The internet, when first ushered in, it was done so with a mix of hope, hype and fanfare. It was promised the internet would redesign culture (it has), it would be a portal to lots of free information ( it is ) and it would give voice to people no matter what they believed, an egalitarian paradise (it sort of was) .
Alas, as the wild west of cyberspace was taken over by big business, the usual gatekeepers, guarded the usual gates. Algorithms were set that created thought ghettos, where one can only see their own world reflected back at them.
This has created an odd form of brainwashing and a culture where it’s, almost, impossible, to have a reasoned debate, not just on the internet but also in “real life”… Worse than this it has made people hysterical in their intolerance of opposing views.
Nowhere is the hysteria more hysterical than when the cyber crowds think they have discovered a lack in a individuals “virtue” . They then use the supposed lack of virtue as a reason to claim the most fanciful things and outright decimate a person’s life.
In fact, in many ways, the current hounding of anyone who hasn’t managed to lead a moral life on a par with Buddha, is a modern form of witchhunt.
One of the biggest trigger issues for the ” identity politics” brigade is race or to be more exact perceived racism.
For me, I don’t judge by colour – I wasn’t bought up in an all-white English town in 1923 and I wasn’t bought up in Sussex, which is a hilariously white (middle class) place even in 2019.
I also see “right” and ” left ” as pretty useless terms that reek of lies and should have been left in the last century.
The council estates of Oxford (where I was born and bruised) were a mixed affair ( The poor from England, Ireland and Jamacia ..) All raised to be flesh and fodder for the local car factories- unless you wanted to be a hairdresser or in the building trade or a hairdresser in the building trade.
I mentioned this, as such a background fostered an understanding that came from experience and books, which is pretty much a universe away from the modern world where people seem to get most of their views and experience from the click of a mouse and cushioned “safe spaces”.
One of the odd things I have seen on the internet, as well as in the press which to keep up with demand has lowered its standards, is that things that used to be considered centrist politics or right of centre are now considered “extreme far right”.
Thus, both Ukip and For Britain are labelled “extreme far right” and anyone who is in or supports those parties are likewise considered “extreme far right ” and “fascists”. Thus, stigmatising large swaths of the population, who have never committed a crime and never wished ill of anyone. Not to mention stopping any form of open, truthful deabate
Myself, I would never vote for either Ukip or For Britain (I aim in a different direction) BUT I fail to see how both of them are “extreme far right”.
If they are it means the definition has changed, to something, which is, although not the best ideology, not THAT bad and quite understandable – it’s hard for some American’s to grasp, as the white skins there are visitors on a land that birthed coloured skin- it belonged to the native Americans. The South West is Mexican really. Whereas in the UK/Ireland the soil grew whites. Thus, it is a “white land” in that sense ( I’m talking for the last 1000 year and so on)
With that said, its human nature, especially on tiny Island for people to become “protectionist” . If you go to lots of “coloured” countries they are also “protectionist”.
To most people the “extreme far right” means Hitler loving, pure white skin worshipping, gay , black and jew hating killer monsters – the KKK in the USA , The Nazi party in Germany and in the UK the likes of the National Front and so on.
It sticks me as dishonest, at best, to stretch such an incendiary term to include parties like Ukip and For Britain.
Ukip are now merely right of centre, they only had one policy “leave the EU” and that “want” is a mainstream “want”, that was also favoured by Tony Benn, labour, and Jeremy Corbyn, labour, (for different reasons), not to mention 52% of the country.
They also had ITV television presenter Kilroy Silk and film/television star Joan Collins among their membership- these two are hardly Heinrich Himmler
For Britain are a party paid for by the “right wing” of Israel. they are a party that deals in “slight of hand”
BUT their manifesto is not extreme far right”- it espouses animal rights, tighter controls on immigration (much like the Conservative parties) and a crackdown on Sharia Law practises in the UK ( one law for all) .
Their leader, Anne Marie Warters, is a lesbian, animal rights lover, from Dublin who used to be in the Labour party. She is not an”extreme far right ” activist.
I am aware there are people with unfortunate idea’s in both Ukip and For Britain BUT there are in Labour and Conservative parties also- that’s what political parties are though. They are parties that are made of individuals with different ideas that come together for a general goal. I do maintain the general goal of both Ukip and For Britain, in terms of their party manifesto isn’t “extreme far right”.
To lump the likes of Kiljoy Silk, Joan Collins and Anne Marie Waters ( a gay, animal loving woman from Dublin ) in with Hitler and David Duke helps nobody…
Diarist 