The progressive narrative is that the western world is turning racist. Which in electoral terms means swinging to the right. Simple as that. And of course in this narrative, the Progressives are the heroic rear-guard, defending hope and all that is good, against a rising tide of home-grown hate and ignorance.
It’s a kind of real-life zombie story.
The progressives are the last humans fighting the infected. The name of the infection? Racism! Highly contagious it spreads in the air, by word of mouth, eradicating all reason and empathy. The infected become a mindless hoard. Led, it seems, by a few among them who retain some sort of twisted simulacra of intelligence.
The zombie narrative is clever and worrisome in equal measure. Clever because it makes acceptable the basic political ploy of dehumanising your enemy. Worrisome because it says right up front, not only is there no need to even try to communicate, but it is actually impossible and in fact would be dangerous to even try. So don’t.
The less lurid, less Hollywood version of this narrative- but `I do think it is a version of the Zombie narrative - is the ‘Swing to the Right’. France has swung to the right, Germany, with the rise of AfD has too. In Britain the infection has mutated from ‘Brexit’ to ‘Reform’. And in America its name is Trump.
But I put it to Ian that I don’t think this ‘Swing to the Right’ story actually fits the evidence. I suggest that what is really going in is not a swing to the right but rather the opening salvos of a rejection of the Centre. And IF the political shift can be seen - even in part - as a rejection of the centre then it’s not all mindless hate. Some of it is a desperate rejection of a political and economic hegemony that has not got any answers.
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