A lot of people in the United States who lean more towards the neoliberal side of the political spectrum seem to have a love affair with Europe. Whenever somebody points out the idiocy of socialism they’re quick to point to Europe as an example of socialism working. Socialism certainly is alive and well in Europe but it’s mostly of the national variety, which means men wearing armbands first blaming and then attacking minorities:
Hundreds of masked men marched through Stockholm’s main train station on Friday evening, reportedly beating up refugees and anyone who didn’t appear to be ethnically Swedish.
Wearing all-black balaclavas and armbands, the men “gathered with the purpose of attacking refugee children,” Stockholm police spokesperson Towe Hagg said.
The biggest problem with socialism is that it’s a collectivist ideology. Instead of viewing people on an individual basis it encourages thinking of people as groups. When you strip away individuality it’s much easier to start blaming entire groups of people based on rather arbitrary labels such as where they were born or what religion they believe in. National socialism is slightly scarier because it doesn’t even pay lip service to all people being equal. Instead it preaches that the people of a particular nation are superior to all other people.
As Europe continues to circle the drain because of political decisions made decades ago fascism is beginning to surge once again and the target of its scorn are the newly arrived immigrants.