Am I a far right extremist?

[Isitme245]

I had a conversation with my best friend of 25 years the other day and she called me a far right extremist and how my views are scary, dangerous and 'nazi coded'
I was really shocked as I didn't think any of what I said was bad. I'm not a particularly avid supporter of any political party and very much keep opinions to myself. She's very supportive of labour and anti trump and always has been. Usually when she asks me my opinions I just don't want to get into it but I did the other night and now I feel bad.

Here's the breakdown:

• she sent me an article and told me that Nigel Farage is going to ban abortion eventually if he wins an election. I read the article and pointed out he only suggested lowering the abortion cut off date to 22 weeks (not 24 as it is now). I told her it wasn't the end of the world and it's reasonable if you read his reasons. I also made the point that men shouldn't really be getting involved in abortion law but that what he said wasn't the end of the world.

• she asked me about immigration and I said that it's great but that we should be prioritising skilled immigrants and have stronger immigration laws. She also asked about asylum seekers and hotels and I said that we should have stronger laws about monitoring people and collecting documentation when people arrive.

• she sent me and asked about Elon Musk's Nazi salute and I said I didn't interpret it that way

• I said that immigrants who rape or murder should be deported.

To me this feels really reasonable and not over the top but she really attacked me for it? Now I feel really awkward and uncomfortable talking to her. Is this far right??

No, and I think anyone who doesn't have an extreme aversion to mass murder is not right in the head.

Nazism is pretty much the poster boy of far right ideology. They may not fit into your right wing purity spiral, but I can promise you they were far right.

@Llttledrummergirl

"Anyone excusing, deflecting or promoting this political zeal and ideology should be ashamed of themselves, and yes, I include mnethq for letting it stand."

But no one is promoting Nazi political ideology on this thread. No one is deflecting or excusing either Hitler, Stalin or Mao.

Some of us are simply trying to have an intellectual debate on the definitions of left wing and right wing and whether the Nazi and fascist ideology had much in common (particularly economics) with far left ideology.

But it is equally worrisome that some wish to see even any discussion of this topic shut down.

I just don’t buy that at all!

Farage to my knowledge has categorically rejected this idea.

Bull shit. Don't try to deflect, is not intellectual debate, it's an attempt to normalise the extremes.

@Llttledrummergirl

"No, and I think anyone who doesn't have an extreme aversion to mass murder is not right in the head."

I think every rational person has an aversion to mass murder and brutal dictators - but it doesn't mean that such brutal dictators can't even be discussed.

It is also worth noting that communism has killed far more innocent people than any other political ideology. But I am more than happy to have an intellectual debate on communism.

Perhaps you don't see the way the wind could possibly blow. Perhaps you do, but you don't care. Perhaps you'd actually like it to blow that way.

You want an intellectual debate on whether Nazi and facist ideology is far right or not, start a thread on it @1dayatatime.

You'd have a better chance of getting it if you don't put it in AIBU.

@1dayatatime why not start a thread then, with an explicit title rather than hijack the ops.

Guessing wind direction is just a mugs game. It’s just an hysterical overreaction that Neo Nazis are going to take over the world. I am very very confident this will never happen.

You don't think the Nazis were far right?

No one has said they are going to take over the world.

Your use of the word "hysterical" is telling.

Firstly those legal migrants themselves will one day become old and having worked and paid taxes in the UK will be entitled to pensions etc. therefore the UK will then need to import yet more migrants to look after an even bigger ageing population and so into effectively a pyramid scheme.

Yes, quite possibly. In fact the whole world will have the same problem in a couple of generations time, soon after the global population peaks — currently forecast in about 2050, I think. But in the meantime there are the problems of the here and now to be considered.

Lastly there are currently 9 million economically inactive UK citizens that cost the tax payer benefits to keep them going.

Do you have a source for that? 9 million people, all UK citizens, all aged between 16 and 66, all completely economically inactive, all entirely dependent on state benefits, and all claiming to be physically/psychologically capable of doing a full-time job? I find that an extraordinarily high number — it's over 20% of the population in that age bracket — but I'm open to being shown if you have some data.

i’d have more sympathy if you’d said Farage was a knob and no one was interested in what he had to say, least of all on abortion. Don’t give him air time.

A fair point and I agree that this debate on what is or is not left wing or right wing has somewhat derailed this thread.

So getting back on track I do think that whether someone is described as right wing, hard right, extreme right, extreme far right etc etc or the equivalent for left wing is not objective.

It depends as much on the political views of person A saying that Person B is left or right wing as it does on the actual views of Person B.

For example a far left person would describe anyone favouring a mixed economy, controls on immigration and say lower taxes as far right. Whereas someone who believes in total free market capitalism with minimal state intervention would describe someone who favoured more state intervention and higher taxes as far left.

It was fine to discuss, threads meander all the time.

Also that is true. And when you've lived in more than one country you can see how policy placement isn't fixed.

@samarrange

To correct my original post on the 9 million figure, it's actually 9.3 million and 22% of all 16 to 64 year olds:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68534537.amp

researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-9366/CBP-9366.pdf

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52660591.amp

I wouldn't say you were far right but, if you were my best friend of 25 years, the views you expressed would cause me to question our friendship. I couldn't be close friends with someone whose core values were so different from mine.

@Sharptonguedwoman

"i’d have more sympathy if you’d said Farage was a knob and no one was interested in what he had to say, least of all on abortion. Don’t give him air time."

I believe that Farage is indeed a knob, what's more although abortion is a hot political topic in the US, it is not a hot political topic in the UK.

I believe that Farage was simply floating the idea of reducing the abortion time limit to 22,weeks to see if it had much support or interest.

Now that it's been shown not to be then I fully expect him to go quiet on it.

How is it telling? You are whipping up hysteria.

Being aware that the far right is on the rise is not hysteria.

The majority of people in Europe are looking for their governments to take control of the borders, and enforce some security. They are not looking for a curb on abortions or Neo Nazis to run their countries!

Agreed.

No man on this planet has any right mooting any views on abortion rights. The end