This week, the right basically gave up the territory on patriotism. From the mainstream right to the furthest extreme, it encouraged a foreign billionaire as he joked about invading the country and actively tried to undermine its democratic process.
Comments
Log in with your Bluesky account to leave a comment
Don’t think this is actually that new. There have always been quislings, and wannabe quislings. Belief in money and power is much deeper with these people than any genuine love of country.
From lying to the Queen, turning up at the cenotaph on Remembrance Day dishevelled, taking Russian money, partying with “former” KGB spies, laughing at the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral etc, the right’s pseudo patriotism has always been performative
To get inside their heads for a moment, I think it is because they conceive of white anglophones (except sometimes the Irish) as "not really foreign" and part of "us" and of many of their fellow citizens as only nominally British.
I think part of Starmer’s project was trying to detach the concept of patriotism from jingoism & flag waving & redefine it as trying to make the country into one people could be proud of and standing up for our constitutional and democratic norms which Johnson so debased.
Hasn't that always been right-wing patriotism in the Uk: encouraging invasions by self and friends while discouraging democratic processes in any situation where it thinks such will benefit it?
Sovereignty, rule of law, even free trade; that's all woke stuff now. The true populist rightwinger identifies with distancing themselves from all values and any accountability. Although any random notion may temporarily be embraced in the culture wars of course.
For them, patriotism has always been code for white nationalism. They don't see Elon Musk as 'other', but they do see Sadiq Khan that way. So unfortunately that won't work quite as well as you might think
Saddening isn't it? How did the world slip this far to the right? What enabled them? We are now in very real danger of repeating the events of the late 1930s.
Trump, Musk, Farage, LePen, Meloni, Orban, Weidel and Chrupalla, Wilders and more. Something has gone very wrong!!
Yes.
They allowed Musk to lie and put at risk a Labour MP, tried to wreck the child safety bill, asked for donations off the back of their ugly opportunism, foghorned out brazen racism, pretended they were being ‘smeared’ and said nothing about the threats being made to our democracy.
Grim AF.
One could argue the far right was NEVER patriotic always traitor for the fascists and the nazis only cared about power and punishing their imaginary "enemies" they always sell their country to the highest bidder.
this week was an opportunity for the Tories to rebrand themselves as a serious centre right party, by backing the pm and Jess P against the rantings of EM. They blew it.
I think you’ll find that, as in other countries, ‘patriotism’ is basically what the right say it is. And what the right invariably says it is is prostrating ourselves at the feet of the wealthy. Ergo, fellating Musk is THE great patriotic gesture.
I'd rather they stop doing this, but if they don't the centre and left should occupy that space. The attacks on Farage, Badenoch and Musk should be framed in patriotic rather than simply moral language.
I hate to break it to you but North America is not the centre of the universe and Trump being re-elected in the US is not the worst of Canada’s problems.
Hugh Grant would never have stood for this in Love Actually! Time to respond hard to the US conservative- Evangelical- Fascist right. Or at least laugh loudly at them and call them weird!
I don't think it even needs to be couched in terms of patriotism - it's about basic liberal values which respect borders. Trump, Musk and the right no longer respect borders, whether they are physical or virtual.
The idea of reclaiming patriotism is a clever move in terms of optics and culture war. The more the RWNJs abandon the positions that elevated them, the more people will feel left behind. All the more reason for Labour to claim that ground.
(Reminder to the Corbynistas: Labour is a broad tent.)
And, as @bethrigby.bsky.social pointed out on Electoral Dysfunction, Musk is not just some rich bloke but a member of the incoming US government, and there are diplomatic rules about how allies are supposed to talk with each other. It’s not a joke. I know you know this. We should treat it seriously.
Er, she’s a journalist not a politician. Is it her role to be ‘denouncing’? The podcast episode had robust discussion re Musk and potential implications of him being part of the next US government plus danger of attempting to interfere in our government, lying, misinformation, etc.
So if she was able to do that on her podcast why not on the actual news that reaches a wider audience? Her job is to call out lies and misinformation not to give false equivalence.
Kind of, yes. Especially on a podcast, which is essentially more political analysis than hard news reporting, so personal opinion/bias is part of the USP.
Good to see this, he's a foreign agent endangering the lives of British politicians and trying to over throw our democratically elected Government https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgmy71rgreno
To be fair, promoting dangerously divisive policies that aren’t in the interests of the vast majority of UK citizens, like Brexshit, always made them traitors.
As a lefty woke type, I'm not big on flag waving and jingoism. But I must admit Musk et al attacks on the UK and its institutions are making me feel defensive, maybe even a bit patriotic for my country.
Ironic that plastic patriots might elicit the true spirit of patriotism in our country!
In Canada, the truck convoy people have stolen our flag and suppressed our patriotism. Their supporters stuck Canadian flags on their vehicles and continue to parade around flying them. Normal Canadians can no longer display our flag without appearing to support them.
It’s a wild plot twist when the "patriotic" right goes from waving flags to rolling out a welcome mat for a foreign billionaire playfully suggesting an invasion. Patriotism must be feeling pretty confused right about now—wondering if it accidentally RSVP’d to the wrong party.
Comments
United Kingdom🇬🇧 net migration 2023 was 728,000 under #Brexit
France 🇲🇫🇪🇺 net migration 2023 in the EU and Schengen Zone was 183,000
Britain is better off in EU!! Nearly 4 times more net migration into UK.
Psst!!! Someone tell #Farage !!!
https://bsky.app/profile/jgbrowning.bsky.social/post/3lfevh2q57s2e
Trump, Musk, Farage, LePen, Meloni, Orban, Weidel and Chrupalla, Wilders and more. Something has gone very wrong!!
They allowed Musk to lie and put at risk a Labour MP, tried to wreck the child safety bill, asked for donations off the back of their ugly opportunism, foghorned out brazen racism, pretended they were being ‘smeared’ and said nothing about the threats being made to our democracy.
Grim AF.
They are indivisible in my mind
(Reminder to the Corbynistas: Labour is a broad tent.)
After all, he is still our Head of State!
I thought "Rule Britannia, Britannia Rules the Waves" ?
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgmy71rgreno
Ironic that plastic patriots might elicit the true spirit of patriotism in our country!
Some go mute.
Admitting folly is rare.
In general, people cherish #truth.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/7uBY7Ti0g2nNroNJOS7zo9?si=skOc4vFGQ62gCvJQHhmLWg