I think we can trace it right back to 9/11. When the planes flew into the World Trade Centre the world changed.
We were going along quite nicely – standard of living was good, we were getting on top of racism. Progress was slow but we were heading in the right direction.
9/11 and the wave of extreme Muslim terrorism sparked off a reaction. Fear created paranoia. There was a rise in racism and a surge of nationalism – kick out immigrants, shut the borders.
Populists seized their opportunity, rode this wave of fear and racism, stoked up hate and division and gained power.
Politics became extreme.
In the USA it resulted in Tea Party madness and then Trump. The rabid far-right populist loonies took over the Republican Party and transformed it into a fascist party.
In the UK we had the lunacy of Brexit followed by a take-over of the Tory Party by the ERG and the election of Johnson the affable populist clown (really a cynical narcissist).
The whole world lurched to the far-right with the election of nutcases like Bolsonaro, Oban, Modi, Erdogan and Morrison.
