The Enemy Within
We have long ago championed the idea that the anti-vaxx movement amplified conspiracism and charted the links between these movements and the far-right (see the Twilight Zone – & also ‘Diagonalism, the Cosmic Right and the Conspiracy Smoothie‘). In relation to the recent outburst of rioting in England the Birmingham Dispatch confirm this analysis with a brilliant piece ‘The enemies within: How the pandemic radicalised Britain’ which they say ‘draws on the reporting over the past few years, as well as our eyewitness accounts of some of the worst riots since the Southport stabbing.’
In it they counter the argument that the riots were caused by ‘Russian interference’ or outside forces instead confronting the uncomfortable truth that “the Knowsley riot showed the authorities were now confronted by an enemy within communities, not outside of them. Politicians had reached for a comforting diagnosis, perhaps one learned during an earlier phase of far-right violence.”
The writers – Jack Walton (in Liverpool), Dan Hayes (in Sheffield), Kate Knowles & Josh Sandiford (in Birmingham) and Ophira Gottlieb & Joshi Herrmann (in Manchester) – concluded that: “This new ‘far-right’, if you can call it that, looks very different. It’s much quicker to mobilise, bringing in people with no formal alliance with fascist parties. It’s managed to reach them using new channels — which were formed and bolstered throughout the pandemic. What happened at the Suites Hotel was a very clear warning sign as to what was coming, whether or not the authorities were listening.”
They write: “Sunder Katwala, who studies attitudes to immigration and integration at the British Future think tank, noticed a “collision” between a new breed of pandemic activists and the online far-right, both groups that are very small but “imagine themselves to be quite broad”. The merging of concerns about vaccines and lockdowns into more hateful messages introduced people to ideas and influencers who they previously may have considered weird and extreme. “People can spot a far-right that has swastikas, but normal mainstream people will struggle to spot these more diffuse forms of extremism,” Katwala says.”
The lockdown amplified alienation, isolation and paranoia. It brought some people into conflict with the state for the first time and drove people online, into silos and removed the corrective of human face-to-face interaction. Some people never really returned to work, their employers finding it cheaper and more convenient to have workers work from home.
Others have come to the same conclusion that the violence we’ve witnessed can’t be wholly outsourced (in a beautiful symmetry to ‘bloody foreigners’). Richard Seymour, writing in Sidecar (‘Dreaming of Downfall‘) notes:
“There followed the inevitable search for foreign subversion. The BBC, the Mail and the Telegraph were joined by Paul Mason and the usual social-media liberals in blaming Russia. There’s scant evidence for this, as the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has pointed out. But the implication appears to be that nothing in Britain’s recent history, or in the behaviour of its dominant institutions, could possibly have led to the conflagration. The same mass media that has relentlessly drilled the public with moral panic about migration now denounces social media ‘disinformation’, stressing the importance of ‘facts’ and ‘objectivity’ in public life.”
What both sources note is the determined effort to blame outside forces are a misnomer, an attempt to ignore and avoid the harder reality, of a society deeply alienated and paranoid. Yes the influencers – Seymour talks of a ‘well-heeled faction of the lumpencommentariat’ – played a part in fanning the flames of rage – and The Dispatch focuses on the role of Nigel Farage on You Tube (and your telly) just a few months into lockdown touring hostels asking to camera: “We’ve no idea who some of these people are … We’ve no idea whether some of these might be ISIS”.
The video went viral, attracting 1.6 million views on YouTube and 3.9 million on Facebook.
The culpability of tech giants and the the Enablers is clear, but these forces only land on a society already gripped by grotesque poverty and paranoia. In a dark conclusion Seymour writes: “Racism does not so much express misplaced class grievance as organize the toxic emotions of failure, humiliation and decline …The hypertrophic excitement of the pogromists, and their manifest enthralment at the idea of annihilation, gives them something to do about it. It is their alternative to the pervasive affects of paralysis and depression, in a dying civilization.”
‘Failure, humiliation and decline’ could be the subtitle of the whole Brexit fiasco. The very idea that this spasm of hatred has an external source is a complete disavowal of the forces within British society, and the British state which have produced them. The British political/media elite is saturated with racism and ‘strategic fascism’ which has been useful for many years.
“The British political/media elite is saturated with racism and ‘strategic fascism’ which has been useful for many years.” – All of it?
Not all of it but large parts of it
Well, I think we need a bit more empathy than that to answer the question: “why do people become fascists?”
This following article may appear somewhat silly but it has a serious underlying structure, even if it doesn’t come up with entirely plausible answers:
https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/blogs/news/5045-notes-on-anti-fascism-and-psychology
While such historical failures to satisfactorily answer the question (the heyday of psychoanalysis is surely past, and the psychological experiments of Stanley Milgram might not pass an ethics committee these days), the quest for the ‘authoritarian personality’ has not been entirely fruitless.
