At Resisting Hate we get a lot of criticism that we only focus on hate from the right wing and we have a strong left wing bias. This is probably true but it is important to look at balanced views as at best we can learn from other people and at least we can start to understand why it is they think as they do.
So here is a guest piece written by one of our critics, edited only for style. We asked him to explain his right wing perspective on some key issues where we see hate speech online the most.
This is the first piece we have ever published that needs a clear disclaimer that many of the views in this article do not represent those of Resisting Hate or our members.
I’m Right Wing but not a Hater
I have a Twitter account and have clashed with Resisting Hate, Far Right Watch and Hope not Hate on a lot of different occasions and on a lot of different issues. This is mainly because I’ve said they only focus on right wing hate and they think everyone who doesn’t read The Guardian is a hater and a racist.
I was a bit surprised to be invited to write this as I know my views are massively different to the things this site usually publishes. But when the site said they wanted to give some exposure to different views on controversial topics and as they promised to only edit what I sent them for grammar and style and not content then I said I’d do it. I’m staying anonymous though. I don’t need the whole left/right wing drama in my life.
Ok so I suppose it would be fair to call me right wing. Not far right or racist or fascist but plain old right wing. I’m a Tory voter (except once for UKIP) and I believe that as I work hard for my money so should everybody else. I don’t mind paying taxes to support public services but I do mind paying taxes so people can sponge off the state. I’m not saying everyone who does is it an immigrant, I know plenty of English born people who swing the lead. But I’m going to vote for a government who makes it tougher for people who can’t be bothered to do a fair day’s work.
I do have a problem with immigration – yes. I thought Farage took his Breaking point thing a bit far but I don’t think it is unreasonable to want to reduce migration when jobs are on the decrease and public services like health and education are so stretched. Even then I’d be ok with genuine asylum seekers but I do resent economic migrants coming into the UK to use our facilities. The left make fun of ‘they take our jobs’ but unemployment is no joke and it makes sense to stabilise employment in the country before increasing the flow of people looking for jobs.
Yes I was a leave voter on the Brexit referendum. It frustrates me that people assume I’m a racist bigot just because of my vote. I didn’t vote Brexit so people could go round grabbing headscarves off Muslims. I voted Brexit because I believe in the sovereignty of the country and I wanted the British people to have more of a say in what happens in this country. I suppose border control was a consideration but not in the sense of keeping people out based on race, just in terms of better vetting who comes into the country for security and economic purposes.
I see the progressive ideal of multiculturalism as a bit naïve. I’d be up for it if every country in the world tried it but the way I see it, it is only Britain who makes any compromises. We talk a lot about letting people bring their own culture to our country but it is a double standard as other countries don’t allow Brits to do the same. Look at the lady arrested and imprisoned in Egypt just for owning painkillers. If that had been someone coming to Britain with a substance banned in this country then there is no way they would have ended up in prison.
The diversity/multiculty lark also annoys me because it makes out that Brits don’t have any culture. I’m not the kind of person who goes round yelling rights for whites but I do think we have a strong history and culture in this country that should be respected. I think we are expected to make a lot (too many) compromises so as not to offend other people. But what about not offending me? Is it ok to call me a racist just because I voted leave and read the Daily Mail? Isn’t that just as divisive as ‘hating’ somebody for the colour of the skin?
I have no basic problem with Muslims as people. I do think there is stuff in the Koran that is violent and threatening and I think Islam needs to come out of the dark ages. I think things like the head veil don’t help with the left’s ideal of ‘integration’ and I don’t see why they can’t recognise that by fighting so hard for the rights of Muslims to be different they are actually helping to drive a wedge between communities. If Muslims showed they put UK values above Islamic values then that would go a long way toward reducing civil tension. I also think our police force are so scared to be called racist that they have let grooming gangs escalate to dangerous levels. There should be one law in this country and it should apply to all people equally. But thinking like this doesn’t mean I hate Muslims or I want to see them harmed. I might not want my kids going to mosques on school trips but I’m not going to teach my kids Muslims are all bad people and I’m not going to teach them to discriminate against others.
I don’t think it is fair to call me a hater just because I want a safer country with better economic conditions for my kids to grow up in.
Anonymous
“If that had been someone coming into Britain with a substance banned in this country then there is no way they would have ended up in prison.”
Hasn’t this person ever seen a single documentary about our Border controls and prisons?
Drugs smuggling is not actually dealt with by probation or suspended sentences.
