To think there is some kind of weird push towards the far right?

[Checkcheckout]

I’m the first to admit that I am not the best informed - I prefer to keep my life stress free and simple as much as possible, and don’t have a TV, don’t read papers, and only listen to the radio when I’m driving (which is quite often). For my own mental health I prefer to live in my own little bubble.

But even with my limited exposure to media, I’ve noticed on Radio 2, both on the news and Jeremy Vine’s show, Reform are being given so much air time considering their paltry amount of MPs, the polls are being discussed regularly even though we’re years from an election. More than once listening to the radio I’ve thought the way they’re talking makes it sound like Reform winning the next election is a done deal, and thought to myself that this is how self fulfilling prophecies happen.

My algorithms on FB are seriously messed up. Despite having never been remotely interested in anything in the least bit right wing, all of a sudden I’m getting endless posts from knuckle dragging ‘patriot’ groups that I don’t even follow, with really horrendous and openly racist comments, thousands of them, which somehow FB are allowing to remain even though any kind of hate speech has always been censored on there. Why are these posts suddenly being allowed and pushed in my face?

Alongside this there seems to be a new story pretty much every day about the latest scandal involving Labour (again reported by the BBC), ok these things aren’t great although compared to the Tories’ rap list from their last spell in government, are fairly small fry really. It seems like there’s an active push for people to rebel away from the left just as the far right are gaining momentum.

Has anyone else noticed this or am I talking shite?

Yes, I'm British. I do not want to, nor have I, denigrated our culture.

When the UK had so-called "Christian Values":

• marital rape was legal
• women did not have equal employment rights
• women were fired for getting married
• women's property became the property of their husbands
• women did not have the vote
• men having sex with girls under 16 was socially acceptable because that meant the girls were slags, not the men were wrong
• babies were taken from their mothers and given away to strangers if the mother wasn't married to the father (Christian organisations were particularly active in this)
• male homosexuality was illegal and people were jailed for it
• beating men to death for being gay was illegal but socially acceptable
• gay marriage didn't exist
• people could be discriminated against for housing and employment based on the colour of their skin, their sex or being gay.

Would you like me to go on?

I'm fucking THRILLED at many of the cultural changes in my country since the UK was dominated by the sort of "Christian Values" which used to hold sway.

(And I should add, these values are not in fact very Christian. Genuine Christian values like "love thy neighbour" and helping the sick, poor and outcast, are still alive and well and available for you to practice, should you wish to...)

Oh right, so the emergence of powerful Trade Unions shaping the socio-economic and political post war landscape, that led to legislation to improve workers' rights like the Factory Act of 1948, the Mines and Quarries Act of 1954, the expansion of the welfare state, the establishment of a National Health Service, the educational opportunities for working class children, all this was just a coincidence was it?

How would we enforce that on Holland, Portugal, Spain and France? the only way we could actually enforce it was to destroy their fleets.

Modern day slavery in Western Europe doesn't equate to the NA slave trade.

As for the rest of the world, especially in Africa and Arabia, slavery never really went away.

YANBU OP. Of course.

I can’t think of anything the “left” has done which would make me vote for Reform!! Jesus. Yes there are global issues with rampant capitalism leaving many people worse off - the answer is not Farage!

The far right is getting worryingly confident - it’s scary.

Mistake 😁

Yes, it’s amazing.

Great - now go and look at the scandals, unrest and inequality around the availability of off-ration food and luxuries and the issues it caused.

While your grandparents and my grandparents were stuck with meagre rations, Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees Mogg's grandparents were eating venison and caviar.

That is why equality and reduction of the wealth gap is so important!

I mean, yes there was rationing post war but personally my Grandparents were definitely able to survive, my parents were living it up in the 60s, so many job opportunities for young people, they were turning them down.

But what does that mean, in practice? Equality and reduction of the wealth gap?

Absolutely not true.

Like you I've been learning about what my grandparent's generation did in the 1940s.

