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Rise of the far right in Europe.


Sugar Ape
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I'm not into limiting free speech; I'm into holding people accountable for hate speech.

 

Hate speech is used as a tool to divide people against each other, in order to keep the worst of the rich and powerful in power. When people start working together, we can start to tackle poverty, shit jobs, low pay, loneliness, etc.

The system is designed to stop that kind of unification, I think. This is where our ‘free marketeer’ econo-society has been hijacked.

 

There shouldn’t be a scarcity of basic necessities, but an artificial one has been created, in an age of abundance.

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Hades, on 16 Jul 2018 - 5:49 PM, said:

 

The 'hate' speech we're seeing is because free speech was shut down by the left and allowed the right to morph into an echo-chamber, Fox News led, evangelical monstrosity. There was no functional economic difference between the left and the right so the right became ever more absurd to justify its existence. None of this has to do with hate speech, but economic policy or lack thereof by the left.

How was "free speech shut down by the left"?

Which countries are you talking about, and who are "the left"? Examples please.

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Worth a read

 

Tommy Robinson’s cheerleaders are hypocrites, but his strategy is working

Julia Ebner

 

Despite stirring up hatred and silencing opponents, he is still presented as the underdog by the global far right

Mon 16 Jul 2018 16.45 BST Last modified on Mon 16 Jul 2018 18.23 BST

 

 

Crowds shouting “Make Britain great again”, identitarian flags featuring the lambda symbol waving between #FreeTommy T-shirts. It’s fair to say that tourists trying to catch a glimpse of Westminster Abbey this Saturday did not see London at its best, despite the remarkable weather.

 

Not so long ago it would have been hard to imagine thousands of marchers worshipping the bravery of a far-right troublemaker convicted of contempt of court after risking the collapse of a trial. European populist politicians such as Geert Wilders hailing Tommy Robinson, the founder of the English Defence League, as “the greatest freedom fighter in Britain” and ex-White House strategists such as Steve Bannon calling him the “backbone of this country”? Unthinkable. The US president’s son tweeting in support and a US ambassador allegedly lobbying for his release? Inconceivable.

 

 

What happened? How has a fringe figure been able to mobilise powerful influencers from across the rightwing spectrum and collect half a million signatures from supporting voices all over the world?

 

A year ago, I wrote an opinion piece for the Guardian about the mainstreaming of the extreme right. The next day, Tommy Robinson barged into my office and was suddenly standing in front of me with his most intimidating weapons: a microphone and a cameraman livestreaming every word I said to his hundreds of thousands of followers. Having watched him turn up to confront other journalists who had voiced criticism or dared to call him far-right, I knew what was going to happen. A chain reaction of reporting in alternative media outlets followed, which portrayed Robinson as a victim of the “lying press” and kicked off a cyber-harassment campaign that included sexual and death threats.

 

Since then, Robinson has continued his crusade against “mainstream journalists”, the political establishment, British courts and minority communities. There is a sad irony in #FreeTommy protesters’ claims to be defending human rights while standing up for a man who has compromised the fundamental rights of so many, by stirring up hatred against ethnic and religious minorities, silencing his political opponents and breaching one of the key rights of defendants – that of being considered innocent until proved guilty.

 

Despite the obvious hypocrisy behind the rhetoric, we need to take his expanding support base seriously. Over the past couple of years, I have watched Robinson refine his meta-political strategy, mirroring “alt-right” tactics of controlled provocation, subversion and transgression to “trigger” the establishment and provoke it into taking action that he could use to further his tales about “political oppression” and “fake news”. His ability to mobilise people from all corners of the ideological spectrum, not just the extreme fringes, rests on three pillars: the hijacking of widespread grievances, his ability to frame himself as a victim, and his efforts to build a global anti-establishment coalition.

 

Against the backdrop of rapidly diminishing trust in politicians, the media and democracy itself, it is hardly surprising to find Robinson successfully co-opting issues we all care about: freedom of speech, sexual abuse, terrorism and socio-economic injustices. Now add the dynamics of new media ecosystems, where slick online-offline hybrid media strategies have enabled far-right activists to reach audiences well beyond their traditional fan base. Some people who trust their social-media feeds more than the BBC’s reporting have gradually started to buy Robinson’s claims to be the sole person to speak truth to power, address their concerns and defend their rights.

