People can try to hide behind labels like ‘non-interventionist,’ ‘pro-peace,’ and ‘pro-Palestinian.’ But that doesn’t change the fact that they are advocating a course of action that would strengthen the Authoritarian Axis and weaken the free world.
World War Two started with an alliance of the far-right and far-left. The German fascists and the Russia-dominated Soviet Union allied to destroy Poland.
The fascists and communists were both personality cults led by murderous dictators, both banned all opposing parties, both bombarded their populace with anti-democratic & anti-capitalist propaganda, and both ended up killing millions of people.
This far-left-far-right alliance against democratic nations is – in a strange way – ‘logical’ from the point of view of the extremists.
Most people are centre-left, centrist, or centre-right. There is a widespread agreement that democratic elections, individual freedom, economic freedom, and provision of social assistance to those in need are important, with a difference only in degree. For example, the average Canadian on the centre-left and Canadian on the centre-right have more in common than they do with people on the far-left or far-right.
The extremists recognize this and know that they can’t win unless they first destroy all trust in the democratic system and fracture the centre-left & centre-right.
Yet, even when working together, the far-right and far-left are still so marginal that they have little hope of taking power unless they get help from outside forces.
And since many regimes – like those in Russia, Iran, and China – have a vested interest in seeing free and democratic nations be weakened, those regimes are glad to help prop up the far-left and far-right – often both at the same time.
This is what we are seeing across the Western world today.
Large swathes of the far-right are now explicitly pro-Russia and anti-Ukraine. Large swathes of the far-left are now explicitly pro-Iran and anti-Israel.
They also oppose NATO, blame the United States/Western world for everything, and demonize the ‘military-industrial-complex’ in the hope that the Western world will cut military spending and make it easier for authoritarian states to get away with territorial conquest.
A dangerous moment
For reasonable people who identify with the centre-right, centre, and centre-left, who support NATO, and who believe in the importance of democracy and individual freedom, this is a dangerous moment.
Take a moment to think about how if the far-right and far-left got what they wanted, authoritarian states like Russia and Iran would get exactly what they wanted as well.
This is no coincidence.
At a time when we should be unified in our defence of the values of the free world, and when we should be united in building up our armed forces to dissuade aggression from the authoritarian Axis, we are instead internally divided by extremists who are mouthing the propaganda narratives of regimes that mean us harm.
Anti-Western extremists may hide behind labels like ‘non-interventionist,’ ‘pro-peace,’ and ‘pro-Palestinian,’ but that doesn’t change the fact that they are – wittingly or not – doing the bidding of hostile authoritarian states.
And so, just as the great democracies faced down the challenge of confronting fascism and then communism in the 20th century, we must do the same in the 21st century. The far-left and the far-right must be defeated.
Spencer Fernando
