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Original poster

To think that some left-wing supporters are just so NASTY

999 replies

cathf · 22/04/2017 14:22

This is based on posts I have read on here and a couple of very vocal left-wing friends I have on facebook.
I have truly never read a Conservative supporter personally attacking Labour in the same way.
I find it astonishing and if I am honest, a bit childish.
Recent examples include a website pulling Teresa May's living room apart and costing out every single thing in it, to a chorus of comments along the lines of how can she sleep at night when children are hungry and she has a £25 candle.
Every time the subject is raised on here, there is a long thread of hysterical comments about how nasty the Tories are. Yes, Tory supporters state their case and answer back, but they seem to be able to do it in a more restrained, mature manner than outraged Labour screamers.
There seems to be a lot of personal bile aimed at Teresa May, which I am at a loss to understand - just what has she done that is so terrible?
She is pushing through Brexit, but that was what the country voted for. Is she supposed to go against the country's wishes?
All of Labour's policies look very lovely, but none have any substance at all. My friend recently stated on Facebook she was supporting Jeremy Corbyn because he wanted peace not war. And? How is he going to implement that then? It reminds me of the 1980s T-shirts stating War is Stupid. Lots of nice words, but to implementation strategies.
It amazes me that supposedly intelligent people seem to be so brainwashed by this nonsense and think that flinging mud is an appopriate way to behave.
Is it just me?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
10
stitchglitched · 22/04/2017 14:36

YANBU. I've only ever voted labour and I'm finding myself feeling increasingly alienated by the so called left.

Pinkandwhiteblossoms · 22/04/2017 14:37

Thanks for that article pig

The pity is there are good reasons for voting Labour Corbyn is not one of them so it would be nice to hear those and not just why you are a terrible person for not.

mirime · 22/04/2017 14:37

Oh, I've had plenty of right wingers be rude and unpleasant to me. Both sides can be as bad as each other, but it does seem sometimes as if the left is held to a higher standard.

BertrandRussell · 22/04/2017 14:39

"Is it just me?"

Yep. Just you.

Gertrudeisgerman · 22/04/2017 14:39

The conservatives and their voters may well be polite and mature but it's easy to be that way when you are used to being a privileged position.

Dismissing people's outrage at inequality and deeming them childish is just as damaging to society as being on the receiving end of that inequality and getting angry about that.

Does it not occur to you that when people are on the receiving end of poor policy decisions (that further the interest of privileged people and impact of the vulnerable) they act up? Dismissing them as nasty people who are 'whingers' just furthers the problem. It's hard to suck up poverty and the fact that I've got 25 quid to last me until payday. I work FT for the NHS and I'm educated but I'm also a lone parent after leaving a marriage with someone who broke my ribs and raped me. I've been screwed by money and privilege and I'm angry about it. If that makes me nasty you don't understand inequality.

LouKout · 22/04/2017 14:41

Its easier for Tories to call left wingers rude and nasty rather than look inside themselves and see some ugly values.

Pinkandwhiteblossoms · 22/04/2017 14:43

I understand you being angry Gertrude but - and I hope you understand I'm speaking frankly here in relation to politics - your personal life is not going to change many, if anybody's, mind. Obviously it's a pressing issue to you! But to the electorate as a whole it isn't.

Getting angry about how something has impacted on you is understandable in the day to day but extending that to political debate probably hampers rather than furthers your chosen party.

PhyllisNights · 22/04/2017 14:43

I've seen far worse comments from the right-wing, whether it's the UK or the US. There seems to be something quite inhumane about them, especially the further right they lean.

DavidbowieMime · 22/04/2017 14:43

I agree op, I think scales started to fall from eyes a while back but then Calais brought a no of things to my attention, why were Momentum flags present and young well dressed people in the midst of mirgants rioting and trying to board a ferry?

I have heard light hearted convos " would you let your child marry a tory/labour" and tory were light hearted jokey but Labour - deadly serious it was something they couldn't contemplate - failed as parent etc/

But Why would anyone think differently? There is this strange idea that being left means your nice - however trace back to the polictics of last century many more people slaughtered, imprisoned under so called Left ideals than right wing ones.

ilovesooty · 22/04/2017 14:43

If you have friends, Facebook or otherwise who you deem "nasty" perhaps you might benefit from reviewing your friendships.

Edballsisoneniftydancer · 22/04/2017 14:45

Well just going on you thread title OP, you are of course right. Some are. Some aren't. Just the same as with right wing supporters, though you don't seem to have spotted any of those. I have.

In fact you say that most of the post on here seem to have proved what you want to say, and I am not going to waste anybody's (or my) time by listing examples of the converse, but please be assured, you don't have to look very far to find them. In fact, oh look...

