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

Lies? Er, 18 years ago I sat in a courtroom with my DSD whilst the man (of Pakistani descent) that groomed and raped her when she was 15 was in the fucking dock!

YOU ARE PART OF THE FUCKING PROBLEM! You also literally missed the bit where I said Reform are ridiculous and Labour are still the closest thing to a decent vote for me. Your comprehension skills are lacking.

ETA, it would literally be impossible for 99% of grooming gangs in my area to be white! White people make up around 30% of people here.

Another Reform councillor suspended today. How many is that now? I’ve actually lost count!

I have to assume @InstantlyBella is trolling here (have a look at all their posts by clicking the '...' at the top of any of their posts to see all their posts, you'll see why I think that). Each post being more unhinged/trolling than the last.

I personally am sick of this 'Britain was built by immigration' shit. Any person saying that has a very shallow idea of our history, probably going no further back than the 1950s. We were built a damned sight earlier than that! True we had the Vikings, the Romans, the Angles, the Saxons - but I think you'll find they were invaders and colonisers Bella, and I'm sure you disapprove of colonialism (or at least are willing to post that you are).

Can @InstantlyBella back up her claims, and show us how Britain was built by immigration? I very much doubt it.

This has to be a satirical poster, surely! The goadiness is off the charts!

I'm working class, not thick or racist.

Congratulations on finding a random on the internet who agrees with you @ProudAmberTurtle.
👏👏👏🤣

Just a reminder - it is possible to express agreement with a particular party without denigrating those who support another party.
Hope that helps.

Of course. No disagreement there.

I think you're mistaking Britain with the U.S.

If Reform voters come from the underclass there must be a bloody big underclass judging by the results of this week's elections. Did I read 26% of votes were for Reform. 26% underclass? Utter rubbish.

Posh twat at glasto is a twat - of course.

But your last par of desired policies is quite literally the Labour manifesto and NOT the Reform one. EG Reform want a cut in the minimum wage.

Labour are doing a crap job of delivering on their promises, yes - but those three desires is exactly what they are aiming to do . I think this is why people feel bewildered.

Definitely trolling.

So you want to impose your minority views on the majority? Were your ancestors slavers then? Because if they weren't, you have absolutely naff all to be turning yourself into a pretzel for. And, if you are related to slavers and have some massive country pile and a title, get your hand in your pocket and pay your own reparations, make your own flag and shove it up the flag pole that sits over the west wing. It's views like yours that are driving this country to fascism. You are making life more unsafe for all of us. Grow up!

Britain used indirect rule, preserving local structures where functional, but only replacing them if not functional or abhorrent (in the opinion of the British).

You've not mentioned the 50 million excess deaths in India due to induced famines and economic policies.

Or the thousands of people killed by the British in Egypt (in order to access the Suez Canal) who did not benefit for increased 'productivity'.

Are you really here to sing the praises of the British Empire without acknowledging the huge human costs?

Which part of her comment suggests she wants to impose her views on anyone?

I’m northern working class and would be happy if I never saw another flag for the rest of my life.

I saw this posters first post and nearly responded. But then I read their next few and understood that any response would be pointless. You would be arguing with a figment of a lonely person's imagination.

Some people are sadly so chronicly online that they need to pretend to be something they are clearly not, just in an attempt to rile strangers up.

It is behaviour to be pitied. And ignored.

Maybe we're bewildered because they're using methods that will never achieve their stated aims? They came in trumpeting their fiscal chops, and it's been obvious mistake after obvious mistake. It's sheer incompetence on their part, and since they refuse to admit mistakes they're not going to stop making them. I wish they were better, stability genuinely helps - but they're not.

p.s. I didn't mention cotton in relation to Egypt. You made that bit up.

Some more balance to your fable of the British Empire

India Famines (1881–1920): Roughly 50 million to 165 million excess deaths in India, attributed to British policies, according to studies based on census data.
Bengal Famine of 1943: Around 3 million people died in this, which was largely caused by policies under Winston Churchill.
Bengal Famine (1769–1770): Up to 10 million died following the East India Company's policies.
Boer War Concentration Camps (1900–1902): Over 28,000 Boer women and children, and at least 20,000 Black Africans, died in British camps in South Africa.
Indian Independence/Partition (1947): Up to 1 million people died during the violent partition of India.
Other Conflicts: Millions more died in various uprisings and conflicts, such as the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya, which saw up to 100,000 deaths, according to some estimations.

Completely shit thread, demonstrating a comprehensive inability to reason, to respect, to sympathise. Regardless of political affiliation. Even the act of stringing a rational argument together appears to have been lost. It seems that politics has now evolved into spouting childish venom.
Take a look at yourselves.
It scares me that there are so many of you like this out there wielding the power of a vote.

The compensation argument is bewildering - that was the political price of abolishing slavery. The fact that the UK was prepared to spend so much to abolish something shows how opposed to it it was.

Interesting that the compensation was paid to the slave owners and not the slaves.

This was a massive transfer of public money to already rich landowners.

Landowners with names like Gladstone, Drax - families that are still rich today on the back of it.

Correcting porkies that were being said about the British Empire is not the same as singing its praises

Thank you.

I'll continue to correct you as we go along.

Absolutely spot on...

I’m sorry, I have no idea what point you’re trying to make. How am I making an assumption? What assumption are telling yourself I’m making?

Reform has a policy to deport settled legal immigrants, undoing the legal basis of them being here despite them never putting a foot wrong. They made a big announcement about this. It says quite a bit about what they believe their voters should care about and what they want to do if they call the shots.

Why are you assuming that no one who votes Reform likes that message (or at least regards it as neutral)? They have made it a policy for a reason, it wasn’t something they just pulled out of a cereal box.

Note I am showing Reform voters a lot of respect here: I am assuming that they know exactly what they are voting for and why.

Until the 1980s most people in the uk were working class. I come from a working class background- what got me out of it was access to free, universal education, free healthcare, being in a last stage capitalist country that was crucially in a trading block from the 70s onwards. As a woman, having my right not to be discriminated against due to pregnancy made a huge impact in my lifetime.

I also completely disagree that mass immigration is why the country is in a mass. In fact net migration is rapidly declining due to crackdowns on visa issuance. It’s going to have a decades long impact on HE, it will start to impact on the social care sector, if you’ve had a relative in care you’ll know the sector is reliant on migrant worker, it would have impacted the food industry - but there are workarounds to allow migrant workers to enter to pick crops.

But yeah, I just think it’s about benefits