Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU to think this quote sums up Tommy Robinson and his supporters?

323 replies

Gingerbreadtree · 15/05/2026 07:53

The quote is taken from the British philosopher Bertrand Russell's essay on Fascim in 1940,

"The first step in a fascist movement is the combination under an energetic leader of a number of men who possess more than the average share of leisure, brutality, and stupidity. The next step is to fascinate fools and muzzle the intelligent, by emotional excitement on the one hand and terrorism on the other."

To me it sums them up, but it sums up a lot of the far right in general. The same could be said about Farage and many of his supporters too.

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Whysnothingsimple · 22/05/2026 18:37

More so to Zack Polanski and his followers.

1dayatatime · 22/05/2026 17:55

mumumental · 22/05/2026 16:06

Well tbh I think no government could do worse with nationalisation than their previous owners. There plenty that really should be nationalised. I suppose if you support “Tommy Robinson”, you’ll think differently.

If you think Governments are efficient at spending money or running businesses then you are deluded:

https://dailybusinessgroup.co.uk/2026/05/hs2-costs-rise-as-trains-may-be-delayed-until-2043/

HS2 costs 'obscene' as trains face delay until 2040s – Daily Business

Taxpayers will be funding building work on the massively over-budget HS2 rail project for the best part of another two decades, MPs have been told.

https://dailybusinessgroup.co.uk/2026/05/hs2-costs-rise-as-trains-may-be-delayed-until-2043/

mumumental · 22/05/2026 16:06

Well tbh I think no government could do worse with nationalisation than their previous owners. There plenty that really should be nationalised. I suppose if you support “Tommy Robinson”, you’ll think differently.

Womanofcustard · 22/05/2026 13:40

“Hmmm - so Zac Polanski wants to nationalise key industries, does not see a place in society for those who oppose his views, hates capitalism, blames the problems we face on millionaires, billionaires and Jews and to top off he is also a vegetarian. Now who does that remind you of?”

Worth repeating!

1dayatatime · 22/05/2026 13:26

mumumental · 22/05/2026 12:53

Even though I don’t vote Green, I tho k the comparison of them with the far right is utterly laughable.

Hmmm - so Zac Polanski wants to nationalise key industries, does not see a place in society for those who oppose his views, hates capitalism, blames the problems we face on millionaires, billionaires and Jews and to top off he is also a vegetarian. Now who does that remind you of?

mumumental · 22/05/2026 12:53

Even though I don’t vote Green, I tho k the comparison of them with the far right is utterly laughable.

Icanthinkformyselfthanks · 22/05/2026 12:34

@Gingerbreadtree , this sounds like anyone on the extremes of politics to me including the far left and also people of extreme religious views.

Dollymylove · 22/05/2026 11:50

mrshoho · 16/05/2026 08:55

Who in your opinion do you class as right wing? Those with gender critical beliefs? Those who speak out about out of control immigration? I'd be interested to know which groups you wish to silence and banish.

Probably those whose daughters have been raped /murdered by illegals and those who object to little children being slaughtered at a dance class in the name of "diversity"
Thats who they want to ban

PhilMitchell82 · 22/05/2026 11:41

Tommy is very misunderstood. It is better to listen to yourself to what he says. every day his DMs are full of people who say I used to hate you I used to despise you and they now apologise for being wrong. Tommy was right about the grooming gangs and terrorism. He been talking about it for 20 years.

Best to hear from him yourself and make your own mind up.

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music that you love, upload original content and share it all with friends, family and the world on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/JyJrNcr5QVY?si=m-WC5OdIQXONObbj

Fgfgfg · 17/05/2026 19:26

InstantlyBella · 15/05/2026 21:02

The difference is that your examples are actually hurtful. A trans woman walking around with a set of cosmetic breasts is that person's genuine expression of their identity and not at all analogous to wearing an afro which is both racist stereotyping and cultural appropriation.

I suggest you look at Matt Rattley who works at Oxford University then come back to me about offensive stereotyping and appropriation

Moomintrolleys · 17/05/2026 18:13

InstantlyBella · 16/05/2026 21:39

Nobody is the best judge of being a woman other than the person who says they are a woman. You don't have access to their mind, you have no idea what they feel inside. So you just make a judgement based upon how you feel about men, which yeah I get men are horrible. But trans women are not men. They are women just like us. They are every bit the victims of toxic masculinity and patriarchy that we are, so why we can't have some solidarity with one another I have no idea.

