This is a long article (excerpts from a book apparently) but it’s interesting.
Basically the author, a man with Jewish heritage, makes a fake persona and joins far-right groups. He’s assisted by the group Hope Not Hate.
What do you think of the far-right? One of the interesting points that is made in the article a few times is that some far-right adherents, met by the author, seem to want friendship more than anything else. At least that’s the author’s view.
Powerful piece. Incredibly sad that most of the “foot soldiers” of these organisations seem to be socially awkward and craving friendship. Terrible that they are finding friendship in these organisations. If only the government provided them with a better more fulfilling outlook that might have been avoided.
It goes to show that the reason these groups exist is that a small minority of wealthy racists are taking advantage of fragile minds.
These wealthy racists are extremely misguided. They think in a post-capitalist society, shock collars will keep security detail loyal to them. Perhaps they’ve come around to think feeding them well, too. What they aren’t counting these men have learned to overcome physical and emotional pain and deprivation. They have possibly learned to master their emotions, but I’m betting beneath the surface, something is seething that doesn’t bode well for the wealthy racists.
Any guesses as to what effect pulling loads of people’s PIP is going to have on this situation?
😐
I don’t think that’s the only answer (as in restoring PIP). At least in the UK, we’ve been horrible for over 50 years at creating meaningful and lasting communities where people can afford to live and work. In my opinion, we should create the conditions to make it easier for as many people as possible to be working and contributing to community life. Get some pride back by seeing small improvements in your life or local areas instead of seeing a slow lazy slide into decline and exorbitant prices and shit infrastructure. Business rent is absolutely mental in most places for example. Imagine not paying all that amount in business rent and taxes and instead hiring more staff that get paid a decent wage and offering a decent snack or sandwich with every drink you sold - oh and it would also cost a few quid instead of close to a tenner for a drink and pack of crisps. These things happen right now in Europe so it isn’t beyond the UK to do something similar. Nobody can afford to make being a waiter a career choice in the UK but it is quite common on the continent. Why is that? Get more people working and feeling a sense of pride in their life instead of struggling month to month. Obviously being a a waiter and the restaurant industry is just one example.
The reason your pint and a packet of crisps costs what it does is huge multinationals buying all the breweries out, buying all the pubs out, buying all the land the pubs are standing on.
Those huge companies then squeeze every last drop of profit out of everything, leaving very little product, at a very high price.
Exactly the same thing is what’s wrong with every single government service, from the very tippy top, to absolute rock bottom, it is all run by private entities whose sole purpose is to extract maximum profit above all else.
Prisons, railways, schools, GPs and dental surgeries, hospitals, power infrastructure, public transport, road construction and maintenance, everything is subject to the same problem; private enterprise leeching money and resources away from it’s intended purposes towards those that have more than they can spend in a million lifetimes back to back.
All the major political parties in the UK for the last 40 years have done the same thing, sold off what was yours to private companies so they can profit off you coming and going.
Until we the people of this poxy island remind the politicians who they work for, you will continue to be bent over a barrel and buggered for all you’re worth.
Edit: Worth pointing out here that the entire benefits system in run by private companies leeching billions of pounds a year out of the benefit budget for themselves. The real benefits scroungers are capita, g4s, serco, et al.
the therapists that wouldn’t hesitate to mouth off about everything you tell them to the authorities and have you involuntarily held? it’s almost like they aren’t your friend
eh? that’s either because they are unethical and breaking their code or you are doing some incredibly shady shit and they are obliged to inform authorities to avoid you hurting someone.
yeah… this is a major factor contributing to the substance abuse crisis in the modern world. it’s also a big reason AA has been so successful. free friends on every corner, just gotta say that you’re powerless over alcohol and that life has become unmanageable and you’ll make the best friends of your life
Here’s a similar article about a person doing this in the US, for comparison:
https://www.propublica.org/article/ap3-oath-keepers-militia-mole
Yes, we’ve known for a very long time that people join gangs due to social alienation and a need for community. It isn’t new info and it doesn’t change the fact that they have adopted violence and terrorism to make up for being lonely
Leaders in the far right conceal their true nature to present a more acceptable version to potential voters, donors and sometimes their own members. One prominent eugenicist who works in Westminster admitted this tactic after I’d befriended him. “Everyone puts on the mask,” he said…
Among the rank and file members of far-right organisations, I was struck by their loneliness. In discussion groups, in city pubs, at secret meetings in the countryside, many of them spoke about feeling like outcasts.
These people don’t want “friendship more than anything else.” If you want friendship you play a sport or join a pub trivia team – you don’t join a eugenics fanclub. The only reason you join a eugenics fanclub is if you’re a fan of eugenics.
Of course, these fascists can’t find friends among most people because most people find their beliefs reprehensible, so they have to constantly lie (“everyone puts on the mask”) to avoid being ostracized or worse. But that is their fascist politics causing their loneliness, not their loneliness leading them to fascist politics.
During the pandemic, I was
Opinion discarded, sorry, I don’t make the rules
Apparently experts don’t agree on whether Covid is still a pandemic. As that article says: “these days, a lot of people refer to the pandemic in the past tense”.
