- entry 2025/10/02

The radical left?

This would be amusing if it wasn't serious and depressing, given that Kirk himself said: "Joe Biden is a bumbling, dementia-filled Alzheimer's, corrupt, tyrant who should honestly be put in prison and/or given the death penalty for his crimes against America". Like, whoa. Who's inciting violence here, huh?

<snark>Strangely enough</snark>, with the awful events that happened at a Mormon church the other day, Trump didn't get much beyond "This appears to be yet another targeted attack on Christians in the United States of America". This is because it turns out that the person responsible was ex-army, apparently suffering PTSD, and a Trump supporter. They couldn't attack "the left" over it, nor could they bring themselves to attack one of their own or even admit that maybe, just possibly, in a country with a lot of people with mental disorders (in part due to the deeply flawed medical coverage) and a lot of guns and fairly easy access to them... bad things are going to happen, and that's on them because god knows Democrats have been calling for tighter rules on gun ownership for years upon years, but Republicans demand their right to fondle their solid metal phalluses.
Take a peek at this if you dare: Holy Smoke! Ashes to ammo (no, this is not a wind-up)

Meanwhile, members of the LDS community (Mormons), have started a fundraiser for the man's wife and child. Politicians point fingers and incite violence while people that were attacked show more compassion than the likes of the President could ever hope to comprehend.

Now, was Kirk's killer a loony left, or were they simply beyond annoyed at Kirk using his platform and influence to deny transgender people, gay people, black people (and so on) their rights? Their way of life? Their ability to live in peace? Following Trumpism 2.0 and no doubt aided by Kirk banging on about that angry little sky fairy, various states have been rolling back protections and support for these groups. It's all very well talking about his rights (given by God, apparently) but what about a trans person's right to, well, exist?

Now, while anybody on any part of the political divide can flip out and go psycho, it is my experience that most people on the left are varying degrees of inclusive. That's sort of the ethos, isn't it? Like we're all in this mess together and it's just better all around if we try to get along because fighting, wars, conflict? It might end with a declared winner, but if a continent lies in ruins and needs to be rebuilt and the remaining citizens endure decades of hardship on the road to recovery... was it worth it? I'm not saying that a country should immediately surrender to an enemy, more that we need to have viable means of repelling invaders before it even gets that far. Though looking at Ukraine and Gaza, it seems that we as a species haven't really sussed that yet.

The other side does preach hate, racism, division, and a sense of us-versus-them. Just listen to, well, pretty much anything Trump says. If it's not white and it's not Christian he either wants to shut it down, defund it, or deport it.

Don't get me wrong here, not every leftie is a lovely huggable person. Crazies come in all political flavours, and when you get far enough into either extreme, it can be hard to tell the difference between left and right. The reasons and justifications may differ, but the end result can be similar. So I'm talking about more moderate degrees of left and right here. Reform and the Conservatives are far right, maybe even radical right in Reform's case, but they're not extreme right, they aren't Nazis.

Speaking of Reform, following in Trump's footsteps like a lovelorn puppy was Putin's Puppet Nigel Farage. His party has recently caused a bit of a stir in saying that people with "settled status" should have that taken away and them be kicked out of the country. Which is, let's face it, just about the most racist un-British thing imaginable.

For my non-British readers, "settled status" is a sort of intermediate step between having a visa and the right to enter the UK, and becoming an actual British citizen. It is roughly equivalent to, for example, my perpetual French residency permit (which, due to the Withdrawal Agreement, is not time limited or finance dependent, and it permits me to work and have full access to the French social system). Post-Brexit immigrants from the UK have a residency permit that is a lot more restricted (often 1 or 5 year validity, need to demonstrate sufficient finances, barred from working or even volunteering, limited access to the French system).

When they were called out on it, Farage hit back that calling them racist "will incite and encourage the radical left" and that this "directly threatens the safety" of those people dumb enough to go campaigning for them (my words, his are in italics).

The thing is, the "radical left" is mostly an illusion brought to life by the right in order to have a boogeyman to fear. What, is Farage afraid of a bearded bloke in a rainbow tutu telling him to eat all his vegetables because "meat is murder"?

If somebody should attack anybody in Reform - which I hope doesn't happen as they don't need more excuses to sow divisions - the obvious question that would come to mind would be is this the doing of some nebulous "radical left" or is it, like I rather suspect Kirk's assassination was, the result of something that person or that party has done that has directly massively negatively impacted somebody's life. Like, perhaps, all of those people with settled status who thought their future was in Britain now wondering if a stupid white hypocrite with a very punchable-looking face is going to grin with a beer in one hand and an erect middle finger aimed at them from the other hand?

Not that I would condone violence against Farage. The guy is a massive prick, but he is also a grifter. Which means he's the blabbering mouth and ugly face of a much deeper malaise that he can use to his advantage. Brexit, for instance, was strongly influenced by Farage but he didn't do it alone and he isn't the sole reason why seventeen and a half million people voted to screw over the other forty eight million fellow citizens. Lurking behind the facade of the twee country gardens and cosy croft cottages is something rather insidious, and the more attention Farage gets, the more this comes to light. Which is why it depresses me that Starmer, head of a party that is supposed to be left leaning, is trying so hard to appease Reform voters rather than simply saying "bugger off you racist prick" and shutting down any further discussion. It is a mistake Macron is making here in France, and this is only serving to empower and legitimise the far right. The last times extreme far right parties had power in Europe, things went very very badly indeed.

The only saving grace is that we in Europe might be spared such indignities due to having a rather potent heads-up as we watch in disbelief as the United States implodes.

Trump. Putin. Macron to a degree. Maybe when we reinvent democracy after the dust has settled from what's to come, we'll realise that a committee that never quite manages to get anything done might be better than concentrating all of the power into the hands of one person, because when that person goes off the rails.......

Meanwhile, being served a big bowl of cheesy broccoli by a bearded bloke in a rainbow tutu actually doesn't sound so bad. Can you tell I'm hungry?

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jgh, 3rd October 2025, 16:35

Handing powers to governments is always dangerous, regardless of the government.

Andrew Rawnsley’s Worthless Pi5 Machines, 7th October 2025, 12:22

Leftards are disgusting antisemites and insufferably arrogant to boot.

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