They were involved in meetings looking forward to peacetime and trying to work out what people actually wanted from their country, and how to deliver a country which worked for all.

There was a very good understanding that the folk walking into the furnace on the battlefields should have a country which worked for them when they came home. And the same went for those working on the home front.

Through diplomacy - which we also did. Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands were all pressured into signing anti-slavery treaties. It was mostly Barzillian ships that were destroyed, mostly they were seized.

My parents like many others in the 60's did have significantly better lives as a result of the inequalities the post war Labour government tried to address. In fact, my Dad says now that life is far more challenging for us in terms of housing, jobs etc (even though we are comfortable by most people's standards) than it was for them (my parents).

The modern day slave trade is thriving all over the world, particularly in Pakistan. Think of all the good we could do if we started concentrating on those still alive, instead of those long gone.

You say that but I've noticed something very odd recently.

I am a massive Genesis fan and follow lots of stuff to do with the band and the individual members. Over the last week or so I have been getting fake posts on Facebook supposedly relating to Phil Collins banning someone for making disparaging comments about Charlie Kirk's murder. Cue lots of comments about Charlie Kirk's views.

It is quite obviously fake as, apart from anything else, Phil Collins health makes it unlikely Genesis will tour again. Now when I see anything like this I don't even click on it.

It's a minor thing perhaps but quite scary and even more so when you realise that some people may not realise that it is fake.

It means:

everybody having an equal chance to better themselves through access to high quality education, employment opportunities and fair wages

a healthy populace through universal healthcare,

Good national infrastructure which supports business and creates jobs

Not allowing the wealthy to hoard thelr wealth beyond measure. Use effective taxation to reduce the wealth gap rather than relying on trickle down economics which clearly doesn't work.

People working together for the benefit of everyone, not just those they agree with

Have you been looking at some CK posts? That may have driven it?

I agree with a lot of what you say, but wealth beyond measure is highly subjective. And I’m not sure what you mean by people working together for the benefit of everyone, not just those they agree with?

All those things are made worse by the right wing policy, not left.

But again, you really need to stop equating right wing to working class. You don't speak for me or any of the people I know.

Oh this has come up before with other musicians!

I'm sorry, can't remember the details, but IIRC a MNer involved with a Big Name musician's social media had seen a huge influx of posts pushing some particular troll favourite. Can't remember if it was anti-vax, insidiously pro-Russian invasion of Ukraine, or what.

But targeting musicians' loyal fanbases does seem to be a Thing.

No I've never looked at any CK posts. I didn't really know anything about him before he was shot.

My feed up until recently has mainly been ancient rock bands, camper vans, cats and anything to do with Portugal and the Outer Hebrides.

I was just wondering if perhaps things are being fed into people's algorithms through the back door. Although that may be straying into conspiracy theory territory, anything seems possible on social media these days.

That's interesting.

Roger Waters?

Shortly after J K Rowling publicly stated that she didn't have the power to sack Paapa Essiedu from the Harry Potter TV series over his comments on transgenderism and wouldn't do it even if she had because he's got the right to hold and express those views, my Facebook timeline (which has long been an almost unreadable river of utter shite I haven't signed up to see) started churning out garbage about how she had sacked him, he had resigned, he was an alien from the Planet Zog, whatever.

My grandfather was a cross dressing nurse in the 1950s. I don't think he would have had objections.

He fought quietly for his right to exist authentically by just living.

It's also interesting that you talk about a lack of Christianity. Which aspect exactly?

Toleration?
Forgiveness?
Acceptance?
Love they neighbour?

These teachings of Christ seem to be the very things that we have embraced as a nation, but that some now would disregard.

How many of those that went to the giant pissup in London on Saturday, and cheered on the great Musk of the nazi salute made it into church on Sunday? Are churches now reporting increased numbers as a result of this new found Christianity?

What do you mean by patriotism? It seems to me that there is confusion from some around the definition of patriotism and that of nationalism. They are being confused by those who don't understand the difference. What is your understanding?