wetpinkorthodoxy:

Y’know what really pisses me off abou the rise of Farage in the UK and Trump in America and other assorted demagogues around the world? It’s the way the “traditional” right shakes their head and tuts at these figures as if to say “this is nothing to do with us.”

Farage and Trump are a logical continuation of 30+ years of neoliberal capitalism, white supremacist language cloaked in slightly more polite terms and a general contempt for the working class and marginalised communities. When politicians allowed migrants to be blamed for the worst excesses of unrestrained markets, what did they think would happen? When politicians started villifying single mothers and did nothing about soaring rape figures, where did they think it would lead? If you hold up wealthy people as role models, regardless of their ability or merit, how can you be surprised when wealth alone gives someone a viable shot at being president of the United States? 

Some of the sentiments muttered by Farage actually aren’t a million miles away from the kind of shit that the Thatcher government used to come out with (concentration camps for people with HIV, anyone?). Trump seems pretty fucking ridiculous from where we’re standing now, but so did Reagan back in the day.

This is where that path has led us. And what prominent right-wingers really don’t like is that Farage and Trump are up-front about the prejudices and misconceptions that inform their views. Unlike some of the right, they don’t even bother to cloak their vicious fucking lies in good intentions.

And unless we get rid of this economic model, in 30 years from now, we’ll probably look at the politicians we’re dealing with then and think “man Farage and Trump don’t seem all that bad now.”