,
7 tweets,
2 min read
Read on Twitter
The "no-go" zones of London are part of the right-wing mythology to make Londoners strange people, who would rather live in a crime-ridden "Londonistan" than in "true" Britain. It helps alienate us both as a suspect "metropolitan elite" and cosmopolitan "citizens of nowhere".
Every time Farage says "metropolitan elite" and Hopkins says "Sadiq Khan's London", they're saying the same thing: Londoners are not "really" British, and are either a feral, criminal underclass, or a subversive, decadent elite. The false image of "no-go zones" is part of that.
What could feed the "Europe is fallen" narrative better than to say that her citizens and agents of the state literally cannot enter areas effectively annexed by criminals and / or immigrants? It's a total fiction, but like all fake news, ruthlessly effective.
Let's educate ourselves on these tropes, as consistently deployed & linked as all anti-Semitic tropes simultaneously enjoying a disgusting revival. We need to recognise that when someone uses them, when they say "no-go zone" or "Londonistan", they've drunk some rancid kool-aid.
Or swallowed a jagged little red pill, if you prefer. With apologies to Alanis Morissette.
@threadreaderapp unroll
The Nazis in Bavaria talked about Berlin in exactly the same way. Decadent. Corrupted, dangerously cosmopolitan. Dominant over, and dedicated to the subjugation of "true" Germany.
