Thread by @nickreeves9876

Deindustrialisation has shattered Labour's working class support base, and left millions of people in a confusing and fragmented society open to the Tory propaganda of tribal nationalism and culture wars. How can the opposition respond? #FBPA #FBPPR
sussexbylines.co.uk/un-divide-to-c…

In the middle of the last century the Labour movement was deeply embedded in stable working class communities. The Tories were a mass membership party serving the middle class and hundreds of thousands of British businesses.

Since the middle of the last century the working and middle classes have crumbled as political forces. Now we have an 18th century style of politics in which the political and media minions of a sociopathic fragment of the super-rich manipulate a fragmented electorate.

The working and middle class counterweights to domination by an oligarchic elite have crumbled and fragmented. That is why our politics is in such a bad state. Until we understand this change we cannot respond coherently to it.

Centrists and leftists both make the mistake of believing that people respond rationally to their economic circumstances. Many make the error of thinking that people respond rationally to policy choices. These two errors make it impossible to understand present day politics.

Both errors ignore the fact that humans are in many ways tribal animals. When we feel threatened by large scale changes our response is often to seek strength and security in a tribe. This is very basic to being human. Without it we would not be here.

A large part of the population of many Western countries disorientated by the fragmentation of industrial and social structures that endured for generations are now seeking security in the bogus community of the national tribe.

The Tories and their media allies are ruthlessly exploiting this yearning for safety within a tribe. They are promoting English nationalism, defining enemies both outside and inside, and repeatedly trying to set up tests of loyalty to separate the 'real people' from the others.

If you can divide people tribally as the Tories and the right-wing press are seeking to do, then you can build a wall of hostility and distrust against any politician or party associated with those you have highlighted as the tribe's enemies.

So the opposition may put forward policies which should be attractive to working-class Tory voters. But if the right has succeeded in tribalising politics, those folk won't switch parties because the opposition parties will be seen as adversaries of the English national tribe.

The Archbishop of York's remarks about being proud to be English and his attack on the liberal metropolitan elite, are a perfect example of the pervasiveness of the Tories' tribalist discourse. Here he is presenting the 'real people' and their enemies. Divide and rule.