 

Additionally, Robinson’s ability to frame himself as a victim of political oppression and the “lying press” has allowed him to present himself as an international symbol of resistance for freedom of speech. While the far-right has suffered from setbacks as a result of internal divisions over the past few years, Robinson’s court case has been seized as an opportunity to unite the international right. Shared enemies and common goals have become the lowest common denominator for figures who previously did not talk to each other. Now moderate English patriots, American libertarians, European white nationalists and neo-Nazis performing Hitler salutes are seen marching side by side, setting aside ideological differences and overcoming geographic boundaries.

 

Robinson himself has invested heavily in building a global coalition over the past couple of years. International allies he has gathered around himself include far-right media outlets such as Breitbart, Canadian website the Rebel Media, and JihadWatch, self-styled journalists and social-media influencers such as Brittany Pettibone and Pamela Geller, investors and thinktanks such as the Middle East Forum, and populist politicians such as Alternative für Deutschland MP Petr Bystron. These transatlantic alliances have created a propaganda machine of immense power: for example, provocative livestreams can be turned into viral social media campaigns instantly, forcing conventional media outlets to give their messages a platform.

 

This mainstreaming of fringe movements is a pattern emerging across Europe. Take the German “Declaration 2018” against “illegal mass immigration”. The initiative was based on factual inaccuracies and over half of its initiators were associated with the new right and far-right Pegida networks, but the petition still received more than 150,000 signatures.

 

Mobilisation hooks no longer need to be rational or fact-based. In Austria, a country with the highest GDP per capita, lowest unemployment rate and best welfare systems, fears of migrants taking native Austrians’ jobs, houses and wealth have contributed to the rise of the now governing far-right FPÖ party. In Italy, a country that hasn’t seen a single jihadist terrorist attack, security concerns over Muslim refugees played a major role in bringing the far-right Lega party into government.

 

If we want to stop far-right agents provocateurs such as Robinson from having a lasting impact on the foundations that underpin a stable and peaceful society, we need to start tackling the rising levels of distrust, fear and anger among those who feel unheard in this country. Politicians should address both the sources and the instrumentalisation of widespread concerns about cultural diversification against the backdrop of economic decline. This means mitigating socio-economic inequalities across the country, initiating public debates about British identity and combating the spread of disinformation and far-right influencer campaigns in the online space. Additionally, we need civil society to stand up to the normalisation of “othering” narratives and dehumanising language. But most importantly, we all need to start putting aside our prejudices and reaching out to those with whom we disagree most.

 

• Julia Ebner, an Austrian journalist, is a researcher at the London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue

 

https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/16/tommy-robinson-cheerleaders-hypocrites-far-right?__twitter_impression=true

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I’ve been saying that for years. Ignoring concerns and shouting ‘racist’ created a vacuum that was filled by this cunt and his ilk.

A bit more than that. I'd say austerity and the narrative that there are limited resources has played a factor and the dehumanising and portraying others as not like us is a huge contributing issue in the United Kingdom.

 

I was talking to my grandad about the Liverpool Protestant Party of yesteryear and he was telling me about the narrative he was told when his family first settled in Liverpool from Italy. The trope of that time was vote Labour for Catholic domination and they are bringing crime prostitution and their dodgy places of worship, sound familiar. There was no issue about speech being closed down etc but the narratives were similar. Incidentally the Tory party benefited from the divisions and dominated Liverpool at that time.

 

 

There are similar tales throughout history in the United Kingdom with the Jewish people in the late 19th century and the immigration of people from the commonwealth post world war 2.

 

The Tory party have managed to fuel the fire in a lot of instances. If you want a ...... for neighbour vote Labour. Now we have the if you want a jihadi for a neighbour vote Labour. Our discourse in England and Wales is shaped predominantly by Peter Griffiths and Enoch Powell to a large extent.

 

A wise man once said "Every generation must fight the same battles again and again. There's no final victory and there's no final defeat"

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The only thing Robinson has done well is tapped into the whole paedogeddon zeitgeist. Scumbags (like mainstream criminals for example) like to have a 'paedo-off' of how much they hate paedos. The more you hate paedos the more ace you are. 

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I’ve been saying that for years. Ignoring concerns and shouting ‘racist’ created a vacuum that was filled by this cunt and his ilk.

