Far-right conspiracy theories are now embedded in the UK mainstream | And no wonder, when British journalists promote conspiracy theories and government politicians embrace extremist rhetoric

22 comments

  2. Two journalist examples from the article:

    > [Douglas Murray](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/may/06/strange-death-europe-immigration-xenophobia), who complains that decadent Europe [has committed “suicide”](https://www.newstatesman.com/long-reads/2018/07/strange-death-europe-douglas-murray-review) by inviting in too many immigrants, has enjoyed TV spots, a column in The Spectator magazine and a position at the government-linked think tank the Henry Jackson Society . . .

    > Melanie Phillips’s work promoting the [‘Eurabia’ conspiracy theory](https://www.ft.com/content/1c825298-d8f7-11e0-aff1-00144feabdc0) (a predecessor to the great replacement) [was cited](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/the-rightwing-columnists-in-killer-s-manifesto-2325918.html) in Anders Breivik’s manifesto. Phillips certainly can’t be accused of antisemitism. Instead, she blames a host of other far-right targets: homosexuals, Guardian readers, intellectuals and trans people. Over the years, Phillips has been given columns in The Guardian itself, The Spectator and the Daily Mail from which to advance her views.

    And guess which mainstream political party gets fingered?

    > British politicians seem increasingly happy to [embrace the rhetoric of the far Right](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/feb/02/tories-far-right-rhetoric). The attorney general, Suella Braverman, has spoken of “cultural Marxism” (a contemporary revival of a Nazi conspiracy theory, suggesting that Jewish intellectuals are attacking the West). Nadine Dorries has [shared a far-right fiction](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/nadine-dorries-islamophobia-muslims-benefits-multiple-wives-muslim-council-britain-mcb-a8541176.html) that Muslims are allowed to claim benefits for “several wives”. Jacob Rees-Mogg [quoted](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/apr/01/jacob-rees-mogg-defends-promotion-of-german-far-right-afd-video) the leader of the extremist German political party Alternative für Deutschland.

    > In 2020, the Metropolitan Police warned the home secretary, Priti Patel, that her complaints about “do-gooders” and “lefty lawyers” had been repeated by a far-right terrorist when he attacked an immigration law firm in London. She [subsequently repeated them](https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/oct/25/priti-patel-kept-up-anti-lawyer-rhetoric-after-met-warning-on-terror) at the Conservative Party conference. Recently, both Patel and Boris Johnson, while trumpeting proposals to ship immigrants to camps in Rwanda, have blamed [“specialist lawyers”](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/may/10/priti-patel-blames-specialist-lawyers-rwanda-plan-delays) and [“politically motivated lawyers”](https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/apr/14/boris-johnson-takes-pre-emptive-shot-at-lawyers-over-rwanda-scheme) for their failure to do so. MI5 has [reported](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57829261) that racist tropes – such as those [promoted by the prime minister](https://www.businessinsider.com/boris-johnson-record-sexist-homophobic-and-racist-comments-bumboys-piccaninnies-2019-6) – are fuelling far-right terror.

    This is by no means a complete accounting, of course. See, for example Tory [flirtation with far-right rhetoric](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/feb/02/tories-far-right-rhetoric) reported in February, or see the November 2020 [letter to the Woke-o-graph](https://www.edwardleigh.org.uk/news/letter-telegraph) with its list of 59 Conservative MPs and seven peers of the “Common Sense Group” calling the National Trust *’coloured by cultural Marxist dogma, colloquially known as the “woke agenda”’*, or for that matter, see the [Net Zero Scrutiny Group](https://www.desmog.com/net-zero-scrutiny-group/) whose leading light Steve Baker is fond of [re-tweeting rightwing extremist Ezra Levant](https://bylinetimes.com/2022/03/07/conservative-net-zero-scrutiny-group-mp-retweets-fake-news-publisher-of-holocaust-denial/).

    This drip drip of extremist lunacy into the public infosphere might be thought suitable for derision or amusement, but it’s worse than that.