With today’s brain-scanning equipment, we can test theories of whether, for example, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can affect brain development (and research suggests they can). If we see a pattern of disrupted neurodevelopment; social, emotional and cognitive impairment; risky behaviour and social problems in a population, we can check for ACEs (as is done in prison populations in both England and Scotland). And now Scotland collects data so such populations can be compared to the general population.
What we really need to find out would come from social background reports of the kind the Scottish Justice system uses (I don’t know the exact equivalent in England and Wales). If these convicted rioters are typically proto-fascists rather than hardcore fascists, we may find interventions which stop one kind developing into the other. And yes, perhaps in some cases provide some justice or reparations for offences done to them in childhood, which perhaps they cannot blot out with alcohol, other drugs and risky behaviour, which have led to disrupted education and development, and the poorly-articulated rage we see expressed in the riots and racism.
Perhaps interventions along the lines of these suggested, in the highlighted paragraph:
The UK’s racist mobs horrified us all – but we can’t just imprison our way out of this mess
“Violence is not inevitable… the difference between them choosing a reconciliatory path instead of a combative one.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/15/uk-racist-mobs-prison-extremism
There’s evidence that neurology in aboit a quaryer of hjman brains lack empathy and compassion wiring, i wonder what the link to political views is.
@Ea Weller, that social animals like humans who go through healthy developmental socialisation tend to become socialists, perhaps. There have been many reports of anti-social behaviour in children rising after Covid-19 lockdowns, but this is expected to fall back to previous levels once school socialisation kicks in. Increases in anti-social behaviour by adults suggest that socialisation may not be permanent and ratcheted to a level. But social psychology tends to be more complicated than that. Some children only form attachments to a very small group (like those studied in orphanages, with other children). Children brought up in religious and racist families may not apply empathy to outgroups. Similarly misogyny may be largely driven at family level.
There are apparently reliable markers, like cruelty or kindness towards non-human animals. But I think psychologists will usually tell you that personality traits are real, but personality types are not. So we can reliably detect authoritarian tendencies, but the search for an authoritarian personality remains elusive. I’m not sure that ‘wiring’ is quite the best description. Neuroplasticity shows the brain is a bit more complex than circuits.
But you could argue that there are noticeable psychological differences in levels of hierarchical groups like fascists, which is why I often use the (inaccurate but sometimes useful) distinction of footsoldiers and officer class, the latter being more likely to exhibit ‘dark triad’ personality traits at higher levels, I’d guess.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_triad
which would also seem to be typical of the Internet trolls who were also active, and some were convicted, who often don’t fit into either footsoldier or officer classes, but are more like the propagandist wing of fascism. The ability to see/imagine only the worst in other people is kind of a reverse empathy, especially if it is projection.
Please do not fall into the trap of associating fascist violence with anti-vaxxers. Anti-vaxxers have real and legitimate concerns that have been weaponised as yet another way to divide people and ivert attention from those who were responsible for the pandemic and its response. ‘Anti-vaxxers’ and those opposed to ‘smart cities’ and so on have absolutely nothing to do with racism and to associate them is nt only wrong but seriously abusive.
The truth about Covid and its response is finally coming out. And the so-called ‘conspiracy theorists’ we are all supposed to mock and fear were at least partly right. I realise that many people come up against cognitive dissonance when I point this out and this can produce an angry, hostile reaction. If this is you, please just take a few deep breaths and ask yourself why.
John – do you have a background in science or healthcare which have influenced your views on covid vaccines?
We know the answer to this. What is noticeable about ‘sceptics’ of the Covid vaccines is that they are in general not people who just have a specific issue with these ones based on some thing individual to them, no, they are people are are ‘anti-vaxxers’ who are against vaccines; it is a real phenomenon. Such people have existed since the first vaccines were discovered. They will fit whatever narrative is available to object to vaccination and hence such phrases above as ‘those who were responsible for the pandemic’. Meaning what exactly?
‘Cognitive dissonance’? Hmm, I suppose I admire the attempt to turn the tables but it fails miserably because it seems once someone’s brain has undergone that incremental rewiring that happens when exposed to false narratives and information over an extended period of time, it is quite hard to come back to sanity.
If we had taken a bit more care we wouldnae of needed so much vaccine.
Boris shaking hands with everyone in the hospital, what a twonk
There is a cluster of markers in online groups, “anti-vax”, racist undertones, climate change denying, anti-Semitic, Islamaphobic, pro Trump, pro Farage, we’re getting locked in 15 minute neighbourhoods because we are finally getting some cycle paths and trees planted in some seriously polluted air areas of some cities and theres been speed cameras for ages anyway, all wind energy is rubbish that kinda stuff,
What people think about vaccines, as with all health issues, is highly personal and my views and approach to protecting my family’s health and people around me is during the pandemic is not for here . The public health attitude towards not protectimg the most vulnerable as they could and should have been is the real covid scandal.
The two tier policing thing came from Suella Braverman, saying police are hard on hard right compared to how they deal with hippies sitting in roads, which is a bit sick considering Mitting inquury etc.