Want to know a secret that far-right politicians & right-wing newspaper editors have ruthlessly exploited for at least a century? Traditional ideologies, usually embodied by mainstream parties, are anchored in emotionality as much as ideology or what we call 'populism'.
Conservative thinking is often a response to a need to reduce #fear & #uncertainty (Jost, Kruglanski, Glaser & Sulloway 2003). Experimental evidence shows that priming 'mortality threats' results in post-manipulation conservative identification (Thorisdottir & Jost 2010). 🇬🇧
Liberals, on the other hand, are less concerned with fear, & rather characterized by a higher propensity for #empathy (Hsu, Anen, & Quartz 2008; Taber & Young 2013). This emotion emerges as a distinctive trait of liberal ideology in a number of studies, highlighting (Smith 2006).
References:
Jost J. T., J. Glaser, A. W. Kruglanski and F.J. Sulloway (2003), “Political Conservatism As Motivated Social Cognition”, Psychological Bulletin, 129(3): 339–375.
Thorisdottir H. and J.T. Jost (2010), “Motivated Closed-Mindedness Mediates The Effect Of Threat On Political Conservatism”, Political Psychology, 31: 1–38.
Hsu M., C. Anen and S.R. Quartz (2008), “The Right And The Good: Distributive Justice And Neural Encoding Of Equity And Efficiency”, Science, 320: 1092–1095.
Taber C.S., and E. Young (2013), “Information Processing”, in L. Huddy, J.S. Levy and D.O Sears (eds.), The Oxford Handbook Of Political Psychology. Second edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Andrew Neil criticises others for making 'Nazi analogies', but here he is, referring to an article in the Mail, amplified by Toby Young, suggesting a proposed boycott by a 'Pro-Palestine group' of venues showing #eurovision24 is "straight out of the early Nazi playbook".
The 'early Nazi playbook' involves propaganda, which like contemporary political & media propaganda works primarily not by lies, but rather by selective representation of information, distortion, fearmongering, demonisation of minority groups & misleading partisan misinformation.
The Mail's claim, amplified by Young & compared to "the early Nazi playbook" by Neil is 'Venues across the country have been forced to close their doors as they fear for their staff's safety after Pro-Palestine groups instructed their followers to hound pubs showing the contest'.
Divisive far-right extremist grifter Steve Laws is dangerous: he has a long & well documented history of using racist & Islamophobic rhetoric, harassing people, & trying to get decent people sacked. Laws' hateful rhetoric was even too toxic for Richard Tice's Reform UK.
Former UKIP candidate & far-right extremist Laws is a prominent so-called 'migrant hunter' who gets off on filming boats arriving in Dover. He constantly uses grotesque 1930s-style dehumanising rhetoric, & pushes the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory.
For decades, Big Tobacco cast doubt on the link between cancer & smoking. Today, doubts about climate science is fuelled by misinformation spread by politicians, news media & think tanks, invariably funded by those who benefit from fossil fuels.
The phrase "the spawn of communism" derives from early twentieth century US #nativism - the political strategy of promoting the interests of "native-born" inhabitants over those of immigrants.
But where does it come from, & what might it tell us about Jacob Rees-Mogg?
This thread is about how nativist ideology gave rise to the first US 'Red Scare', & how, long before TalkRadio or Fox & GB "News" existed, populist Christian broadcaster 'Father' Coughlin stoked the fears & prejudices of millions of his listeners using divisive nativist rhetoric.
The phrase "spawn of Communism" is now used by 'anti-woke' alt- & far-right nativists to describe everything from Democrats & socialists, through LGBTQ+ rights, CRT, & feminism, to 'identity politics' & 'environmentalism' - anyone, or anything, perceived by them to pose a threat.
GB "News"/TalkTV regular, Chair of the National Jewish Assembly & JC columnist, Gary Mond, liked posts by far-right extremist Pamela Geller (banned from entering the UK) & posted on FB in reference to Muslims “all [of] civilisation… is at war with these evil bastards”.
In January 2022, it was reported that then Board of Deputies Senior VP Gary Mond had been asked to “step down from his duties” while an investigation took place.
Evidence appeared to show Mond had liked two posts made by Geller in 2017, during his 6-yr stint sitting on the Board’s Defence Division, including one saying France was “finished” after voters picked current President Emmanuel Macron over far-right challenger Marine Le Pen.
Tory donor Bassim Haidar is the latest multimillionaire to say he'll leave the UK to avoid paying £millions in tax following plans to scrap the “non-dom” regime, which has allowed him & 68,800 other non-doms to avoid paying UK tax on overseas income for 225 years.
Haidar, who owns “more than 10 properties” in central London, including a £20 MILLION flat near Sloane Square, "gave" the @Conservatives £450,000 last year - including £10,000 worth of advertising to Lee Anderson in November, who promptly joined Reform UK. search.electoralcommission.org.uk/?currentPage=2…
For decades the UK news media, owned by fellow non-dom billionaires, regularly run stories warning how 'superrich wealth creators' will leave Britain.
It's a bold & often-made claim, but is there any truth in it? Will many - or indeed any - of our 68,800 non-doms leave Britain?