Chris Hedges
September 26, 2022
As in the 1930s, a bankrupt liberalism, grotesque social inequality and
declining living standards are empowering fascist movements in Europe
and the U.S.
Energy and food bills are
soaring. Under the onslaught of inflation and prolonged wage stagnation, wages
are in free fall. Billions of dollars are diverted by Western nations at a time
of economic crisis and staggering income inequality to fund a proxy war in
Ukraine. The liberal class, terrified by the rise of neo-fascism and demagogues
such as Donald Trump, have thrown in their lot with discredited and reviled
establishment politicians who slavishly do the bidding of the war industry,
oligarchs and corporations.
The bankruptcy of the
liberal class means that those who decry the folly of permanent war and NATO
expansion, mercenary trade deals, exploitation of workers by globalization,
austerity and neoliberalism come increasingly from the far-right. This right-wing
rage, dressed up in the United States as Christian fascism, has already made
huge gains in Hungary, Poland, Sweden, Italy, Bulgaria and France and may take
power in the Czech Republic, where inflation and rising energy costs have seen
the number of Czechs falling below the poverty line double.
