Blue Sky,
I strongly disagree with your right wing views. You seem obsessed with saving western civilization from muslims and keep asking about end of Islam again and again. All main monotheistic religions including Christianity come from middle east, they all have same origins. And they all have violent past. I have middle eastern friends that are christian. Im not particularly religious myself but I definitely are not hoping for one or another group of people to be finished. I hope that we all can learn to get on regardless of our origins, and see each other for our humanity rather than skin color, nationality or religion. As for refugees that are coming to europe, these people did not chose to be in this situation, anyone at any point can become refugee. Look at Ukraine, in million years I would never have thought that war will break out. And problems in ME are largely because of the illegal invasion of Iraq. So what do you suggest we do with these people arriving in boats? Drown them in the Mediterranean? There are children, women, old and disabled among them. I know, because we have done charity. Of course we can not know if everyone arriving is good or bad. But just think what is the right thing to do? I asked myself what would Jesus do? Would he send them back, set their tents on fire, drown them? Or have a compassion and help? As I said Im not religious, but I do ask myself this question quite often when I dont know what to do. Racism, xenofobia,homofobia and every other phobia and bias against some groups of people are NEVER OK. I would not want my child to grow up in racist right wing society.
And now to Corbyn, no, he would not be disaster for this country. He would actually save NHS and help ordinary people rather that billionaires, he actually cares. Right wing somehow think that liberal thinking people are stupid and dont know whats good for them, they treat us like naughty kids.
And I keep thinking what wonderful world we could have with Sanders and Corbyn would be great for western civilization and the whole world, as they would probably try to sort situations out by dialogue first, before invading countries. And maybe, just maybe we would have a hope for peace on this planet.
Blue Sky, I'm going to respectfully disagree. On all of it.
Corbyn isn't a communist. He's a democratic socialist. They're not the same things. Blair destroyed Labour with his right-leaning views. He didn't respect what the party stood for; he waged unnecessary wars, and alongside Bush, brought the world where it is today -- entrenched in terrorism, anger and chaos. Corbyn is the epitome of what Labour stands for -- equality, fairness, justice. He's not dangerous, compared to Theresa May. Since the election announcement, he's done 9 events and spoken to everyone he can. Theresa May has done 3 events, banned the press from one and the public from another, answered 7 obviously cherry picked questions (and even then refused to give a straight answer) and seems to think she can bully the UK into voting her in because 'I triggered Brexit'. She's killing thousands of disabled people and she will destroy the healthcare system to benefit the tax dodgers that own the newspapers. How can you justify that? She is the monster. There's no stability with her. She's backtracking on her own promises! Under a Tory government, there's increased homelessness and unchecked power. My generation will be screwed for life. Brexit will be disastrous if she's at the helm.
Your next point, where you said the Tories are not like Trump. No, they are like Trump. Look at what Trump and the Republicans stands for -- privatising healthcare even more than they already have; lowering taxes for his rich friends and raising them for everyone else; selling off ISP history to the highest bidder; curbing immigration (a frankly nonsense threat based on Xenophobia and 'nostalgia') to dangerously low numbers; war mongering; cutting, cutting, cutting anything and everything they can get their hands on. That's the Conservative party. Crooked, unfair, and barbaric. The right-wing/conservative politics relies on one word: 'no'. They never create. They never 'help'. They stop. They prevent. Trump is a symbol for the entire right-wing political spectrum. Like Blair did for the left, he represents the worst parts of that ideology.
We're not talking about mainland European media. They don't get to vote in our Election. We're talking British media. The British media owned by the right-wing rich dudes living in the Bahamas. The hypocrites making money off of the dangers of immigration while sipping beers in the warm waters of Antigua. Theresa May dropped everything to fly to New York for a meeting with Rupert Murdoch. You don't think that's suspicious? You don't think the Tories are in the pockets of the rich? They don't care. They won't care. They're criminals.
I think this is going to be an upset. At the moment, I think there will be a tide turned if May continues the way she's going -- backtracking on her promises to cut immigration, refusing to commit to not raising taxes, etc. At the moment, it's entirely possible Corbyn will be our Prime Minister. He cannot be bought by the media; he doesn't shy away from answering questions (unlike Theresa 'well, Jeremy Corbyn...' May); and he's not interested in waging wars like Blair did.
He won't destroy the country. He's the only hope we have to save it.
Jeanne calls it the dark night of the soul. Everything blue sky says is tinged with fear and prejudice, the sense of a caged animal lashing out to protect himself. And this is right wing ideology in a nut shell. We will go down the far right road for a few years as Jeanne predicts because fear overrides our judgement. But the damage will be so great we will turn away from it. This is the message that Jeannes predictions give, I don't think its helpful anymore to label ourselves liberal or conservative. Rather I believe that being compassionate, understanding and forgiving ij the end will propell us forward. Fear, bigotry and prejudice will destroy itself because it is fundamentally a destructive mindset not a constructive one. So let it burn out and from the ashes something new and beautiful will come up. As a millenial I have great faith in my generation to be the caring, compassionate leaders this world needs when we become old enough to do so.
Natalie, thank you, thank you! What a beautiful soul you are, I agree with you! Somehow we need to brace ourselves for this storm to pass. I take comfort in what Asian said about age of Aquarius coming. And few more on here said it will get worse until 2025 before it gets better. Sometimes I wish I could relocate to Mars until then.
Do you know what a communist is?
Natalie, well put. Thank you. Gives hope.
Blue Sky, let me start by saying, I respect your views even if I don't agree with them. Just because I'm on the opposite side, doesn't mean I'm going to insult you or say you're wrong. My uncle is a hardline right-winger, and it bugs the crap out of me because he always tells me how I should think. Like it's black and white. I like debate and I like hearing people's opinions even when I don't agree, so thanks for your thought-out response. I appreciate that.
I accept that the UK has always been conservative, but times have changed drastically. People my age grew up during 9/11, the Iraq war. I've seen anti-Islamism, racism, homophobia, sexism, hatred toward my friends and family. My generation are now of the age to vote and the majority of people my age are 'liberals' (if we're going to use that term), left-leaners. Tolerant/PC/snowflakes/whatever you want to call us. We've seen the dangers of what came before and we love people. We love globalism. We recognise, in a way many of those before us never did, that we're all humans -- no matter gender, race, orientation or nationality. And I do think over the coming decades, the UK (if it still exists) will become much more liberal in the wake of Brexit. We'll have no choice but to start accepting one another. We're all in the same boat.
It doesn't matter who's on what side of Brexit. It's happening, we're leaving. My concern is that Theresa May believes that 'no deal is better than a bad deal', and that's just not true. No Brexit deal means a 22% increase on import tax for food. That's devastating. We import everything. Fruits, vegetables. If that were to happen, you'd see riots, even more instability. She's holding Brexit as a hostage negotiation. That's my concern.
I do think Clinton would have been better for May, though. You have a point there.
I hope once the election is over, whichever way it goes, we can have another discussion about this.
That prediction came to me last September. One way the election is rigged is when the extreme Right floods the Internet with anti-left propaganda. They know that so many people just follow what they see as the dominant view on the Internet.
Jeanne, have you seen anything about who will win the election?
Blue Sky I don't trust my prediction about the French election (I'm not good at this), but the sense I got was that if Melenchon won, he would not be good for France. I think balance is key, you can't go to far right or too far left, this is why I support social democracy (the Canadian kind, not the French kind) because it aims to balance the competing forces of the market and the needs of the people.