Has social media made the far right more acceptable ?

[Aber gas]

The far right seems more active and prominent than 20 years ago even though they seem ever further from the mainstream. Is this because of social media or a shift to the right by british youth ?

 

[Craig]

It's down to the immigants.

 

[Aber gas]

It's down to the immigants.

There has always been immigrants though?

 

[Craig]

Yeah, but they really aggravaze some folk.

 

[Aber gas]

Ok, but I don't remember the hate being quite so active when I was involved years ago ( to my shame)

 

[Craig]

Sentimonies are running strong at the moment.

 

[Aber gas]

You taking the piss Craig ?

 

[Red]

I'm probably wrong but I thought the BNP were in a mess what with all the in fighting. If you're including the EDL I'd say social media played an instrumental role in their rise to prominence. However, aren't they also on the wane?

I don't think there's been a seismic shift to the right in British youth over the last 20 years, if anything I think they've become less bigoted. However, I do think a lot of people, including youths have become much more intolerant of Asians, especially since 911

 

[Aber gas]

I'm probably wrong but I thought the BNP were in a mess what with all the in fighting. If you're including the EDL I'd say social media played an instrumental role in their rise to prominence. However, aren't they also on the wane?

I don't think there's been a seismic shift to the right in British youth over the last 20 years, if anything I think they've become less bigoted. However, I do think a lot of people, including youths have become much more intolerant of Asians, especially since 911

The nf years ago fell apart and proliferated. Some drifting into combat 18.some into britain first , some into the klan, some into the bnp, edl,ukip ect some of them realised that they were wankers and moved on. I've seen a rise in support for edl ect. Not necessarily at marches/ demos but on twatter/Facebook . Here ?

 

[blade1889]

Theres also an argument to say its made the left/far-left more prominent and acceptable. Certainly on my news feed. Seems people are far more willing to share left-wing views than central/right-central.

Social media imo has made it far easier for people to find similar groups/cliques to themselves and perpetuate their own views amongst themselves and ignore those of others. No longer do you have to talk to someone who has opposing views, you can just set them to ignore or skim past them.

 

[Aber gas]

Theres also an argument to say its made the left/far-left more prominent and acceptable. Certainly on my news feed. Seems people are far more willing to share left-wing views than central/right-central.

Social media imo has made it far easier for people to find similar groups/cliques to themselves and perpetuate their own views amongst themselves and ignore those of others. No longer do you have to talk to someone who has opposing views, you can just set them to ignore or skim past them.

This is probably true. But centre left / left wing views are definetly more acceptable to most right thinking people than your average holocaust deniers ect

 

[Red]

Yeah, there's quite a few things which happen that elicit bigoted outbursts on social media. The EDL use them as political capital.

I don't know what the reaction on twatter and Facebook has been to this but have you heard about the incident about the soldier in the hospital the other day?

If not a soldier in uniform was admitted to a&e at some hospital the a few days ago and the staff removed him from the public waiting area because they said his appearance in a uniform could offend other people waiting. They added that it had happened before in that hospital.

That's all it takes to make some people to gravitate to the EDL. I'd imagine a lot of people on social media right now will be furiously ranting about how we're becoming an Islamic state because of this incident.

 

[Aber gas]

Yeah, there's quite a few things which happen that elicit bigoted outbursts on social media. The EDL use them as political capital.

I don't know what the reaction on twatter and Facebook has been to this but have you heard about the incident about the soldier in the hospital the other day?

If not a soldier in uniform was admitted to a&e at some hospital the a few days ago and the staff removed him from the public waiting area because they said his appearance in a uniform could offend other people waiting. They added that it had happened before in that hospital.

That's all it takes to make some people to gravitate to the EDL. I'd imagine a lot of people on social media right now will be furiously ranting about how we're becoming an Islamic state because of this incident.

I've not heard that particular story. But it's probably bollocks. These stories proliferate and it all adds to the witches brew. I heard the same old shit years ago about all Irishmen being ra, Chinese people cooking cats and Asians sacrificing children. Load of old bollocks but social media seems to reinforce it to the the point of accepted truth.

 

[blade1889]

This is probably true. But centre left / left wing views are definetly more acceptable to most right thinking people than your average holocaust deniers ect

...i wasn't denying that

 

[Red]

I've not heard that particular story. But it's probably bollocks. These stories proliferate and it all adds to the witches brew. I heard the same old shit years ago about all Irishmen being ra, Chinese people cooking cats and Asians sacrificing children. Load of old bollocks but social media seems to reinforce it to the the point of accepted truth.

