Five years ago today, Jo Cox MP was murdered by a racist shouting "Britain First".

Yesterday, @BBC journalist Nick Watt was harassed & abused.

Politicians, the press & TV & radio presenters MUST #STOP using divisive, provocative & inflammatory populist nationalist rhetoric.
Mair was a #racist, radicalized by the Far-Right, persuaded that white people were being erased.

But his greatest obsession & deepest bitterness was over those white people whom he condemned as “the collaborators”: the liberals, the left & the media - in other words, the "WOKE".
The 'culture war' is not merely an argument between 'two sides' about Britain's future: it's a deliberately divisive, antagonistic, & extremely dangerous political strategy that mobilses polarizing rhetoric to radicalize millions of people, with sometimes deadly consequences.
Let's ALL try to avoid demonizing & negatively stereotyping groups we disagree with.

People supporting trans rights or taking the knee aren't necessarily "woke", just as expressing concern about aspects of Self-ID or taking the knee aren't necessarily transphobic or racist.
The @BBC & the @nationaltrust aren't "anti-British" or "cultural Marxists".

It's alarming that journalists, pundits & MPs (including Govt Ministers) have used this dangerous rhetoric: 'cultural Marxism' is the far-right antisemitic conspiracy theory that inspired Anders Breivik.
Let's #NeverForget that according to the eyewitness, as Mair killed Jo Cox, he said: “Britain first, keep Britain independent, Britain will always come first", before finally yelling “This is for Britain.”

Patriotism is fine.

Populist nationalist rhetoric is NOT: it MUST #STOP.

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More from @docrussjackson

17 Jun
A Guide to Right-Wing Discourse*

#THREAD

*As used EVERY DAY FOR YEARS by politicians, the press, Spiked, the Spectator, think-tanks, LBC, talkRADIO, & now, #GBeebies:

Unemployed: "work-shy"

Challenging bigotry: "woke“

Researching the legacy of colonialism: "cultural Marxism“
Health & safety: “bureaucracy”

Homeless: "lacking self-discipline"

Supporting Palestine: "antisemitic“

Helping asylum seekers: “Lefty activism“

Questioning injustice: “virtue-signalling”

Refusing to help people: "common sense“

Seeking truth: “Undermining our way of life”
Greed: "good"

Public sector: “bad”

Profiteering: "outsourcing"

Being polite: "political correctness"

Concern about populist nationalism: “anti-British”

Consumer, worker & environmental protections: “red tape”

Impoverishing people in Labour constituencies: "Leveling up“
Read 8 tweets
16 Jun
Boris Johnson’s former race adviser has warned of another Stephen Lawrence or Jo Cox tragedy if members of the government continue to inflame the culture wars gripping parts of the nation.

Reminds me of a certain TV opinion channel masquerading as news.

theguardian.com/world/2021/jun…
Speaking publicly for the first time since he resigned two months ago, Samuel Kasumu said he feared there were some in government pursuing a strategy of exploiting division for electoral gain that could result in severe consequences for the country.

It's Steve Bannon's strategy.
“There are some people in the government who feel like the right way to win is to pick a fight on the culture war & to exploit division. I worry about that. It seems like people have very short memories, & they’ve already forgotten #JoCox.”
Read 4 tweets
16 Jun
A short #THREAD on RIGHT-WING BOYCOTTS OF TV CHANNELS & other media, companies & brands in the US.

It's based on Terrence Witkowski's 'Broadening Anti-Consumption Research: A History of Right-Wing Prohibitions, Boycotts, & Resistance to Sustainability'.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…
The wider article seeks to broaden the scholarship field of anti-consumption research through a historical counternarrative illustrating right-wing prohibitions, boycotts of media content, brands, and companies, and, most recently, resistance to sustainable consumption.
Manifestations of anti-consumption include boycotts & consumer resistance, brand avoidance, culture jamming & more, often motivated by concerns over environmental sustainability, consuming ethically, materialistic values, or opposition to corporations & capitalism more generally.
Read 64 tweets
15 Jun
Pretty much every #GBNews presenter has demonized & voiced vicious & divisive criticism of "woke" academics & Universities for sensibly considering the legacies of British colonialism & Empire & their potential role in contemporary #racism.

#StopFundingHate #BlackLivesMatter
At least three other brands have suspended advertising on the divisive populist nationalist #GBNews: Kopparberg, Grolsch & Nivea have bravely distanced themselves from the toxic free-market supporting #propaganda channel. The LAST thing we need is more US style culture war crap. Image
Andrew Neil's "anti-elite" "news" channel, puking out divisive populist nationalist tripe, is funded by LORD Farmer & LORD Spencer (both ex-Tory Party treasurers), hedge-funder SIR Paul Marshall, US BILLIONAIRE run media group Discovery, & the Dubai-based pro-free-market Legatum. Image
Read 9 tweets
15 Jun
After forty years of globalised deregulated free-market capitalism, its grotesquely wealthy beneficiaries have invested in media & Party Politics in order to persuade voters with a sense of abandonment that a strong & exclusivist sense of national identity is the answer.
#Tragic ImageImageImageImage
Divisive authoritarian populist nationalism is on the rise here, in the US, & across Europe.

Here, it's being driven by the press, think tanks, GB News & the Govt.

The last time it happened, it produced the Nazis & WWII.

Here's the truth about Britain:

David Graeber knew *precisely* how we've all been played since the 90s.

Populist nationalism is never the answer - but nor is centrism.

Both ways help the rich to exploit the poor, but it's easy to deceive an electorate with a supportive mass media.

Read 4 tweets
10 Jun
#Patriotism is a healthy pride in your country that creates a desire to help other citizens.

#Nationalism is identification with one's own nation, especially to the exclusion or detriment of the interests of other nations, & is often inherently divisive.

theplayerstribune.com/posts/dear-eng…
Nationalism can be divisive because it highlights perceived differences between people, emphasizing an individual's identification with their own nation. When it submerges individual identity within a national one, it gives elites opportunities to manipulate & control the masses.
George Orwell distinguishes nationalism from patriotism which he defines as devotion to a particular place. More abstractly, nationalism is "power-hunger tempered by self-deception". For Orwell, the nationalist is more likely than not dominated by irrational negative impulses.
Read 15 tweets

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