Matt Carr Profile picture
15 Mar, 12 tweets, 2 min read
One of the striking similarities between rightwing populist movements in the UK and US is the way they present a vision of society in thrall to 'the far left' or 'commies' at a time when the left is largely powerless in practical terms in both countries.
They do this by presenting even left-of-centre movements/individuals as 'far left' or 'socialist' when they are nothing of the kind. Thus Biden and the Democrats are described as 'radical', and moderate soc democratic reforms as 'communism/Venezuela' etc
When it's pointed out that the 'far left' doesn't have power in either country, they will throw in the (false) idea that the left has a cultural hold on society to compensate for its distance from government, and uses this power to attack 'their history/institutions' etc
Never mind the immense cultural and political power that the right wields through the press and billionaire-funded tv channels etc. In the right's looking glass world they are the fragile, aggrieved, threatened victims, menaced by the likes of Nish Kumar.
They are the ones who speak up for 'ordinary people' (no one who is 'ordinary' could ever want the left to speak for them, of course. Nothing the left says could ever be relevant to ordinary people).
Why does the right do this? Partly because it's as politically convenient as it once was for their fascist predecessors to find reds under the bed everywhere. The populist right thrives on hatred, fear, dread, and grievance -'the left' is a perfect explanation for all the above
In addition, by breathing new life into the old anti-communist corpse, they seek to neutralise and discredit ANY progressive ideas emanating from the left - in the broadest sense of the term-, whether on race, gender, climate change, women's safety
'The left' also represents the more easily hateable expression of internationalism/'globalism', which is the antithesis of the rancid exclusionary nationalism and stale patriotism that the right uses to mobilise its constituencies
Having embraced all this, the populist right is then free to tell any lie it wants about 'the left' - the latest being that a young woman brutally arrested by the police is an attention-seeking leftwing activist who deliberately staged her own arrest in order to 'hijack Sarah'
This is a disgraceful lie, of course, but no more so than so many we've heard on both sides of the Atlantic these last few years in our new 'post-truth' universe of lies, constructed almost entirely by the right for its own purposes
This is what we're up against - not just the 'far left; but anyone on the centre-left outwards who even dares to dream of a better society, and that is why it is incumbent on all of us to find ways of working together against the rightwing lie machine
and building the broadest coalition and the broadest political consensus possible, so that we can defeat this catastrophic government and drain away the toxic political poisons that sustain it.

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More from @MattCarr55

13 Mar
Just been looking at the review of this new book Failures of State: The Inside Story of Britain’s Battle with Coronavirus. It looks like an essential look back at the catalogue of horrific and unforgivable errors committed by the government, not to mention shockers like this:
I was struck by the reviewer’s suggestion that a book like this may be part of a ‘reckoning’ with the Johnson government at some point when the post-vaccination bounce has worn off. It would be comforting, up to a point, to believe that this will happen. However,
There are various factors that make this ‘reckoning’ outcome unlikely. One is the control of the narrative by a ruthless, corrupt and immoral government that takes responsibility for nothing and will do everything it can to ensure that no one else tries to get it to do so
Read 14 tweets
4 Mar
Whether it’s the Capitol assault (Antifa & Pelosi caused it!), Brexit eco damage (the EU is punishing us!) or Priti Patel (she’s being bullied!), the new populist right now lies brazenly and without shame in an attempt to turn reality inside out. It’s utterly obscene & corrupt
We have now reached the point when it could be night outside, and the populists will look out the window and say ‘no it’s daytime’ even though they know it isn’t, and their supporters will go ‘yes of course it’s daytime’ simply because the people they hate have said it’s night
Having rejected the notion of expertise (elitist!) or knowledge based on facts, they are free to say that night is day if they feel like it, because what they feel and what they want is more important than the fact that the moon and stars are up there above their heads
Read 5 tweets
4 Mar
So the GFA begins to unravel, exactly as predicted. Exactly what the little boys with matches who went romping into the oil refinery said would never happen. Proving once again that Brexit was a reckless & unforgivable act of political arson theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/m…
Given their long tradition of sectarian murder, who believes that the protests against the NI Protocol promised by the UVF, UDA and Red Hand Commando will be ‘peaceful and democratic’ for long? Esp. after the threats last month thejournal.ie/larne-brexit-c…
In its statement rejecting the protocol, the LCC warns of the ‘strength of feeling’ in the loyalist community regarding the NIP. So it’s very much ‘peaceful and democratic’ protests for now but...
Read 10 tweets
18 Feb
Reading through Keir Starmer’s speech, I couldn’t help notice the complete absence of Brexit. Just like Corbyn before him, no acknowledgement of the damage that Brexit has done, no attempt to answer the questions it has posed. Nothing. Even w/ the emollient talk about ‘business’
A perfect opportunity to savage the Tory reputation as the ‘party of business’ and the reckless destruction of the economy. Two for the price of one. Labour can’t/won’t take either because it has colluded with the debacle and doesn’t have the courage now to even raise it
At a time when so many businesses are being hammered by Brexit and abandoned by the government. Instead we get tepid pledges not to return to ‘normality’ - as if Covid were the only thing that has wrecked the notion of what ‘normality’ means anymore
Read 7 tweets
1 Jan
I really can’t see how, after the last four and half years, the breakup of the UK can be avoided. What a historical irony that a Brexit intended to make Britain ‘great again’ actually brings about the demise of ‘Great’ Britain.
I actually don’t see this as a bad thing. After all, the aggressive chauvinistic nationalism, hubris, and exceptionalism that made Brexit possible is predominantly an English phenomenon. Part of the historical paradox whereby Englishness expresses itself through Britishness,
without explicitly recognising that this nationalism is primarily embedded in England rather than the Celtic periphery. A United Ireland is long overdue. Scotland - regardless of the debates about the economic viability of independence- has reached the point when a decisive
Read 9 tweets
30 Dec 20
I can understand why Labour took the position it did today, but like so much of its response to Brexit these last four and half years, I still think it was in the end cowardly, based entirely on Labour’s party interests, and a failure of national leadership & opposition
I’m not expecting a Rejoin or Remain position, but given that this deal failed its ‘six tests’, and given that it’s plainly not in the national interest, and achieved through one of most reckless and corrupt diplomatic processes in UK history, Labour could have abstained at least
Now they co-own the deal, and even though Starmer has said aspects of it can be revisited, I don’t think Labour will escape that co-ownership, especially as Tory Brexiters will almost certainly revisit and renege on elements of it, just as they did with the WA
Read 10 tweets

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