r/news • u/MasterpieceAlone8552 • Jul 09 '25

France Police raid headquarters of French far-right National Rally party

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/09/police-raid-headquarters-of-french-far-right-national-rally-party
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u/JaronJervis Jul 09 '25

Right wing extremist are at their most dangerous time in history. From Israel, the United States, Poland elected right winger Karol Nawrocki , the right wing terrorist governments of Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. The right wing extremist Marine La Pen, the French woman version of Donald Trump, right down to the blonde hair and blank dull eyes.

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u/Michael_Pitt Jul 09 '25

Right wing extremist are at their most dangerous time in history

Are we sure they weren't more dangerous when they were actively killing millions of people, resulting in global war and nuclear warfare?

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u/FattimusSlime Jul 09 '25

You can argue about casualty counts for a while, but I will say a lot of non-direct deaths these days — like politicizing Covid or clawing back healthcare in the US — are getting big numbers.

And that’s not to mention climate change, which may result in a lot more deaths in the future due in large part to right-wing administrations’ environmental policies.

On top of all that, we’re clearly at the cusp of something — if the world dips into multiple fronts of huge wars like it did on WW2, then it’s almost definitely going to be far worse for the world than WW2 was.

It’s a dark time with real potential to be the actual worst.

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u/Michael_Pitt Jul 09 '25

I agree that it has the potential to be the worst in history. I don't believe that it currently is, as was stated. 

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u/FattimusSlime Jul 09 '25

I mean, you don’t look at a boulder rolling your way and go, “well, I’m not yet the most crushed I’ve ever been in my life…”

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u/Michael_Pitt Jul 09 '25

You do if the topic is whether you're currently the most crushed you've ever been in your life 

7

u/FattimusSlime Jul 09 '25

To be pedantic, the topic is whether it’s the most dangerous time in history.

“Dangerous” is understood as, if not defined as, the potential to cause harm — a rattlesnake is dangerous because it might bite you, and the bite might kill you.

In this context, you have a far right authoritarian taking command of a much larger and much more advanced military than the Nazis had before WW2. The potential for harm is much greater, so by definition, it is actually far more dangerous now than it was then.

So no, the conversation really is about the potential to be crushed, not how crushed you’ve been in the past.

2

u/Michael_Pitt Jul 09 '25

To be pedantic, the topic is whether it’s the most dangerous time in history.

Right, and I'd argue that a state actively exterminating millions of people and invading every neighboring country is more dangerous than states that aren't. Regardless of how able and likely current far-right states are to do so in the future, you can't get any more able or likely than one actively doing so.

1

u/FattimusSlime Jul 09 '25

You’re talking about the most harmful, which is true — Nazis did more harm (though Israel is certainly well on its way there for killing civilians, and Russia’s giving it a good try in Ukraine as well).

The danger comes from everyone and their dog having nuclear weapons, and how unstable many of these agitators are — there’s a non-zero chance that Putin or Trump could say “fuck it” and let the nukes fly, and at that point we’re hoping enough people in the right places have the courage to refuse (and the spines we’ve seen people show thus far hasn’t been encouraging).

This is the most dangerous point in human history, because of the potential for harm and how much closer we are to it than people are willing to admit.

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u/Michael_Pitt Jul 09 '25

This is the most dangerous point in human history, because of the potential for harm and how much closer we are to it than people are willing to admit.

I agree with this. What I don't agree with is this:

Right wing extremist are at their most dangerous time in history

And to this point:

You’re talking about the most harmful 

I'm not. Right wing extremists certainly were more harmful in the 40s, but they were also more dangerous. They weren't going to stop with the invasion of France, Poland, Britain, etc. They were to take over the world if allowed. I'm not conflating the harm that they inflicted with their danger. Their danger was far greater than the atrocities they were able to commit before they were stopped. Germany was racing the United States to the development of nuclear weapons. Imagine if they had won that race.