People who can't grasp that I'm not even talking about now but about political trends and political history really are away with the fairies.
People don't necessarily vote in logical ways. Sometimes they vote the way they do purely because they aren't X.
So we see the pattern of people voting for Reform because they aren't the Tories who have fucked them over at a national level and because they are not Labour who have fucked them over a local level.
All you need is one idea that strikes a chord - being fed up of having to sit through a diversity course and being told you are racist and you are to blame for slavery when you know your family has been working class and exploited by higher ups for the last 200 years might just lead you to vote Reform because you are putting two fingers up at the establishment not because you are racist.
I know a woman in her late thirties who was saying she was considering it for exactly this reason because she thinks all this diversity training is actually counter productive and is racist in its own right. Hence some of my arguments about about pushing inclusivity too hard and in a way that people don't relate to us having unintended consequences.
I don't believe she's remotely racist. Quite the opposite. I do think she's off her rocker and hasn't a clue. But I also do understand the process that's led to her coming to this conclusion. It's the incomprehensible backlash that someone who is righteously wedded to the concept of inclusivity training can't see but they aren't listening.
I think this is the main issue - grassroots groups and individuals feeling like they are being talked over and not listening to so problems which aren't being dealt with and are festering are fair game for other political groups to capitalise on.
I acutely felt this arrogance over Brexit and the refusal of remainers to try and grasps the whys of it. It was easier just to label every as stupid or racist. It's far more complex than that and it's deeply frustrating. I was a full remainer but by the time we got to the 2019 election I think I felt alienated by those who continued to push on with it without nuance and thought.
This is the level and the thought processes we need to consider.
No it makes no sense. But it's not a culture war. It's about injustice and a feeling that authority isn't listening 'to the people' and it's middle class managers who are acting in a dictatoral way without understanding the problem. It's often not even about the issue at hand - it's charactered by the sense of things being the wrong solution to applied to a problem without understanding the problem in the first place. It's a frustration with hypocrisy and pick and mix approaches to different subjects based on political alliance rather than looking at a problem neutrally and wanting to actually solve it. Basically a sense of bad middle management by people who are over promoted. Once you see things through this lens it starts to make sense.
Reinforcing the idea it's a culture war is just highlighting the very problems that unpin what's driving division.
People don't mind compromise and working with others. What they object to is this alienation and contempt from power - political power or management levels.
That's why I say that trends will be interesting to follow.