To wonder if Nazi Germany felt like the UK does now, when they were creeping into power?

[oneggshellsforever]

Transformations in the justice system are happening, stacking the odds against disabled people having a fair hearing when they appeal sanctions or having disability benefits turned down.

They're getting rid of in person tribunals, and getting rid of expert panel members.

Disabled people are often successful when it goes to appeal, so the government seem to be systematically stripping the legal system of a fair trial?

Will start happening in October. What the government is doing to disabled people, and people with very little money in general, is chilling me to the bone. I honestly wonder if the feeling in the atmosphere was like this in 1930's Germany.

www.theguardian.com/society/2016/oct/12/online-benefits-appeals-tribunals-disabled

I think there is a growing positivity amongst ordinary people to be more positive about disability, thanks to the Paralympics, The Last Leg, Invictus Games, more visibility of people with disabilities on TV etc.
The Tories are screwing people with disabilities but then again, aside from the rich, who aren't they screwing?

There's a change in attitudes leaning towards an increase in isms which is being accepted.

Treatment towards disabled people is becoming more discriminatory, and as many threads on MN (where apparently posters are intelligent and enlightened) prove, people mainly don't give a shit.

All it takes is for good people to do nothing, and that's where we are right now.

I think there is a growing positivity amongst ordinary people to be more positive about disability, thanks to the Paralympics, The Last Leg, Invictus Games, more visibility of people with disabilities on TV etc

I also thought, after the London Olympic Games, that we were growing up as a country, looking more outwardly, and stopping living in the past so much. Then came Brexit. Public opinion is a transitory thing.

Do you think there was less discrimination for people with disabilities in the seventies, eighties, nineties even, than there is today NationalExpress?

Cowgirls things like that do raise positivity about disability, but unfortunately tend to encourage many to wonder why other disabled people aren't doing amazing things, and working and why they're claiming PIP (the lazy scroungers).
It's not a good example of people's attitude to disability, not for everyday disabled people anyway.

People didn't vote 'against' people with disabilities when they voted for Brexit

I agree with the boiled frogs analogy and wholeheartedly agree with Vestal and Bananas. The Nazis didn't become the Nazis overnight.

We seemed to be heading in the right direction, although I agree that things weren't good.
People know more about disability and are more aware, but there has been a shift in attitudes that must be in part deliberate because of the greater awareness, which makes it feel more disappointing.

People didn't vote 'against' people with disabilities when they voted for Brexit

I didn't say they they did. I was using it as a potentially clumsy example of not making assumptions about public opinion, as I had.

I doubt life for disabled people living in Britain in the 1930's was a bed of roses either.

And I feel that the Paralympics are a double edged sword. There are some people who watch it and say 'they are disabled, and they can do that! Why can't you work then?'.I've heard it said.
I personally think that it's IDS and his ridiculous 19th century 'Muscular Christianity' that's behind government policy towards the disabled.

But, as Labour got close to catching up at the last election, and with the momentum growing with them, they're sure to win the next election.

They'll reverse all the Tory policies. Right? Ergo, back to a normal political equilibrium of to-Ing and fro-ing, and the right wing back in their box for the next decade or so.

I don't see a problem in theory with testing those who want to claim disability benefits to make sure they are genuinely unable to work. Some people do scam the system - there was that woman a while back who was seen on facebook scuba diving when she had claimed she couldn't move her arms, and quite rightly it is being treated as a fraud case.
I also don't see why its an issue if people are tested regularly in case their condition does improve.
Unfortunately we can't just take people's word for it, otherwise every unemployed person would claim to be disabled to get more money. Only genuinely disabled people should get disability allowance, surely that's common sense?

I read an article once about how the "superhumans" branding if disabled people can be harmful. What if you're disabled and not a star athlete? It raises a point about acceptable and unacceptable disabilities. "how" disabled you are perceived to be definitely determines how you're treated.

