Share this page!

Enter URL or ID to Unroll

You can paste full URL like: https://x.com/threadreaderapp/status/1644127596119195649
or just the ID like: 1644127596119195649

How to get URL link on X (Twitter) App

  1. On the Twitter thread, click on or icon on the bottom
  2. Click again on or Share Via icon
  3. Click on Copy Link to Tweet
  4. Paste it above and click "Unroll Thread"!
  5. More info at Twitter Help
GET A GRIP Profile picture
@docrussjackson
Mar 2, 2023 • 32 tweets • 11 min read • Read on X
#THREAD

Yesterday, at a 'counter-extremism' conference organised by the Govt appointed Commissioner for Countering Extremism, Robin Simcox, Suella Braverman predictably blamed 'political correctness' for 'Islamist terrorism', gaining a culture war front page in Murdoch's Times.

Image
Image
Image
This is a #THREAD about how the Govt's divisive, misleading, & dangerously irresponsible rhetoric has been carefully choreographed over the last three years, by a Tory Govt which works hand-in-hand with a network of opaquely funded ideologically extreme right-wing 'think tanks'.
It centres on the background, ideology, & appointment of Robin Simcox, & William Shawcross's recently published highly partisan #PREVENT review.

Imho, important information about Simcox has been deliberately concealed from voters by the Govt & the billionaire-owned press. Image
In November 2021, Priti Patel said it was "an honour" to give a keynote speech on security at the Koch-funded ideologically extreme Heritage Foundation think tank in the US, which rejects the scientific consensus on climate change, in which she focused on Hamas & antisemitism. Image
The Heritage Foundation is an influential US neoliberal free-market fundamentalist think tank that represents the interests of the 0.1%.

Charles WL Hill: "given that the Heritage Foundation has a political agenda, its work should be viewed with caution."
Prior to his appointment, Robin Simcox worked at the UK's neo-con Henry Jackson Society, before becoming "Margaret Thatcher Fellow" at the Heritage Foundation.

An anti-Net Zero borderline far-right Koch stooge now heads the UK's Commission on Countering Extremism. Image
Facing accusations of downplaying Islamophobia, & known for his reactionary views, the "temporary" contract for the role of UK head of the 'Commission on Countering Extremism', appointed in March 2021, was extended for the Heritage Foundation's hard-right extremist Robin Simcox.
Ignored by the UK news media, Priti Patel made Simcox permanent head of the Commission for Countering Extremism. She had appointed him on an "interim" basis as a way to ease him into the job without going through a competitive process or having his CV scrutinised too closely.
Simcox was a "war on terror" enthusiast who claimed that "rendition, drones, detention without trial" are all “extremely effective" against terrorism - rendition means sending suspects to foreign dictatorships for torture: people who support torture are embedded in the UK Govt.
At the Heritage Foundation, Simcox argued that making "White Supremacy" the subject of a "countering violent extremism policy" was driven by "political correctness" - regardless of the dramatic increase in terrorist acts by white racists in the UK & US. Image
At the Heritage Foundation, Simcox argued that making "White Supremacy" the subject of a "countering violent extremism policy" was driven by "political correctness" - despite the dramatic increase in terrorist acts by white racists in the UK & US.

In September 2019, Simcox urged new PM Boris Johnson to monitor groups such as @XRebellionUK
& Unite Against Fascism @uaf as part of the Govt's "counter-extremism agenda", while also advising him to "push back" against claims of obvious Tory Islamophobia. theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
Simcox said Javid had “unhelpfully tried to force all his fellow Conservative leadership candidates to commit to undertaking an internal review", & warned of the “political extremism of anarchism, eco-socialism & radical anti-capitalist environmentalism”. heritage.org/terrorism/comm…
Back in January 2021, the Govt controversially appointed William Shawcross as Chair of an "independent" review of PREVENT.

There is a pattern of the UK Govt appointing extremist partisan allies to oversee so-called "independent" reviews & Commissions.

