Many working class and middle class people feel the same, but by ignoring their wishes and calling them racist will make them turn to the right, which maybe what the ruling elite have in mind. One day all countries will be multicultural, but it's needs to happen more slowly, in my opinion.
Who gives a damn what the working classes want? What’s important is what we want them to want. This isn’t the 1990s, after all. All that nonsense about globalization, and supranational entities like the WTO, and the World Bank, not to mention “American jobs” … only fascists talk like that these days!
But, seriously … if you’ve made it this far in my essay, and you consider yourself a leftist of some sort, you’re probably extremely frustrated with what passes for the Left these days, and with how the working classes are flocking to the Right, both in the United States and all over the world. If I’ve got that right, you might want to read this essay by Diana Johnstone (which we lefties are technically not allowed to read, because it’s posted in The Unz Review, where a lot of “alt-Right” pieces are also posted … and you don’t want to get any of that stuff on you!)
What she is writing about is the ongoing “populist” insurgency against globalized capitalism, which is what I’ve also been writing about for the better part of the last two years. This is the historical moment we are experiencing, a clumsy, sloppy, partly fascistic, partly non-fascistic democratic uprising against the continuing spread of global capitalism, the erosion of what is left of national sovereignty, and … yes, people’s cultures and values.
The international working classes understand this. The neo-nationalist Right understands this. The majority of the Left does not understand this, and is refusing to admit that it’s happening, and so is standing around on the sidelines calling everybody “racists” and “fascists” while the global capitalist ruling classes and the neo-nationalists sort things out.
Which is exactly what the ruling classes want, and what the official Putin-Nazi narrative was designed to achieve from the very beginning. The “Overton Window” (i.e., the range of ideas tolerated in public discourse) works best when divided into two clean halves. During the so-called “War on Terror,” it was Democracy versus the Islamic Terrorists. Now, it’s Democracy versus the Putin-Nazis. Both of which narratives are fairy tales, of course, the reality, as ever, being rather more messy.
If what is left of the Left expects to play any meaningful part in our historical moment (other than sanctimoniously cheerleading for the global capitalist ruling classes), it is going need to get its hand a littler dirtier, mingle a bit more with all those working class “populists,” talk to them, and, I don’t know, maybe even listen to them.
Off-Guardian
5 comments:
“I've often said here that I don't like too much immigration into the UK: I want England, the land I love, to say English, but does that make me a racist?” ~ Kaivey
As an island nation, England is limited in the number of immigrants it can accommodate. It is already one of the most crowded nations in Europe. The USA is 75 times larger than England, and 41 times larger than the entire U.K. The U.S. state of Louisiana is larger than England.
In an island nation, dramatic shifts in demographics, combined with other social changes can seem overwhelming. What you’re feeling is nostalgia, not racism.
Far worse than racism is the hypocrisy of U.K. celebrities who live in huge mansions on secluded estates, and constantly accuse average Britons of being racists for not wanting more immigrants. J.K. Rowling demands that the U.K. accept more immigrants, who Rowling never sees from her multiple mansions. Ex-football star Gary Lineker says that London needs more immigrants. Lineker lives in Barnes, a town in the Richmond upon Thames borough of London. The town of Barnes is 90% white. Actress Emma Thompson says the U.K. is racist for not taking in unlimited immigrants. Emma Thompson lives in Hampstead London, which is 98% white. Pop star Lily Allen says the same thing. Allen has a mansion in the Cotswolds, which is 98% white. Allen also has a house in NottingHill, West London, which (again) has very few immigrants.
All these virtue signaling celebrities do not have to live with the consequences of their righteous demands.
“I'm completely okay with the multiculturalism in London, but I also like to live in the familiar English surroundings that I was brought up in. This is my home.” ~ Kaivey
Most of London (especially the east end) is a total loss. No one goes there unless he has to. If a person lives in the English countryside, and he must go to London for any reason, he will delay his trip as long as possible. As he is traveling to London, he hopes that nothing bad will happen to him in the city. Many people work in London, but don’t live there. At the end of each day they collect on train platforms, eager to out of the city as quickly as possible.
“Many working class and middle class people feel the same, but by ignoring their wishes and calling them racist will make them turn to the right, which maybe what the ruling elite have in mind.”
The ruling elite just want to stay in power while the peasants fight with each other.
“One day all countries will be multicultural, but it needs to happen more slowly in my opinion.” ~ Kaivey
It would happen more slowly if the West didn’t wage constant military and economic wars around the world. Europe, for example, did not have a severe immigrant crisis until the West destroyed Libya.
Libya had been a cork in the bottle, so to speak.
Thanks Konrad, it's was difficult for me as a liberal to write what I did. I went to East London a few years back one evening for a lindy hop dance and all the pubs were boarded up. The whole place liked run down. At about 10 o'clock in the evening I went for one of my walks as I do, and when I came back they are all worried about me, they said got don't go walking around here.
The neoliberals are churning up the world making purple desperate and poor so they leave their homes, friends, and families to mitigate to the West.
“The neoliberals are churning up the world making people desperate and poor so they leave their homes, friends, and families to migrate to the West.” ~ Kaivey
And when refugees come to the West, they find little or no opportunities. Therefore they become frustrated, and therefore violent. Most are young males.
The solution is to cease the military and economic wars that create refugees.
If you ask neoliberals to stop killing foreigners and creating refugees, you are attacked as a “RACIST.”
F—k these self-righteous celebrities who live on luxurious and secluded estates while they scold average Britons for not wanting more immigrants.
By the way, which group screams loudest for a halt in immigration?
Answer: the immigrants themselves -- i.e. those who have already arrived. They are already struggling, and they do not want more competition.
But only whites are attacked as "racists."
Don't like immigrants? Then attack the wars and the neoliberalism that create refugees and immigrants in the first place. Stay out of their country and they'll stay out of yours.
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