Reform UK Party Limited Company

[Mr Kobayashi]

Yes totally agree, the people at the top of these movements are a whole other kettle of fish and pretty much never share the interests or motivations of the membership.

It’s kind of fascinating and something I’ve never been able to get my head around. As a working class person, why would I ever feel any kind of affinity with a rich, privately educated, suit and tie wearing snake oil salesman like Trump or Farage? Bizarre to me. For voters who are keen on declaring themselves “no-nonsense alpha males” it’s a contradictorily weird and subservient behaviour.

Well of course you'd struggle to connect with it. You're a highly educated person with a logical brain and open minded and tolerant. These are all things that the voters of these parties lack.

They love being told what they want to hear.

 

[Bodicoteblue]

where do they find them

Reform UK candidate apologises over Hitler neutrality comments

Ian Gribbin says his grandparents were "Russian Jews fleeing persecution" and his comments were taken out of context.

www.bbc.co.uk

To quote the psychiatrist in Fawlty Towers, ‘there’s enough material there for a whole conference’

 

[SkyBlueFlux]

Well of course you'd struggle to connect with it. You're a highly educated person with a logical brain and open minded and tolerant. These are all things that the voters of these parties lack.

They love being told what they want to hear.

Fair enough, it just fascinates me how some of these are people who I was best friends with as a kid, went to the same school, had the same opportunities, had parents with similar attitudes, spent all summer playing on bikes with them.

Functionally identical upbringings and yet… I’m out here yoghurt-knitting with the wokerati eating quinoa and talking about the practical challenges of net-zero while they’re posting pictures of the Knights Templar to Facebook and goose stepping for Nige. It’s psychologically quite interesting.

 

[Rascal]

The fact that we can be made to turn on others so easily tells me that our brains are hardwired for tribalistic living. We still think like that. Which means that, neurologically, we're not well-adapted for the challenges that we face in this century, like global warming.

That's really interesting, but does the video posted by your good self show how easily we are influenced by the perception of power? Going back to base level, would tribal leaders actually do the hard wiring because of deference to the leader. Umberto Eco in his tract on fascism says that "disagreement is treason" how powerful do you think that is as a notion?

We're a territorial species too. For us, it's all about defending sacred spaces and territory (like, say, the Cenotaph or Regent Street in London with its seasonal decorations) from contamination.

I do think the overwhelming majority have a love of their particular space, I love where I live now, but I am also proud to be a Salfordian. I do not feel a particular love of inanimate objects like the Cenotaph, I respect them of course but I do not feel a need to defend them as they are inanimate.

But populism of this sort isn't just a right-wing phenomenon. Left-wing populists like Galloway have done the same thing successfully too. And Islamists. Their desire to establish a pure Caliphate and the demonization of the kafir expresses the same tendency.

Zen I respect you more than any poster on here, you educate us so much but having read Peter Oborne's book "the fate of Abraham" I am not sure you are correct here. I would like further insight mate


The picture quality isn't that good but this documentary charts the stages we pass through on the way to becoming willing to exterminate 'the Other':

scary

 

[mexico1970]

Fair enough, it just fascinates me how some of these are people who I was best friends with as a kid, went to the same school, had the same opportunities, had parents with similar attitudes, spent all summer playing on bikes with them.

Functionally identical upbringings and yet… I’m out here yoghurt-knitting with the wokerati eating quinoa and talking about the practical challenges of net-zero while they’re posting pictures of the Knights Templar to Facebook and goose stepping for Nige. It’s psychologically quite interesting.

They are probably asking the same questions about you.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

They are probably asking the same questions about you.

That’s the thing. They categorically won’t be.

 

[mexico1970]

That’s the thing. They categorically won’t be.

How do you know Dibley?

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

How do you know Dibley?

Spent 5 years in Gorton and now 5 in Oldham. I know it never comes up in conversation.

The people are sound. They aren’t inquisitive about psychology.

 

[SkyBlueFlux]

They are probably asking the same questions about you.

If they are then that’s great, but still doesn’t really answer the question of where that polarisation occured in our respective paths. The easy answer might be university, but I voted along the same lines when I was 18 before even setting foot on a campus. If anything, I think university softened a lot of my more extreme positions.

I would be overjoyed if a member of my family or friends who voted Reform wanted to have an honest dialogue on how I reached my positions. I’ve often tried to engage in the other direction to understand how they’ve come to their decision, particularly with my late step father who I loved dearly. But his answer was always “you’re young and you just don’t know enough yet”. Maybe he’s right. And this is all anecdotal.

But this isn’t me being cynical, I’m genuinely interested in the factors that lead people to their political choices.

 

[mexico1970]

If they are then that’s great, but still doesn’t really answer the question of where that polarisation occured in our respective paths. The easy answer might be university, but I voted along the same lines when I was 18 before even setting foot on a campus. If anything, I think university softened a lot of my more extreme positions.

I would be overjoyed if a member of my family or friends who voted Reform wanted to have an honest dialogue on how I reached my positions. I’ve often tried to engage in the other direction to understand how they’ve come to their decision, particularly with my late step father who I loved dearly. But his answer was always “you’re young and you just don’t know enough yet”. Maybe he’s right. And this is all anecdotal.

But this isn’t me being cynical, I’m genuinely interested in the factors that lead people to their political choices.

You come across as a person you could have a reasonable debate with mate, OK you have different views but you've a way about you a lot of the sneering anti working class Che's don't have.

Just because someone doesn't think the way that you or your friends think it doesn't mean that they are stupid or they haven't thought critically, again this isn't me trying to point a finger at you because you probably deserve a better line of conversation than that.