Ecoblogi – A Blog by Daniel Elkama

In Finland, a couple of months ago, the right-wing and left-wing parties had almost equal results in elections, but the right-wing bloc got slightly more votes. This has led Finland to move in the direction of the extreme right, like a pendulum movement, especially because the government that just started its operation has an extreme right-wing, racist and fascist party, the Basic Finns. The previous Sanna Marin's government was very progressive, feminist, promoting the rights of minorities and the poor, and liberal and promoting equality. It is sad how Finland now changed its direction towards recession, hatred and anti-liberalism.

The new government is formed by the conservative Coalition Party, the Christian Democrats, the Swedish Nation Party and the Basic Finns. Many thought that the more liberal Swedish Nation Party, known as a civilized party, would not join the government of extreme conservatives and populists. However, the opposite happened. The Christian Democrats, which has been promoting love of neighbor and caring for the weak as Christian values, was ready to sell its values in a cow trade to get the ministerial portfolio. With Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, the Coalition Party, which also has a more liberal civilized bourgeois wing, now moved to a more right-wing and conservative policy than any previous government since 1918, when after the civil war the left-wing hating white government that won the war ruled. Whites, e.g. executed more than 7,000 and starved to hunger and disease in prison camps about 12,000 Social Democrstic Party supporters who attempted a red socialist revolution. We can talk about genocide and ethnic cleansing. For example, the writer Ilmari Kianto incited to kill as many red women as possible, so that no more SDP supporters would be born. Before and after the civil war, the SDP was a very moderate labor movement that strove for social justice. A hundred years ago, the position of the worker was bad and the rights of squatter farmers were trampled upon.

In the 1920s and 30s, a strong far-right movement arose in Finland, including the IKL or Isänmaallinen Kansanliike, otherwise known as the Lapua movement. The Lapua movement even tried a revolution in 1932, which fortunately was prevented by President Svinhufvud. These events are known as the Mäntsälä Rebellion. IKL e.g. circulated the book The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which presents lies about a "worldwide conspiracy of Jews and Freemasons". There is no evidence base for these false claims. The fact that modern Judaism is global and emphasizes world citizenship is no prove. Human rights abuses by the state of Israel certainly do not mean that all Jews are bad. Many Jews oppose Israel's current apartheid policy. The Freemasons, on the other hand, are an elite club with power, but certainly not to the extent that it rules the world.

These crazy anti-Semitic conspiracy theories are still alive: in the USA, crazy Trump supporters have even claimed ridiculous lies in Congress that Jews are warming the climate with HAARP and setting forest fires with space lasers. These climate denialist ideas are dangerous because they are scientifically believed by many ignorant and uneducated, sometimes even educated, people. HAARP's power of a couple of megawatts is equivalent to a wind turbine, because the climate is not heated much. HAARP actually studies the aurora borealis and the Earth's magnetic field. Climate denialism is one of the most dangerous forms of non-science based disinformation. Climate change is a threat that endangers the existence of the entire biosphere. Climate denialists are a real threat to valuable climate work. Nationalists, on the other hand, endanger international cooperation. Global problems can only be solved by globally agreeing on them and cooperating.

Conspiracy theories are often born from lack of education, ignorance and people's insecurity. Uncertain times, for example economically uncertain, fuel these theories. The rise of the Nazis and the IKL in Finland immediately followed the economic crisis of 1929. In fact, the ideology of the extreme right is largely built on disinformation like this. Conspiracies and fake news are widely believed in the extreme right. A large part is propaganda and disinformation spread by Russia, such as that there are Nazis in Ukraine, even though the president of Ukraine is Jewish. A hundred years ago, there was some extreme right-wing movement in Ukraine, which Russia now uses in its propaganda. Ukraine is an innocent country that has been aggressively attacked by the dictator Putin's Russia because of its imperialistic desire for expansion. There were neo-Nazis in the Ukrainian Azov battalion, but only 1% of the men. In other words, Russia's claims about the neo-Nazi battalion are pure lies.

The aforementioned Putin and Trump are the most dangerous people in the world. They are both anti-liberal and far-right, greedy and evil gamblers, possibly psychopaths. They only think of their own interests and are power hungry. They are especially fascinated by power. There is a very high risk that Trump will become president again. In the USA, he is very popular among the ignorant and uneducated people of the South and Midwest. In many other countries, including the formerly very democratic Poland, Hungary, etc., the extreme right has also taken power for itself, which can be seen, for example, in the oppression of minorities. India is ruled by an extreme nationalist Hindu party. Brazil had the authoritarian Bolsonaro. The same trend also led to Brexit. Brexit was absurd. The EU is one of the best things that has happened to Europe, it has brought peace, equality, freedom and stability. It has been a clear trend globally since 2008 that the extreme right is rising. No one seemed to know how to foresee this when the Soviet Union collapsed, when they talked about the "end of history". The world was still nowhere near finished.

The rise of the extreme right began with the 2008 economic crisis. It was also followed in Finland by the "jytky" of basic Finns in 2011. The previously insignificant right-wing populist party became one of the big parties. Economic crises cause malaise, which feeds suspicion and anger. Racism is fundamentally based on fear. In Yoda's words: "fear, anger, aggression." This is exactly the path that eventually leads to violence against minorities, nationalistic fascism and racial doctrines. The evolutionary explanation of racism can also be seen in how Stone Age tribes were often afraid of communicable diseases coming from outside the community. Nowadays, there is no reason to fear that foreigners will bring diseases with them. Philosopher Hannah Arendt explains how totalitarianism is created when people are separated and have no influence. Isolation feeds fear and lack of influence feeds disappointment with society and extreme thinking and extremism. Separated people are also ignorant and susceptible to the lies of populist rabble-rousers like Trump. The so-called charismatic leader then easily gains power for himself. The cure is cooperation, when people are together and cooperate, and when they have power, extremism and totalitarianism cannot rise.

