Made the terrible error of reading all of this and it seems to be a Labour MP, quite a senior one even, attempting to justify attendance at a far right rally, and quite deliberately attempting to sanitise the image of the far right, no different to if he was their PR guy.

Even if what he says is not made up, what he explains is basically "they want free money or they will kill you". Not sure it's a universally appealing position.

"He's not a racist" runs smack into "If there are ten people at a table and one is a Nazi, there are ten Nazis at the table" Racists' participation is actually a pretty good barometer of movements to avoid, not find common cause with. It's not difficult.

I was seeing "Imagine Clive Lewis as PM!" tweets yesterday. Watching him contort himself into knots in order to justify his beliefs would be funny, admittedly, albeit for about 5 seconds.

Allowing tweets to be more than 140ch was a mistake

300 characters = perfect

Suggested redraft ‘I know 1 person who was there who says he’s not a racist’

Perhaps this is Lorenzposting

Maybe add ‘how about that?’ for emphasis but this is arguably implied.

Essayposting delenda est

Love to have a microblog site that's not micro at all and instead just all the worst blogs

I can cut quite a few characters from that statement without invalidating it.

youtu.be/dijMKwZMU2Q?...

Levels of spineless that would embarrass an octopus.

“I have a rw friend who’s too much of a pussy to frankly own his opinions in front of me!” Spit in the air and it will land on one

we have a word for “people who march in fascist parades but say they’re not fascists”

This last paragraph really explains the wisdom of the New Deal and why people should be pushing HARD for a return to its governing philosophy.

That reads like the words of someone who, the writer themselves, has accidentally been affected by the mindset of the people they're supposed to be reporting on. This is that "lack of journalistic objectivity" I frequently hear so much about.

I always hated football

this tweet could have been an article

Perhaps it can find a home in The Daily Mail.

bsky.app/profile/eliz...

Macroblogging on the microblogging site.

A person who claims they only joined a fascist march because they feel alienated and hopeless is not being truthful. Childish? Yes. Lazy? Yes. Truthful? No.

Oh god it keeps going!!

I do laugh when people think this is long. But then I'm nearly 60. What struck me was the comments around pride. That type of pride will never be on offer from the people hosting/attending that march yesterday. They'd be horrified by it.

Granted it's a really long post but are you saying it's not true? I'd rather think that at least some of that crowd are there because they feel let down and disconnected from politics than they're just all right-wing racist nutters. I hope it's not as black and white as that.

lol, I was gonna post this:

They are allowing themselves to be led by right-wing racist nutters. Not everyone who supported the Nazis in 1930s Germany was on board with gas chambers, a lot just wanted Germany to be a great power again. But where did that lead? The fucking gas chambers.

I really don’t have a problem believing there’s 100,000 racist right wing nutters. That’s a fifth of the 2010 BNP vote

This is what happens when your only lens to view racism is vulgar Marxism. Totally incoherent. All of these people have friends that like them, Clive!

What do you call someone who isn't a racist, xenophobic, or authoritarian, they just want to see Germany get back on her economic feet and get back a sense of pride again? Oh yeah, Nazis. The distinction between the charismatic bigot and the useful idiot has always been irrelevant.

It’s funny in a bleak way that the idea that “people are complicated!” is being used to excuse incoherent politics If you think Farage would be a disaster you shouldnt show up to marches he supports?? That seems to make sense to me

Also it’s the exact line of shit they trotted out for Charlottesville. Didn’t find it convincing then or now.

Is the Labour version of the Baileys?

Musk isn't there for you either, that's not what defines an alliance.

The “old school friend” is the English cousin of Chuck Schumer’s buddies Joe and Eileen Bailey.

"He's not racist but he's not "PC" either", hmm. Could do with a bit of elaboration on what the latter means because I suspect Clive's mate might just be racist.

Also, maybe I'm just too Catholic here, but why are my fellow Brits so obsessed with taking pride in their country? Why is that seen as a right, rather than something to aspire to? I will have pride in my country when it does things I can be proud of.

I don't think i have ever heard a normal human in this country ever say anything about pride in their country, one way or another. It's just not a thing anyone talks about. It is a talking point in politics and the media, but as a cipher, representing some other nebulous thing.

I've heard people say things like "makes you proud to be British", which I'm fine with - sometimes it's said in silly contexts, but it's clear that what they mean is "I identify with my country and in this case that makes me feel good".

But the idea that pride should always just be there, taken for granted, independent of what is actually happening in the country, is only used as a right wing talking point, I agree.

Yes your distinction between those is good. I do feel pride when Ben Stokes does yet another superhuman thing, by association. Whatever tenuous overlap there is between us, I'll take that and it makes me feel good.

When it is used as pride in the country as a concept and as a whole it seems to be used as a razor to separate those who properly belong to the nation and those who are not *really* British. Is it an attempt at describing a "phenomonology of nationalism"? This is how being of a nation feels?

I believe in loyalty to, and love of, my country (unlike, say, Farage, who pals around with foreign dictators and would-be dictators while slagging off the UK). In that sense I'm patriotic, but pride requires more than that.

Being a “bundle of contradiction” is a great way to provide cover for all sorts of things but especially a little light fascism in the name of being “part of something larger than himself”

This is what happened.