- The US is currently bombing 7 countries. Tensions are heating up in eastern Europe due to Russian aggression and NATO expansion in the region. This is happening no matter what just because the American empire is losing power and regional powers are attempting to flex more muscle. - I honestly don't find nationalism to be an inherit evil. Nationalism is a tool in the political playbook just like any other. I am not saying that going from 0 to fascist is ok, but we have been sitting at about a 4 for a while now and it probably just got cranked up to a 6. - The Xenophobia has always been there. Growing up after 9/11 my family stuck american flags on our cars as a precaution against vandalism. I think what people are seeing is the lower 'deplorable' classes finally got equal access to mass communication that many of us have enjoyed for years and we are seeing those old tensions getting pushed to the front of our political dialog. Before now people in well to do areas could just ignore it. Also xenophobia isn't a unilateral thing, race relations in the US are terrible and small groups of every racial demographic make life hard for non racists in other demographics. I also think a lot of this, at least on the internet, has to do with push back against what is viewed as an overbearing cultural force from the political left. It's now edgy to be an ironic neo-nazi on the internet and if you tweet nazi memes at a journalist you might end up on the front of the NYT. - I'm fearful of Wilders more than anyone else up and coming on the world stage right now. Trump I think is overblown and I don't know much about Le Pen besides some of the questionable history of her party and her role in 'reforming' it.

Me being an Iranian american is relevant to this because we are one of the number one groups of people targeted in times like this in the US. Iran is a hostile geopolitical power to the US domination of middle eastern affairs. We are frequently singled out for likely 'terrorist' activities because of the mix of Islam, skin color and the past few administrations have been hinting that they are edging for conflict with Iran. If anyone is going to get rounded up into interment camps in the US it will probably be people like me.