Immigration and Fascism.

Posted on by Opher

The rise of right-wing fascism is due to mass immigration and muslim extremism.

People find the presence of large numbers of foreigners extremely threatening.

People find the usurping of their endemic customs and ways threatening.

In general I don’t think they mind seeing a few people in ethnic garb. It’s when this becomes a mass and they start taking over areas and displacing the locals. They resent the situation. They do not want to see mosques springing up all over the place. They do not want to see their culture displaced in their own country.

Couple this with terrorism, hate speech and fire-brand extremists spouting about taking over and we have a recipe for disaster. It fuels thugs like Tommy Robinson and right-wing parties.

Populists like Trump and Farage have been quick to jump on this bandwagon and inflame the fears. The extreme right has been painting a vivid picture of immigrants being scroungers, rapists, murderers and criminals. They stir up the fear to create hate.

This results in knee-jerk responses. All across the Western world right-wing politicians are whipping up fear and hate, proposing mass deportations and building walls. It gets them elected.

We don’t need fear and we don’t need hate. We don’t need populist right-wingers creating isolationist policies.

We do need understanding, intelligence, compassion and solutions.

We have to end mass immigration.

We have to end muslim terrorism.

We have to integrate immigrants into our culture. If they want to live in our country they live by our rules. That isn’t to say they have to abandon their own culture and religion but we have to find ways to live together in peace without fear, suspicion and hatred.

To end mass immigration I believe we have to look at the causes of mass immigration (not build walls). The causes are war, political chaos, extreme poverty and climate change.

Until these are addressed we will have mass immigration.

The cause of muslim terrorism is war, poverty and chaos. Muslims perceive that the West is attacking them, their culture and religion.

It is obvious that we cannot take all the millions in need from impoverished countries. We do not have the room or facilities.

In my opinion the problem with the world is that far too much wealth and power is in the hands of a handful of billionaires. We need to help solve the Third World problems so that there isn’t this disparity. We need to stop the wars.

We need to solve climate change.

Mass immigration, in my opinion, is the product of greed. We need a fairer world.

Irony – A Bunch of Illegal Immigrants.

Posted on by Opher

The real irony is that these are all the descendants of immigrants who displaced the rightful owners through violence and genocide. Ignorance in action. Fear breeds hate.

Divide and Conquer

Posted on by Opher

As a Brit it is fascinating to watch the political scene in the USA. I am very familiar with the USA having worked on the East Coast as a dishwasher and the West Coast as a teacher. Then my daughter worked in the South for a number of years and we would visit and travel.

As a Rock Music aficionado I have followed the Blues trail and visited the homes of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Country, Cajun, R&B, Soul and Jazz. Fabulous.

What is immediately obvious to me is the way that Trump has seized upon the fear and anxiety of Americans to whip them up into a frenzy of hate and division. It’s what populists do.

He has focused on the fear of losing jobs (as the old industries of coal, steel, oil and gas are replaced with modern technology) and promised people to hang on to the dying industry.

He has focused on the huge increase in immigration (caused by war, economic exploitation and global warming) and demonized the immigrants.

He has deliberately homed in on religious extremism, targeting the right-wing evangelicals to bring them on side, and whipping up hate against Muslims. He is offering the evangelicals what they want on subjugation of women, removal of reproductive rights and putting ten commandments into schools.

He’s focused on the love of weapons – promoting the NRA and opposing any changes in the insane gun laws (he was nearly a victim of his own stupidity).

This means that he is a denier of climate change, a promoter of walls, aligned with racists and white supremacists, aligned with armed right-wing militia, aligned with right-wing evangelicals, opposed to the logic and rationality of science, and opposed to liberalization (mislabeled as woke) and aligned with the poor blue collar workers fearful for their jobs and terrified of immigrants. It’s an unholy alliance of factions and beliefs.

Of course, he doesn’t agree with half of this shit. It’s all about power and wealth. He brings people on board with promises in order to get elected. When in office he sets about securing the mechanisms of state so that he cannot be ousted (like all authoritarians leaders that he so admires – Putin, Xi, Yong Un, Lukashenko) and sets about lining his pockets (tax cuts to the rich, business ventures – making a fortune out of MAGA merchandise). He makes token gestures to keep his disparate MAGA factions in line (walls, guns, disbanding science, passing reproductive laws against women, investing in oil, gas and steel, bringing in tariffs, etc).

Then, having secured his base, he promotes division – ridiculing anybody from ‘the other side’ and lying. Like the Nazis in the 1930s he encourages violence. At his rallies he encourages hecklers to be beaten up. If anybody challenges his lies he threatens court action. He downplays gun violence and promotes gun ownership and the right to kill. He actively incited an armed attack on the government – in effect a coup – to regain power and lied about the election result – ridiculously claiming it was stolen.

The irony is that when he very nearly gets assassinated he tries to turn this on the Democrats, accusing them of stirring up hatred and demonizing.

