives proportional representation, thus it affords more than two parties. Plus our executive is run by seven ministers coming from more than two parties. There is no president father figure with the power to declare war, obstruct legislation, etc. Strong presidencies make for quick decisions and a lot of abuse, I think.
– Alex Schroeder 2005-12-13 07:38 UTC