I wrote this article explaining how people disorientated by the crumbling of working class communities are clinging to the false promises of Tory tribal nationalism. Tribal loyalty is deeply emotive, and very resistant to contrary reasons and facts.
sussexbylines.co.uk/un-divide-to-c…
Humans are very much tribal beings. In times of social stress we tend to seek safety in a tribe. The only available tribe in England is the nation-tribe. As with family, tribal loyalty is deeply emotional. To disagree with the tribe is to betray a powerful emotional bond.
So rather than feel disloyal to their tribe people would prefer to hold onto the tribe's opinions regardless of evidence to the contrary. Millions of Germans continued to support Hitler even as the Thousand Year Reich crumbled into ruins.
In modern societies people cling to nationalist tribalism out of fear and insecurity. What they want is protection. So they don't want humane, thoughtful, kind and honest leaders. They want powerful leaders. Lying with impunity is an alpha chimp display of power.
Also, when the leaders tell lies that please their followers, they are not disliked for doing so. They are loved for showing that they respect their followers' feelings more than they respect the truth. The followers know they are lying and are profoundly grateful for that.
In a tribal mentality, when the leader tells their followers pleasing lies they are demonstrating their loyalty to their followers by showing that their loyalty goes above their respect for truth and honesty.

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More from @nickreeves9876

3 Oct
Rachel Reeves says Labour has 'moved on' with regard to Brexit and that Labour will not restore Freedom of Movement.

A political party that 'moves on' from the worst abuses of democracy in modern British history is a party no-one should support.
cityam.com/brexit-labour-…
And for Labour to say it will not restore Freedom of Movement, is for it to say that the fascist torrent of hate and lies against migrants in the Brexit billionaire press was OK and should be swept under the carpet. I think that is beyond disgusting.
I cannot support a party that dares not condemn the xenophobic propaganda pumped out by the right-wing press during the Brexit campaign. For me, collusion in xenophobia is xenophobia. Labour is a xenophobic party.
Read 4 tweets
30 Sep
Even as early as 2012 £13 trillion had been hidden in tax havens by the global elite.

Tax havens are parasites crippling our economies, and destroying democracy.

They must be erased. Please help get the campaign going.

#PATH People Against Tax Havens.

theguardian.com/business/2012/…
This is not a small campaign! We need a global campaign to ensure that in every democracy no government can come to power without a firm commitment to the eradication of tax havens.

#PATH People Against Tax Havens
The cost of failure to eradicate tax havens will be crime, corruption, lower living standards, higher taxes, crumbling government services, environmental destruction and growing dissatisfaction with democracy.

#PATH People Against Tax Havens
Read 5 tweets
29 Sep
How is it that, at least so far, the Tories have been able to get away with governing so negligently? The answer is in this article explaining how economic change has transformed politics, and how the opposition needs to respond
sussexbylines.co.uk/un-divide-to-c…
Tory government negligence is no accident. In the past the Tories served the middle class and ordinary businesses which forced them to govern competently. Now they can win support from voters left adrift by the crumbling of working class communities and organisations.
When political change is a result of a fundamental economic change like deindustrialisation, then changing policies or leaders won't work. Political strategy has to be reworked from the ground up. The Tories have done that. The opposition hasn't even started.
Read 4 tweets
17 Sep
Why did the red wall collapse? Why did so many working-class people vote Tory?

Deindustrialisation has shattered Labour's working-class support base. A new political epoch has begun. Here's how the opposition should respond.
sussexbylines.co.uk/un-divide-to-c…
Working-class politics wasn't just based on people being in similar economic circumstances. It was based on a structure of working class communities and organisations, which has now largely crumbled. Society is now far more fragmented than it has been for 150 years.
The middle class has also collapsed as a coherent political force. With the collapse of class politics there is no socially coherent opposition to a Tory oligarchy peddling the fake communal solidarity of culture wars and flag-waving nationalism.
Read 4 tweets
31 Aug
Economic and and social change have shattered Labour's working-class support base. The old politics is not coming back. If the opposition want to win then they must join in a Progressive Alliance and commit to Proportional Representation. #FBPA #FBPPR
sussexbylines.co.uk/un-divide-to-c…
FPTP made a fair bit of sense in a society divided on class lines, when the two main parties had to battle over the political middle ground. But class politics is dead, and in a fragmented society FPTP makes no sense. PR and cooperation are required for a diverse society.
The idea that economics directly drives politics, whether of the Marxist variety in which economics drives class structures and politics, or the centre-left variety in which people respond rationally to economic policies and conditions, is naive.
Read 4 tweets
23 Aug
Boris Johnson is just the public face of a quagmire of kleptocratic corruption, a cesspit of oligarchs and their venal political & journalistic minions. And this crooked clique is just part of an international network that is attacking democracy under the flag of patriotism.
And these crony capitalists, these would-be oligarchs and their venal political and journalistic hirelings have always existed, but until recently their road to power was blocked by the politically powerful middle and working classes.
But deindustrialisation and other economic changes have shattered the middle and working classes as political forces, and now, in a fragmented society, these crony capitalists are free to manipulate the 40% they need to hold power under FPTP.
Read 4 tweets

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