Legitimate concerns (arising from austerity, inequality, alienation and an increasingly aloof political class) certainly need to be addressed. I see this as a key part of what the Labour Party is now, finally, doing. But we also need to call out the lies, misrepresentations, distortions and bullshit that the far right deal in. We still need to call racists racist, to challenge them and stop them, wherever they are.
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Legitimate concerns (arising from austerity, inequality, alienation and an increasingly aloof political class) certainly need to be addressed. I see this as a key part of what the Labour Party is now, finally, doing. But we also need to call out the lies, misrepresentations, distortions and bullshit that the far right deal in. We still need to call racists racist, to challenge them and stop them, wherever they are.

What about Rochdale and the other areas where the people who had legitimate concerns but were branded racist by everyone they raised them with? Even the police and Social Services were too scared to act. That vacuum allowed the drunk, racist knobs to talk about ‘ray guns’. That meme isn’t so funny 10 years later when there are multiple convictions and trials going on. Those people see the right as the only ones who listened. The left let them down, how is a left even more invested in identity politics going to reach them?

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What about Rochdale and the other areas where the people who had legitimate concerns but were branded racist by everyone they raised them with? Even the police and Social Services were too scared to act. That vacuum allowed the drunk, racist knobs to talk about ‘ray guns’. That meme isn’t so funny 10 years later when there are multiple convictions and trials going on. Those people see the right as the only ones who listened. The left let them down, how is a left even more invested in identity politics going to reach them?

That's nonsense. The police were more bothered about prosecuting volume crime and didn't believe the girls' accounts. Social services weren't I retested either. They failed to do their job, the 'left' didn't stop them by saying it's racist.

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Without looking it up again, I think I recall that the inquiry into Rochdale found that the fear of being called racist - the "PC gone mad" terror invoked by racists - wasn’t really an issue. More important (and, in my view, more shameful) was political pressure from Labour Councillors who sought to quash or hamper the investigation, for fear of losing support among the proportion of the electorate of Pakistani origin.

 

But the general point doesn't counter what I said. Of course criminality should be called out, investigated and punished. The far right have created the "white straight man as victim" myth and they invoke it every time a brown person sexually assaults a white person (conveniently ignoring all other offences, even those committed by EDL members).

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That's nonsense. The police were more bothered about prosecuting volume crime and didn't believe the girls' accounts. Social services weren't I retested either. They failed to do their job, the 'left' didn't stop them by saying it's racist.

I think there was a lot of sexism and class prejudice at play in the Police response in Rochdale: the girls were dismissed as slags and chavs, rather than listened to as children and victims.
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That's nonsense. The police were more bothered about prosecuting volume crime and didn't believe the girls' accounts. Social services weren't I retested either. They failed to do their job, the 'left' didn't stop them by saying it's racist.

Ann Cryer has a different view.

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Austrian right-wingers looking to create a state register of religious minorities, just like the old days.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/world-europe-44881029

 

But it's OK. They're just concerned about animal welfare (in the same way that "Tommy" fans are concerned about child protection).

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The only thing Robinson has done well is tapped into the whole paedogeddon zeitgeist. Scumbags (like mainstream criminals for example) like to have a 'paedo-off' of how much they hate paedos. The more you hate paedos the more ace you are.

The far right is packed full of peadophiles. Rampant noncery.
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  • 2 weeks later...

I am 100% using this

 

News is just in that spot poll of everybody in the UK has revealed today that the UK’s favourite synonym for taking a dump is now “off to free Tommy Robinson.”

 

According to experts at Rochdale’s Community University the synonym replaces “dropping the kids off at the pool” which had held the top spot for almost three decades.

 

“Well he had to be good for something.” Professor Briane Cocks told The Rochdale Herald.

 

“You can hear yourself saying to a colleague in a jokey way ‘I’m just off to free Tommy Robinson’ on a morning. I think this synonym could really work.”

 

“It works on many levels. I’ve just stepped in a dog Tommy or I have warm Tommy running down the back of my leg or even Old Trafford is a right Tommy Hole.”

 

The petition to have the damp sensation experienced when you’ve just been for wee but put it away before you’ve properly finished named a Yaxley-Lennon has raised half a million signatures in 6 hours.

 

 

 

https://rochdaleherald.co.uk/2018/08/02/off-to-free-tommy-robinson-replaces-dropping-kids-off-at-the-pool-as-uks-favourite-synonym-for-taking-a-dump/

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