    These sensational falsities and innuendos spread because they connect with a deep public need to identify and combat evil. The danger is that rational evaluation becomes harder the more mainstream the views become. An increase in rightwing radicalisation follows, carrying with it a higher risk of [actual terrorism](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/terror-attacks-far-right-islamist-europe-uk-stanwell-2019-a9581921.html).

    Finding prominent members of the governing Tory party, let alone cabinet members, to be involved in this insidious process ought to give anyone outside the extremist bubble pause for thought.

  3. National UK journalism is essentially an example of regulatory capture by the Conservative party. It’s wall-to-wall propaganda. There are a few dissenting voices, but even then it’s ineffectual.

    In contrast there’s some great *regional* journalism out there – the problem is no-one pays attention to it.

  5. It’s definitely gotten much worse over the past few years. Certain far-right views have spread towards the centre, especially regarding immigration.

  8. >Christopher Rufo, an influential Republican thinker, claims American education has been infected by critical race theory, allegedly a conspiracy created by Jewish Marxist intellectuals.

    Herbert Marcuse wasn’t a Jewish Marxist?

  10. Oh shut it, not everything is extreme this extreme that. Like come on. And you cannot say that the number of immigrants hasn’t put a strain on welfare and shit like come on, my parents are immigrants, I get it, just cus someone criticises doesn’t make it extreme. Ideas get worked into a more practical form. Shut up with these kinds of posts

  13. Far left ideological thinking of various flavours has not been challenged nearly enough in the media and mainstream for many years, not only has it caused a lot of damage itself, but in several ways it opens the door to far right ideas becoming more popular and being tolerated too much.

  14. It’s a phenomenon that’s been going on for ages.

    Extreme right wing views generate outrage clicks, and those pay out big on online advertising.

    We’re increasingly seeing washed up media personalities turning to extreme right wing views as a way to stay relevant.

    Ricki Gervais and Richard Madeley are two egregious examples of once tepid TV personalities gone bad.

  16. Is it Just me or is America passion on a l of problems to the U.K. Or British politicians are importing them, “have we”.

    In 2010s, I thought america and Britain lived in different political realities.

  19. Ideology aside, there were approximately 1,000,000 immigrants to the UK over the last year, according to Home Office data. This is a remarkable number, its hugely significant in terms of history, sociology, demographics.

    I mean the protestant Hugenots who came to the UK in the 17th century, numbered about 50,000- in total. And this was enough that it was considered a historically significant migration, still discussed by historians and sociologists in terms of its impact on our culture.

    So I feel that we are entering problematic territory, where mainstream and liber/left politicians are refusing to recognise or discuss this huge and very visible demographic change. The danger is that without creating a strong Liberal/Left argument which acknowledges what happening on the ground, the territory is automatically ceded to the Right. Simply denying the change is taking place, or calling it a conspiracy theory, is to lose the argument.

  21. > critical race theory, allegedly a conspiracy created by Jewish Marxist intellectuals

    Critical Theory, of which Critical Race Theory is a subset, can trace its intellectual lineage directly to the ‘Frankfurt School’, of which several of the “notable theorists” were Marxist Jews.

    The above paragraph is not my assessment, but comes from Wikipedia, and is not only cited there but, importantly, does not seem to derive from hostile sources. Notably absent is any assertion of a conspiracy, however.

    So is the label ‘conspiracy theorist’ as applied to the subject mere nonsense? Or is it above board to assert everything in my first paragraph provided it is done with approval; to do so with disapproval instead being a “conspiracy theory”?

    For the record, I neither approve nor disapprove of the Frankfurt School or the Critical Theorists, neither having read their work nor intending to; continental philosophy is not my cup of tea.

    I have, however, yet to see any criticism of Critical Theory that attempted to make the case that the Critical Theorists were conspirators; I have seen many that, rightly or wrongly, (mis)interpreted their published doctrines as pernicious.

    So whence this seemingly out-of-place notion of a theorised conspiracy? It crops up so often, and is asserted so baldly, that for quite some time I was under the impression that the Frankfurt School never existed.

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