Is it too late to stop fascism?
We can all see what is happening in the US. Innocent people (including citizens) detained without due process, political opponents of Trump fighting made-up charges against them, journalists arrested for simply reporting what is happening in the country. Trump's wealth has grown by billions since he got elected while more and more ordinary Americans rely on food banks. Even more worrying is the blatant disregard for law, without consequences. Checks and balances to prevent a dictatorship don't work anymore as the positions have been filled with supporters of Trump. The government is currently trying to take control over the upcoming elections so that they can't get voted out. It's horrifying to watch history repeat itself.
Meanwhile parties that support Trump and want similar policies introduced are getting more and more popular in the UK and Europe. There's a campaign funded by billionaires to spread far-right views through social media. Many people are too busy trying to survive during the cost of living crisis and don't look at the bigger picture. They believe that the money taken away from benefit claimants will go to workers. It won't. It will end up in the pockets of the already rich. They believe that asylum seekers are the problem, not those who make millions owning and operating the asylum hotels. The NHS is not perfect, but private healthcare would cause immense suffering and only benefit the owners of the insurance companies. Leaving the European Convention on Human Rights may make it easier to deport foreign criminals, but it will also leave every single one of us without basic human rights. We can wave goodbye to workers' rights, free elections, the right to a fair trial etc.
I'm so sad and anxious to see how we've been going down the path towards a very sinister future. What can we do now before it is too late to turn back?
Comments
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It'll never emulate America as it is now, you maybe worrying about nothing. Our politics aren't as extreme as theirs.
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I disagree with @SwiftFox - we have no idea what might happen. I see and feel your fear @MissMarple Indeed, it feels like very dark times. Good thing there are indeed people out there sharing their unease and anxiety over this.
This piece from Tara Brach I shared two months ago, and I am hoping she'll be right. That our common human experience, us seeing each other as fellow human beings, will bring the world back to unity. But so far, these days - on so many levels - life is mainly about what separates us.
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I wish it stayed like that @SwiftFox I've seen a shift over the last 5-10 years. Racist, dehumanising language that would have been unacceptable a decade ago has been normalised. There have been discussions about leaving the ECHR or taking away Indefinite Leave to Remain retrospectively - these suggestions should cause outrage but they don't anymore. We would be complacent to think radicalisation can't happen here.
I think there are many people who are concerned, @SmellyBin but I don't know what we can do. Social media is inundated with bots spewing propaganda 24/7. The mainstream media isn't much better, pushing their own agenda and chasing clicks.
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I fear reform getting in as he would change everything i fear for my daughter i fear for close friend on ILR as you said coming out of echr its all very sinister
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I agree that dehumanising language should never be normalised. But I think we need to be honest about what is really happening in this country. This is not a nation that has suddenly turned extreme. It is a nation that is tired, deeply and quietly tired.
People are watching the cost of everything rise while their wages stay still. They are turning up every day, doing everything right, and still falling short. Public services they once relied on are buckling. The national debt is climbing by more than £500 million a day, and people know, even if no one says it plainly, that the bill will eventually land on all taxpayers.
That is not extremism. That is fear. That is the sound of people who feel forgotten, asking, sometimes angrily and sometimes desperately, whether anyone in power actually sees them.
And I worry that we are too quick to label that fear as something dangerous, when most of the time it is simply human. People are not looking for conflict. They are looking for reassurance. They are looking for someone to say, honestly, here is what we are doing and here is why it will help, and to actually mean it.
A frightened country does not need slogans promising change. It needs to feel heard. It needs to see things genuinely getting better, not promised but proven. Because once you calm people’s fears, it is surprising how rational they become.
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If Reform get in, we can say goodbye to our NHS as it'll be privatised. They have already started the process to make the NHS private as it already started using a US based system called MyChart to go digital. The US hospitals in america use MyChart too and those are all private.
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They carry guns; we don't. That's the difference between us and them!
But we do already have fascism in Europe and it moved ever closer with the Leave campaign's LIES in 2016. NF and his trumpet in the US have not been off our screens since then.
