An awful lot of gammon

I suppose my problem with racist marches in England, is it’s always people who clearly don’t have any friends who are much different to them. Just a sea of white faces and outfits from Sports Direct. I mean don’t get me wrong, I love Sports Direct, but where we see homogeneity, we see a problem.

This quote from Moltman sums it up nicely: “So the homogenous community is not a natural community at all. It is a community for the common suppression of fear through permanent self-corroboration.” (he’s a German writer/theologian, so not a lot of English references, but still, banging quote).

Personally, I think diversity of friendship groups is as important as diversity of communities – it has been for me personally, and it seems to have always been a crucial part of our brilliance as a species; that people with different specialisms, ideas and values come together and do brilliant things. Does your tribe have someone obsessed with repetition? Great! They build the fences. The person with insanely good sense of smell looks after food storage. The person who’s great with a sword is as important as the person who runs at the slightest sign of trouble – our tribes that survived to procreate were the ones that were home for both, and affected by all – including the newcomers.

Especially those fleeing hardship, because they’ll be the ones willing to work hardest for the new life they’re investing in. If you disagree with that, try removing immigrants from our farms and factories and the NHS, and see what happens (oh, you did?! And what happened? Yeah. Complete and utter shitshow). And so where we see homogenous societies we see short-lived-ness. Sparta was famously a community exclusively made of fighters … and how long did that last? Lots of pride and chest-thumping doesn’t help much when you’re wiped out thanks to your muscle-headed inability to diversify.

In fact the only value that doesn’t fit in functional human communities – is hatred. And therein lies the paradox of free speech, that in order to protect it we must silence those who would silence and intimidate others.

It seems that the broader story of humanity’s history is one of diversity: – and if you think I’m talking out of my arse that’s fine, but I do recommend you read ‘The Pattern Seekers’ and ‘Empire of Normality’, both of which go into the anthropology and wonder of our diversity – from very different angles. I do feel confident in saying that hatred is just the antithesis to everything that makes humans so very, very excellent. Surely that’s not a controversial thing to point out.

So why do we still do it? Do we still harbour fears so deep that pinning them on a certain culture or ethnicity makes us feel good? Do we seek the safe harbour of a group identity pinned on something as small-minded as the colour of our fucking skin? Are we still that stupid? According to the 150,000 people who marched in London yesterday, yes we are. And the irony of the usage of the words ‘unite’ and ‘reform’, when the bile spewing from their leaders does exactly the opposite, moving people to divide and step way, way back.

Perhaps the most annoying but textbook-predictable moment, was when Elon Musk joined the racist event via live feed to tell these 150,000 people to overthrow the elected government as well. The poster-child for Apartheid stands shoulder-to-shoulder with convicted rapists and abusers, and uses his platform to encourage as much white supremacy as possible. And people keep buying his stuff? Great. Anyone who still thinks it’s a good idea for billionaires to exist needs a slap.

Starmer put it well:

[Via BBC]

Anyway, I’ll stop ranting. Did you join the Tommy Robinson march? Do you get your very strong and comforting opinions from X and Youtube? Have you bought into ultra far-right lies and misinformation, preying on your sensibilities and making you feel like white people are being somehow pushed out from ‘our’ beloved lands? Is your identity challenged when you see a brown person on the street? Are you a total cunt? Let me know, it’d be interesting to hear from **checks notes** a Neo Nazi. I know a bunch of you guys frequent my blog because I’m a tolerant and kind motherfucker lets face it, so feel free to share your ‘philosophy’, I look forward to the confused and waffling bs, and my overly patient attempts to respond.

In lighter news, boobies.

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