tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post4696869893689799137..comments2024-03-27T09:14:27.496+00:00Comments on All That Is Solid ...: The Culmination of Toxic PoliticsPhilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-91116996900632499522016-06-19T17:03:14.761+01:002016-06-19T17:03:14.761+01:001. Obviously the suspect has not been convicted, b...1. Obviously the suspect has not been convicted, but there's quite a bit of evidence of far-right ties for said individual anyway, including Britain First.<br />2. Being mentally ill doesn't turn people into axe-crazy lunatics in the vast majority of cases. Far-right politics, on the other hand, is all about glorifying violence.<br />3. The 'let's focus on mental illness' angle is a frequent bullshit excuse used by gun-rights fanatics in the US after mass shootings, which is another reason why I don't really buy it.Lidl Janusnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-6455045036631377792016-06-19T11:59:15.969+01:002016-06-19T11:59:15.969+01:00Phil once again you have summed up the situation ...Phil once again you have summed up the situation very well. Certain newspaper editors and publishers should be held to account for their hysterical and frenzied reporting especially around immigration and the EU - too much of it a work of fiction with the scantiest of evidence to support the headlines, have whipped up sections of the population to near hysterical levels. Anyone who supports Remain is branded a 'traitor' etc.,<br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05154538898382774046noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-27528212002215943622016-06-17T19:35:20.554+01:002016-06-17T19:35:20.554+01:00Metatone,
even if he did have links to the far ri...Metatone,<br /><br />even if he did have links to the far right you can not claim this one off and rare incident is linked to the far right or how people conduct debate in general. Lots of people are jumping to all sorts of conclusions even before this guy has been evaluated.<br /><br />I suspect mental illness was a far bigger influence in this case than far right politics (it seems to be a lone attack), how that mental illness developed is anyone's guess and I suspect most people don't care anyway, so the media will simply focus on far right politics, because the media are interested in sensationalism not something as mundane as the source of mental illness.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-50743719639118697052016-06-17T17:50:13.980+01:002016-06-17T17:50:13.980+01:00Anonymous:
1) Purchase of literature and material...Anonymous:<br /><br />1) Purchase of literature and materials from far-right organisation in the USA.<br />2) Fascist memorabilia at home.<br />3) Membership of South African originated white supremacist org<br /><br />And you're still questioning that the suspect had links?<br />Metatonenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-87659275096850561602016-06-17T16:17:17.382+01:002016-06-17T16:17:17.382+01:00I am on the far left but if the right are circling...I am on the far left but if the right are circling the wagons around mental illness then I suspect necessity is the mother of truth in this case.<br /><br />How on earth can you assume this has anything to do with far right politics anyway? The article you linked to does not say anything of the sort; in fact it mentions mental illness more than neo Nazi activity. <br /><br />Even if this guy did have links to the far right and shouted Britains first (which is unsubstantiated) you cannot say this is the thing that drove him to this horrific murder, anymore than you can deny what drove this man to the horrific murder was living in a modern liberal democracy. If you are calling for something to be done about impolite political debate because of some one off event you should be calling for something to be done about liberal democracy! What you are doing is twisting this one off event to your own agenda.<br /><br />These events are thankfully rare and appear to be one offs. There is the usual knee jerk reaction to events like this, with people calling for all sorts of illiberal laws to be passed. We should warn against the dangers of jumping to conclusions and should see this horrific incident in the context of it being a one off incident, probably the result of mental illness brought about by a myriad of circumstances, one of which is living in modern Britain, another may be an interest in the far right.<br /><br />What struck me about this event was how a clearly deranged individual could be walking the street tooled up with weaponry. I suspect this tells us more about the shocking state of care in the community than the poison spewed by the anti immigrant brigade (which is most of the population incidentally). <br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-44300951126022458802016-06-17T13:33:05.888+01:002016-06-17T13:33:05.888+01:00Clearly the media has a role both in setting the x...Clearly the media has a role both in setting the xenophobic agenda and using language that emphasises threats and betrayals, but we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that they can only do this when their toxic narrative isn't challenged. Yes, the Tories are to blame but so too is Labour, specifically in its craven attitude towards asylum-seekers and migration in the late 90s, and more generally in its "historic compromise" with Murdoch et al.<br /><br />Contrary to received wisdom, public concern over immigration did not first mount after the 2004 EU accession of Poland and the Baltic states. After two decades of being a trivial issue, it ramped-up between the Tories 1996 Asylum and Immigration Act and New Labour's 1999 Immigration and Asylum Act. This marks the point when the narrative on immigration and asylum shifted to a focus on competition for welfare resources and "bogus" claims. This economistic turn relegitimised xenophobia.<br /><br />The impact of 9/11 was to reintroduce the cultural dimension (i.e. simple bigotry), but this time legitimised through a demonisation of Muslims as both a security threat and offenders of identity politics: misogynistic, homophobic, anti-free speech etc. The combination of the economistic and the identitarian is of course central to neoliberalism. In other words, xenophobia ("I'm not racist but ...") has become hegemonic.<br /><br />In that light, you need to be careful in linking hate-crimes with the modus operandi of social media. Death threats should be treated seriously, but we need to be careful that we don't fall into the trap of thinking that public opinion must be curated (that, after all, is the justification for press bias). As we have recently seen in the US, the charge of incivility is too often deployed by centrists (i.e. neoliberals) against legitimate criticism from the left. David Timoneyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03568348438980023320noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-74682283338848092362016-06-17T13:16:10.044+01:002016-06-17T13:16:10.044+01:00Well said.
Of course, the right are already circli...Well said.<br />Of course, the right are already circling the wagons around "mental illness."<br /><br />So nothing will change. And it will get worse after Leave win.Metatonenoreply@blogger.com