#redwriter Blame The Rich

[la_marquise]

Everyone seems very determined in preaching the mantra of 'no, there's no hope: know your place'. And any attempt at looking for any alternative way is greeted with derision and contempt.
I'm 53. I am *not* naive. The next person who dismisses me with that line will be summarily blocked. If I have to respect you, then you play by the same rules and respect me. Sneering, gloating and bullying do not entitle you to a courteous response from me. Pointing and laughing when your own house is on fire may be cathartic, but it's not my duty to be polite when you shove it in my face.
Sneering at the underprivileged and labelling them stupid, racist, ignorant etc is not a solution. Calling everyone not in your little bubble 'them' is not a solution. I disagree profoundly with the working class and underclass leave voters but I do not blame them for what has happened. The narrative of fear, suspicion and jingoism has been fostered and promulgated by a particular subset of the global elite, who see personal advantage in creating and maintaining divisions between nations and cultures and who benefit by keeping the poor frightened, envious and empoverished. It has been created by a weak Tory leader who could not heal the deep divisions in his party. It has been created by ambitious and cynical upper class men who saw a chance to gain vast personal power.
Blame the plutocrats, and the media barons. Blame the Westminster cynics who repeatedly chose their own personal ambitions over what actually helps those they purported they serve. This includes the Blairites who are more interested in grabbing back leadership than in trying to address the crisis that grips the country right now. This includes the squabbling Tories. This includes UKIP, who have masqueraded as the champions of the people while admitting the rank and file of the old BNP and NF to their ranks and offering them up as plausible potential councillors and MPs without checking to see if they advocate apartheid or homophobia or virulent sexism.
Blame the rich. Every time you point fingers at the disprivileged who have voted Leave after decades of neglect and abuse from the establishment, you collude with that establishment. I wish to the bottom of my heart that more of the poorest had been able to believe in the EU and vote Remain. But I refuse to play the 'them and us' game. I refuse to follow the narrative preached by the greedy, biased, wealthy ruling classes who have brought the rest of us to our knees with their pandering to the free market over all, and their contempt for anyone who isn't just like them.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Thank you!
I am a Corbynite and always have been -- he belongs to the left wing of the party which has always been my position, and I share your view on the Blairites. I'm rather horrifed by how they are using a national crisis to further their own agenda, rather than pulling together for the good of the country. It goes to show how much they despise ordinary people.
Most of the leave voters I know are people of good faith whose views and concerns I respect and know to be real. We have a huge divide in Britain between haves and have-nots and no government since the 1970s has seemed to care about this.

[dorispossum.livejournal.com]

I clicked to reply 'and I like you too', but can't find comment now? (LJ is weird sometimes.) Anyway, no worries - I do not assume somebody's a bad person just because they're not my political clone. I'm cool with it. :)

[dorispossum.livejournal.com]

I have a very different take on this, unsurprisingly. As you know, I'm not a Jeremy Corbyn fan, though I definitely count myself as a socialist. But I'm also a liberal, and I don't like the lack of liberalism in Corbyn's core supporters: I tend to judge people by their behaviour not their ideology, and the mobbing/death threats/misogyny etc directed at MPs who don't follow the Momentum line (eg during Syria vote) has been pretty ugly. I just don't trust people who think it's ok to behave that way. Apologies for yet another book quote (occupational hazard!) but " “We should care for each other more than we care for ideas, or else we will end up killing each other.” etc.

And I don't buy the 'Blairite' v 'Corbynite' narrative. Because (a) though all the MPs (and others) being labelled as 'Blairites' may want Corbyn to go, not all those who want Corbyn to go (80% of Labour MPs?!) align with that group. Many are socialists who don't want their cause rendered toxic by an intolerant and doctrinal clique, or die with a whimper because their case can't be made persuasively by a nice man who's been promoted beyond his abilities. And (b) I disagree with the war metaphor. Politics isn't a football match with opposing sides, it's a complicated and demanding dance. Its participants are human beings with many shades of opinion and experience; and at the end of often exhausting negotiations around multiple and often competing interests , comes as fair a settlement as can be achieved at that moment. And then you dance again: it never stops. So I don't want to tag people with labels, even if I want to argue with the way they view the world. (That sounds too pi - of course I DO do this in my head, all the time, but I try to resist!)

You may disagree, that's ok. :)

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

I think Chilcot has a lot to do with it. There are people in the PLP who are worried about what may come out. And I think Benn has shown a very cynical side indeed by doing what he has at this point. If Labour had stood together, it would have sent a very clear message to the Remain camp that we are not being handed over to the bigots. But he put party politics first. I think it's very telling that no-one so far has offered to stand as leader, because they realise how toxic this now is.
They are part of our parliament. They're supposed to put the country first.

[dorispossum.livejournal.com]

I'm sure that all sides believe they ARE putting the country first, whilst being equally convinced that the others are playing at party politics. Corbyn himself was a rebel - and would have had no truck with the 'stand together' argument when it was used by leaders he didn't approve of.

I don't think it's been possible for Labour to stand together for a long time - we're basically watching an ugly custody battle. LP members with strong loyalties to a specific cadre are filled with passionate intensity about the unfitness of the other parent.

Personally, I think the party 'belongs' to the millions of people with various attitudes and values, who nonetheless find enough common ground to place their cross in a box for a Labour MP. Sadly, they don't get a voice on who leads the party - but they do get to choose who runs the country. I hope both MPs and party members will listen to them.

Better to get the mess over and done with, I think. For the next couple of months, at least the Tories will be too busy with their own post-Brexit meltdown to point and laugh at Labour's woes. (Eg today's developments - black humour essential!)

After decision is made, if compromise with Evil Party is too horrible to stomach, the aggrieved members can leave and create their own party, and put their case to voters. Who can decide which is more attractive. If offered a choice as crude as Blairites v Corbynites, I think voters will rightly declare a plague on both their houses. I know I will.

I just hope we don't have to re-run EVERY battle of the 1980s. I didn't enjoy it the first time.

[mojave-wolf.livejournal.com]

You are welcome. Thanks for not telling the non-Brit (i.e. me) to go away and stay out of your politics (which would be an understandable reaction). I just sort of figure all neoliberal-hating leftists everywhere are at least potential allies, and see a lot of similarities 'tween current British & European politics and American ones.

While I don't know his every position on all the issues, I'm very strongly supportive of Corbyn for a lot of the same reasons you are (not just his general pro-working class policies but the incredible venom with which his opponents and the media conglomerates have gone after him, which convince me these leftist positions are real & thus the desperate desire to keep him out of power/that plus what I gather is a long track record of consistency on these issues). He's all we've got on the national stage there right now so go Jeremy!

And yes again to that last paragraph. I can't see Brexit having been an easy vote for anyone, as a lot of problems come with either outcome; people I respect who've studied the situation a lot more than me seem to be united in Leave causes more immediate short term problems, otoh, unless the EU fundamentally restructures itself then that project, which I did, once, long ago, ignorantly hold so many hopes for, is now a long (or even medium) term apocalyptic disaster that is already unfolding, so it seemed like pick your poison, and hope you chose the one offering the best hope of ultimate survival for all concerned?

the global elite are strip-mining the world and letting the rest of us burn.

This is a brilliant line. Possibly the best one sentence summation of the current world situation I've seen. Bravo again.