Utter bollocks.

CornishDaughteroftheDawn · 17/05/2026 09:49

InstantlyBella · 16/05/2026 21:39

Nobody is the best judge of being a woman other than the person who says they are a woman. You don't have access to their mind, you have no idea what they feel inside. So you just make a judgement based upon how you feel about men, which yeah I get men are horrible. But trans women are not men. They are women just like us. They are every bit the victims of toxic masculinity and patriarchy that we are, so why we can't have some solidarity with one another I have no idea.

You don't have access to their mind, you have no idea what they feel inside.

exactly. And no man knows how women feel inside. Therefore they are not ‘feeling like a woman’, it’s just their perception of what it feels like to be a woman. By their own admission frequently driven by excessive viewing of porn. Or societal stereotypes.

All ‘transwomen’ are born male by definition so as they reach adulthood, they are men.

FlirtsWithRhinos · 16/05/2026 21:55

InstantlyBella · 16/05/2026 21:48

Oh wonderful, please answer my question but don't actually use the actual answer because I've decided I don't like that particular answer.

Nice try sweetie 🙄

Your answer was non-sensical.

If "woman" is just a feeling in someone's mind, and no one knows what anyone else is feeling, why are you so sure that trans "women" have anything whatsoever in common with female people at all, or even with each other?

How can this feeling, which individuals might all call "being a woman" but actually neither you not anyone else have any idea whether they are feeling the same thing or not, nevertheless be sooooo important that we overlook all the very obvious physical differences of sex and the undeniably different physical, social, economic and risk conseqeunces that comes with that difference, and say all the protections and rights, even the language and history, of female people is open to anyone who says they "feel like a woman inside"?

Do you really value female people so little as that?

Wearenotborg · 16/05/2026 21:50

InstantlyBella · 16/05/2026 21:48

Oh wonderful, please answer my question but don't actually use the actual answer because I've decided I don't like that particular answer.

Nice try sweetie 🙄

So you’re saying you can’t? Awesome. In that case you have just confirmed TW are in fact men.

Zov · 16/05/2026 21:50

Wearenotborg · 16/05/2026 21:34

Human bean? Is that a new Heinz variety? But don’t you think by demanding males be seen as women, they are invalidating women’s lived experience? Or do women not count? Why do you believe a man who says he’s a woman over a woman who says he’s not? Surely women are the best judge of who is a woman?

Human bean! Grin Epic typo @InstantlyBella 😆

Just playing with ya!😘

.

InstantlyBella · 16/05/2026 21:48

Wearenotborg · 16/05/2026 21:44

So can you explain what is a woman? If it is not an adult human female, what is a woman? How are you defining women to include all females and some males? Do try not to use gubbins such as “feelings” or outdated sexist stereotypes.

Oh wonderful, please answer my question but don't actually use the actual answer because I've decided I don't like that particular answer.

Nice try sweetie 🙄

Zov · 16/05/2026 21:47

This may have already been said, (CBA to read 300 responses,) but as the old saying goes, left wing and right wing are two cheeks of the same arse. They're both as bad as each other. I find some left wing, (particularly far left,) as repugnant as I find some right wing (particularly the far right...) I can't stand The Green party or Zack Polanski, nor can I stand Tommy Robinson.

Wearenotborg · 16/05/2026 21:44

InstantlyBella · 16/05/2026 21:39

Nobody is the best judge of being a woman other than the person who says they are a woman. You don't have access to their mind, you have no idea what they feel inside. So you just make a judgement based upon how you feel about men, which yeah I get men are horrible. But trans women are not men. They are women just like us. They are every bit the victims of toxic masculinity and patriarchy that we are, so why we can't have some solidarity with one another I have no idea.

So can you explain what is a woman? If it is not an adult human female, what is a woman? How are you defining women to include all females and some males? Do try not to use gubbins such as “feelings” or outdated sexist stereotypes.

FlirtsWithRhinos · 16/05/2026 21:43

InstantlyBella · 16/05/2026 21:39

Nobody is the best judge of being a woman other than the person who says they are a woman. You don't have access to their mind, you have no idea what they feel inside. So you just make a judgement based upon how you feel about men, which yeah I get men are horrible. But trans women are not men. They are women just like us. They are every bit the victims of toxic masculinity and patriarchy that we are, so why we can't have some solidarity with one another I have no idea.

