I once believed that you should fight the extreme right and extreme left “at the same time and for the same reasons”. The phrase had a fine sound to it, even if I say so myself, and it remains true enough. Anyone who has witnessed the public shaming of those who deviate from approved leftish ideology will find Boris Johnson’s attempts to purge the cabinet and civil service of all who disagree with him familiar. The politics may be different but the oppressive spirit is the same.He should also have mentioned climate change...
But in this terrible year, it is worth saying that moral equivalence is not the same as practical equivalence. As the world stands, the fight against the radical right is a fight for the preservation of liberal democracy. The fight against the far left is a fight for justice for the individual denied the freedom to express his or, and more frequently today, her opinions without post-Stalinist inquisitors demanding she confesses her ideological crimes or lose her job.
Both fights are essential but the difference in scale is so enormous it barely makes sense to put them in the same category.
Monday, September 07, 2020
Nick Cohen being sensible
I have been saying a similar thing for at few years now:
The Guardian has been faking you out for a long time as to where the problem is being generated. They had a journalist that knew me back from when I was at Catallaxy. He became a follower of mine on twitter. He's got a photo of himself having a beer as his twitter photo. He was following a lot of alt-right and even alt-lite groups that he continually characterised as white nationalist or white supremacist. So if you want to take control of immigration policy thats you. You are a white supremacist. Though the idea had never entered your mind. He always characterised the violence as coming from white conservative Americans. Completely counter-factual. Although there have been some fake events to try and push this thesis along.
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