There have always been dormant racists waiting to hatch but the concerted efforts and the real emergence happened around the Brexit/Trump first presidency time.

Not quite; the key event seems to have been the 2015 refugee crisis. The cleanest interpretation of the available evidence would be that Europeans just didn't have enough clear outsiders to trigger the near-hysterical reaction we're seeing now before that (the Roma being a clear example of how European societies treated clear outsiders even before Trump).

We certainly have had our own share of problematic groups but our society isn't yet rotten to the core in order to allow what's happening in the US right now with so little resistance.

I mean, Europeans are even more anti-immigration than Americans. For the most part it seems to be that European countries/societies are exporting their dirty work to the Mediterranean instead. Besides, I mean, FrontEx isn't exactly a bastion of human rights, and neither are national forces. The rot you describe has been in Europe from the start; it just wasn't visible unless you paid attention.

Edit: See also: https://fedia.io/m/leftymemes@lemmy.dbzer0.com/t/2583036/Good-imperialism-and-bad-imperialism

Yes but not by that much, they are already swimming in money rganks to Russia and some right extreme European oligarchs. 4mio from the US regime are pocket money for them.

You're ignoring the impacts of European oligarchs here. Ultimately in a modern democracy most funding for a political movement will have to be homegrown or it's never going to be enough to hit critical mass. If European oligarchs didn't want fascism it'd have never gotten as far as it has.

The problem isn't information; it's actual things happening in real life. The far-right is as strong as it is because its lies contain a grain of truth: It offers (cruel and ineffective) solutions to people's very real problems. This means the only realistic solution here is to deny them that grain of truth by offering effective solutions to those problems. Now some effort is being made here—it's no coincidence that the left is rising as if in response to the far-right—but more of that needs to happen and fast. The focus on misinformation misses the fundamental reasons that misinformation works as well as it does (after all it's not like lying was invented in 2016).

Could we build an AI network to fight this?

There's a reason why some very bright people in tech with decades of experience aren't dismissing AI whole cloth.

The dangers are vast. The social harm is a real effect. The brain atrophy is an actual pitfall to be avoided, even at the cost of tying yourself to the metaphorical ship mast.

But the possibilities are also real, else they wouldn't be using them against us.

The hatred is fine and all, but I really really wish the kind of people who frequent the Fediverse and spouted all of the encouraging anti-establishment stances...also minded their basic Sun Tzu:

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.

You get it. It's so obvious, yet most of the left doesn't seem to get it. But maybe it's influence operations making us think we are a minority.

We both know it.

I agree. Bastard still owes me for all the protesting.