The 2016 report into 'The rise of anti-politics in Britain' evidences the claim that there has been a rise of antipolitical sentiment over the last six decades.
Growing numbers of British citizens disapprove of Governments & PM's, threatening democracy.
More and more citizens judge politicians to be out for themselves and their party.
Since the 1940s and 50s, the average level of government disapproval has risen by about 20% to just over 60%, and prime ministerial dissatisfaction has increased by almost 20% to around 55%.
Citizens hold more and more grievances with
formal politics.
Citizens increasingly judge politicians to be self-serving and not straight-talking, but also to be out of touch, all the same, a joke, and part of a broken, dysfunctional and unfair system.
Prototypical categories include ‘the toff’ (who went from public school to Oxbridge to Parliament) and ‘the career politician’ (with little experience of life beyond politics).
They are also thought to be ‘all the same’ and focused mainly on swing voters in marginal seats.
Citizens think of politicians as beneficiaries of a system that is broken and unfair, with too many safe seats and wasted votes.
Significantly, anti-political sentiment is associated with support for #populism: populist nationalism is VERY easy to mobilise, & is on the rise.
Populists position themselves as being different from politicians and parties in general; as representing ‘the people’ against ‘the out of touch and corrupt elites’; as representing ‘common sense’ in a field otherwise characterised by ‘vested interests’ and ‘grubby compromises’.
In doing so, they make a series of misrepresentations: that there is just one people; that they are of that people (and other politicians are not); that there is no mutual interdependence between that people and other peoples (whether external populations or internal minorities);
..that there's no need for negotiation & compromise between many competing interests & opinions; & that there's no need for procedures & institutions oriented towards negotiation, compromise, the making of collective decisions, & the imposing of binding decisions ("bureaucracy").
Negative feeling towards the institutions of formal politics strongly predicts support for populist nationalist parties: it's why our institutions are ALWAYS under attack from right-wing politicians & news platforms: they're pushing the buttons - it's WHAT THE CULTURE WAR IS FOR.
This report was written in 2016. Since then, everything has got MUCH worse: we're dangerously polarised, & democracy is under threat.
Educating people to have critical thinking skills is important, but first & foremost, politicians must behave more ethically. I fear the worst.
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🧵 Online #Incel communities foster misogyny, resentment & extremism, which have led to multiple murderous attacks in the US & UK, motivated by hatred toward women.
Their echo chambers also amplify mental health issues like isolation & anger, radicalizing vulnerable men & boys.
In the US, proven murders attributable to incels include: Elliot Rodger, who killed 6 & injured 14 in a shooting & stabbing spree; Lyndon McLeod shot & killed 5; & Mauricio Garcia shot & killed 8 & injured 7.
In the UK, Jake Davison shot & killed 5, including a 3-year-old girl.
Farage defended his Reform UK MP who was jailed for repeatedly kicking his girlfriend (which wasn't disclosed to voters before he was elected), & in 2014, he dismissed as "just a joke" an MEP's comment that beating women "helps bring wives back to Earth."
A 🧵 about how spurious and inflammatory claims, based on unevidenced cherry-picked data, are passed off as truth by partisan private limited companies and used as a weapon to divide voters and to scapegoat and demonise migrants.
At 1.32pm on Monday 10th March, The Telegraph published the claim that based on “the first data analysis of its kind. Data from the Ministry of Justice, obtained under freedom of information laws,” shows that “Foreigners [are] convicted of nearly a quarter of sex crimes.”
Chris Philp, shadow home secretary, said the figures were “shocking.”
Shadow justice secretary, Robert Jenrick, said: “Not only is mass migration making us poorer, but this data proves it’s also making us dramatically less safe.”
Democracy is under attack. As with the US, Italy is 1 of 5 European Govts undermining the rule of law ‘in nearly all aspects’, with changes to the judiciary & a “heavy intolerance to media criticism”, fueling Europe’s deepening “democratic recession”.
A report by Civil Liberties Union for Europe said Italy was one of five “dismantlers” – with Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania & Slovakia – that “intentionally undermine the rule of law in nearly all aspects”.
The report highlights judicial systems subject to political manipulation, weak law enforcement against corruption, overuse of fast-track legislative procedures, harassment of journalists & growing restrictions on peaceful protests.
Many of Britain's most vocal 'anti-establishment' voices attended some of the most expensive schools on earth.
These broken boys masquerade as 'anti-elite' while serving the interests of the ultrarich by turning working class people against each other using 'Divide & Rule'.
Moscow born Konstantin Vadimovich Kisin came to the UK aged 11 & was sent to Clifton College boarding school (current fees: up to £18,360/term).
He recently said about Rishi Sunak "He’s a brown Hindu; how is he English?" He's a regular speaker at Paul Marshall's ARC conference.
Rupert James Graham Lowe was sent to Radley College, an all-boys independent boarding school (current fees: up to £19,200/term).
Lowe worked in the City of London for companies such as Morgan Grenfell, Deutsche Bank and Barings Bank.
My own summary is above, but journalist @gilduran76 - of the brilliant #FrameLab - has now written his own summary, review and interpretation of it, which I reproduce with a few links and commentary, below.
To fully understand Silicon Valley’s project to destroy democracy, read 'The Sovereign Individual: How to Survive and Thrive During the Collapse of the Welfare State.'
In 1999, it was rebranded as 'The Sovereign Individual: Mastering the Transition to the Information Age.'
Life was demonstrably worse in the 1979 than it is today.
Zymunt Bauman calls this yearning for an imagined past, ‘retrotopia’, in which the ‘Volk’ (the ‘simple folk’, who Reform UK claim to represent) are constructed as homogenous, Christian, white, & ‘indigenous’.
Life was demonstrably inferior in the 1970s compared to today for almost everyone in England.
Life expectancy in the UK in 1980 was 71 for men and 77 for women. By 2019, life expectancy at birth in England had increased to 79 years for men & 83.5 for women.
1. Economic Hardship
In 1979, the UK economy was struggling with high inflation, unemployment, and a budget deficit. This eroded purchasing power, making essentials like food, clothing, and housing more expensive relative to wages. "Stagflation" was a significant problem.