I think this story is genuine because the beeb have covered it, but I know what you mean. I remember one bullshit story in one of the tabloids about Muslim parents complaining about the school their kids went to performing a three little pigs play. When it was properly followed up it turned out to be bollocks. It's all part of the allegorical shit that the far right lap up.

 

[Aber gas]

...i wasn't denying that

I know that blade. Sorry, got a bit wound up( not here ) you are definetly right about social media being a sort of echo chamber where you only here your own views being reitered over and over again.

 

[Aber gas]

I think this story is genuine because the beeb have covered it, but I know what you mean. I remember one bullshit story in one of the tabloids about Muslim parents complaining about the school their kids went to performing a three little pigs play. When it was properly followed up it turned out to be bollocks. It's all part of the allegorical shit that the far right lap up.

Yeah, there is normally one true story in amongst the usual " it must be true cos my cousin told me about it " I hate it man. It's the worst kind of prejudice, bullshit anectodal stories which always seem to have a racist narrative.

 

[mistermagic]

Mate, it's etc not ect!

 

[TheArtfulDodger]

The far right is still an isolated joke at the moment, which is something given the issues they could exploit at the moment.

 

[Ebeneezer Goode]

It's such a vague term I wouldn't know where to begin. I don't think overt bigotry is more socially acceptable, if that's what you euphemistically mean, but I think there are some sensible issues that are being surrendered to the so-called far right that are quite popular.

 

[Techno Natch]

Theres also an argument to say its made the left/far-left more prominent and acceptable. Certainly on my news feed. Seems people are far more willing to share left-wing views than central/right-central.

Social media imo has made it far easier for people to find similar groups/cliques to themselves and perpetuate their own views amongst themselves and ignore those of others. No longer do you have to talk to someone who has opposing views, you can just set them to ignore or skim past them.

This has been my personal experience of Facebook. I basically use my feed to share my views on the issues that interest me. Mainly drug policy, social isssues and animal welfare. Through this I've met many others with the same views and been able to
make contacts and become more active in the real world. I'd never have been involved in some of the stuff I have been without social media so I love it.

Also if you look at the big anti Austerity protests I doubt they would have been anywhere near as successful without word spreading on social media.

So this has obviously also happened on the right to. Pages like the EDL and Britain first give people with racist views an outlet and they then see no problem with sharing these views as they know it's not just them or a few of their closest friends that feel like it but literally 1000's of people. The rise of the EDL can definitely be linked to their success with organising over facebook IMO.

I'm not sure facebook has made right wing views more acceptable but rather its given people an easy outlet to express their views. If used properly by organisations can make it easier for people with similar views to meet and become more active than they maybe would have without it.

EG makes a good point also.

 

[HertsWolf]

Is it because 'the right' emphasises personal this and personal that....a libertarian perspective....and self-interest defaults to the right?
The left and liberal views (arguably) look more at sharing and an egalitarian approach which seem more removed from personal, individual experience.

Social media provides a channel for blurting out personal self-interest. So social media seems to emphasize the wrongs, the fears, the faults (but also the accomplishments).

Example:
1) someone tweets about some pesky 10-child family on benefits living in a £2 million house in London..... echo echo retweet retweet
2) 99.99% of people on benefits do not have 10 children and do not live in a £2 million house.... no story no retweet no 'sound'

 

[Ebeneezer Goode]

Well this is the problem with the term "far-right", even though logically speaking libertarians are the furthest right, if we use the economic axis to gauge right and left, I don't think that's who people are really talking about when they say "far-right". More often I think they're talking about people like the BNP or Front National, who are ironically probably further to the left economically than even the Labour Party are.

 

[The East Terrace]

To be honest most people use social media as a why to keep up with mates and lets be honest, be a bit nosy. Its all the pro's and cons of it that people can peddle right/left wing beliefs and attract new members but most of those people would have found their way to them anyway. Thankfully i don't have anyone on my feeds who seems to be to active in either way but as soon as I see a story about a soldior, or an ex-soldior or pictures immigrants in boats I just scroll on. Most its made up anyway. It allows EDL and others to arrange things easier I guess but they always managed before social media and mobiles, I guess it again just saves them time. Sunday's Fuck Parade appears to be advertised heavily on social media but only if you look for it. I've got better things to be doing than smashing up Hipster establishments.

 

[Hooped Wizard]

Surely it's made the far left more acceptable if anything? They are all over Twitter.

