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How Dutch farmers became the center of a global right-wing culture war
NBC News / Comcast ^ | December 12, 2022 | By Patrick Smith

Posted on 12/12/2022 5:12:28 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer

Radicalized by conspiracy theories, some activists see the farmers in the Netherlands as the latest victims of an assault on Western civilization itself.

AALTEN, The Netherlands — Erik Luiten seems an unlikely person to be fighting a conspiracy to destroy Western society.

The tall, affable and soft-spoken man is more likely found tending to 150 dairy cows at his farm in the windswept green flatness of the eastern Netherlands. A sixth-generation farmer on this land, he knows the name of each cow and that of its parents. The vast barn echoes to pop classics, including “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley.

“There has been research on what music cows like best,” he said with a knowing grin, “and it’s not classical.”

Luiten, 52, is a national organizer in a campaign to stop Dutch government plans to potentially shut thousands of farms in order to reduce harmful nitrogen emissions by half by 2030 — a plan that critics say will change the country’s huge agriculture industry forever.

This grassroots protest movement has been driven largely by ordinary farmers like Luiten and their supporters, but it has another element: the far-right. Radicalized by the opposition to strict Covid measures and spurred on by conspiracy theories about “globalists” dismantling national democracies and importing nonwhite immigrants to majority-white countries, these activists see the farmers as the latest victims of an assault on Western civilization itself.

As conspiracy-driven Telegram groups, right-wing commentators and some lawmakers would baselessly put it, Dutch farms are being shut down to make space for asylum-seekers. Right-wing populists around the world have offered their support for the farmers’ stand, including former President Donald Trump, France’s Marine Le Pen and Poland’s far-right populist government.

But, in reality, many Dutch farmers are just trying to make a living.

(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: europe; farmers; globalism; globalwarming; hoax; netherlands; propaganda; socialism
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

I didn’t know that food consumption was a left-wing/right-wing issue. The possibility of world-wide food shortages causing starvation for some should be a concern for all.


41 posted on 12/12/2022 6:54:08 AM PST by CFW
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

New world odder not going as well as planed good deal.


42 posted on 12/12/2022 7:03:44 AM PST by Vaduz (LAWYERS )
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Politicians have stopped serving their people and now want total control over them


43 posted on 12/12/2022 7:07:57 AM PST by butlerweave
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
Radicalized by conspiracy theories, some activists see the farmers in the Netherlands as the latest victims of an assault on Western civilization itself.

The hatred just drips off the page.

44 posted on 12/12/2022 7:15:42 AM PST by libertylover (Our biggest problem, BY FAR, is that almost all of big media is agenda-driven, not-truth driven.)
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To: Da Coyote

NBC is the problem, not the right wing.


45 posted on 12/12/2022 7:43:17 AM PST by virgil (The evil that men do lives after them )
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To: Jacquerie

Don’t forget the qualifier, “without evidence”.


46 posted on 12/12/2022 7:45:19 AM PST by virgil (The evil that men do lives after them )
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To: D_Idaho

“So, eating is now a “right wing” activity. Got it!”


Correct. Your and my eating is a right-wing activity that must be stomped out. We are the eggs that need to be broken to create the omelette that saves the planet.


47 posted on 12/12/2022 7:47:03 AM PST by hanamizu
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To: Travis McGee

I can think of one queer, emaciated, bald-headed POS that this world definitely doesn’t need.


48 posted on 12/12/2022 7:53:56 AM PST by Dr. Thorne (The Media is the Virus.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Wow! Eating is now a Far Right Wing activity! Who knew!


49 posted on 12/12/2022 7:59:17 AM PST by Chgogal (Welcome to Fuhrer Biden's Weaponized Fascist Banana Republic! It's the road to hell..)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

It’s all just a “right-wing” conspiracy to object to the government seizing your land and livelihood?


50 posted on 12/12/2022 8:37:59 AM PST by Kazan
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To: popdonnelly

“large amounts of ammonia — which can cause acidification of soil and water”
That one phrase demonstrates the TOTAL lack of scientific comprehension of the zealots. Of course, the agenda is set by EXPERTS, so it must be taken on faith.


51 posted on 12/12/2022 11:11:32 AM PST by daifu
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Apparently right-wing radicalization now consists of any questioning of left-wing kookery. Good to know. Exactly why a sixth-generation farmer ought to be done out of his land because of “harmful nitrogen emissions” doesn’t even seem subject to any reality checking on the part of the reporter. It’s a government land grab, period, with as thin a veneer of rationalization as we have come to expect from the environmental activists. Why they’re doing it is interesting but secondary to the fact that they’re doing it, and it’s one way, those farms won’t be coming back.


52 posted on 12/12/2022 11:27:43 AM PST by Billthedrill
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To: Travis McGee
“Now, fast forward to the early 21st century when we just don’t need the vast majority of the population,” he concluded, “because because the future is about developing more and more sophisticated technology, like artificial intelligence [and] bioengineering,

The future used to be much more than merely two developing technologies. The width and depth of human experience, its arts, cultures, the full panoply of science, is being studiously ignored. Did the advocates grow up going to Museum Mile in NY City? Have they visited any museum in the outer boroughs? What about The Cloisters? And do they think such arts can be developed without an active human based background culture? Just because the leaders of the WEF are clearly not humanistic Renaissance scholars doesn't mean they have to kill of all humanistic Renaissance type scholars now alive or in the future.

If this is the result of Western oligarchism then it implies a certain decadence of the Western vision. Lose the empires in the wake of the Thirty Years War of the 20th century, and their leaders are searching and cannot find any proper goals worthy of a civilized culture. A movement to ram the influence of the West out of the rest of the world may be necessary for survival of that portion of humanity.


53 posted on 12/12/2022 1:01:58 PM PST by magooey (The Mandate of Heaven resides in the hearts of men.)
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To: Billthedrill; daifu; Chgogal; Oldeconomybuyer
Please read the posting if you wish.


54 posted on 12/12/2022 1:06:24 PM PST by magooey (The Mandate of Heaven resides in the hearts of men.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
But, in reality, many Dutch farmers are just trying to make a living.

Same thing for Canadian truckers.

55 posted on 12/12/2022 1:09:07 PM PST by 1Old Pro
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To: Travis McGee

Thanks, Matt.

L


56 posted on 12/12/2022 1:52:08 PM PST by Lurker (Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is.)
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To: Lurker

We do what we can with what we have while we are able.


57 posted on 12/12/2022 3:42:25 PM PST by Travis McGee (EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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