catpower1980: I guess so as I was a far-leftist 20 years ago but turned far-right over the years seeing how the left turned out. I found very interesting to make comparisons between Brexit voters, far-right voters in France and the voters for Höfer in your country as they are what I would crudely call "the leftovers of the system"(damn, that makes me one of them ^o^). Actually most "nationalist" voters nowadays are the working class which got abandoned by the "neo-left" which is now more trying to please employees of the big cities because it's easier to cater to them. And naturally we can add the eternal duality between cities and the countryside into the mix.....
About the age of youngsters, it's normal there's a generation clash as for people over 30 like me, we still vividly remember the 80's and 90's, back when EU was not so prevalent so we can still make comparisons. On the contrary, millenials always lived within the EU system so they don't know that an alternative can exist. Then to get more ideological, I would add that the millenial generation has been raised up in comfort and as perpetual consumers. It then raises the question of the lack of resilience of this generation (due to medias and poor education) thus the idea of a technocratic Europe is more appealing as they can be spoonfed and don't have to choose politically-wise.
I can completely relate to your experience, the left has pushed me right in the last 6 months as well, though I never subscribe to an ideal completely.
For example, though I like my culture, I will always feel that other cultures are equally valid. I'll never go far-right because I cannot subscribe to the idea that one human being is somehow lesser or greater based on racial aspects.
The same as I was leaning a bit more left, I could never subscribe to the idea of communism, or Marxism, or whatever.
But lately the left has been more & more unreasonable, demanding & as evidenced in a few examples I provided earlier in the thread, every bit as fascist, if not more so, than the far-right, thus making the right extremely appealing in the current political climate.
And there seems to be an equal sentiment across the West, though I fear many people WILL subscribe to the whole pre-packaged ideals & won't be so picky. That solution is not what I want, either.
I just wish people would be a bit more centred. Not self-centred, as they are now, centred as in balanced in ideals, a bit of this & that, without subscribing to the more extreme ideals.
Your assessment of the millennials & their EU perspective is spot on. They claim old people can't be trusted, but that means young people can't be trusted either, as they don't know any better. Which is why denying the right to vote to subsections of the population is a horrible - leftist - idea.
There's enough arguments to deny everyone the right to vote. Well, except me, though I can't really be arsed to do it most of the time. :p