 

[Hooped Wizard]

This is probably true. But centre left / left wing views are definetly more acceptable to most right thinking people than your average holocaust deniers ect

I have seen far more terrorist sympathisers on my feed than holocaust deniers.

 

[mnb089mnb]

I have seen far more terrorist sympathisers on my feed than holocaust deniers.

Your feed is who you've chosen to follow.

 

[HertsWolf]

Surely it's made the far left more acceptable if anything? They are all over Twitter.

Has it made any position more acceptable?
Surely, Twitter is just contemporary man standing on a box in the park shouting obscenities and religious revival at the ducks. But now we listen. And get offended.

Right, left, centre.....it's all the inane bollocks of people who prefer to do nothing of note but believe that just because you can shout crap on the internet, you should.

 

[Ian_Wrexham]

The far right seems more active and prominent than 20 years ago even though they seem ever further from the mainstream. Is this because of social media or a shift to the right by british youth ?

I don't know a huge amount about the state of the far-right in the early/mid-90s but I'd dispute that they're more active and prominent. It's worth pointing out that the BNP (the BNP pre-Griffin's attempts at sanitisation - which was essentially the NF) won their first council seat in 1993. You had fash killing with impunity and (to an even greater extent than today) far-right infiltration/sympathy within the police.

For the most part, these days, fascist groups struggle to mobilise significant numbers and in a lot of ways are quite fragmented. Yeah, Britain First get their facebook stuff shared a bazillion times but it's not really translated into jackboots on the streets (yet, at least).

Obviously part of that is due to UKIP supplanting much of their support/enthusiasm - the soft far-right are throwing themselves behind Farage and co and there's nowhere for actual fash to get support but from further right. I think that's, as much as anything, why we've seen the re-emergence of openly neo-nazi groups after quite a few years.

UKIP's success, I believe, is a product far more of the mainstream media than social. Farage has been given a massive platform to spout his populism at nearly every turn, and newspapers have largely indulged him. Only when he became electorally threatening to the status quo did they turn on UKIP.

Guess the risk is that when UKIP implodes someone on the further-right is able to sweep up the fallout so there's certainly no space for complacency.

And although social media is a decent tool for both organising and propaganda, and that is not lost on smaller far-right groups, it provides opportunities to anti-fascists in that it's very hard to leave a clean trail there. Identifying fascists, locating demos, pre-empting attacks and countering them are facilitated by fascists organising over social media too.

 

[Aber gas]

I don't know a huge amount about the state of the far-right in the early/mid-90s but I'd dispute that they're more active and prominent. It's worth pointing out that the BNP (the BNP pre-Griffin's attempts at sanitisation - which was essentially the NF) won their first council seat in 1993. You had fash killing with impunity and (to an even greater extent than today) far-right infiltration/sympathy within the police.

For the most part, these days, fascist groups struggle to mobilise significant numbers and in a lot of ways are quite fragmented. Yeah, Britain First get their facebook stuff shared a bazillion times but it's not really translated into jackboots on the streets (yet, at least).

Obviously part of that is due to UKIP supplanting much of their support/enthusiasm - the soft far-right are throwing themselves behind Farage and co and there's nowhere for actual fash to get support but from further right. I think that's, as much as anything, why we've seen the re-emergence of openly neo-nazi groups after quite a few years.

UKIP's success, I believe, is a product far more of the mainstream media than social. Farage has been given a massive platform to spout his populism at nearly every turn, and newspapers have largely indulged him. Only when he became electorally threatening to the status quo did they turn on UKIP.

Guess the risk is that when UKIP implodes someone on the further-right is able to sweep up the fallout so there's certainly no space for complacency.

And although social media is a decent tool for both organising and propaganda, and that is not lost on smaller far-right groups, it provides opportunities to anti-fascists in that it's very hard to leave a clean trail there. Identifying fascists, locating demos, pre-empting attacks and countering them are facilitated by fascists organising over social media too.

I disagree with you that fascists can't drum up decent numbers on the streets anymore. Recent rallies in Wigan /Dover and Colchester have shown the threat especially Dover. I was at Wigan and the fash were there in numbers although they did seem to be more intent on arguing amongst themselves. They did get battered all over the place so your point about antifa being to able to track and engage through social media is true.
I'm not particularly articulate so I think my main point has got lost through my clumsy words. I have found that that prejudice and fascist views have had a resurgence in places which have previously created environments where they are not socially acceptable eg football clubs, workplaces, pubs...I believe this is because of the online presence of groups such as Britain first et al. It's become a normalising influence which believe people are carrying into their interactions in real life.