Someone like Adam Hills, with his prosthetic you can't see, will be treated very differently to Joe Bloggs in a wheelchair, who will be treated very differently to Hannah Cockcroft. And that's just physical disability.

I'm not sure comparing disability now to disability 80 odd years ago is relevant?
Most areas of life now are very different than they were, health, education, security etc

I don't see a problem in theory with testing those who want to claim disability benefits to make sure they are genuinely unable to work. Some people do scam the system - there was that woman a while back who was seen on facebook scuba diving when she had claimed she couldn't move her arms, and quite rightly it is being treated as a fraud case.
I also don't see why its an issue if people are tested regularly in case their condition does improve.
Unfortunately we can't just take people's word for it, otherwise every unemployed person would claim to be disabled to get more money. Only genuinely disabled people should get disability allowance, surely that's common sense?

There are humane ways of doing this. While I'm not an advocate that we're on a slide towards fascism, PIP is administered in a cruel way and it's discriminatory towards those with invisible illnesses.
The reason that these cases make national news is because they're so unusual.

Fucking bold fail

Part of the problem with threads like this is that people rush to make sweeping generalisations: "disabled people are treated worse than ever" versus "disabled people are less discriminated against than ever". The fact of the matter is that both of those things can be true simultaneously, because society is complicated. We can be moving towards a very worrying policy context in political terms, where welfare for disabled people is cut by right-wing parties, while we simultaneously have a culture of media representation, often led by more left-ledaning units, that draws more positive attention to the achievements of disabled people.

Worth remembering that when the Nazi party 'won' the German legislative election of 1932, they only got 37% of the votes. Later, in the second election of November, they only got 33% and it was only by desperate coalition building that Hitler could put together a platform from which he could demand the Chancellorship (because he'd actually lost the presidential election). All caveats about the differences of national political systems aside (important thought they are), the important thing here as far as I can see is that it doesn't take a very great % of a population to start believing obnoxious, right-wing shit for things to begin to go very, very badly wrong.

I hope you are wrong op

Biggest load of fucking shit I have ever read on MN. Lefties hit an all time low. Nazi Germany my arse.

This post stood out to me:
Are you frightened of communists?
Do you go to the shops with your money in a wheelbarrow?
Do you blame the rest of Europe for the above?
There's plenty that can be inserted above the blaming Europe part, mostly hyperbole, misunderstanding and outright lies.

I agree with the OP. We may well be heading in that kind of direction. If we angrily deny it because they were Nazis and we're apparently better than that, which is very hard to believe when you look at social media attacking Gina Miller etc. Yet they were the same as us. We need to be careful.

Bemused's posts are all very good - don't think I have anything to add, except I wish everyone could post as thoughtfully. It would raise the standard of debate all round.

We are on the edge of something, there is no doubt about that. Future historians will probablynpinpoint 2010 as the start of it. Social historians will look at Channel 5 in particular, the role of the media generally in demonising the poor. Universal Credit will have a big mention. Gove and education will be important as will academies, exodus of qualified teachers and the rise of unqualified teachers. Political historians will critique Cameron, May and Trump. 2016/2017 will be seen as the years things could have changed.

I don't like the world my children are now growing up in and I am concerned there will be a World War 3 in my lifetime. Really fear for young people who will have to fight that war.

If you want to spot burgeoning fascism, don't look at the Tories. Look at the unpleasant cases fighting over UKIPs leadership. Look at the comments BTL in national newspaper columns. Look at those who praised Le Pen. Look at the white supremacists advising Trump. Look at the halfwits that share Britain First stuff about puppies on Facebook. These people are there, they're always there. There is an appetite for unpleasant populism in this country.
Big caveat; unless circumstances change (hello post-Brexit economic problems), I don't think we're off to fascism in a handcart.
We need to watch for it though.

As a disabled woman with a disabled child I say Calm the fuck down dear. Nazi Germany?!?! Fucks sake.