The incoming economy minister has addressed a rally organised by neo-Nazis, while the Speaker of Parliament has a decades-long track record of race-related court convictions and deeply disturbing blog postings.
The public perception of these people is definitely a PR nightmare, but the real tangible worry for me is that they are, simply put, morons. Their competence is in social media marketing and criticizing others. When it comes to actual policy, they’ll mostly just go with whatever Kokoomus tells them to do - often hurting their own voters.
I think there’s a saying along the lines of ‘never ascribe to maliciousness what can be explained by stupidity’.
I’m not really well versed in Finnish politics, but I can say that I’ve met my share of high-functioning morons and I was glad they didn’t try politics, because they surely would have succeded. (Of course there are numerous examples from world politics of ones that have indeed succeeded…)
At least the racist type, yes. The economic right wing parties often contain somewhat smart people, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to do the damage they often do.
The public perception of these people is definitely a PR nightmare, but the real tangible worry for me is that they are, simply put, morons. Their competence is in social media marketing and criticizing others. When it comes to actual policy, they’ll mostly just go with whatever Kokoomus tells them to do - often hurting their own voters.
I think there’s a saying along the lines of ‘never ascribe to maliciousness what can be explained by stupidity’.
I’m not really well versed in Finnish politics, but I can say that I’ve met my share of high-functioning morons and I was glad they didn’t try politics, because they surely would have succeded. (Of course there are numerous examples from world politics of ones that have indeed succeeded…)
“High-functioning morons” - love it!
So basically any right wing party?
At least the racist type, yes. The economic right wing parties often contain somewhat smart people, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to do the damage they often do.