There's evidence that global warming creates fertile ground for political strongmen to come to power.
  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldMEnglish
    265·
    1 month ago

    If that were the case, climate change caused the entire Roman Empire, the Chinese empire, the Mayans, the Songhai, all of feudalism…

    • treefrog@lemm.eeEnglish
      91·
      1 month ago

      Scared people want strong leaders (a daddy) to tell them it’s okay, it’s not the climate, it’s the queers, migrants, etc. And Daddy’s going to fix it.

      Blame may not be the right word. But the destruction of our environment and everything that goes with it, certainly gives authoritarianism an opening.

      Judith Butler goes pretty deep into this in Who’s Afraid of Gender? Of course their analysis focuses mostly on how gender queer people end up being targeted. But the unnamed fear of climate destruction is a big factor. And trans people one of many scapegoats for power hungry demagogues.

        • njm1314@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          1 month ago

          Not entirely sure climate change couldn’t just be argued to be the cause of all the others there.

          • SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            1 month ago

            You can have succession wars, incompetent inbred rulers and overexploitation without any climate change. But climate change would make it more likely to happen and make the outcome worse.

    • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      38·
      1 month ago

      Who upvotes this nonsense? lol.

      The causes of problems today are not necessarily the causes of problems for mayans, ancient romans, etal. It’s sad that I have to say this.

  • FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    162·
    1 month ago

    Or maybe a broken political and economic system is causing a gathering of wealth in the hands of the 1% which is a major factor behind both climate change and increasing authoritarianism

  • the_crotch@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    2·
    1 month ago

    It was 9/11 butterfly effect. The US’s wars caused a refugee crisis, xenophobes across North America and Europe got their panties in a bunch about all the new brown people, turned to nationalism. New (and popular) authoritarian anti terrorism laws probably didn’t help either.

  • Jerkface (any/all)@lemmy.caEnglish
    2·
    1 month ago

    I have had the belief for a few years that the rise of fascism is an emotional response to being afraid of an uncertain future that people feel like they have no power over.