AIBU to be worried about the normalisation of far right politics?

[Apileofballyhoo]

Just that really. I'm interested in what people consider to be far right and what people think causes it and what should be done about it.

I think it's caused by inequality and people feeling hopeless.

I can’t imagine someone who wasn’t a total racist cunt would do something like that just because of Brexit at which point Brexit is just an excuse for a racist cunt to open their big fat racist mouth. Honestly I’d probably be relieved to know who the cunts were so I could shun them.

Yeah obviously those people were always racists, but they now feel they can openly say those things, whereas before people used to keep quiet about it.

People will always be racist, because some people are arses, but id be much happier if they didn’t feel the need to harass me, DP and the DC.

@LeahJack - if it’s ok for the countries of Eastern Europe to not accept mass immigration then they should disused their countrymen from emigrating on mass to Western Europe. It works both ways. Can’t move without seeing a Polski Sklep or seeing cans of high strength EE beer chucked on the ground.

Just look at the vitriol on this thread. 'Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold'. After the referendum when all politicians were running about like headless chickens I said to my grandchildren this is how dictators arise and civil wars begin. We need to take this seriously and stop fighting amongst ourselves. Divide and conquer.

Who are the radical left?

...and I say that as a mixed race remain voter - although to be fair I did that purely for economic reasons and the fact there appeared to be no plan in place as opposed to wanting FOM to continue in it’s current form.

It is Seren. Very disconcerting.

We need to find a way to combat left v right polarization, which I think is stoked by traditional and conservative media. Polarization breeds extremism.

It’s exacerbated by people on both sides. Some on the left are far to quick to lump in moderate conservative beliefs with those of new-Nazis and some on the right are far too quick to respond to legitimate concerns about the far right with “what about about the Left?”

Far right ideology is on the rise and will continue to grow if moderates on both sides can’t find a way to focus on their shared values.

Just to clarify my above post, I meant to say traditional and social media. Had a brain fart.

My foreign looking (not black or Asian) English friend has definitely noticed a rise in racism. He was yelled at in a supermarket carpark and told he'd "have to go home now" quite recently. Completely unprovoked. He really is the sweetest guy.

Of course, the racists have always been there, just that they feel legitimised now. It has become acceptable to blame minority groups for all our problems. The idea that there's no money because of the immigrants for eg, even though it's been shown that it is economically beneficial to have immigrants. Carefully ignoring the whole austerity dogma, which has completely failed to fix the economy and left many people in need without the support that they should be entitled to from a civilised society.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/17/austerity-minorities-women-disabled

@smileyourheaetisbreaking is it any wonder that some brown and black people have an issue with Eastern Europeans when they KNOW how they would be treated in Eastern Europe? Watch how non-white football players are treated in EE and then come back.

Personally I have no issue with EE people and have a very diverse set of friends and family but don’t act like brown and black peoples concerns are just because they are racist. Their concerns come from a place of genuine fear that people from countries which hate immigration will come here on mass and bring their backwards racism with them and many of them are unbelievably racist. I have a friend who can understand Polish who knows what’s said. I know someone who went to a predominantly EE frequented pub to watch England verses Croatia and had to leave because he was upset by the sheer volume of people chanting ‘fuck England’. Do they sound like innocent victims who want to live in peace and harmony to you?

Black and brown people have had to deal with centuries of shit in the form of colonialism in their own countries of origin then decades of racism in the UK and its got to a place where things are much much better. Most of the native UK population were very supportive of the Windrush generation for example which was great. What they don’t want to see is people coming on mass from countries who don’t see non-white as equal. We will not go backwards in our progression. As an aside, as a woman I also am concerned about mass immigration from countries where women aren’t treated properly either. The UK has worked hard to promote progress for women and minorities. It’s not perfect but we are successful because of our progress. It is normal to be worried about migration from places where the treatment of those with less power is poor as those values will also be migrated over.

The paper that supported the Blackshirts

Which one? The Mail? The Mirror?

Whatever label you put on it, to me, society seems ruder and louder and less considerate than it did just a few decades back. That's probably not true of course, just nostalgia and whatever thing it is in the brain that makes you romanticise the past.

I agree far left are proving more worrying and damaging.

I agree far left are proving more worrying and damaging.

What far left?

What far left?

This is where we start to play the semantics game, everything is alt right with no far left...

metoo you appear to think that only black people can suffer from racism and xenophobia. You seem to think it's ok for my kids to be abused at school because hey, they are white. Can you truly not see that both things are wrong and unacceptable? I have lost people I thought were my friends because I have called them out on racist comments. What have you done except vilify me for pointing out that it isn't just black people who suffer from the racism and xenophobia of others?

What far left?

In fairness if you don't recognise this as a thing in current Britain, there is a chance you're part of it or live under a rock

I get called far left because I’m a democratic socialist lmao. Anything left of centre is communism don’t you know!

This is what happens when you choose polarizing accusations as a debating tactic that will drive civil discourse. If even people who disagree with the common fisheries policy are automatically racists, polarization across society will ensue.

This initially cynical thing has taken kn a life of its own and done great damage to British society, even down to the level of tension within families. It's evil I think.

I think it’s interesting people are more worried about being called racist than about looking at their behaviour and considering whether it is in fact, racist.

I’m not saying every brexiter is racist, btw

badlad have a guess.

I don't think normal, not-racist people are as worried about being called racist as they used to be, because there has been so much wolfcrying on the matter.

Paradoxically I think that wolfcrying has led to a situation where, in a country where close to 100% of people were extremely disapproving of anything resembling far right politics, the term has become so devalued and robbed of meaning by people using it in wilfully false ways, that people are less likely to assume someone is actually far right than they used to be.