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?

Go on then, enlighten us. Why does your disillusionment make you drawn to hatefulness masquerading as patriotism?

I'm not a conspiracy nut either, but I do wonder what Conor mcgregor has in common with Trump junior.
He was invited to the Whitehouse to visit big Don himself. Scrot. How? Why?
Supported online by Elon?
Surprised Andrew Tate and Tommy Robinson were not invited too.

I saw a stat just yesterday that says despite Refrom having only 5 MPs, Nigel Farage has 60% of the BBC’s political coverage, so you’re probably not imagining it. I will try to find that.

What on earth are you talking about? We have had a left wing government for all of one year-we had a conservative government for 14 years before that. I love the short term memory loss that seems to happen in these conversations.

You might be on to something. When I was online the other week there seemed to be a theme to the adverts and images that popped up as I was searching. I didn't pay attention to what the images were promoting, I just noted that suddenly there were several images of crowds waving flags and wearing face paint with the St George's cross. What stood out to me was the subsequent string of adverts each featuring some random item decorated with the Union Jack. I remember specifically an umbrella with the flag on the underside. I thought that's weird then dismissed it as coincidence or paranoia.

Just the pendulum swinging backwards.

I don’t do Facebook etc but there were billboards up, I wouldn’t be surprised if the ‘flags’ campaign was orchestrated by Reform, and there’s been several times when I’ve wondered about the posters on here. You’re not wrong op, there’s money behind this.

So what are people who are fed up with Labour supposed to do?

You pitch this like anyone with a different political opinion is wrong/ stupid/ far right.

I'm no reform voter, I've never ever voted conservative either but failing to address the reasons why people are disillusioned pushes people to vote elsewhere.

These threads are reminiscent of the Brexit ones.

Conservative in name; they did very little that was actually conservative. There’s very little difference between the two parties at this point. Under the Tories we get all the trans stuff and things like non-crime hate incidents.

I know the people being directly asked the question won't answer rationally...but hopefully by constantly challenging with facts and not rhetoric, it might reach some people who haven't yet become entrenched in their positions.

Until the left figure out how to be as effective as the right in getting their message across in easily digestible soundbites what other option is available?

Both sides have extreme views on the wings - the difference is the far right have been very successful in capturing the whole of the right wing. The right will band together and are happy to rally around a single issue (abortion, immigration, trans issues) even when they disagree in other areas.

The left are more likely to disagree amongst themselves. The centre left hate the far left positions almost as much as they hate the far right, but also tend to take the view that if there is not agreement on every position then there can be agreement on none. Its so self destructive!

They do believe anyone with a different opinion is wrong and stupid - not only that, but actively evil. There’s so reasoning with people so ideologically captured.

Yes, all of this. They learned nothing from brexit and are back for more from Nigel. Where’s that NHS money he promised before slithering away last time?

’You’re not listening to us!’ means ‘we don’t like it when you try to have an intelligent conversation about it so we’re just going to keep shouting at you.’

Specifically what though? And in your every day life how does immigration effect you?

There are certainly a lot of accounts on here trying to shift the Overton window on racism, anti-immigrant policies etc.

Yes, this. I'm so tired of people telling me that innocent people go on racist rallies because the Left hasn't saved the NHS, etc.. It makes sense in a perverse way – disillusioned with wanting a fairer, better world, so go to the devil – but it's not a reasonable response.

The left are calling anyone who disagrees with them ‘far right’ especially around immigration. People being told their very ordinary views are ‘far right’ will quite quickly start to think ‘well if it is far right to not want my culture destroyed then I will move to the right’. It is the left who are forcing people to the right with their rhetoric.

To be fair, a bubble of semi-ignorance neatly sums up this government, and those who blindly vote Labour with an unwavering belief that they are right 😂

We’re past that point.

You don’t actually want to see these people’s point of view, so people are just not engaging any more, they’re shutting down. It’s a shame, but the time of civil debate has passed. No one’s interested in trying.

Oh I see, they weren’t radical enough. Did they not give out enough backhanders to their mates and bring the entire country to its knees financially, socially and culturally enough to satisfy you? The bootlicking that I see from the right for people who wouldn’t even spit on them if they were on fire is hilarious.

The only group of people who genuinely prospered under the last Tory government was the 1%. The rest of us are poorer: physically, culturally, emotionally and financially poorer.

It's not the only reason, but it's been exacerbated by several years of the Left deciding that everything it doesn't like, including reasonable mainstream views, is far right fascism. Now a lot of people are wondering what's terrible about being far right.

There was nothing right wing about the past 15 years of "Conservative" rule which presided over the bitter gender recognition culture war (started by Theresa May, and dont forget only trans MP was also a Tory) they have a black female leader currently (which is a good thing, and makes Labour look bad, the Tories have always had a more diverse cabinet, Patel, Braverman, Kwarteng, Sunak etc, if the right wing are meant to be racist I don't think this would be the case) and the largest wave of migration to the UK came in under Boris. People are sick of voting for the uniparty. They're not right wing, Labour aren't left wing, you can have blue or red neoliberalism.

You won't turn to the right unless right wing policies appeal to you. If you truly hate their policies but the left doesn't offer a good alternative, you will hold your nose and vote for the least horrible option.

People are. You just don’t like their choice.

But why are you fed up with Labour when they've been in power for just over 12 months and only for 14 of the last 45 years?

Are you expecting them to fix 14 years of destruction in a year?

The last Labour government measurably and objectively improved public services but it took five years for the impact of their initial changes to start to show, even though what they inherited was nowhere near as bad as the current situation.

They were also not dealing with the current cultural powder keg or international instability!

I'm not particularly impressed with them on domestic policy but they are fighting a war on three fronts, so it was never going to result in any kind of immediate change.

People always want someone else to blame for shit in their own life. If Reform get in people's lives won't be any better, they won't all suddenly be richer or happier. So who will they blame then? Do these people painting roundabouts honestly think they would see some magical improvement in their day to day lives if all the migrants got sent home?!

Thing is if, and it's still a big IF regardless of coverage and discussion, Reform get in, if, they will roll back women's and LGBTQ+ rights, so the next two three decades the population will be squabbling to get them back, bit like how the Government right now is spending a lot of time trying to establish new routes of trade, travel, communication and co-operation with the EU, that less of everything else gets done.

How much of UK politics of the past 9 years has been taken up with leaving the EU, and then trying to reestablish the links that are essential?

And round and round we all go, instead of putting the MP's time into our actual problems, housing, energy, response to more frequent extreme weather events, international security, education and youth unemployment, health, etc etc. And Reform will do more of the same.

Big sweeping reforms jitter the financial markets, they tank in seconds and take years to recover and that is how we have money (and trust) to run a country.

Farage will have a company betting on the markets making a fortune in some offshore haven, because he will know what decisions he will make and how to play the stockmarket. Tank the land and waltz off to the sunny uplands somewhere overseas (because he doesn't love Britain he loves how much Britain might make him) and people will just get angrier and angrier as time goes on.

It's a mess and will stay a mess for decades. Advise your children to look elsewhere to live. It won't be kind, progressive, or easy in any way here.