For me a lot of this goes back to 2008/GFC.
At times of hardship, there is a general tendency for members of the populace to veer towards various forms of extremism.
The hardship over the past 8 years has been, to an extent exacerbated by austerity politics. In reality, I doubt that is about to change. For all the rhetoric, May and Hammond will carry on cutting funds that support services used by low middle class people and below.
The matter then becomes exacerbated by issues like the EU referendum, and the likes of farage extolling the virtues of lazy racism, stereotypes and soundbites that "those strange looking/sounding people are out to take what is yours" (when in reality the richest proportion of society are entrenching and strengthening their positions and wealth). The message this sends out (in the absence of a reasonable media/opposition challenging such overt racism) is that the disaffected see it as being acceptable to socially hold such views.
As time passes, additional events re-enforce such beliefs, and these beliefs become more prevalent, widespread, and start transferring across cultures.
The notion that fascism/extreme views has become cool is misplaced. It hasn't really. What has been changed, is social values and perceptions of what is, and what isn't acceptable behaviour. Still very worrying though.
