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Rightist populism is usually seen as a destructive force, threatening the existence of modern welfare societies. While this in most senses is probably true, there is another aspect to the explosion of populism which is usually negleted.

It is the assumption that the voters who vote for rightist or populist parties might actually be reacting sensitively to the combined climate and ecolocial crisis, confirming their threat by denying it. A simile would be the concept of "holes" in a semiconductor, determining its conductive properties in a similar way as electrons do.

If it is possible to inject the concept of "confirmation by denial" into general discourse, it will help to use the rightist-populist forces as a lever towards meaningful change by making it clear to the centrist forces that they cannot any longer delay the latter. At the same time this could attenuate the impact of rightist-populist thinking.

As recognized elsewhere, an important factor, often denied by the left, is the population ageing of western societies. While generally higher life expectation is a positive factor of course, the breakdown of the birth rates to levels leading to rapid shrinking is intuitively felt by large parts of the population as threatening, especially as it comes together with the migration of young people towards urban centers. The untenable motorized life style defended by both the rightist-populist and centrist forces must be made responsible for this. Again, the rightist-populist forces are much more sensitive towards this than the centrist ones.