Thread by @cstross

For non-British readers: what has happened in the UK since 2016—and the media aren't talking about—is that the Conservative Party, in a bid to staunch votes lost to the hard right, has been captured by the very hard right factions they tried to outflank. There was always a … /1

… hard-right racist/xenophobe element in the Tories, but Brexit was a wedge issue. Responding to insurgent parties on the right (BNP, UKIP, BXP), the Tories swung harder right, until political entrepreneurs like Boris Johnson seized control.

Current Tory leadership is … /2

Quite possibly to the right of the US Republican Party mainstream (albeit without the Dominionist Christian element).

The Conservative Party has an aging voting base and has almost completely written off the Millennial and Gen-X demographics (who skew left by 30% in polls). /3

In the long term, this MIGHT turn out to be a self-correcting problem in British politics … if we still have functioning electoral politics a decade or so from now.

But given the way old-school Conservative ministers are sounding the alarm, I think that's doubtful. /4

Dismal side-effects of the British Conservative Gerontocracy:

a) Racism, sexism, xenophobia (you know the drill)

b) Housing scarcity, social security cuts (except state pension)

c) Climate change is politically irrelevant and will be ignored

… /5

d) Reduced cognitive capacity of elderly voters means they're increasingly susceptible to scare tactics and fraud

e) Uncritical spread of targeted memes via Facebook used to frame strange/scary minorities as "the enemy", who are then targets for rallying calls by the right

/6

The anti-trans witch hunt is designed to rally a base who can't be galvanized by old-school homophobia. So is deliberately cultivated state islamophobia, and alleged anti-semitism by the left (there are FAR more anti-semitic Tories than Labour members) ….

/7

… and allegations of voter fraud, which are used to justify calls for (expensive) ID papers to vote—implicitly disenfranchising the poor (non-Tory voters) and the young (ditto).

/8

Lying about immigration is a Tory speciality. The "immigrant" count includes returning UK citizens, and students (transient visitors—remember the UK higher ed system is a service export industry that monetizes foreign students). Actual immigration has stalled post-brexit.

/9

Elderly voters are easily frightened by immigration scare stories because strangers are implicitly threatening, and the right wing party offers a panacea. (But doesn't remind them where the folks who work in their nursing homes and hospitals come from.)

It's all a scam.

/10

This has been my political rant for the day. Thank you for reading. Please vote—and THINK before you vote: it's not a beauty contest, it's a chess move, with the future of our planet in jeopardy if we lose the match.