Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome

Similar to the Weimar Republic, many today have become disenchanted by the outcomes of an adherence by all parties to neoliberalism.

CALGARY—It feels very Weimar Republic in here.

The Weimar Republic is the wedged democratic period between imperial rule in Germany in 1918 at the end of the First World War, and the beginning of Nazi authoritarianism in 1933. Liberalism contextualized this period, which saw political uprisings, financial hardship, and curbed individual freedoms. Like the devastation from the First World War, the recent global COVID-19 pandemic has left western countries with inflation, and reduced individual freedoms—due to a public health crisis to stop a deadly virus—coloured by new social movements’ fights for equity. During this time, violence from the state was unleashed against participants of these various movements. Those with privilege felt their power threatened, and fought back by squeezing the control they had.