AIBU to think this quote sums up Tommy Robinson and his supporters?

[Gingerbreadtree]

The quote is taken from the British philosopher Bertrand Russell's essay on Fascim in 1940,

"The first step in a fascist movement is the combination under an energetic leader of a number of men who possess more than the average share of leisure, brutality, and stupidity. The next step is to fascinate fools and muzzle the intelligent, by emotional excitement on the one hand and terrorism on the other."

To me it sums them up, but it sums up a lot of the far right in general. The same could be said about Farage and many of his supporters too.

Am I the only one with access to Google?

transphobic
/tranzˈfəʊbɪk/
Transphobic refers to having or showing prejudice, discrimination, aversion, or hatred toward transgender people. It stems from the word transphobia and describes actions, beliefs, or policies that marginalize, invalidate, or harm individuals whose gender identity does not align with their assigned sex at birth.

Except nobody hates trans people. Quite frankly I'm bored with the relentless need for attention. Maybe they should "have a day off".

I mean I know what it means literally - but I think many people disagree with it.

I think if a gay nightclub was attacked by an extremist then most decent people go "yeah that's a homophobic attack."

I think if a black person is killed by the KKK most decent people go "yeah that's a racist murder."

But saying "I don't want a bloke in a dress using the same toilet as me" isn't transphobic no matter how much you want it to be - it's common sense.

One that doesn’t include Jews though or one where their assertions about being unsafe are belittled. How that inclusive?

It could also apply to the Far Left. Both they and the Far Right are extremes.

The OP goes to show how she is way behind on the new definition of fascism. No wonder posters align it more with those who don't want Jews to have a homeland or worse.

What do you mean by "fascism" OP? How do you define it?

Calling a trans person "a bloke in a dress" comes under the "invalidating" part of the definition, btw.

Here's a prime example of this already happening Leicestershire under Reform's police and crime commissioner Rupert Matthews

He's underfunded the police by £2million and now wants to spend that money on private security officers. I wonder what sort of backhander might change hands there?

https://polfed.org/leics/news/2026/leicestershire-police-federation-press-release-regarding-proposed-2m-outsourcing-of-policing-to-private-security-firms

I've never seen any evidence that he doesn't include Jews in his society. I do find it interesting that nobody seems to acknowledge that, if all the Jews go to Israel, there won't be any Jews in our society. So I wonder what percentage of Zionism is driven by people not wanting to share their own country with Jews.

I do invalidate it to be clear.

The quote is quite right in my opinion.

If anyone's ever read/watched any P.G. Wodehouse books the character Spode is as clear and accurate a depiction of the Farage as any.

Wodehouse first wrote about Spode in 1938. Funny that.

We never learn.

Also google

pho·bia
[ˈfəʊbiə]
noun
phobia (noun)
phobias (plural noun)
an extreme or irrational fear of or aversion to something:
"she suffered from a phobia about birds"

It is totally rational to be take actions, have beliefs or policies that keep men with fetishes and/or mental health issues out of female spaces and activities.

So not a phobia at all.

Im so sorry you find womens rights so incredibly dull, but its very important to many of us. Weird huh?

You could try addressing my point and telling me how it is inclusive to pretend women don't exist though, give it a try, show me how wrong I am.

Have you ever heard of diachronic variation? You do realise that language evolves? Would you say that homophobic people are terrified of gay people?

Doesn't have to be a dress in Australia. Just a V neck top.

Jesus this thread is getting worse. Ok, I get people have their gripes with the Green Party, might think they are naive, too soft on anti-semitism, whatever. But I really really struggle to see how people think they are as bad even as Reform UK, let alone the more extreme political movements which think Reform are not racist enough, like Tommy Robinson's crew, or Restore Britain.

The below are all taken from news stories in the past week alone. There is a reason why these sort of people were attracted to Reform and were allowed to stand as councillors. They might have been kicked out but I bet Rupert Lowe's Restore Britain would welcome them. Forgive me for thinking that we ought to be able to talk about this as a problem on Mumsnet without being drowned out by minimising and denying and "ooh the Green Party is just as bad."

Reform UK Sheffield councillor Nathaniel Menday has been suspended by the party over sharing pictures of swastikas, Adolf Hitler’s book Mein Kampf and other far right iconography, on a now deleted X account. Other posts saw Menday claim the UK has a “subhuman underclass”

Reform councillor Jay Cooper who claimed the Holocaust was a "hoax" and "propaganda" has apologised for his comments and quit the party just days after being elected.

Newly elected Reform UK councillor on Sunderland City Council, Glenn Gibbins, has been suspended after posting on social media that Nigerians should be used to "fill in pot holes".

Newly elected Essex Reform UK councillor Stuart Prior resigned a few days after the election, challenged with social media posts including:

• calling white people the “master race” and stated that they have “larger brains”.
• celebrating the rape of two Sikh women in 2025, posting the comment “good, reap it”.
• saying “There cannot be a genocide against Muslims. It’s only ever self defence against those rats”.
• describing a video of a Palestinian man searching through rubble for his child as “hilarious”.

Not suspended - Stephan (Stefan) Dransfield is a newly elected Reform UK councillor on Kirklees Council. In 2020 he shared a racist video on Facebook of an Asian man being punched aggressively in the face, describing it as “very satisfying”.

It's kind of irrelevant because nobody is pretending that. There are biological women and there are trans women. Both exist.

It is the failures of the left driving people to the right.

The right and fascism in particular is the worst outcome coupled only with the extreme far left as a generation of communism gave us. Authoritarianism and totalitarianism are where we are headed if the centre does not stop alienating its voters.

Oh they absolutely do, but lets play along, why cant women have their own spaces and sport based on their biology then?

You asked: I do not see how this applies to Polanski. Wanting an inclusive society is the opposite of fascism well this is your answer - pretending men can be women is extremeist and not inclusive to women.

He was also publicly defending a convicted paedophile because he was a good mate and running shoulders with at least 120 convicted abusers/paedos, which is a very strange thing to do if you actually care about protecting women and children

Stop bringing them up, then…?

Couldn't agree more. Rape, domestic violence, misogyny - all excusable if the perpetrator is white. This is not about caring about the safety or equality of women in our society, it's about disliking 'foreigners'.

They can and do.

You literally asked what the problem is with ZP, we tell you ,and then you whine that we need to stop bringing it up?! 🤣