How the West lost its mind and swung to the extreme right!
Back in the 1980s everything was not brilliant but it was good. Both in the UK and USA racism was on the decrease, society was fairly prosperous and compassionate.
Then things went haywire. There was a big rise in xenophobia/racism, fear, hatred and a big swing to the right. We entered the greedy, heartless world of fear, hate and selfishness epitomised by Trump and Brexit. We found ourselves in the Post-Truth era in which narcissistic, charismatic conmen were able to paint things in black and white, make preposterous promises, stoke up fear and get themselves elected.
Here’s what I think happened:
| 1979 | Soviet invasion of Afghanistan | The Russians tried to take Afghanistan. The USA supported the Mujahidin and funded them. Osama Bin Laden came in as a foreign fighter and we had the start of the extreme Islamic groups – al-Qaeda and the Taliban (funded by the CIA). The Russians were kicked out in 1989. The USA increased its presence and interests in Saudi resulting in an extreme form of Islam and an anti-USA/West sentiment. They saw the West as anti-Islam and wanted them out.
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| 1990s | Islamic terrorism | Al-Qaeda became operational with many acts of terrorism. This created fear and started to generate a negative attitude towards Islam and Arabs.
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| 2001 | 9/11 & invasion of Afghanistan | The flying of planes into the Twin Towers sent a wave of fear and hysteria through the USA and West. In a knee-jerk response Bush generated a War Against Terrorism and invaded Afghanistan. This played into the hands of the terrorists who declared it a war against Islam. The USA found themselves in a war they could not win.
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| 2003 | Invasion of Iraq | Under the guise of a War against Terrorism, with Iraq seen as a threat possessing Weapons Of Mass Destruction and seat of power in the region with terrorist links, the USA (with Blair as its chief poodle) invaded Iraq. At the time there was talk of the oil money but the truth was that it was a show of power and strength that was intended to intimidate the likes of Libya, Syria, Iran and Saudi. There was no plan on how to get out, no knowledge of the tribal situations and the Sunni/Shia splits, and no real plan. They wanted a big show of strength and to topple Saddam Hussein. Once more they got thems4elves enmeshed in a war they could not win.
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| 2003 | Rise of ISIS | The invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq proved fertile for extreme Islam. They presented it as an attack on Islam and recruited. In the vacuum in Iraq the warlords reigned and gave rise to ISIS. The terrorism increased and ISIS became a bogie-man.
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| 2005 | London bombing | The Islamic terrorism increased coupled with waves of Arab immigrants fleeing various conflicts in the Middle East. The suspicions grew, the fear grew and it was used by various parties – namely – the terrorist groups and ISIS (for recruitment and fanatical teachings based on the need to protect Islam from attack) and the right-wing groups who used the fear to stir up racism and xenophobia with images of being flooded with terrorists, rapists, criminals and drug-dealers. In the USA it was the waves of immigrants from Central and South America. The Right-wing thrived on the implicit racism against illegal immigration and threat of Islamic terrorism.
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| 2016 | Brexit | Using fears of terrorists, mass immigration and anti-EU sentiment the Right-wingers of the ERG, with the connivance of Cummings, Johnson, Gove and Farage, plotted a break from Europe. Promising to secure borders and a sunlit future with masses of money for the NHS and a repulsion of five million Turks supposedly heading our way, the country voted for Brexit in a tight result. People like Rees-Mogg made millions and Johnson (the lying conman) got himself elected but the sunlit uplands were but a mirage, a fabrication and we were all shafted.
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| 2017 | Trump | On a similar far-right promise of security, walls and America first, with the promise of prosperity, resurrection of old technologies (oil, coal, fracking and steel) Trump promised to Make America Great Again. By pandering to the American right and the strange (given his wildly immoral past) bedfellows of the Christian evangelists (willing to sup with the devil in order to get their extreme views met with draconian legislation on things like abortion) and the NRA, he managed to get himself elected creating an extreme right seizure of the GOP Republicans. The nutcases of the Tea Party now held sway.
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| 2020s | Trump, Brexit and the far-right | The Tea Party radicals and ERG loonies were now in control with a narcissistic imbecile and a buffoon of a clown in charge – both looking like scarecrows. Everything started going pear-shaped.
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| Now | The demise of Trump and Johnson | Fortunately the West began to wake from their thrall and realise they had been lied to and led up the garden path. America wasn’t becoming great and there were no sunlit uplands. We’d been conned. Both Trump and Johnson walked off with millions into the sunset and we’re left in the wreckage.
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Now, have we got Trump, Johnson, Brexit, MAGA, Erdogan, Oban, Meloni, Le Penn and the rest of the odious right-wing chancers out of our system or are we going to have to wait a bit longer?
Has Islamic extremism burnt itself out? Or are other potential Bin Laden’s stirring up religious hatred?
Can we start putting right the immense damage done by Brexit and MAGA and start building bridges?
Then there is Ukraine!
The Alternative Universe
What if the CIA hadn’t armed Bin Laden and set up al-Qaeda?
What if Bush had not invaded but simply taken out the terrorist camps?
What if……..?
