Is mumsnet right wing?

[BrilloPadHairball]

There are so many benefits bashing threads on here I’m really starting to wonder. Do the majority of people posting on mumsnet lean heavily to the right?

If you're criticising and the situation is more then reasonable then you're not right wing you're uneducated. A benefit system is in place to help those who genuinely need it however so many piss takers that legit claimants also get too much scrutiny.

I don’t think the concepts of right-wing and left-wing accurately or even broadly describe people’s views any more. They certainly do not describe mine. For example, historically I have leant more to the left but the appalling behaviour of the left during the pandemic has made me allergic to what are generally claimed to be parties and people of the left. The so called gender identity debate is a similar case. I cannot be doing with anyone who denies the reality of biological sex, regardless of the fact that I respect the right of anyone to live as they want.

The problem is also the left these days has become so polarized and as much intolerant of others views as the right.

The open acceptance of what views specifically?

@DrNo007 yes, that's exactly my slant too and I'm centre left- I'm fed up of the whole obsession around trans too- it's a pretty minority thing!! My very gay male friend tells me he feels exactly the same and took away his whole enjoyment of Pride .

if only mental health, disability, housing etc got so much of an airing

I'm also quite tight minded on immigration - especially post Brexit as now it seems we have the disadvantages of high immigration from anywhere and its mother, but none of the flexible movement advantages ourselves -- unless wealthy or in a very 'internationally in demand' job

Mostly I think the general population is a little more to the right than Labour Party and the Charities would like to think. More people are worried by the migrant numbers.
An example is that in Scotland fewer people want Independence now. They prefer to wait a while. John Swinney was surprised by the change. It is still only a few per cent, but it is a change the wrong way for SNP. SNP still do not understand that their reputation has been damaged by the recent Gender Bill.

Right wing views are the schroedinger’s cat of mumsnet. People hold them and advocate them and champion the policies that they will produce until they discover that it causes scrutiny or is rejected by another person who one would otherwise like to ally with. At that point everyone here falls all o ver themselves going on the attack(prove it, how dare you, JKR is lovely, Im only tangentially supporting Boris/Rishi/the Tories because I like the cut if their jib on trans issues.)

Jesus: identify however you like, pretend to have no political home, shout a pox on both their houses. But yes: people will judge you for it. People will draw attention to how your preferred policies play out. People will criticize you for the strange bedfellows you’ve lain down with.

Deal with it.

I haven't been posting for long but lurked for a while. Also haven't read the full thread.

It seems mixed to me. On MN, but also offline, most of us have mixed views. Some might be considered right-wing, some left-wing, some maybe don't fit neatly into either box.

I did think the amount of benefits bashing threads were depressing, but I'm now beginning to wonder if perhaps it's better to talk about it. People's views or what they think is the issue (even if they're mistaken regarding the real causes and solutions) won't change just because they're not posting about them.

If anything discussing things can sometimes help. Not always, and some people's views remain entrenched and or determined to judge others without looking at the causes. Not everyone is able or willing to see the bigger picture, or consider the root causes or (compassionate) solutions. However some people are willing and able to consider replies offering alternative views or solutions to society's issues.

I've been on a couple of those 'bashing' threads that generalise a very large group of different people in varied situations. Lots of posters on those threads replied, explained how they ended up needing help. Unplanned Shit Happens life events, and why it's not helpful, possible, or a solution, to generalise about different groups (imo this is relevant for many things not only benefits, including how people vote).

I have a very busy day and need to get back to work, and don't think my long-winded post explains what I'm trying to say very well, but I couldn't resist posting when I saw this thread.

Yeh on this

If you (not you personally) are posting approvingly on a piece Dominic Cummins wife wrote in the Spectator about the evils of the “Woke Agenda”, you are right wing. God, if you complain about the “Woke Agenda” and aren’t joking, you are almost certainly right wing. If you say you are voting for the Tories because Boris Johnson knows what a woman is, and also you don’t like the woke agenda, and you heard Keir Starmer drank a beer once, and then throw in something about critical race theory being taught in schools, the National Trust and Israel/Palestine, you are probably a paid shill for the Tory party. All of those people are on FWR. Obviously not everyone, but those people are very vocal.

It’s ok for people to admit they are right wing. Most people in this country are. There’s no need for people to be shy about it.

😂

Don't tell me, DoorPath, you are here to cure us with your magic penis, amirite?

