AIBU to think Brexit has shone light on a really unpleasant racist underbelly allowing it to flourish?

[KennDodd]

I know, I know not all Leavers are racist, really, I do know that. But the (lovely, non racist) Leavers must be able to see this, they really cant be blind to the unsavoury characters and groups promoting Brexit for all their worth. I don't know what can be done about this, if there's any way to put these groups back in the box?

but I bet that every racist voted Leave

I'll take that bet...

Oh my goodness and did anyone see the UKIP leader talking about the 'I wouldn't rape her' quote?

Satire apparently

I have friends who live here having come from across the world to work, live and raise families. They are doctors, nurses, scientists, teachers who are here and paying taxes. Two are volunteers with a local charity I am part of supporting other parents.

All have felt less comfortable and in some cases faced abuse since the Referendum and I am furious about that.

So no YANBU....

I also know it’s not all Leave voters....I know lots of people who voted Leave....none did so based upon immigration, However the town I live in voted overwhelmingly to Leave and I have no doubt that a biggish number of those are out and out racists.

Fjfs A poster on this thread has likened Leavers to the KKK.

Except they haven't.

And while we're at it, David Lammy didn't call leavers Nazis. He compared the ERG with Nazis. MASSIVE difference.

I see Leavers' spin is going full throttle on this thread.

What an arsehole rape is not satire and I hope no woman votes for the person that spouted that gem
Bastard

That's not like my best friend us Asian that is my best friend is Asian.

Actually - one of the anomalies in the referendum profile study - was that degree-educated British Asians tended to vote Leave.

Not everyone who voted Leave is a racist, but I bet that every racist voted Leave

Not every Remain voter has hidden 200 cartons of uht milk under the bed - or have they?

@scaryteacher

I need to understand why the far right are gaining votes. Ok we need to understand what we oppose. I can see that point of view.

Can you now utterly condemn the racists in UKIP? Can you stand with me against the rise of the far right?

@Clavinova so what if Asians voted leave?

UKIP is a racist party. The far right is rising and by not opposing it you are colluding with it.

Are you with us in opposing facism or are you against us?

The only thing it takes for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing.

It really is that simple.

Like i said before

Racists voted for remain as well

Gilbert. WTAF is wrong with you and Fjfs?

Show us where a poster has equated leave voters with the KKK.

Just because the KKK was mentioned in a post that also included the word 'Leavers' does not mean the poster is comparing them directly. I can't decide whether the two of you lack comprehension skills or are just shit stirring. I suspect the latter.

I need to understand why the far right are gaining votes.

They seem to be losing votes - 3 or 4 MEPs (female) have defected to the Brexit Party today.

Ukip leader Gerard Batten has described a candidate’s rape tweet to MP Jess Phillips as “satire”, and defended his own belief that Islam is a “death cult” Appearing on The Andrew Marr Show, Mr Batten was pressed about a tweet sent by Carl Benjamin - who was announced as an MEP candidate for Ukip in the South West this week - to Ms Phillips in 2016 in which he said "I wouldn't even rape you".
Mr Batten defended the tweet, saying: "I think this was satire

To those who don't get the 'rape' reference.

UKIP also see rape threats as satire.

Are you with us in opposing facism or are you against us?

Yes - count me in!

I'm still voting for the Brexit Party in the EU Elections though (wouldn't dream of voting for UKIP).

why the far right are gaining votes perhaps

Because they give simple answers to complicated issues. They let you blame others for issues that are largely the responsibility of our own government or people themselves.
My sister supports far right parties, they enable to think that her problems are the cause of someone else and are not of her own making, which of course they are.

It's a comfortable narrative that makes you feel right and allows you to demonize others. It gives you a tribe to belong to and a nice cosy surge of oxytocin. The downside of which enables you to ve really horrible to those who are not 'us'.

Honestly it's the 1930s playbook all over again.

And...most people wont like this

The research shows that more liberal people are more empathetic - more grey matter in a certain part of the brain.

More right you are the more sensitized you are to threat perception (enlarged amygdala).

So if you prime people's thinking by showing posters that remind people of enoch Powell, or tell people they'll be over run by Turkish people, the more threatened they feel and the more likely they were to vote leave to 'stem the tide'.

Nothing to do with facts and everything to do with gut perception .

The Brexit party isn't far right in your opinion?

The Brexit party has already lost its first leader because of Islamaphobic comments.

The reference to the KKK is often because of the use of 'dog whistle' rhetoric. We all know what they mean they just don't say it outright.

This is dangerous far right rhetoric. Don't be fooled.

Just googled - one website is saying that UKIP only have 4 MEPs left now.

The Brexit Party is UKIP 2.0

Same thing, possibly twice as horrible.

Catherine Blaiklock, who has set up the Brexit Party, resigned as party leader in March after a series of racist social media and blog posts came to light

This non racist Brexit party?^ ^

Well I'm glad she's gone. No racists in that party now, what a relief!

The Brexit Party isn't far right in your opinion?

No - Nigel Farage seems to have a radio phone-in slot 4 nights a week on LBC - sounds pretty mainstream to me.

Scaryteacher, I suggest you read up on Dominic Cummings, Cambridge Analytica, Aaron Banks and the Barclay Brothers, to name a few. You may find that useful in helping to understand how such unexplicable ideas were seeded and grown to fruition. Or channel 4 made an informative documentary on Mr Cummings.

Okay. I am going to go back to the Op’s original post.

YANBU

My husband is a builder. He has been in the tea hut and one of his friends actually said ‘Hitler sort of had the right idea really getting rid of gays and disabled people’. To which my Dh replied ‘well if that was the case I wouldn’t be here because I’m Jewish’. Guy goes red and says ‘well not you. I didn’t mean you’.

What I have observed from his builder friends is they read crap papers like the sun. They don’t equate their abhorrent views with real people - and this is the most worrying part- they feel angry and oppressed that they can’t say their horrible views in public...except now they can.

So how do you empower a massive amount of people to feel like their voice counts but not give space for racism and repulsive views air time? Any answers?

@Clavinova the founder of the Brexit part had to resign because she was racist. The last party that NF was a member of is a racist party.

UKIP a party associated with Brexit and linked to NF is now advised by a member an ex leader of the EDL.

I'll say it slowly The. English. Defence. League.

These people are facists.

Don't point with horror at Le Pen in France while supporting a party founded by a racist.

The more we shine a light on this the more it will help.

We can never appease the far right.

Attempting to understand their ‘concerns’ will just embolden them. Never in human history has appeasing the far right worked out well. They just want more, they are emboldened. They are a nihilistic cancer on society growing through giving the easily led simple solutions to complex questions and offering up scapegoats. They must always be called out.

Europe is at a crossroads. We march on as civilised progressive societies or we jump backwards. The far right want us to willingly blame others for our woes and spread fear so we’re in a situation where we’re begging for them to take our rights and freedoms away to ‘protect’ us.

Education is key. Not enough attention is paid to the rise of hatred and fascism as an ideology. Wars always framed simply as “we won, they lost”.

Of course if history lessons start questioning parallels with the past the usual suspects will complain about liberals telling us what to think!