To be completely shocked about someone I used to know

[EWAB]

When my youngest was at primary school I really liked this woman who had kids either side of mine.

She was in the PTA equivalent and was just a nice woman. There was no drama around her.

I remember having a day off and went into the local cafe, and she invited me to sit with her friends. She was funny, warm and witty.

Significantly, she had friends of all ethnicities and her best friend was Asian.

Everybody will relate to being busy but I think if it was a different time in my life or we had kids in same year we would have been mates.

I am absolutely shocked that she is a member of a right wing political party and has a presence in that party, utterly and completely shocked.

I know it’s not illegal but God.

All three of my siblings are Tories, I’m not someone who thinks everyone has to think like me but I am stunned.

Mumsnet hates this, but I have had a physical reaction to the news. I am just Gobsmacked and weirdly let down and I do know that’s a stupid, irrational thing to say.

Fully paid up members of the BNP are full on racists. Horrifying.

Of course your political leaning defines you! I couldn't be friends with a BNP or EDL supporter. Just as I unfriend "friends" on facey who repost Britain First nonsense.
I'm wary of Tories but I can agree to disagree up to a point until they start quoting Dail Fail rubbish.

Ah, you watch a lot of TikTok 😆 Great research!

She didn’t say a Tory. She said a proper right wing party. Right wing parties are racist. The fact you’re making excuses for those type of people is appalling. Shame on you.

Oh Antifa are well and truly present in the U.K. They have even turned up at some women’s events.

This only works if you think you are right 100% of the time and people who have different beliefs to you are always wrong.
Believing left= good and right= bad is ridiculously childish.

As someone who is pretty much at the centre (probably left leaning most of the time) I see a hell of a lot of nasty viscous behaviour coming from people from "the far left" with absolutely zero self reflection. I have been accused of being "far right" and even a fckin NAZI just because my beliefs don't align with the extreme left.

As for being upset at "othering" people because it makes society worse, I think you need a little self reflection too. You've done a great job at othering swathes of people just because they're right wingers. Even calling them RABID and being "utterly utterly shocked". Jeez, it's all so pathetic and hypocritical.

Just mind your own business, you get one vote. You're not entitled to anybody else's vote and vice versa. The fact that someone votes differently to you does not entitle you to call them fascists, bigots, Nazis or accuse them of being immoral. (I mean "you" in a general sense. I'm not saying that you've done this. I'm just sick of the toxic, polarised politics and the lack of self awareness).

What did you think of them before you found out their politics?

You’re not exactly a political sophisticate are you? And whilst you may find your naïveté endearing, I’m afraid I find it rather sad 😢

The Tory’s are a right wing party
The Labs are a left wing party

not that you’d know it as both are very centre positioning.

Tne Tory and Reclaim both have Asian men fronting them…

Thats a nice opinion.

All I have taken from this thread now is that anyone who is interested or knows anything about.politics comes across as really rude and belittling. And by most people's logic on this thread, you must all be right wing.

Geez. Can you all stop calling each other dim etc.

She said Reform.

I'm wary of Tories but I can agree to disagree up to a point until they start quoting Dail Fail rubbish

More silly cliches.

Indeed. Wankers.

Right wing people aren’t necessarily bad. But they are usually boring and sometimes annoying. Weirdly they seem to like me because on the surface I’m polite and easy going. I say, ‘yes it would be lovely to have a coffee with you some time’ and then I never contact them.

And yet, in the same way you can perhaps understand if I were to have a "visceral" reaction to finding out that a friend of mine was a member of the Green Party?

I know, it's shocking, she's a Green supporter.

The local Green candidate here came round knocking on doors last weekend, openly supporting Hamas!

Then the Greens also have this whole anti-women stance, they really do seem to hate women a lot. They want to allow men into women only spaces.

As another poster said:

"How you vote reflects how you feel about your fellow humans and you can't get more of a moral judgement than that."

And I quite agree with that stance; these Green supporters are terrible people.

But, ... in reality, I can't be bothered to get myself all riled up about this sort of stuff. I just laughed at him and asked if he knew which sea and which river they were talking about and what exactly is a woman?

He couldn't (wouldn't) answer either of those questions and I notice he came in third. In a neighbouring seat the sitting Green councillor lost out to an Independent.

Is Reform very right wing? Or right of Conservative?

Or too far right from the left?

I'm ignorant to Reform polices, so not sure how bad they are.

She didn’t say a Tory. She said a proper right wing party. Right wing parties are racist. The fact you’re making excuses for those type of people is appalling. Shame on you.

She clarified it was Reform. Their deputy leader has Pakistani heritage.

And there folks is the real face of the left ..

Good grief. 🙄

@Usernameisnotavailable0 here are there policies:

https://www.reformparty.uk/policies

There's a PDF that sets them out more clearly.

I'm not going to be voting for them but I won't clutch my pearls and faint if anyone I know does.

The hypocrisy re "othering" also struck me in the post you quote. Goodness me!

This thread is a perfect advert for the sanctity of the secret ballot, though!

I truly can't tell if this is a parody or not.

Rather than asking people to place a label on things, read about them yourself and make your own mind up:

https://www.reformparty.uk/

This thread is informative. It may have backfired slightly OP, as it made me look at Reform for the first time. I have added to their website views.

Sadly, I am aware of how incredibly judgemental people are, so unapologetically so because they are left-wing. The irony is lost I assume?

As a generation we need to channel the boomers stiff upper lip a bit with politics. How people vote does not define them as people in the way some are arguing it does. There are extreme examples but this Reform Mum who OP knows is far from it!