This historical overview helps to understand the rise of basic Finns in Finland as well. Even more precisely, the roots of the conservatism advocated by basic Finns are in the response reformation initiated by the Catholic Church in the 16th and 17th centuries. The narrow-minded, reactionary and hostile popes and cardinals wanted to destroy the reformation and the spread of freedom and equality driven by Luther and others. This eventually led to the 30-year war between the "North" and the "South". The Catholic Church wanted to restore hierarchies and an anti-liberal world, if necessary scientists and reformers were burned at the stake like Bruno. Bruno had claimed that the universe was infinite, and this made the Pope furious. The Age of Enlightenment, which began in Britain and France in the 18th century, led to the rise of science, democracy, freedom, fraternity and equality. However, throughout the centuries, anti-liberal forces fought against the Enlightenment and the liberal good worldview. The flame of the Enlightenment was tried to be extinguished by popes, cardinals and kings. Those who were in power, and whose absolute power was threatened by the Enlightenment and new ideas.

Socialism was also born in the 18th century, the background of which were e.g. medieval workers' guilds and peasant shops. Pubs and cafes that emerged in the 17th century promoted people's meetings and revolutionary ideas. Socialism is not the same as communism, which Marx developed in the middle of the 19th century at the request of the labor movement. Communism is just one branch of socialism. Socialism is an idea that aims to promote a fair, democratic and equal society. It already has its roots in ancient Greece. In the long run, socialism and the Enlightenment created what we call the welfare state and liberal democracy. This was combined with the liberal market, which the Scotsman Adam Smith wrote about in the 18th century. By the way, Adam Smith was a moral philosopher who always talked about how the market economy must be ethically sustainable.

The rise of basic Finns is therefore part of the battle between liberalism and anti-liberalism, the battle between good and evil. Basic Finns represent regression, old age, inequality and evil. Right-wing populism is most defined by the fact that it opposes freedom and equality, also brotherhood, i.e. cooperation and solidarity. Banker Björn Wahlroos greatly admires the American thinker Ayn Rand, who says that everyone should fend for themselves and there is no morality. Very dangerous thoughts. Destruction and exploitation capitalism are based precisely on the fact that no one has responsibility for anything and greed is the driving force behind everything. Right-wing thinking is generally based more or less on this ideology of inequality and greed. The Dalai Lama said it well: "The task of the economy is not to promote people's selfish interests, but to comprehensively promote the well-being of society as a whole." To this must be added the well-being of nature and sustainable development.

To return to basic Finns. Now this racist party is in government, which can be seen e.g. as the removal of development cooperation money, the decrease of social benefits for the poor, the deterioration of the position of the employee, the deterioration of nature conservation, the termination of climate work, the trampling of the rights of minorities, the increase of hate speech, recession and old fashioned thinking. Basic Finns are a curse to Finland, bringing only bad things. Many voters of basic Finns feel that they have been cheated. It is sad that this extreme right-wingism is often cloaked in Christianity, as Trump does, even though basic Finnishness and right-wing conservatism have nothing to do with Christianity. Jesus taught to share, help and love your neighbor. The Bible says that a person should cultivate and protect the world like a good gardener. The hatred, bullying, inequality and destruction of nature represented by basic Finns are far from Christianity. It is also sad that the Christian Democratic Party became an auxiliary party for basic Finns and at the same time forgot the Christian values of love of neighbor.

We have constantly read about the racism of basic Finns in the media. Most recently, Minister of Basic Finns Vilhelm Junnila joked about Hitler and spoke at a neo-Nazi event. MEP Teuvo Hakkarainen drives a car that says "matu (invader), where you come from, there you go. A guest of MP James Hirvisaaari gave Nazi salutes at the Parliament, which Hirvisaari photographed. In Ruovedi, the Basic Finns' office had Nazi flags in the windows. In Lieksa, the Basic Finns demanded the disinfection of the meeting space, when Somalis had been there before. Basic Finns support waving the Nazi flag on Independence Day. These Nazis organize a torchlight procession every Independence Day 6/12 that causes disruption, inconvenience and distress to other people who would like to enjoy Independence Day. Basic Finns proposed that Finnish citizenship should be granted only to those whose family has lived here since the 14th century. The racism of basic Finns is nauseating. The Speaker of the Parliament, Jussi Halla-aho of Basic Finns, has said, for example, that he is a proud Aryan and that he wants to shoot "Tehtaankatu gay". Halla-aho has also been convicted of hate crimes. Li Andersson and Dan Koivulaakso's book Extreme Right in Finland describes very clearly how the Basic Finns party is connected to neo-Nazis, such as Suomen Sisu and the Nordic Resistance Movement. Professor Oula Silvennoinen has studied the extreme right and has shown that Perussuomalaiset is linked to neo-Nazis and represents anti-liberalism, racism and hatred. Certainly many Basic Finns would like to put people in ovens. This is shocking and inexcusable.

Basic Finns is a party that shouldn't even exist. It should be banned as against democracy, equality and a liberal society. The Finnish constitution requires parties to respect democracy. Basic Finns do not respect liberal democracy or human rights. It is dark that such a party has come to power in Finland. Let this be a warning example to other countries, so that the extreme right would not come to power there. No matter how long these anti-liberals are in power, history will move on and courage, freedom and enlightenment will win, sooner or later. Old age and backwardness wither into their own absurdity.

Daniel Elkama