To be so fed up amd disheartened with all the xenophobia

[Nohqters]

Honestly, I’m just feeling worn out and heartbroken lately. It seems like racism and xenophobia are becoming more and more mainstream again, wrapped up in the same tired scare stories, whether it’s splashed across a tabloid or coming straight out of Farage’s mouth. Then you see stupid threads on here about civil war trying to stir up more hate.

Even my own brother has started sounding like Tommy Robinson. Ten years ago, that would’ve been unthinkable. It’s like people have completely forgotten the lies we were sold during Brexit—by Farage, Tice and their crowd—and yet they’re still lapping up everything they say. No critical thought, just blind anger pointed in the wrong direction.
I’m so fed up with the endless nonsense about small boats, “white minorities,” and all the rest of it. It’s all designed to divide us, stoke hate, and distract from the real culprits—rubbish politicians, broken policies, and the ultra-wealthy hoarding resources while the rest of us struggle.

But instead of looking upwards, it’s always “blame Johnny Foreigner.” It’s exhausting, and frankly terrifying how quickly people fall for it.

Is anyone else feeling this? How are you managing conversations when even close family seem to be buying into this stuff? I’m trying to stay compassionate, but it’s getting harder to bite my tongue.

It’s failed everywhere it’s been tried. It’s something that sounds good in practice but will always fail because it doesn’t take human nature into account. And you can’t force people to act against their instincts in service of a political ideal. Do you honestly look at the millions of bodies created by communism and socialism and think that was a price worth paying to try and create the sort of utopia you’d like? Do you honestly think they weren’t trying hard enough - that we could get it right if we gave it another go?

Many have suggestions and are public with them, but on the whole people would rather moan than make actual changes.

AI could be embraced to make some positive changes, but again, many are resistant to it.
Changes could be made to various sectors using resources we already have, but again, people are resistant.

A lot of the current problems were entirely preventable, and given the state of the last 30 years of politics have been entirely predictable.

One or two people aren’t enough to make a change. I do wonder if the way people are being pushed and pushed if they’ll reach a point to make the changes. Not civil war exactly, as was suggested on another thread, but maybe acts of defiance against the status quo. I could go along with that.

Facebook is not your only social media because you are reading & posting here. Mumsnet is social media too. I routinely encounter very anti-immigrant comments on MN, but never on my Facebook. I've managed to curate Facebook well but it's difficult to curate on MN half as well.

Heck, I still go on Twitter a lot and seem to encounter less xenophobia on X than I do on MN. That's an achievement...

ps: yadnbu to OP

Yep, with you, @Nohqters

Net migration is up a lot since Brexit. Farage told us Brexit would give us back control of borders yet Immigration has gone up!!!

This is a totally valid point - and there are similarities with all the guff and lies Trump spouted to get elected - and yet their supporters still love them and believe every bloody word they say! 🤷‍♀️

Just like u turn Starmer's supporters believed every word he said. Why is it that some are more focused on Reform, than they are the current government? It isn't Farage, who holds the purse strings.

Totally agree and thank you for your very sound response.

I was referring to Brexit and the promises he and Jonson made about taking control of the borders, like the PP mentioned. But it has got worse since then. How has he explained this?

The problem is that the people with the power, WANT us to fight among ourselves and finger point at those worse off than we are. Let’s be honest, if everyone had a decent standard of living, no one would care what nationality their neighbour was. The experiment with the red and black ants demonstrates it perfectly. They live perfectly happily alongside each other until the jar is shaken, when they turn on each other.
If we all voted for a party committed to providing a good standard of living for EVERYONE, instead of the elite, we could live in harmony.

But politicians and lots of people are actually are having rational debates about it! This is another trope that is banded about because it’s usually a certain type of immigrant the right are referring to.

Twitter is absolutely awful. I see posts daily from racist and xenaphobes, usually with words like “patriot” and “crusade” in their name or bio. Illegal immigrants getting five star treatment, Tommy Robinson is our saviour, threats of uprising. Not to mention the utter shite posted by Rupert Lowe MP.
it’s actually quite terrifying. If I was a person of colour and / or a Muslim now, I’d be very scared and worried. As sadly many of my friends and colleagues are. I really don’t like my country very much at the moment.

I absolutely condemn any racial abuse toward anyone for any reason, but do you also dislike your country for letting in unvetted men who are 20 times more likely to commit sex attacks? (And this has indeed materialised in actual rapes - including the poor 12 year old this week)?