Thank you for your sharing your thoughts. My first inpression is one that the things that concern you, are not a million miles away from the things that bother most of us. However, that said, I do think that comments like not wanting your children to go to a mosque shows not perhaps the intolerance many would put upon it, but perhaps a lack of knowledge. Let me explain. My kids are in their 30’s now, but when they were at school, they visited many different religious places, from all religions, with their school. Not only did they learn alot about the culture of others, but so did I, through them. I am an atheist, but I do believe that everyone should be able to practice their own religion, so long as it is not forced on anyone else. I think if you look back through history, you will see that any group entering our country will change the culture at least a little. I don’t believe that most of these folk expect us to roll over and change what we already have, but I do think that some “political correctness” enforced by some, has assumed there would be offence, when there is none. When it comes to working hard, and expecting others to do the same, well yes, of course that is what we all hope for. The big difference as I see it, is that when you vote for a government that says it is going to be tough on the idle, you don’t seem to realise that it is not the idle, who always seem to know how to work the system, but the vulnerable, like the sick, the disabled etc, who pay the price. I have seen first hand the damage that has been done to a sick man in the name of austerity, and it is not pretty, and it is not just. Nor apparently, has it saved any money at all. I would also add, that if we are to expect the workforce to give of their best, work hard and pay their taxes, then why do people on the “right” not get upset when huge multi nationals milk our system, so they pay minimum wages, that go along side zero hours contracts, so no matter how hard an individual works, they either have to claim benefits if they can get them, or resort to using food banks? On top of that these companies expect the protection that our society affords it for trading here, but is allowed by government to pay a miniscule proportion of tax towards it. From the “left” it looks like we are subsidising the likes of Google and Amazon, at the expense of the guy down the road with terminal cancer, who has been told he needs to get a job. My biggest problem with the Conservatives, is that they are no longer the party of small businessmen and women, who opened businesses that supported our local economy, and provided jobs, who helped build up our towns and cities, and took a real pride in them. No, they are now very wealthy millionaires running the country, and I do not believe they want to help those small business people any longer, and it is detrimental to us all. I hope you will think about my reply, I genuinely wish you all the best, but I hope that you will see, that the Tories are letting you down, just as much as they are me.
Oh well, if you have a problem with immigration, you possibly want all the retired Brits back from Spain and France, you want to send all the EU staff the NHS employs back?
Do tell me, are you aware that the UK pays among the lowest benefits in the EU, while it is a high price country, why would people want to come to a country where they get very little and pay a lot? Seriously?
Have you seen the exodus of skilled EU people from Britain? Along with banks and companies, that is what you voted for, that’s going to be a brilliant economic outlook for you and your children, isn’t it? Less jobs, less money, a soon to be privatised NHS, well done, throwing away the future of your children, they must be so proud of you…
Unfortunately, I just think that some of what he said just proves we are right to fight this type of prejudice. All the more so because he does not recognise his prejudices.
As a black African living in Africa I just think it’s just comical how many western citizens simply miss the simple fact south/north immigration is a direct product a successful PR campaign by past-era civilizers, current mass media products, political denial about the existence of the “Poor White Citizen” and regime-change driven psychological warfare aimed at us African citizens by the BBC etc. We grow up pummeled with images of “The Paradise West” and then when our citizens risk all to stow away after university or float across on rubber dinghies so they can Africa’s hell for Paradise people in the west get shocked. Immigrants are simply responding to centuries of supremacist advertising that made our jungle paradise appear inferior to concrete cities and street lights. The Western world should stop destabilising us mentally, socially and politically so our children can grow up loving our own home. Finally, let all these broadcasters begin tell the real poverty story of the west. Let them begin to embarrass the west with images of poor white families the way they selectively embarrass our beautiful continent with lower class images ignoring our middle and upper class citizens. It’s about mental reprogramming rather than immigration policy, I want Africans to stay home and look after our own wildlife instead of the sector being dominated by “foreign experts” who train on the job in our lovely game-parks.
This is a great piece of text, I read it twice. Politics oder poets?
*poems
I think we should have a massive campaign in Britain aimed at “Fair Trade”.
A lot of the population buy fair-trade goods because they do not want to live of the backs of people living in poverty or squalor so that they can buy very cheap goods.
If you explained to people, who couldn’t give a toss about poor people, that if they had a better standard of living in their own countries because of fair wages, then they wouldn’t want to come to the Northern hemisphere.
A double edged reason, for anyone who can afford the extra, to but fair trade.
A great idea, but the complaint always comes around to “I shouldn’t have to pay for someone else’s happiness.” Wealth is an addictive and corrupting drug.