Those Damn Nazis Again

Another look at the so-called "far-right."

15th October 2018 Jonathon Davies Authoritarianism, European Union, Media, Politics 0

Once again it seems we are back to labelling everyone and anything as far-right. It’s a repeating theme and I feel as though I am bashing my head against a metaphorical brick wall. Again, we have people labelling vast swathes of the population as fascists and then the cry of, “Look at the growth of the far-right!” Let’s have a look at the latest lunacy.

Frank Field resigned from the Labour party after 40 years of service. He did this in protest against what he sees as antisemitism in the party. Antisemitism being an actual Nazi policy and cornerstone of their ideology. Within minutes there were people on social media calling him the far-right Frank field. He represented Birkenhead, not exactly an area known for its fascist leanings. Yet as soon as he criticised the Dear Leader he was far-right.

Protesters in Chemnitz were widely labelled as far-right and neo-Nazis. All 10,000 of them. A quick look at the pictures is enough to dispel that myth. Far from the jackbooted, swastika tattooed skin heads, most were ordinary people. There were also a number of women and families. The protest was said to have started after an alleged stabbing by migrants. The media later reported that the protesters chased down and attacked migrants. The head of the German intelligence agency said there was no evidence of this. Of course, not following the official narrative is verboten, so he was later sacked by Merkel. To me this is frightening. Someone dismissed for saying they found no evidence. Was he supposed to make it up? Is that where we are now? There were also counter protests, notably by Antifa. There were undoubtedly extremist elements on the fringes of both sides who were looking for trouble. But police dealt with these swiftly, and for the most part both sides just stood around protesting each other, as can be seen from the video below.

Every media article or report on Tommy Robinson mentions far-right, Tommy isn’t his real name, and ex-EDL. It’s as though there is a template the MSM share around with each other to construct their hit pieces. The latest chicanery is Tommy filming a video with a few young soldiers that he bumped in to by chance. It is rumoured that the army are now investigating the “incident.” What incident? Tommy isn’t a member of any proscribed groups or a prescribed person himself. No political opinions were expressed or endorsed. Tommy simply said how honoured he was to meet them and that they are real British heroes. Mind you, these days that’s probably enough to make you Literally Hitler. The Guardian have run a piece claiming the army is far-right. Who would have guessed that service personnel willing to die for their country would have nationalist leanings?

Recently internet personalities such as Count Dankula, PJW and Sargon decided to join UKIP. Instantly they were called far-right. This despite the Alt-Right constantly attacking them as cucks, centrists and sell-outs. I read the 2017 UKIP manifesto, as I read all main party manifestos, prior to the 2017 general election. I have a History degree. I know my stuff. I cannot find a single Nazi or Fascist policy within it. Here is a quote from the UKIP manifesto from 2018: “English identity is something to be proud of, and anyone who wishes to embrace that identity should do so, whatever their ethnic origins may be. English identity resides in the heart and mind not on the skin.” Yet still they are called fascist and far-right. If anything, UKIP leaders such as Gerard Batten and education spokesman David Kurten want greater freedom of speech and the press, not less. Hitler, Mussolini and Franco all censored the press and discourse in general, as did the USSR.

Compare this to Remoaners. Everything they don’t like is fascist. Farage is called fascist. The referendum was fascist. Brexit is fascist. The Tories are fascist. Corbyn is a fascist enabler for supporting Brexit (that one did make me lol). Leave voters are fascist. Newspapers that support Brexit are fascist. Question Time is fascist for allowing Farage on. This despite their beloved EU wanting to curb press freedoms after the UK press “mocked” EU politicians. Theresa May, for all her faults (and they are many), laughed off mockery of her dancing. Merkel welcomed Erdogan to open a new Turkish funded mosque. During the conference a protester started to complain about lack of press freedom in Turkey. He was swiftly removed. Turkey is in the customs union. The EU is well on the way to passing Article 11 and Article 13 which will restrict internet use, help kill off small independent news sites, help restrict free speech and make life more difficult for everyone. Get ready for those upload filters.

Remoaners find new and inventive ways to try and insult leave voters. Old favourites still abound, like fascist, racist, Nazi, the ubiquitous far-right and the recently coined “gammon.” Add to these the wonderfully tolerant and open-minded terms like Brexit Taliban and ming-mongs. I have had death threats on Twitter for supporting Brexit. They sincerely seem to believe that this type of behaviour will convince people to change their minds and bring about another referendum. Every opportunity the British public have had to vote against Brexit on mass, they haven’t. Leave won the referendum in 2016, the general election of 2017 saw parties with Brexit in their manifesto (I know Labour are trying to change now) sweep up over 80% of the vote. In the run up to the council elections of 2018, we were promised that the wave of anti-Brexit feeling would rise up and sweep away the hard Brexit (larf) Tories. Didn’t happen. All major parties lost some, gained some, held others. They simply cannot come to terms with the fact that the world isn’t the way they see it and that not everyone agrees with them. Therefore, those with different opinions must be “othered” by calling them far-right and fascist. For them it is a coping mechanism and a way to try and bend reality, so they can still see themselves as some kind heroes in adversity. Much of the leave vote came from traditionally left-wing areas of the UK such as South Wales and Northern England. Yet they are still demonised as far-right. But why let facts get in the way of your narrative?

Calling someone a Nazi invokes powerful emotions, conjuring up images of camps, starving prisoners, Kristallnacht, brutal violence, propaganda and intolerance. It is a powerful rhetorical punch. But it is being used to delegitimise views that the mainstream neo-liberals, faux conservatives and particularly the left don’t want aired or discussed. This brings many issues and dangers. People are fed up and starting to show it. They challenge the narrative, so the powers that be and their media pets strike back by labelling them far-right. This is to try and silence them. Most people, especially in Germany, don’t want the Nazi label and rightly so. But now people are refusing to be browbeaten. Labelling them far-right causes anger and resentment at the media and authorities. For rhetoric to be effective it must contain some truth. Since the vast majority of people labelled as far-right are not, the label is starting to be ignored. You run the risk of crying wolf, and when real Nazis and fascists appear everyone will ignore you.

Labelling people far-right could actually make people identify with the real far-right. If they are constantly associated with them they may start to have sympathy. It could become a self-fulfilling prophecy. People may say, “they keep calling me far-right, so I may as well be.” The public have legitimate grievances over mass immigration, related crime and terror attacks. These are not just a British fixation as they would like you to believe. They are worldwide issues. If the mainstream parties and mainstream media won’t talk about them and deal with the, where do you think people will turn? Clamping down on free speech and the internet is hardly going to make them look like the good guys.

Across Europe so-called “far-right” populist movements and parties are emerging. As the saying goes, politics abhors a vacuum. Real issues that matter to people will eventually have to be dealt with. If the mainstream parties don’t bite the bullet and admit there is a problem, then they will eventually be swept away at the ballot box by parties that do. This has already happened in Poland, Hungary, Austria, Italy and most notably the USA. AfD continue to rise in Germany, currently second. The Sweden Democrats polled strongly in the Swedish election. Geert Wilders leads the official opposition in the Netherlands. The Finns party took 19% in Finland. Brazil may well elect a “far-right” President. I doubt the legacy media and political parties will change, as the posturing of the likes of Verhofstadt in Brussels shows. For them feelings and ideology win over reality. But hey, at least no one ever called you racist.
 

© Jonathon Davies 2018
 

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