This post nails it about left wing voters on Mumsnet over the last two days

[ProudAmberTurtle]

It's by an ex-academic on X, about posts on Reddit over the last 48 hours but is equally applicable to Mumsnet, where I can seeing posts stating things like:

"How stupid are Reform voters? Don't they realise they'll get fewer benefits?!"

The irony is of course that it's those posters who need to be educated, not the working class voters they mock because they think they're thick.

Here you go:

Reading through Reddit threads in which leftists/progressives express their bewilderment/confusion/fury at working class English voters for casting their lot in with Reform, one of the things I'm starting to understand is this:

They simply do not understand how a government could help working-class people in any other way besides giving them benefits, handouts, and other free things.

Their entire mental architecture is premised upon the premises that

1. Working class people are poor
2. The only way for them to not be poor is for the state to give them free stuff
3. So left-wing parties need to promise them lots of free stuff

Then, when these working-class voters instead vote for right-of-centre parties who instead promise an economy in which they can build a career, start their own business, make a financial success of themselves and start a family, they're confused.

Because, again, in their mental architecture, what the working class are supposed to want is free benefits from the state.

But what they actually want is a fair shake at making their own way in the world, making money, getting on in life.

And the left simply doesn't understand that what these voters want from the state is an economy in which they can actually do this.

x.com/i/status/2053073719086469193

I think you’re not reading. It’s about Starmer and whether it works for him politically still it doesn’t.

Hence even his own party wanting Burnham now.

Plumbers are going for MP positions from left and right. Things are changing it’s just Starmer’s story doesn’t wash anymore.

For Reform, a plumber with very questionable views, especially on women

So really reformers are middle and upper class right wingers who have no respect for the people in the trades ? Is that the score ?

Yup. That makes sense thinking about it. The bourgeoise love to shit on the proletariat. Tell me about it. They have shit on me and my family often enough.

And now they call us working class obstinate, and insulting. As they recruit from my class to join them, with the promise of some sort of alternate utopia. A holy grail that no government system in the history of humanity has been able to achieve ( for more than a few years).

Well, I suppose, based on history, Reform might get the trains running on time. But there won't be many trains.

I think your losing it a bit here tbh.

It’s pretty simple. Starmer spun a line and most can see through it now. Even his own party think it’s not working.

It was not spinning a line, it was his dad's job

Exactly. If he’d spun a line he’d probably have come up with a better line - dustman perhaps?

Quote " Plumbers are going for MP positions from left and right."

I have big respect for plumbers. But some are round the bend.

Connected to lead solder. It's not their fault of course. It comes down to the bourgeoise refusing to pay for proper training and health and safety. Plumbers on the left will be aware of the risks of Pb. Those on the right maybe less so.

So on the right it's the bourgeoise who were against paying for their health and safety that are now funding right leaning plumbers to become lawmakers. And they are being funded to stand on a manifesto of reducing regulation.

And on the left, the plumbers who are left leaning and are aware of the dangers of Pb, and who want to protect others, are being funded by the left to stand on a manifesto of more workers protection.

You are making some excellent points Eastern.

Vote for left wing plumbers. Pb is bad stuff. It has been scientifically proven to be connected to criminal behavior.

Yup which those on the right used to attack and ridicule him over.

Just as they have always looked down on people who didn't go to the right schools or worked in the correct professions.

Absurd really, esp with the Uni sector in crisis and no one can get a decent builder for love nor money.

...and few are quite as "round the bend" as Kenyon, a self proclaimed misogynist who believes women cannot drive, can't give directions, can't referee a match but who wants to sniff Vordermans arse...

... yet still the Refomites on here or anywhere else cannot bring themselves to call him out on some pretty vile views.

Lead can do stuff like that. It changes the brain.

I am not defending the guy, I am saying vote for the left wing plumber who is more likely to know the dangers. And who want's to protect others.

Pb is really bad stuff.

Ok well it isn’t really working for him anymore.

11 union leaders have said go before the next GE and there’s a 20 point drop with union members.

If Labour do manage to oust him, as wanted, the next leader will need more substance than their dad’s job.

His dad being a toolmaker isn't working for him anymore?

Do you really think people voted for him because of his dad's job?

Or what are you saying?

Starner’s political strategy worked at the GE but it isn’t anymore. Hence the big drops, with union members, leaders, his party and many voters.

I've never met a genuinely leftie tradie, and I live in the milieu of small town tradespeople. Every single one is setting the alarm for work in the morning. We all work for our families' benefit, and paying tax is part of the package. It would be nice to think that all the charges added up to a safety net for those that really are vulnerable but sadly there are chancers and opportunists out to game the system.

I see Margaret Thatcher and Norman Tebbitt ride again.

I know what you mean @mathanxiety but it is difficult to argue with the thought that if you want a better life, it's at least 50% on you to go and seek it out.

Our plumber is even leftier than me @Papyrophile.

A man in a million @BIossomtoes !

Probably not - are there even a million plumbers in the country?

Yes. In a way I think

Because it was Thatcher who set out persuade the working class masses that they were middle class. And she done that by selling off state owned assets. She reasoned that if middle class traditionally voted tory, then persuade folk they are middle class.

Then Major came along with his classless society. Personally, I really like that concept. You are who you are.

Then Farage. And not only did he resurrect the idea of a class system, he tried to totally reinvent it. To make it divisive. Them against us. Now the far right are the working class. And the left are the elite.

The far left just think they are the elite 😂

True.

Farage and Mao. How are they similar in tactics. Cult of personality etc.

Both presented big projects that would solve all. Mao had the great leap forward, Farage had Brexit. Both projects did not deliver what was promised. They failed. And both Mao and Farage were sidelined. Into the political wilderness they went for a while.

But both really want power no matter what. Mao had his Cultural Revolution, Farage launched reform.

And both Mao and Farage blamed the others in power for the failure of their main projects. And they said "Trust me, I can fix things, and only I have the vision to fix it".

So, blame those in power for what is wrong. And if something is actually ok, then tell the people " No, it is wrong and only I can fix it". You know, invent problems, or escalate what are not problems, into being the biggest problems.

Divide society. Threaten the establishment with "do it my way or I will take my people". And back that up with protests, often violent. And above all, rouse their base with promises of a utopia. Without actually saying what that utopia will be.

Attack academia. Lebel your opponents as the elite. Tell your supporters that this elite only have one function:-to keep you down so they can keep their power over you. But they, Mao and Farage, can fix it.

"Look at the elite. They hate you, they insult you, but I care about you. And only I can help you"

And you can throw in the anti science stuff, anti institutions, attack the media too. " They are trying to indoctrinate you. But I am waking you up"

See, same playbook

So. that's my bit, Your turn.

What British cultural things can't British do any more?

Explained in an easy to understand way.

I know a window fitter, an electrician, a stove fitter and a plasterer who are left leaning, whilst i believe we live in the same area, obv a different town!

The toolmaker i mentioned earlier was also a huge Labour supporter.

I see you've picked up the on the phrase "Alarm Clock Britain"

It’s a cultural change to have such racial sensitivity and to have marches & demonstrations on a regular basis in UK cities against a war in a different country that we are not directly involved in.

Jewish people in the UK would probably say the UK no longer feels like a welcoming place for them to live despite British values being supposedly inclusive. Society has become more divided.

British people feel worried about celebrating being British- flying flags for example is only really considered ok now in the context of the World Cup. And even then … I saw a MN post yesterday from someone saying the World Cup is just an excuse for racists to fly England flags.