Topix Underground

"...Right-wing politics is called "conservative" because it conserves hierarchical social structures. These essentially ensure that the rich stay rich, which often (not always) means that the poor stay poor. Right-wing politics is for relatively rich people who want to stay rich or become richer. On the assumption that we have constant resources (natural resources and labor) and the days of economic growth are over (at least in rich countries, given the threat of climate change and biodiversity loss), there is only one way the rich can become richer, and that is at the expense of everyone else. In the past, that was usually true; today, it is even more often true.

And the rich are indeed becoming richer. In the past few decades (following the launch of international neoliberalism by Reagan and Thatcher), the number of USD-millionaires and billionaires in the world has been steadily increasing. Needless to say, that is undermining democracy. During the COVID pandemic, the wealth of the super-rich increased enormously, at the same time as poverty rates increased.

Even without those modern tendencies, it is generally true that if you are not rich, and you want to vote in your own interest, you should avoid voting for the right. Moreover, if you are rich and want a better and fairer society, you should also avoid the right.

The central importance of lying

The amazing thing is this: If people always voted in their own interest, as they are supposed to do in a democracy, the left would always win. That's because the left represents a majority of people that possesses a minority of the country's money, whereas the right represents a minority of people that possesses a majority of the country's money. So how does the right side manage to win so often?

There is an easy and rather obvious answer. The right wins elections by spreading lies. They do that because they cannot win the election any other way. If the voters voted in their own interests, most would vote left, because the left represents a majority of people, even if they possess a minority of the country's money. If the right is to win the election, it must convince many people to vote against their own interests.

By a "lie". I simply mean a statement that is untrue or misleading. The person who lies may or may not know that they are lying, in which case the word "lie" might be inappropriate. But there are always people within the system who know that the lies are untrue. They promote the lies anyway, because they serve their financial interests..."