“Whether you choose violence or not, violence is coming to you. You either fight back or you die," Elon Musk told the large crowds at Saturday’s “Unite the Kingdom” rally.
More than 100,000 people descended on Britain’s capital on Saturday for one of the country’s largest far-right rallies in decades.
The “Unite the Kingdom” rally was organized by Tommy Robinson, a convicted fraudster with a violent criminal record, and attended by billionaire Elon Musk via video link. Amid a sea of flag-waving and soccer-style chanting from large crowds that exceeded expectations, violent clashes with police led to dozens of arrests.
It came amid a surge of nationalism in the U.K., with a far-right party topping the polls, and the murder of American conservative activist Charlie Kirk — an assassination Robinson used to mobilize support in the run-up to the event.
I am really, really happy that Britain left the EU.
Sorry to any sane Brits, but the “ever more nuttier” European country not having any voting power in the EU, much less a veto, is a great thing.
Mind you, lots of countries over here might end up like that, but Britain seems to be a decade ahead of the rest in that specific kind of shit show and it and the US might very well serve as a warning for the locals on this side of the Channel not to go down that route (just like the example of Brexit itself crushed any ideas about Leave Referendums in the rest of the EU).
I mean it’s pretty easy when you think about it. Like if the “far right” idea is a virus, the English language is it’s vector of infection, making it easier for ideas or memes to cross pollinate cultural between the US and UK. Some of the other EU countries have their own main language after all other than English so such spread is slower.
In his eyes, the greatest symbiotic parasite Men has ever known isn’t microbial, it’s linguistics. Words are what keeps civilization, our world alive. Save the world not by taking Men’s lives but by taking their tongue.
A wise philosopher once said, “it is no nation that we inhabit. Nay! Our native tongue is our true fatherland!”
And yet the Republic Of Ireland isn’t at all aligned with Britain in this.
Not that I disagree with you, more that I think that there’s more than just that.
I lived in a couple of places in Europe, Southern, Northern and also over a decade in Britain.
IMHO, Britain has is very own cultural twists that make a certain kind of posh authoritarianism much more likely there: an incredibly entrenched dynastic elite (Britain has, I believe, the lowest social mobility in Europe) with a ton of structures to make sure it will always be so (the “public” schools -> Oxbridge -> daddy’s friend’s company “internship” path that makes sure the scions of the elites remain in that class, the Judiciary being almost entirelly in the hands of “public” school graduates even though they’re only 11% of population which gets reflected in quite different legal outcomes depending on one’s class, the The “Honors” System, the Lords with its inherited positions, and more).
This elite has its own sub-culture (even including its own accent) which amongst other things is big on fakeness and very anti-empathy (I’ve personally known a handful of people from that section of society) and meanwhile the other end of society is also quirky as fuck, in a different way (amongst other things more violent and prejudiced than in other countries I lived in, hence things like the Hooliganism phenomenon).
Then there are weird cultural postures than transverse society such as how people’s approach to their position in the social ladder is to focus on keeping those below them where the are, rather than try and climb it themselves, plus there is a general tendency to worry too much (IMHO) about keeping up appearences (to “look right” rather than “be good”) though it’s worse the higher up the social ladder one is (working class are the most genuine, middle class tend to be pretty fake, upper class live their entire lives behind a façade - hence the whole “posh” thing).
Mind you, in my experience this mostly applies to the English and those from other nations are less like that, especially the Scotts.
(I fully support the idea of an Independent Scotland in the EU)
Anyways, my point is that Britain has it’s own set of wierd quirks, which mixed with the shit imported from the US (IMHO, Brits seem to in the last couple of decades somehow have combined the worst of both cultures rather than the best) yields this “Rocketship to Posh Fascism” effect.
Germany would like a word