With the objective eye of an outsider I view Trump as a classic populist fascist who uses nationalism, patriotism, racism, misogyny, fear of immigrants and fear of job losses, to gain power.

The promotion of violence is all Trump!

Standing on the Brink

Posted on by Opher

Standing on the Brink

Standing on the brink,

                Forsaking unity,

                                Staring down a precipice of hate

While they stoke up the fear.

                                The fascist playbook

                Open at the populist page

                                Is seeking to enrage

Is that not clear?

                Not perfectly clear?

Those who seek compassion,

                Who tell the truth,

                                Are side-lined and thought weak

As we lurch towards the right.

                Fear of foreigners

                                A crisis of identity

                                                A surge towards nationalism

To keep our borders tight.

                For might is right!

Right?

And we lose our humanity

                As we build our walls

                                To keep out the strangers

No matter their need.

                No understanding

                                Of their terrible dilemma

                                                Of the wars, the drought

The babies to feed.

                Living in the jaws of greed.

Agreed?

In a sane world

                We’d address the problems,

                                Work together

To find a solution.

                But not in selfish times,

                                Littered with our crimes,

We turn blind eyes.

                No resolution.

No caring revolution.

Pull up the drawbridge,

                Man the fortress.

                                Repel all boarders.

Even women and babies.

                Economic migrants!

                                They have no claim!

Send them back to suffer

                With no maybe’s!

Certainly no maybe’s.

We care for our own!

                Charity starts at home!

                                So many of our own in need!

And the real criminals succeed!

                For in truth

                                It’s the same robber barons

Robbing us as robbing them.

                With their twisted creed!

A callous breed!

Inequality and greed

                Are the root

                                Of this entire situation;

Misery in their wake.

                As the arrogant elite

                                Feed off the masses,

Creating poverty and war

                While we break.

And in the heat we bake.

Opher – 29.6.2024

I’m sitting here thinking about the election of Trump and growing support for greedy, selfish, lying right-wing fascists all around the world. This hypocritical, phony religious brainwashing, deployed to create a separate cultural identity, this hatred of foreigners, overt racism and callousness.

What is happening?

The world is a mess with wars and global warming, mass poverty and environmental catastrophe. The wealthy circle like sharks in a feeding frenzy, stuffing themselves on the carcass of humanity.

They don’t care.

Religion is an excuse. Always an excuse.

The wealthy love chaos and crisis. They love poverty. They can exploit, divide and profit.

Follow the money. It’s flowing into the pockets of Trump, Farage, Cameron, Sunak, May, Johnson and a hundred other fascist leaders.

When will we start working together to create solutions?

No more walls, tax loopholes and secret accounts. No more selfish, greedy, lying conmen masquerading as caring champions of the people.

Enough is more than enough.

The Slime of Politics

Posted on by Opher

Hanging on to power for as long as possible – appealing to the lower elements. Let’s bring in the same old elements – racism, xenophobia, fear and hate – divide and rule. It works for Trump!

Standing in the Killing Fields

Posted on by Opher

Standing in the Killing Fields

I’ve stood in the Killing Fields

                And seen the piles of skulls.

I’ve been sickened

                By the torture camps of Pol Pot.

I’ve looked into the ovens

At Dachau

Where they fried six million jews.

I’ve been on holiday

                To Vietnam

                                And crawled along the tunnels

Of the Vietcong.

I’ve peered out of the trenches

                In Belgium

                                Stood in the craters

Where artillery shells

                Blew living people

                                Into shreds.

I’ve stood in many a military graveyard

                British, German, American and Argentinian.

I’ve read the names

                On the cenotaph, the Menin Gate, Tyne Cot, and a thousand memorials.

The dead of a million wars.

I’ve visited the sites

                Of the pogroms

                                The holocaust,

                                                The public burning of witches,

Catholics, Blacks, Jews and Native Americans.

I’ve walked past the basement

                In Prague,

                                Where the KGB tortured prisoners.

I’ve wandered across Tiananmen Square,

                Visited Amrita,

Stood in Turkey where the Armenians were massacred.

                Walked through the battlefields

Of Waterloo, Bannockburn, Hastings and the Somme.

I’ve read about Wounded Knee, Sand Creek and Little Big Horn.

                I’ve read 1984, Das Kapital, Brave New World, Mein Kampf, Animal Farm and A Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovitch.

I’ve read Silent Spring, The Biological Time Bomb and looked at the bear-pits, the bullrings and watched a live snake eviscerated on Snake Street.

There was always a good reason for all of it.

So, for me,

                The message is clear:

Be tolerant,

                Respect life,

                                Love each other,

                                                Love everything.

The other way is torture, war, repression and death.

The history of mankind is the history of pain, torture, war, massacre, hate and intolerance.

Unless we actively change that we are destined to live it again and again.

Let’s make the future better than the past.

I’ll drink to that with anyone!