Pandemics causing death are linked with increases in support for radical political movements, all the way back to the 1918 flu pandemic and the birth of 20th century fascism
Pandemics causing death are linked with increases in support for radical political movements, all the way back to the 1918 flu pandemic and the birth of 20th century fascism
"When and if fascism comes to America it will not be labeled 'made in Germany'; it will not be marked with a swastika; it will not even be called fascism; it will be called, of course, 'Americanism' " - Halford E. Luccock
Evidence linking past experiences of worsening health with support for radical political views has generated concerns about the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The influenza pandemic that began in 1918 had a devastating health impact: 4.1 million Italians contracted influenza and about 500 000 died. We tested the hypothesis that deaths from the 1918 influenza pandemic contributed to the rise of Fascism in Italy. To provide a “thicker” interpretation of these patterns, we applied historical text mining to the newspaper Il Popolo d’Italia (Mussolini’s newspaper). Our observations were consistent with evidence from other contexts that worsening mortality rates can fuel radical politics. Unequal impacts of pandemics may contribute to political polarization.
I wonder if it's a result of feelings of powerlessness and just a general impression that government is ineffective. It's almost on par with a foreign invasion, but it just seems like anything we do is just to try to mitigate or contain the effects. We can't actually "fight" these diseases as a society, it's this incredibly individual battle that each of us goes through, some of us make it, some of us don't, and that's it. You can wear a mask or reduce your exposure, or the government can give out tests, monetary aid, provide information updates, or whatever, but none of that tackles it head on, it's natural disaster that washes across the entire country. So people just get frustrated with it and realize that government can't really help them that much.
I think it is more about the fear of receiving harm from "others" outside their local group and placing the blame on those outsiders. Like blaming Gypsies/Travelers and other nomadic groups for things when they are around, or the antisemetic hatred based on myths of being society manipulated by Jews.
Pandemics remind people that there is a world out there that could affect them negatively and they want a group to be a part of and people outside that group to blame.
Obviously not universally true for all people, but a significant portion.
Something not considered in this paper, Post Viral Syndromes, may also be a factor. Though some acknowledgement of post viral syndromes dates to at least the 1950's, it's only with the COVID19 pandemic that modern medicine has really begun to take a look at this with some seriousness. These PVS's can affect many organs in the body, specifically the nervous system, and including cognition.
Evidence for Biological Age Acceleration and Telomere Shortening in COVID-19 Survivors https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22116151
Long COVID as a Tauopathy: Of “Brain Fog” and “Fusogen Storms” https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms241612648
Mounting research shows that COVID–19 leaves its mark on the brain, including with significant drops in IQ scores https://theconversation.com/mounting-research-shows-that-covid-19-leaves-its-mark-on-the-brain-including-with-significant-drops-in-iq-scores-224216
What does “text mining” mean for this paper? I took a glance and can’t find what there method was for it.
It looks like me like they just mean that their source for region by region how many people had died, and what the support was for fascism in the elections, was pulling the data from this one specific newspaper at the time.