At the time, a coalition of 17 leading & respected human rights & community groups said they would boycott the UK Govt’s partisan review of the anti-radicalisation programme, PREVENT, in protest at the inappropriate appointment of Shawcross as its chair.
amnesty.org/en/latest/pres…
As a director of the Henry Jackson Society, Shawcross had expressed explicitly Islamophobic views, saying:

“Europe & Islam is one of the greatest, most terrifying problems of our future. I think all European countries have vastly, very quickly growing Islamic populations.”
The appointment of Shawcross made it crystal clear that the UK Govt had - & has - zero interest in conducting an objective & impartial PREVENT review, nor in engaging meaningfully with communities affected by it.

Its purpose is to downplay far-right terrorism & scapegoat Islam.
The PREVENT review was designed to whitewash the strategy & downplay far-right rhetoric & terrorism, without interrogating its harmful impacts on human rights & basic freedoms. It's an example of how the UK Govt is facilitating dangerous Orbanist antidemocratic authoritarianism. Image
Murdoch's & the UK Govt's "anti-woke" far-right rhetoric has consequences.

Days after the #BuffaloMassShooting in May, where a far-right white supremacist shot 11 black & two white victims in a “racially motivated hate crime”, leaks from the PREVENT review started to appear.

Image
Image
Image
Entirely predictably, & echoing Simcox's pre-existing views, the partisan PREVENT Review dutifully claimed what Patel & Braverman wanted it to: 'The Govt’s counter-terrorism programme has been too focused on right-wing extremism & should now crack down on Islamist extremism'.
The UK Govt is normalising far-right extremist rhetoric. The review misleadingly claims individuals are targeted for expressing 'mainstream right-wing views' because the definition of neo-Nazism had 'expanded too widely', while the focus on Islamist extremism has been too narrow.
Sir Peter Fahy, ex-Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police & former police PREVENT lead, said leaked extracts suggested Shawcross’s findings were an unwarranted attempt to “politicise counter-terrorism policing” & it was “dangerous to play off one ideology against another”.
In March 2021, Fahy criticised the antidemocratic, authoritarian, anti-British, & anti-freedom 'Police, Crime, Sentencing & Courts Bill', which he argued was a politically-motivated reaction to #BlackLivesMatter & the @XRebellionUK protests.

theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/m…
Since Brexit, the UK Govt has been brazen about bringing in Koch-funded extremists from a global network of free-market extremist 'think tanks' to shape Govt policy, generate divisive culture war headlines in the right-wing media, & push Britain further right than ever before. Image
Instead of tackling far-right violence & far-right terrorism, the UK Government has fuelled it with grotesque scapegoating "invasion" rhetoric reminiscent of the Nazis, while introducing draconian anti-environmentalist & anti-union legislation to protect the 1% from the 99%. Image
Grotesque far-right rhetoric - including the use of antisemetic tropes & conspiracy theories, as well as the dangerously irresponsible "invasion" rhetoric - has been shamelessly normalised & mobilised by the current UK Government & the right-wing press.

This 'shameless normalisation' of far-right radicalisation rhetoric is now a very real, present, & dangerous threat to Britain.

That the UK Government has deliberately both downplayed &
manufactured it, is beyond reprehensible.
A #thread revealing how the catastrophic & thankfully brief premiership of Liz Truss was a direct consequence of the immense power & influence of the global network of opaquely funded free-market 'think tanks' working to replace democracy with oligarchy.

Britain’s *former top counter-terrorism officer* has said parts of William Shawcross's partisan government-backed #PREVENT review appear to be driven by right-wing ideology & are “insulting” to professionals fighting to stop attacks on Britain’s streets.

theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/f…
As stated earlier, in September 2019, Simcox urged PM Boris Johnson to monitor groups such as climate activists @XRebellionUK as part of the Govt's "counter-extremism agenda".

Just imagine the press, Govt, & Simcox's reaction had climate activists used an actual bomb in the UK.

Image
Image
Image
@XRebellionUK And here we are...
@XRebellionUK FFS where are Britain's investigative journalists?
standard.co.uk/news/london/lo…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with GET A GRIP

GET A GRIP Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @docrussjackson

GET A GRIP Profile picture
May 14
🧵In January, Farage said Musk was justified in calling Starmer complicit in failures to prosecute grooming gangs: “In 2008 Keir Starmer had just been appointed as DPP & there was a case brought before them of alleged mass rape of young girls that did not lead to a prosecution.” Image
The allegation that Starmer was complicit in failures to prosecute grooming gangs is often repeated. But how true is it?