Sadly, much of the propaganda has been shared on this forum because some people are gullible and find these characters exciting.
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I think it is very fair to experience fear, discouragement, and feeling powerless. However, that this leads to othering is very painful, not to mention more suffering for so many people. Being disabled, I know what it feels like to be excluded, I don’t wish that happening to anybody else.
So instead of widening the gap between my beliefs, my ideas, my feelings of unworthiness and others who might or might not have been a part of that or those who simply have other opinions, I try not to add to the heap of misery with the world being on fire.
Is that me being naive or open-minded?
That said, I refuse to live in a world where there is hardly any room for people who (not by choice, obv) happen to be part of a minority. Coincidentally, yesterday I had a conversation about how often chronics in books are either a burden or charity, or inspiration ****. Why is it so hard to write a book with a character being disabled without it being a theme?
So I think by acknowledging that, it is a bit like building a new foundation that is not about dehumanizing – hoping it might be an antidote to fascism.3 -
@WhatThe, I am not convinced that simply saying “they carry guns and we don’t” makes us any safer. Harmful ideas don’t need weapons to spread.
Honestly, I have never seen propaganda on this forum. What I see are people who are scared, frustrated or disappointed in different ways, trying to make sense of what’s happening around them.
A lot of that frustration comes from years of governments ignoring people’s real‑life struggles, and that neglect has created the perfect conditions for fear, misinformation and other harmful alternatives to take hold.
If the government doesn’t start listening, it risks doing the recruiting for right wing groups itself. I just hope there’s still time to turn things around, because the alternative feels very bleak.
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I fear for everyone who's not a billionaire in their inner circle @Catherine21
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I agree @MW123 I don't think that the majority of prospective Reform voters are racist extremists. They are just fed up. We are fed up. We've been let down by every single government. It's more and more difficult to make ends meet, sewage spilling into our rivers, there's a scandal every day where a politician (left, right and centre) didn't pay their taxes, took a bribe, claimed expenses on heating their stables etc. They might resign but turn up again a few months later - perhaps in a different position or for a different political party. It's like musical chairs for a self-serving "political elite" who do nothing to improve the life of their constituents. I do think it's dangerous though when this desperation is channelled into support for the far right. It won't solve any of the problems and it even creates new ones.
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I can't fathom how Americans have put up with their private insurance system for so long @rubin16 Where a minor illness can bankrupt you and people die when they wouldn't have to. One doesn't have to be disabled or chronically ill to dread that.
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I think any government could arm the police force if they wanted to "for the sake of security" @WhatThe Then it's just one step forward to create a British version of ICE which would only serve to keep the regime in power.
The propaganda machine is insane. If you only watch certain channels or read certain newspapers, it's like living in a different reality.
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I try to be understanding of anyone @SmellyBin I can imagine one has to be pretty miserable to be a billionaire for example and still longing for more money and power. A friend of mine said something like "Look at poor Musk. He's just desperate for anyone to love him, but he can't get it". But while my own issues can only worsen my own life, or maybe the life of my friends and family, people in power can destroy the whole world trying to make their own existence more bearable.
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True very true my daughter never gets involved in poliics even she messaged me to say she was worried about Reform getting in
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A few years ago, Americans would have said the same about their politics. It happens, quietly but quickly and the path we are following seems very similar to the route they've taken.
I would absolutely love to think it wouldn't happen here but some politicians already use the same tactics, promises and plans…
Even down to insulting and shouting down journalists 🙁
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MissMarple, we do have armed police here. I was talking about civilians in the US.
AMERICA IS A GUN - is a brilliant poem about national identity which I don't know how to upload.
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Is this the one @WhatThe? By Brian Bilston:
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I'm not sure what you meant by your comment about American civilians carrying guns @WhatThe What difference it makes in comparison to Britain. Carrying guns doesn't seem to protect Americans at the moment.
I love Brian Bilston's poems 🙂
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Carrying guns doesn't seem to protect Americans at the moment
Of course it doesn't!!
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