This is such a thought terminating cliche.

The existence of billionaires doesn’t mean letting in tens of thousands of unvetted men from misogynistic countries is a great idea does it?

“Let’s be honest, if everyone had a decent standard of living, no one would care what nationality their neighbour was”

I don’t agree. Money isn’t everything, material good aren’t everything. Some things actually matter more. Cultural compatibility matters. People like to live among neighbours they see as broadly sharing their values.

Ahh, here’s this wild and completely unbelievable statistic that you have got from thin air with no evidence to back it up again, I see.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/03/10/foreigners-commit-up-to-quarter-of-sex-crimes/

Data from Ministry of Justice.

Hope that helps.

Seeing as this thread is completely fucked like all the other ones, I’m just going to have a little tangent and say this is an interesting thought, what do you mean more broadly? I feel like I know what you mean but I can’t quite see it.

Cards on the table and at the risk of chucking a match on the existing pool of petrol, not the same discussion but a related one, I see a strong parallel in the posting style of some (not all!) GC posters and some (not all!) anti-immigration ones on this thread. Particularly the ‘answer my question’ stuff and the #bekind hashtag. That’s interesting to me.

Why is it at risk of becoming ungovernable?

My MIL has a lovely life and loads of cash. Her kids are all living comfortably. She lives in an area with the tiniest percentage of non-whites. No asylum hotels anywhere near her. Her life and that of her family is not negatively impacted by immigration in the slightest.
She voted for Brexit, hates “foreigners” and is a massive racist. What’s her excuse?

No, it doesn’t. I asked you for a primary source, please. That article doesn’t link back to it and, try as I might, I have found absolutely no trace of the original source. A right wing mouthpiece isn’t a credible source. You can’t just make a claim without backing it up.

How many Afghan men committed a sexual offence last year?

How many Afghan men are there in the UK?

Because the actual percentage of Afghan men in the UK committing these offences will be tiny.

For example, the reports that foreign nationals commit 25% of all sexual offences seems alarming on the face of it.

However, the reality is that out of over 10 million foreign nationals, around 377 commit sexual offences each year.

That is an absolutely vanishingly low percentage of the foreign national population. Miniscule.

‘Labour are currently blaming the disabled (affects women predominantly, either as a representation of the disabled or as the majority carers of the disabled).

They’re also trying to find a way to ignore the supreme court’s ruling that biological sex matters, again affecting women, children and, if they get their way, making our rights obsolete.

They tried to continue the disgusting cover up of the rape gangs, yet again affecting women and girls.

I blame the government and their predecessors 100% for the mess we’re in.
I blame them 100% for the people out of work crisis, the children not in school crisis, the behaviour of children in school, the hundreds of thousands of girls affected by Pakistani Muslim gangs across the country, and the current situation where men from woman-hating cultures are enabled to have access to women and girls is entirely of the government’s making.

I don’t know how much louder they need to shout that they hate the female population of this country, but the message is getting through clearly.

Meanwhile we hear nothing of the many immigrants who just slot in and live their lives. But when we take issue with women murderers and rapists it’s deflected every time with - oh you hate brown people, or - you racist bigot, you’re blaming immigrants for everything that’s wrong, or - you know white men rape too? (So fucking what? Men are men, if only we could deport every single rapist, paedophile and DV perpetrators the country would be far better, but we can’t, but we can take a stance against those men that can and should be deported at the first sign of trouble - “this behaviour is unacceptable here, do xyz and you’ll be out within three days” Starmer could do it for white British rioters, speed the process, why not immigrant rapists?

Ohhh, no, we’d look like the xenophobia and racists we love to condemn, we need to leave them alone. It’s bullshit, utter steaming bullshit. The left has become a joke.’

Absolutely. Agree 💯. The current incarnation of the Labour Party have a woman problem. They hate women. We said it before they were elected, and it is much worse than we thought. It affects all women and girls - the working class, old and or disabled, much more.

Data not used correctly. Being explained on the today programme now. No consideration of age in Jenerick's claim. Data manipulated 'wildly'. See BBC verify.

For example, do you genuinely believe that Labour is able to get any reform to the welfare budget, past the back benches?

The Telegraph is right wing but it’s not allowed to invent numbers out of thin air. You know this, you’re just clinging to the chance to delay your embarrassment a little longer.

The Telegraph made a Freedom of Information request and this was the result. This was confirmed by the Shadow Justice Minister.

Given the attitudes toward women in Afghanistan, are you going to pretend to be surprised now?