As I read this post at Bloomberg on how the Netherlands has become increasingly anti-immigrant, this passage leapt out at me:
This being the Netherlands, a trading nation that prides itself on its ability to find a consensus, this tug of war will eventually result in some kind of compromise. Though Wilders probably won’t govern after the March election since no big party wants to form a coalition with PVV, Niemoeller expects his strong showing to shift the national consensus. “We have these almost mystical changes,” he says. “Our elite changed to a 60’s liberal mentality in one summer. We went from rejection to acceptance of euthanasia in one summer — nobody could see why. So maybe we’ll end up agreeing that Islam is a big problem in the same way.”
I’ve written before about the differences between large, extremely diverse countries like the United States and small, homogeneous countries like some of the ethnic states of Europe. Sometimes whole countries aren’t unlike a large, extended family.
One of those differences is that opinion has tended to be uniform but that does not necessarily mean unchangeable. It means it can turn on a dime.
Due to past several generations of American runaway capitalist (read de Benoist on the deleterious effect of capitalism on Culture) occupation and influence.