It amazes me that supposedly intelligent people seem to be so brainwashed by this nonsense

Entirely your right to call it where you see it: but please don't say it's all on one side.

misskelly · 22/04/2017 14:45

I don't think you can complain about left wingers being nasty just because they say mean things you don't like. We have a government in power who have introduced policies that are really damaging to vulnerable people, they are the nasty ones and those who vote for them.

Pinkandwhiteblossoms · 22/04/2017 14:46

I dunno if I agree with that, ils

I have friends on both sides who are actually lovely people but get them onto politics and they are dickheads. I have a friend who hunts, as in, foxes, and I find it abhorrent but she's been my friend since we were 11 so I do like HER, i just hate that aspect of her if you like. Some are the same politically.

MrsTerryPratchett · 22/04/2017 14:47

If you believe, as I do, that policies such as the changes to benefits for people with disabilities will kill people, then a little anger is probably justified.

I don't live in the UK any more. I used to be proud of the way that the UK had managed to give people with disabilities a semi-decent chance to live with a modicum of security. And trying to eradicate street homelessness was a pretty major plus too. Not any more.

I get a little ranty, shouty and annoying too. I'll own that. But when some of the right-wingers I know talk about Polish people, women or poor people the way they do, albeit calmly with a smug little smile, I reserve the right to be angry.

DavidbowieMime · 22/04/2017 14:47

BTW i have voted L far more often than R but dont feel I will be able to vote labour for some time now. They seem to be too extreme for my liking and patronising and blinkered.

Anon1234567890 · 22/04/2017 14:47

Yes a lot of my Tory friends think people were a bit daft electing JC.
But Labour voters literally seem to think the Tories eat babies for breakfast, murder disabled people for lunch, and starve 'the poor' to death for dinner. All the while laughing manically.

deliverdaniel · 22/04/2017 14:48

really? I think everyone's social media reality is different depending on their own friend list/ political views etc etc, and it can be easy to think that what we experience is the norm.

But this is so far from my experience I am genuinely shocked. I am left wing. I get some pretty nasty 'abuse' from right wingers all the time (from misogynist men on twitter who are sometimes outright abusive to right wing family members on FB who are just patronising and rude.) and don't get me started on the right wing press and their 'nastiness.'

LouKout · 22/04/2017 14:48

They might as well tbh

unweavedrainbow · 22/04/2017 14:50

Tone policing

Calling people who've experienced true horrors "nasty" is just a way of silencing those less privileged than you. It's easy to play the game if you haven't got a stake in it.

Gertrudeisgerman · 22/04/2017 14:53

Of course people's politics are impacted on by their own and the people they know and the every day experience. And of course people look at vulnerable people (like I was) and extend empathy to them and see that society fucks them over.

It's exactly your attitude - 'Well I'm alright John, things go well for me and their policies suit me' - that people take umbrage with. It's very individualist and also, I feel, short sighted. Nobody is an island and privilege and power don't always last. As a society, we have to treat each other equally. We have to, because inequality is so damaging. You don't need direct personal experience to understand that? Individualism is a significant problem in society. You can't deny or dismiss that surely?

RedSuitcase · 22/04/2017 14:53

Yes yes and yes!

It is possible to state political opinions without slagging off the opposition.
I have no issue with left wing voters at all, other than that I disagree with their opinion, I certainly wouldn't cast any personal judgements or observations on them based on their political leaning.

But because I'm right wing, that makes me selfish, elitist, money grabbing, pig-shagging, smug etc etc.

limitedperiodonly · 22/04/2017 14:53

I went to a post election party held by my then-boyfriend in 1987. I don't know whether you're old enough to remember OP, but it was a bit of a drubbing for Labour.

He encouraged us to wear our election colours, no hard feelings and all that, so I wore a red dress. It was a sea of blue, which I expected, given the area. What I didn't expect was the downright abuse from people who accused me of betraying our nation.

There was one girl wearing red shoes who said: 'You're brave stupid'

After about an hour I got into my Golf GTi and went home.

So don't talk wet.

SmileEachDay · 22/04/2017 14:54

OP maybe base your opinions on something a bit wider than "on here" and "fb posts"

WhamBamThankyouGeorge · 22/04/2017 14:54

Totally agree with you OP and it shuts down rational debate, then everyone is surprised at closet Tory voters come results time.

Sunshinegirl82 · 22/04/2017 14:54

There are a lot of things about the left I don't like, I probably align most strongly with the lib Dems but I could probably be persuaded to vote labour if they could convince me that if they got in they could operate as a working party with sufficient internal agreement to actually achieve anything. At the moment I'm not convinced.