It's very simplistic to be so polarised into saying only middle class people are anti benefits. My late parents were staunch Labour supporters but, like most working class people, ie they actually worked, they totally despised those who were cheating the benefits system and they didn't support the power of the unions who would strike at the drop of a hat in the 60s and 70s over trivial issues.
I recall once saying to my mother that she would get on very well with Margaret Thatcher and she almost slapped me!

Radical feminists are pro-women, not "anti-trans". I'm afraid I cannot bring myself to abandon my feminist principles on the grounds that some (and it's not all - I saw a group of men only today hooting joyfully that feminists "have brought in on themselves, they wanted equality..." with regard to the issue of women's sports) people of a generally right-wing persuasion also don't think trans-identifying males should be able to get into women's spaces and sports.

//

This.

I mean fuck, just because occasionally you happen to agree with someone you otherwise would disagree on, on this One Particular Opinion, what do people expect us to do?

Jeez if everyone you agree with sometimes has to be Pure and True none of us would interact with another human being or alternatively hold any opinions. Ever.

It's a bit thick to think otherwise.

Believing humans cannot change sex = Literal Nazi

Being pro women’s sex based rights is the opposite of ‘social conservatism’, you don’t seem to understand the difference. In what way do you think MN is anti gay men? Your last line is beyond laughable I’m not even going to ask you to explain that one. Your idea of MN women seems to be home countries centric WASPy stereotyping.

YANBU. Within MN you have the right and centre, not very many on the left when comparing to mainstream. Within MN the centrists view themselves as the left, as do many just right of centre.

It's very simplistic to be so polarised into saying only middle class people are anti benefits. My late parents were staunch Labour supporters but, like most working class people, ie they actually worked, they totally despised those who were cheating the benefits system and they didn't support the power of the unions who would strike at the drop of a hat in the 60s and 70s over trivial issues.

Yes, and also outside of Labour supporters, plenty of working class people vote Conservative for the same reasons. They wouldn't win elections otherwise.

And then you experience 14 years of Tory rule and realise nothing works any more and the country's gone to shit and we've accidentally bumbled out of the single market.

the belief that nobody can change sex is literally the ONLY crossover i have with anything approaching right wing.

That doesn't make me right wing in the slightest. In the same way that Matt Walsh believing that nobody can change sex, and therefore agrees with me on that, doesn't make him a Marxist.

It is utterly batshit that this keeps being repeated, and i will never stop calling the bullshit out.

piffle. Utter piffle.

It is, however, very pro-women and safeguarding of children.

Do people not see how homophobic trans ideology is? Encouraging someone to want to "be" the opposite sex because they don't conform to the stereotypes of their birth sex?

How harmful cross sex hormones and puberty blockers can be? The later life issues some people experience? Mutilating bodies to replace a penis with a faux vagina that will need interventions to not close? Which will never self heal? Youngsters who will never experience sexual pleasure?

If pushing back against a belief system which endorses this is a right wing opinion then I guess I'm the proud owner of a right wing opinion

I think the problem is, so many people know someone who is abusing the benefit system. I certainly do, to the point where I’d love to report them but I’d worry about how it could affect their child, so I don’t.

but I am labour voting, and massively agree with and support the NHS and the benefits system as a whole. But it can be abused and is abused and that makes me really really angry.

This is a really interesting conversation though.
There are very different flavours of left wing - historically pro working people, not particularly keen on women's rights in the workplace, and definitely anti-immigration. Mostly anti-anything that may erode wage differentials and men's domination in the workplace.

Imagine a grim ol' northern industrial town in the 50s and 60s. Would there have been left-wing, union based, handwringing over trans rights? would there fuck. They would have rejected the notion as a class. They may have had the odd "odd" neighbour or workmate who they tolerated, as long as that person kept their heads down and didn't cause a fuss. They would have been broadly anti EU, and anti equal pay for women because any influx of foreign workers or women workers would have impacted men's jobs. So women - see the Ford workers in Dagenham - did the same job, got a different title and were paid less. The unions fought tooth and nail to preserve those differentials. Foreigners? no thank you. In that respect the old-style labour supporters were really very socially conservative. Yes, they wanted universal socialised healthcare and pensions - because up until the state provided those, the working classes often went without.

My grandad - steelworker - would have looked at today's labour party and laughed his socks off. Before spoiling his ballot.