I agree with you that it’s systemic. If I look around me (I live in NL but I also see it across the border), people have just become more right-leaning. Talking about foreigners like they’re the problem, blaming them for stuff, it’s all part of “normal” conversation to them now. This really changed a lot the last 5-10 years, before that there was maybe the occasional nut job but everyone else was pretty moderate.
If anything, being locked in their houses for so long and the (at times pretty intense) discourse around getting vaccinated is what drove a big wedge between groups of people that were before able to discuss things in a somewhat civilized way. I don’t think Putin had much to do with that but he sure profited from it.
I agree with you that it’s systemic. If I look around me (I live in NL but I also see it across the border), people have just become more right-leaning. Talking about foreigners like they’re the problem, blaming them for stuff, it’s all part of “normal” conversation to them now. This really changed a lot the last 5-10 years, before that there was maybe the occasional nut job but everyone else was pretty moderate.
If anything, being locked in their houses for so long and the (at times pretty intense) discourse around getting vaccinated is what drove a big wedge between groups of people that were before able to discuss things in a somewhat civilized way. I don’t think Putin had much to do with that but he sure profited from it.