We live in times of new religious wars. While in some regions of the world the old ones still persist, those between theistic religions, there are new ones elsewhere, namely those related to climate change, sexism and racism as well as health behavior.
Right-wing populists question climate change, at least the role of humans in it; for them, sexism is a left-wing invention, an ideology to delegitimize the traditional roles of men, culminating in the “gender ideology” that presumes to empower citizens speak, when the generic masculine includes everyone, similar to racism, and when it comes to health issues, such as non-smoking protection or nutrition, the “woken left” try to re-educate “normal” people away from their natural pleasure-loving dispositions for smoke and pork knuckles. And everything together serves to subjugate people and make them submissive to globalist elites, in this country until recently it was the Merkel dictatorship in Uckermark.
A narrative tool is used that the right-wing populists have adopted from the very “woke left” that they fight so vehemently: victim status. While women, non-whites, LGBTQ people or people with disabilities actually demand recognition and participation from a victim role, the right-wing victim role is one that draws its emotional energy from the perceived loss of dominance and can easily be exploited by right-wing populists.
Donald Trump was a master of this strategy. The Republican governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, obediently emulates him. In the current issue of “Blätter für deutsche und internationalpolitik”, Ella Müller, program manager in the Washington office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, describes how cleverly DeSantis is using the climate crisis for his culture war. On the one hand, he can no longer close his eyes to the consequences of climate change in Florida and is launching billion-dollar adaptation measures; on the other hand, he continues the ideological fight against the “woke left” unabated, including on the issue of climate change. Müller, for example, refers to the Preemption Over Restriction of Utility Services Act passed in 2021, which prohibits municipalities from switching entirely to renewable energies (ibid. p. 63): “Any form of subsidy or political support for renewable energies becomes illegal discrimination against fossil fuels Fuels explained.” Furthermore, pension funds in Florida are prohibited from withdrawing their investments from fossil fuels.
The role of victim is an indispensable tool because it can position such policies against the majority of the population. Müller writes that in the USA there is also a clear majority for climate protection and for more funding in this area. The left-green polluted mainstream, which is also being tried again and again in this country. Victimhood supports strategic anti-democratic politics.
A few months ago, prominent CSU politicians went to Ron DeSantis to “find out more”: Andreas Scheuer, Dorothee Bär and Florian Hahn. Scheuer then bluntly acknowledged DeSantis’ policy concept: “I share DeSantis’ analyses.”
Climate denial is not simply an expression of an intellectual lack of understanding of what is going on in the world. Exxon knew decades ago that the decarbonization of the economy was necessary and pursued a disinformation strategy modeled on the tobacco industry. It’s about the targeted protection of established business concepts and the associated power structures – with the role of victim as a front-stabilizing narrative, also for one’s own supporters, or in Müller’s words (p. 64):
“The excitement about possible government regulation of exhaust gases, heating or gas stoves on Fox News, in right-wing think tanks and among Republican politicians serves to confirm the conservative base’s feeling that it is under siege by a left-wing superior force.”
This production also works in Bavaria, as Aiwanger’s demagogic Erdinger speech in June impressively demonstrated, and of course it also works beyond Bavaria. As far as Bavaria is concerned, may reason in the CSU prevail over DeSantis sorcerer’s apprentices like Scheuer & Co.