It is funny that the flag-shaggers react like Burnham is essentially Mao, and the tote-bag shaggers react like he's basically Mussolini. It is almost as if the far-right and the middle-class contingent of the online left are so chronically online that nuance ceases to exist and everyone involved needs to touch some grass.
Both groups are reading an imaginary room. That is the point. Burnham did not scrape through on a technicality. He got over 50% of the vote in a Reform-target seat. If that shocks you, or you are currently typing out "who would vote for Labour?", I fear you may actually be the problem. And maybe, just maybe, your political worldview is being built less by talking to normal people and more by an algorithm that financially benefits from making everyone look insane.
You cannot spend years talking about this country as if ordinary people are innately racist, right-wing, stupid and morally contaminated by Britishness, then act shocked when those same people do not respond to "far-left or nothing" politics. Never mind that expecting the people you constantly demonise to vote the same way as you is also incredibly delusional.
If the choice is between a broad left/centre-left figure who can actually beat Reform in a Reform-target seat, and an online fantasy where the Greens sweep the country under first past the post, maybe stop acting like pragmatism is fascism.
This is not me saying Burnham is perfect, but I understand bad faith is the natural position online these days. Obviously criticise him. But if your political analysis cannot distinguish between "imperfect Labour man who can beat Reform" and "basically Mussolini", I do think you may need to log off and go and talk to normal people outside.
The majority of British people are decent. Just like any other fucking country. But the internet has become so dominant in shaping our political image that everyone is exhausted, paranoid and convinced the loudest twats online offer a full picture of what the world is like. It's genuinely stupid.
A minority of users make up the majority of content on social media. We are being painted falsehoods that crumble the moment you actually talk to people.
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