Dealing with pesky reptiles

A fringe Dutch politician said that he believed that world is ruled by reptiles and Vladimir Putin is the only person fighting against them. Watch the video for yourself, it’s in English.

It’s good for a laugh and to mutter about crazy people, but there’s something far more interesting in it. His party gets about 5% of the vote, and I’d wager that’s mostly sympathy because they are against corona restrictions and a few very unpopular local issues.

The beauty of a system like the Netherlands is that this sort of party gets votes, but is nowhere near the levers of power. Their best ideas that are actually popular, do eventually get picked up by mainstream parties. Nobody seems to be interested in playing Covid this year; it looks like there’s more appetite for a compromise with the farmers.

In a two-party system, if a fringe group like this takes over one of the parties, the country is in serious trouble.

I’ve written about this before with the Keyes constant: a certain percentage of any population, between a quarter and a third, is flat out bonkers. Success societies find ways to let them live in peace without letting them slip into power.

So yeah, this Dutch guy is off his rocker. But a party that gets 5% of the vote isn’t a threat destroying democracy in the country, nor should people overreact to them.