Pre-Fascism
The Irish Times has described the period the West is in now as 'pre-Fascist' and they're right.
Look at what's happening in the USA. Children are dying in detention camps - 2 so far - separated from their parents. Their crime is that they have come from Central America looking for a better life. Now Trump is singling out female politicians with brown faces for abuse. These women are US citizens legally elected to represent voters. And yet again, women's rights are under attack, with individual states shutting down access not just to abortion but to any kind of advice on sexual health and contraception.
Then there's the fiasco that calls itself the UK: Jeremy Rhyming-slang appears on the telly in his day job to talk about Iran and attacks on UK shipping in the Persian Gulf, and before we know it the moronic Boris Johnson is waving a kipper around, raving about the EU's crazy food regulations, when all the time the rules about the export of fish are purely UK rules. Despite the fact that he's a charlatan and a buffoon, Johnson's position as Prime Minister-elect now seems unassailable. He can make comments about people like Leo Varadkar, the Irish Taoiseach) that are as near as dammit racist ('Why isn't he called Murphy like the rest of them?') and get away with them. Let's hope he never meets Varadkar in EU negotiations.
If you think all of that is a long way away from us in Scotland, ask yourself if it's coincidence that a passenger on Borders Railway was told the other day to 'go back to your own country':
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-49036055
Is it also a coincidence that there has been a huge rise, not just in racist attacks, but in the number of attacks on gay people and in sexual assaults all over the UK?
It's as if Brexit has unleashed some demons not seen here since the 1930s. Pre-Fascism involved repression: people began to feel they had to hide who they were for fear of being picked on by right wing extremists. It started with repression of the disabled and sick, Jews, Roma, foreigners of any kind, gay people, trade unionists, socialists and communists.
But in the 1930s decent people fought back. I hope that's where Scots would be in dealing with the current outbreak of right-wing extremism.
This isn't what Scotland is about as a country.
Meanwhile, I can't find a photo to go with this post. I'm not contaminating my blog with pictures of Trump or Johnson - never mind the demons of European Fascism from the 1930s.
Look at what's happening in the USA. Children are dying in detention camps - 2 so far - separated from their parents. Their crime is that they have come from Central America looking for a better life. Now Trump is singling out female politicians with brown faces for abuse. These women are US citizens legally elected to represent voters. And yet again, women's rights are under attack, with individual states shutting down access not just to abortion but to any kind of advice on sexual health and contraception.
Then there's the fiasco that calls itself the UK: Jeremy Rhyming-slang appears on the telly in his day job to talk about Iran and attacks on UK shipping in the Persian Gulf, and before we know it the moronic Boris Johnson is waving a kipper around, raving about the EU's crazy food regulations, when all the time the rules about the export of fish are purely UK rules. Despite the fact that he's a charlatan and a buffoon, Johnson's position as Prime Minister-elect now seems unassailable. He can make comments about people like Leo Varadkar, the Irish Taoiseach) that are as near as dammit racist ('Why isn't he called Murphy like the rest of them?') and get away with them. Let's hope he never meets Varadkar in EU negotiations.
If you think all of that is a long way away from us in Scotland, ask yourself if it's coincidence that a passenger on Borders Railway was told the other day to 'go back to your own country':
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-49036055
Is it also a coincidence that there has been a huge rise, not just in racist attacks, but in the number of attacks on gay people and in sexual assaults all over the UK?
It's as if Brexit has unleashed some demons not seen here since the 1930s. Pre-Fascism involved repression: people began to feel they had to hide who they were for fear of being picked on by right wing extremists. It started with repression of the disabled and sick, Jews, Roma, foreigners of any kind, gay people, trade unionists, socialists and communists.
But in the 1930s decent people fought back. I hope that's where Scots would be in dealing with the current outbreak of right-wing extremism.
This isn't what Scotland is about as a country.
Meanwhile, I can't find a photo to go with this post. I'm not contaminating my blog with pictures of Trump or Johnson - never mind the demons of European Fascism from the 1930s.
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