It seems apt that the first time I revisited an old Wordpress blog, I read a post from five years ago, where I went on what can only be described as a rant of epic proportions. The topic was the EDL (you can read it here, if you wish).
For anyone not familiar, the English Defence League was (or rather is, in a sad, small, hateful capacity) a far-right nationalist group in the UK, with a philosophy mainly focused on anti-Muslim and anti-immigration sentiment.
It’s very interesting, and admittedly, somewhat heart-breaking, for me to read through that post. Looking back, I can feel how angry I was. But I remember feeling the optimism with which I try to approach all things: that this divisive, ugly, close-minded attitude could not possibly prosper in the society I have had the opportunity to grow up in.
However in light of recent events (I won’t dwell on my thoughts on Brexit and Trump for too long – saying I’m a liberal, open-minded humanist hopefully tells you all you need to know) my thoughts from 2010 are particularly poignant, in that not only has nothing changed, it seems to have gotten worse.
The fringes of our society, whether those who feel they have no voice, or those who genuinely adopt a far-right mentality, have used their political right to hold to account those they feel they’ve been hurt by. And yes – as it’s been widely discussed, the state of affairs of liberal politics has been in flux for a number of years. The round about continues to turn, it’s just different people get on and off. Our short term memory serves us badly in many cases, and it’s what political backlash (or whitelash as some have said) in the form of Donald Trump looks like.
But one part of the blog I wrote five years ago particularly resonates: the concept of othering.
I was extremely interested in this concept, and studied it at length whilst at university in the context of writers such as Joseph Conrad, E.M. Forster, and Rudyard Kipling. This is perhaps why I brought it to the discussion.
But what startles me the most is seeing this genuine, real-life, blind, fearful, ‘othering’ that’s on our collective doorstep.
The demonising of those who we know nothing about, in order to validate and suppress the demons within ourselves. If we have something to focus our hate and fear upon, it doesn’t give us time to look inside and confront our true selves.
Now this may all sound like I’m trying to over-intellectualise a very serious and immediate issue – and perhaps it is all bollocks. However if you look at a huge swath of supporters for these far-right movements, and you watch their responses to perfectly fair, rational questions, you begin to realise that no matter how much you try to enlighten, or debate, or share facts, they simply do not want to hear – to the extent that women who have heard Donald Trump refer to grabbing women ‘by the pussy’, found no problem with voting for him, even if they couldn’t come up with a reason for why they found that acceptable.
And why can’t they bring themselves to a rational answer? Do they know Trump and Le Pen and Farage are spewing vile, hateful, and in many cases, racist, sexist, and misogynistic speech? The far-right tend to support it, but for those who are just looking for a way out, (or a way up) do they put that aside, in a box somewhere, hoping that it doesn’t open? They’re not effected anyway, so as long as that’s the case, we can shove that box in the cupboard under the stairs, no need to think about that now.
Whatever the motivation, in a post-truth era, trying to separate fact from fiction and truth from lies is hard enough – but what is exposing is that regardless of whether promises of a wall, or deportations, or closure of planned parenthood are kept or not, the fact is, people rooted for them. A lot of people. And that, that’s the part that scares me most.
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