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A comment on GitHub, fuck your name change. Parent comment

Re:GitHub, fuck your name change by chriswarbo on Wednesday March 17, 2021 @09:07AM (#26490582)
> if you gently probe what people mean by "extreme far right" they mean "Brexit" or "not electing Jeremy Corbyn"

Bollocks. For starters, Brexit had support on the far-end of the left, who see the EU too liberal, e.g. https://www.ft.com/content/692f2578-fcbd-11e5-b5f5-070dca6d0... (RMT comes to mind since I work in that sector)

I've certainly seen many outside the Momentum bubble being labelled 'Tory' (e.g. Lib Dems as 'yellow Tories', Blair/Starmer as 'red Tories', etc.), but you're speaking pure hyperbole.

"Extreme far right" is reserved for the likes of NationalFront/BNP/UKIP/BritainFirst/BrexitParty/Reform/whatever they're calling themselves these days (plus their goons like EDL, DFLA, People's Front of Judea, Judean People's Front, etc.)

It saddens me to see this sort of word-muddying (especially on HN), since it makes it easier to deflect this sort of crap:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_in_the_UK_Conservative_...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamophobia_in_the_UK_Conserv...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism_in_the_UK_Conserv...

(Not forgetting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism_in_the_UK_Labour_... to avoid the knee-jerks; although that's probably not dismissed as 'people call everything "extreme far right" these days')

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:GitHub, fuck your name change by goatinaboat on Wednesday March 17, 2021 @09:24AM (#26490843)
the likes of NationalFront/BNP/UKIP

By putting BNP and UKIP in the same list you have just proved my point.

Is Rustie Lee "ultra extreme far right" in your opinion? https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/documentaries/who-is-rustie-le...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:GitHub, fuck your name change by Jenk on Wednesday March 17, 2021 @10:15AM (#26491524)
The distance between UKIP and Far Right is not a wide gap:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/03/new-ukip-membe...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:GitHub, fuck your name change by throwaway53453 on Wednesday March 17, 2021 @10:09AM (#26491437)
Brexit party? Extreme far right?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:GitHub, fuck your name change by chriswarbo on Wednesday March 17, 2021 @12:16PM (#26493213)
Yes, for a few years the Brexit Party was the I'mNotRacistBut Party. It looks like they've now been rumbled (hence becoming unelectable), so they're rebranding as Reform, which might last for another few years.

The previous I'mNotRacistBut Party was UKIP (featuring Stephen Yaxley-Lennon as advisor for racially-charged issues, and denounced as racist 24 years ago by its own founder)

Before that the BNP was scoring a few percent in general elections.

And around and around it goes, all the way back to Mosley's blackshirts.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:GitHub, fuck your name change by throwaways885 on Wednesday March 17, 2021 @01:10PM (#26494040)
Nigel Farage left UKIP for that very reason. The Brexit party is fairly moderate and would be described as center-right, just shy of the conservatives.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:GitHub, fuck your name change by chriswarbo on Wednesday March 17, 2021 @02:16PM (#26494922)
The Brexit Party was just a face-saving rebrand for UKIP. It didn't take long for the mask to start slipping, with the party's founder resigning after retweeting racist posts from far-right figures.

Of course, Farage himself may denounce such things:

> I set the party up, she was the administrator that got it set up.

( https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/apr/12/former-ukip... )

Which is an interesting contrast to his remarks when the party was being formed:

> This was Catherine's idea entirely - but she has done this with my full knowledge and my full support.

( https://www.independent.ie/business/brexit/the-new-ukip-nige... )

Friendly reminder that it's very easy, and very common, for racists to disavow their racism when it's expedient to do so (e.g. an extreme example https://youtu.be/zcoYKuoiUrY?t=1568 )

[ Parent | on HN ]