Two Facebook posts, originally appearing in April/May 2020, claimed Starmer told police when he was working for the CPS not to pursue cases against Muslim men accused of rape due to fears it would stir up anti-Islamic sentiment.
In 2022 the posts and allegations saw a resurgence online with hundreds of new shares. They said: “From 2004 onwards the director of public prosecutions told the police not to prosecute Muslim rape gangs to prevent ‘Islamophobia’.

Then, in January, Elon Musk joined in.
Read 40 tweets
GET A GRIP Profile picture
May 13
🧵

Decades of research shows that parroting or appeasing the far-right simply legitimises their framing, and further normalises illiberal exclusionary discourse and politics.

Starmer's speech is more evidence that the far-right has been mainstreamed.

The mainstream right-wing consider social inequalities natural or beneficial, but support liberal democracy’s core institutions & values.

The far-right rejects liberal democracy & is rooted in nativism (xenophobic nationalism) & authoritarianism (emphasizing order & discipline).
Liberal democracy upholds minority rights via rule of law & independent institutions, ensuring equal treatment & freedoms for all.

The far-right opposes it, & instead prefer illiberal democracy, which favours majority rule, curbs minority rights, & erodes checks on power.
Read 22 tweets
GET A GRIP Profile picture
May 10
🧵

Cas Mudde, a Dutch political scientist who focuses on political extremism and populism in Europe and the US, is, imho, one of the most important voices on the Left today.

Allow me to briefly summarise some of his work.

Image
In a 2023 lecture, Mudde emphasizes the importance of precise terminology in discussing the far-right, distinguishing between extreme right (anti-democracy) and radical right (accepts elections but rejects liberal democratic principles like minority rights and rule of law).
He argues we're in a "fourth wave" of postwar far-right politics, characterized by the mainstreaming & normalization of the far-right - what Linguist Prof Ruth Wodak in a related concept refers to as the 'shameless normalization of far-right discourse'.

Read 49 tweets
GET A GRIP Profile picture
May 6
🧵

After eight years as US President, on Janury 17, 1961, Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower, former supreme commander of the Allied forces in western Europe during WWII, warned us about the the growing "military-industrial complex" (and Trump2.0) in his prescient farewell address. Image
Before looking at that speech, some context for those unfamiliar with Eisenhower, the 34th US president, serving from 1953 to 1961.

During WWII, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe and achieved the five-star rank as General of the Army.
Eisenhower planned & supervised two consequential WWII military campaigns: Operation Torch in the North Africa campaign in 1942–43 & the 1944 Normandy invasion.

The right-wing of the Republican Party clashed with him more often than the Democrats did during his first term.
Read 54 tweets
GET A GRIP Profile picture
May 3
🧵

In England, 18% of adults aged 16-65 - 6.6 million people - can be described as having "very poor literacy skills" AKA 'functionally illiterate'.

This leaves people vulnerable to manipulation and exploitation, and poses significant challenges for society and democracy. Image
Being 'functionally illiterate' means that a person can understand short straightforward texts on familiar topics accurately & independently, & obtain information from everyday sources, but reading information from unfamiliar sources or on unfamiliar topics can cause problems. Image
Adult functional illiteracy—lacking the reading, writing, and comprehension skills needed for everyday tasks—poses significant challenges for a country, society, and democracy.

Allow me to spell these challenges out...
Read 22 tweets
GET A GRIP Profile picture
Apr 22
🧵

Two Priests, who both smoke, go the Pope.

The first asks "Is it OK to smoke while I'm praying?"

The Pope replies "No! You should be focused on God!"

The second Priest asks "Is it OK to pray while I'm smoking?"

The Pope replies "Of course, there's never a bad time to pray" Image
Nigel Farage’s rhetorical technique of framing controversial or inflammatory statements as questions, often defended as “just asking questions,” is a well-documented strategy - sometimes called “JAQing off” in online discourse - that has drawn significant criticism. Image
This approach involves posing questions to imply a controversial viewpoint without explicitly endorsing it, thereby maintaining plausible deniability. Farage often uses this strategy to raise issues around immigration, national identity, and 'wokeness' or 'political correctness'. Image
Read 36 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

Send Email!

:(