Ah, so you are just an old fashioned sexist after all. Just as I thought.

InstantlyBella · 16/05/2026 21:42

Shedmistress · 16/05/2026 21:37

Elon Musk. Why can't you write his name?

And yes men are men. Because they just are. No matter what style of t-shirt they wear.

Whenever I see his name it triggers some pretty traumatic memories of my experience with hateful incels on twitter, and I'd rather not have to be reminded of the hurtful things they said. Sorry.

InstantlyBella · 16/05/2026 21:39

Wearenotborg · 16/05/2026 21:34

Human bean? Is that a new Heinz variety? But don’t you think by demanding males be seen as women, they are invalidating women’s lived experience? Or do women not count? Why do you believe a man who says he’s a woman over a woman who says he’s not? Surely women are the best judge of who is a woman?

Nobody is the best judge of being a woman other than the person who says they are a woman. You don't have access to their mind, you have no idea what they feel inside. So you just make a judgement based upon how you feel about men, which yeah I get men are horrible. But trans women are not men. They are women just like us. They are every bit the victims of toxic masculinity and patriarchy that we are, so why we can't have some solidarity with one another I have no idea.

Shedmistress · 16/05/2026 21:37

InstantlyBella · 16/05/2026 20:09

I'm getting really sick of the patently bigoted way that so many people online think that they can behave thanks to he who shall not be named buying out twitter and turning it into his own personal rage site. Would it actually kill you to be a decent chuffing human being and not refer to trans women as 'men'? How dare you invalidate a human beans lived experience.

Elon Musk. Why can't you write his name?

And yes men are men. Because they just are. No matter what style of t-shirt they wear.

Wearenotborg · 16/05/2026 21:34

InstantlyBella · 16/05/2026 20:09

I'm getting really sick of the patently bigoted way that so many people online think that they can behave thanks to he who shall not be named buying out twitter and turning it into his own personal rage site. Would it actually kill you to be a decent chuffing human being and not refer to trans women as 'men'? How dare you invalidate a human beans lived experience.

Human bean? Is that a new Heinz variety? But don’t you think by demanding males be seen as women, they are invalidating women’s lived experience? Or do women not count? Why do you believe a man who says he’s a woman over a woman who says he’s not? Surely women are the best judge of who is a woman?

FlirtsWithRhinos · 16/05/2026 20:44

InstantlyBella · 16/05/2026 20:09

I'm getting really sick of the patently bigoted way that so many people online think that they can behave thanks to he who shall not be named buying out twitter and turning it into his own personal rage site. Would it actually kill you to be a decent chuffing human being and not refer to trans women as 'men'? How dare you invalidate a human beans lived experience.

Calling trans "women" women invalidates my lived experience as a person living my life with all the physical, social, economic and cultural consequences of being female.

Why do you think a man's self image as a woman because of something in his mind is more relevent to what I am than my own?

Do you really believe the difference between men and women is not simply our bodies but something in our minds? That some ways of thinking make a person a man, and others, a woman?

I'm sorry, but if your perspective on men and women truly is that sexist, then I give your concept of "bigotry" as much credence and respect as I do that of TR and his fans when they complain of the "racism" suffered by white people.

Petrolitis · 16/05/2026 20:41

Gingerbreadtree · 15/05/2026 08:17

There is a lot of money to be made in fascism. Detention centres, guards, free labour. Look at German history and you will see that German big business were huge supporters of Hitler. Companies which still operate today like Siemens got free slave labour in concentration camps. Fascism and capitalism go hand in glove, that's why money is being poured into parties like Reform.

Exactly this.

Always follow the money.

I was recently at Auschwitz and do you know what got me, what made me feel the weight of what had happened there, what made me cry in public, what made me furiously, incandescently angry and feeling like I couldn't get a breath?

Not the hideous accommodation blocks, not the gas chamber, not the piles of shoes, or the spectacles or the train tracks not even the room of human hair.

What hit me in the deepest part of my soul was a glass case with a type of carpet underlay made from hair from Jews who arrived there. It was processed by forty factories.

Forty.

Forty factories owned and operated by people processing the hair of murdered men, women and children. Quite literally industrialising the materials of murder. To carpet homes.

How could that many people be complicit, how could people profit from this and live with themselves?

It turns out many can, and indeed men like Tommy Robinson, Donald Trump and Farage revel in it.

Swipe left for the next trending thread