I live in a seaside town. We have people who come from all over the place here. The population more than doubles over the summer months.
We have people who come from elsewhere who leave rubbish and dirty nappies on the beach. Nobody protests against them.
We have people who come from elsewhere commit crime - fighting, stealing, shoplifting. Nobody protests against them.
We have people who come from elsewhere in camper vans, park on residential streets and add nothing to the local economy. Nobody protests against them.
We have groups of young men who come from elsewhere and drink and puke in the streets and harass women in the pubs and end up in A&E. Nobody protests against them.
We have people who come from elsewhere and 'wild camp' and cause fires with barbecues in areas of outstanding natural beauty. Nobody protests against them.
We have two hotels. Both a bit run-down. They house people who have come to the UK in what people like to call 'illegally'. It's not illegal it's asylum but hey-ho. They are pretty-much corralled in these hotels. They're not out fighting, puking, littering, using the NHS or setting alight to the countryside. There's crowds of people outside 'protesting' their presence.
My point is that we're looking in the wrong direction. These people are the scapegoats for frustrations that are caused more widely and it's a classic 'othering' situation which, we know from history, has never ever ended well.
While we all buy the Daily Mail for the gossip and laugh at Farage and Boris and 'don't bother with politics' and are too busy watching Love Island to read and question any deeper we are getting deeper and deeper into this 'them and us' thing. It's here on this thread already.
We are sleepwalking into fascism and it's only be educating yourself and listening to others and reflecting on things and finding out the truth about things - not just what we're fed in the papers by people with a reason to have the proles fighting amongst themselves - that any change will happen.
If we're looking for an enemy then we're looking in the wrong direction. We should be looking up the food chain, not down it. It's not asylum seekers who want to take from us. It's the people with the money and power who want to keep their money and power and expand on it. It won't be long until we - or our children and their children - will be the 'illegals' / economic migrants / asylum seekers elsewhere if this division in our society is allowed to continue.
It started with Brexit - being separated from others who were akin to us. The US has it with MAGA. It's all about othering and separating people. Divide and conquer.