This whole thing about Farage and the Establishment

[Birthdayfeel]

How has the son of a stockbroker, a millionaire public school boy, investment banker turned career politician managed to convince so many people he's one of them, acts in their interests, is not in fact part of the establishment but a man of the people?

You have to give credit where credit's due, it's very clever, but how exactly did he achieve it?

What an arrogant, dismissive non - response.

She also turns up for work, unlike Farage. I loathe her, especially since her comments about support for autistic children in school equating to giving them an educational advantage, but she isn't a lazy grifter. I have now for the first time damned someone with faint praise...

Yes, and that may be part of the problem. People natually don't like bwing tokd thet're stupid.

Disenfranchised people have needed something different, someone who hears them. Unfortunately they've trusted someone who only appears to do it to enable him to manipulate and exploit them, but that doesn't make them stupid, any more than the victims of other cults are stupid.

In a way, I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect her to be. I am sure when she’s at home or relaxed then she’s a different person. But don’t we all have different way of being at work? Her work is being leader of the Opposition which is tough.

Farage has none of that pressure. He can just be “common sense” or “just asking questions” which is much easier than Badenoch’s job.

I'm not a fan either, but I was impressed by her on that programme, and I do think she's been doing better politically recently. Until Farage shot himself in the foot, I was starting to think that a Tory resurgence under her improving leadership might be the country's best hope!

Yes she is doing better at PMQs. She has a better scriptwriter, and delivers quite well.

Exactly. It’s not that he’s some genius master manipulator, it’s because the people who fall for it are thick as mince.

Establishment and capitalist propaganda- the media, government, monarchy. They all have a vested interest in keeping the status quo. The system as it stands: market capitalism works very well for them.

And he's being helped tremendously by people like you. Even if they are thick (which often they're not) they don't like to be told they're too stupid to hold views.

Are you sure? Or are you merely adding to the familiar wall of hate speech? Blocking out any genuine, thoughtful discussion, with dismissive contempt for other citizens.

No they are not thick. Farage does something that speaks to them. He;

a) takes a point that has some truth
b) puts emotion on top of that
c) exploits a gap where these people don’t feel heard

They aren’t thick. They seem ignored and want to hear from someone who listens to them. The pity is that it’s only Farage they feel does that.

I didn’t say they were too stupid to hold views. They are entitled to their views and I’m entitled to say I think they are too stupid to apply critical thinking to the schtick Farage peddles.

I agree. Telling people what to think never turns out we'll. The problem is that people are being fed a narrative of blame that is unrealistic and unhelpful. It is however comfortable to hear.

The change the UK needs to make it more equitable for all is exactly what Farage and the establishment don't want to see. And sadly they control the narrative.

I have zero sympathy for the hardcore bigots out there, but that's not the majority at all.

He has a whole channel dedicated to bigging him up. KGB News.

Trump has done the same in the US. Born in to significant wealth and privilege but somehow perceived to be on the side of the ordinary people.

It's mind boggling to be honest.

Boris pulled off something similar. I never got it personally.

May I ask what made them like him in the first place, and then what put them off him?

I saw a vox pop from America before the last election there and a woman - middle aged, a bit shabby - was being asked who she was going to vote for and she said Trump. She was then asked why and her response was that if there are two people to vote for and you know in your heart of hearts that nothing is going to change at all with one of them, and there might be 1% of some actual change with the other, she was going to pick the one offering that 1% chance of change.

That's why people 'are taken in' by Farage. Actually, they're not taking in by Farage at all, they want change and they want most of all for condescending liberals to stop talking down to them and telling them what's best for them.

Sadly Farage is an out and out grifter, who may have just brought himself down with his own hubris. I've got a bet on Binface to win that election in Clacton.

This in an absolute nutshell.
You have to be a whole different level of stupid to believe that lying conniving shit is a man of the people.
In the words of Jim Royle, man of the people, my arse

He’s an excellent manipulator and many people fall for that I'm afraid.

I think I people vote for him be because of what he spouts! They know he’s not ‘working class’ because they aren’t stupid but they love the fact he’ll ’send them back to where they came from’ 🙄

When someone has a name that rhymes with garage, but pronounces it Fuh-raazh and not Farij , you know there is something a but tricky about them

In the eyes of Farage supporters, establishment means boring middle class people in suits who don't say or do anything controversial. The fact that Farage is chancer who has got rich from dodgy behaviour and says 'what he likes' is seen as anti establishment.
I think for a lot of people who are unlikely to ever enjoy wealth or success through conventional channels, he is aspirational. His wealth doesn't count against him, it adds to the allure because he's what they want to be.
If he lived on minimum wage in a council flat in Clacton he'd be nowhere near as attractive.