In a strange way, I was pleased to note a moment of truthful comment by Donald Trump over the weekend.
What he said, during his rambling eulogy at Charlie Kirk's funeral, was that he hated his enemies.
Kirk‘s widow, in contrast, had declared that she had forgiven his murderer.
Trump made clear that forgiveness was not part of his political repertoire.
His acknowledgement that hate drives him is helpful for a very good reason. What Trump admitted is that his politics is based on an ideology that deliberately promotes the idea of exclusion. You can, of course, see this in everything that Trump does.
We saw the same thing yesterday in the politics of Nigel Farage, who seeks to ape everything that Trump is doing. His suggestion that people living in the UK who have had a long-established right to live indefinitely in this country will, if he is elected, become subject to potential expulsion from the UK clearly indicates that his politics share the same basis as those of Trump. He, too, is driven by hatred.
In his case, his hatred is of those who have made this country their home, sometimes for decades - or even their entire remembered existence if they came here when they were very young - whatever, and however much they have contributed to this country as a result. He, it would seem, is indifferent to who they are, what they do, how they came here and what they have contributed: all he knows is that these people are his declared enemies, and so he hates them.
Increasingly, I feel the opposite of this politics of hate is the politics of care. It would be absurd to suggest it was a politics of love: such a sentiment would alienate vastly too many people, and that word is, in any case, open to far too many interpretations because of the way it is used in the English language.
Care, in contrast, is less emotional, but is still readily comprehensible. The dictionary defines care as:
The process of protecting someone or something and providing what that person or thing needs.
We must care. It is how we can counter hate. That is why I talk about the need for a politics of care.
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Well done Erika Kirk for expressing forgiveness for what was a truly tragic loss despite all the Trump and MAGA hype. That would have taken a lot of guts and was totally the right thing to do. We certainly need more kindness in our politics and I hope Erika receives this and inspires this. Publicly expressed forgiveness is powerful and I still remember the father of a murdered nurse expressing forgiveness very soon after she was killed in Northern Ireland many years ago. It was powerful in the face of his obvious grief.
Thank you for important personal and society relationship messages
Caring results in social stabilities and sustainabilty: hate does the opposite, as we see all to clearly in Gaza.
Might caring reduce conspicuous acquisition, consumption and leisure, those socio-economic harms so well pointed out by Thorsten Veblen?
P. S. Might the Christian message of “ Love one another” be more originally accurate, easily accepted and practically useful if it were translated into English as “Be kind to one another”?
Thanks
And re para 3, I think so
The obsession with Christ in the far-right is bizarre, and seems to be more Old Testament than anything. Perhaps they might consider the old proverb from Matthew: “He who lives by the sword dies by the sword”. According to the current Private Eye, Charlie Kirk said the following at one of his rallies last year:
“I think it’s worth . . . unfortunately, [having] some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational.”
I certainly don’t condone his murder, but in a gun-saturated society such as the U.S. it was hardly a surprise.
I don’t think farage hates. He actually doesn’t care. He is a cold blooded creature. He’s relatively unemotional, just calculating and cynical.
He knows other people hate, and that hatred can easily be manipulated and directed to his own ends, which are power and self enrichment. Trump’s hatred (and thus his emotions including fear are his weakness). Farage has his hubris, hypocrisy (is he going to banish his furren ex wife, girlfriend and his own children?) and that he is nowhere near as clever as he thinks he is. When his ideas meet reality people suffer, whether they vote for him or not. I’m sure he thinks they’re useful idiots.
Caveat emptor
Farage has his hubris, hypocrisy (is he going to banish his furren ex wife, girlfriend and his own children?).
Not when they can buy an almost £900,000, four bedroom, heated swimming pool house that befits the “Man of the People”.
But, there must be an audit trail of where the money came from. I mean, unless it was paid cash, in brown envelopes, or a suitcase, it had to be transferred from somewhere. Someone knows where the money came from.
Angela Raynor got hounded for months over her property tax affairs. But there again, she’s a leftie – of sorts, so for the right wing media she was fair game and must be up to no good.
And living off the wealth of his partner. I suppose it’s Nigel’s version of housing benefit.
It’s a story that should run and run, but, surprise, surprise, it gets forgotten as Farage goes back to doing what he does best – blaming foreigners for everything, except when they buy the home he lives in – ocasionally – that’s alright then.
[…] morning, I believe that President Trump's announcement on autism, made last night, is a part of his politics of hate, with all that flows from that being almost too difficult to […]
Will Erika’s forgiveness stop the state from executing the shooter? Is her forgiveness genuine? Or is her forgiveness contingent on his death sentence? Looking at it all, I don’t know what to think except ‘What goes around comes around’.
I don’t know how so called members of the Right who self-identify as religious can justify raising topics the likes of which Kirk did.
Actually I do know.
These people are living in the pain of ignorance.
No longer able to discern that is those who are actually making them poor whom they should be upset with, not even able to discern that it is the same people who have actually bought their politics and effectively rigged it against them, they are content to fall and prey on anyone the rich toss at them like a fox thrown into a pack of hounds – immigrants, woke, the Left, socialists, vegetarians – you name it.
They want anything to salve the pain – to see someone else suffer more would be up most these people’s street but at the heart of it is also they want you to share their pain in some way. They want to drag you down with them, not escape.
As I’ve said before as a working class person – it was always a matter of principle and pride that you knew who it was who was shafting you and how.
These Trump supporters, these Farage lovers – they have no such principles or pride at all, no sense of self-worth. They’re like H.G Wells Eloi, preyed on and manipulated by wealthy Morlocks.
Without such ignorance and pain, I find their attitude comprehensible – consumers who are actually being consumed themselves. I am beginning to find them to be rather pathetic creatures to be honest.
On Saturday, down here in Canterbury, we had one of the anti-immigration marches by the flag waving plastic patriots. According to the local BBC news ‘hundreds’ of marchers took part. However, I was in the city centre at the time, and as multiple videos online show, nothing could have been further from the truth. There were, at best, 40 marchers who made themselves look ridiculous and shambolic. They were outnumbered significantly by those opposing them. More significantly, most people ignored them. In fact they became a joking talking point at the local craft fair in the Westgate Hall where, at any given time, there were far more people present selling and buying produce from local crafts people. My question is: why did the BBC so misrepresent the event? Why is the national broadcaster giving space to the likes of Yaxley-Lennon/Robinson and Farage when the vast majority of people in the city centre just treated them as an utter irrelevance? What I witnessed on Saturday was not hate, but hope. I believe that far more of us reject the politics of hate but we never get the air time.
Why, indeed?
“Trump made clear that forgiveness was not part of his political repertoire.”
“Kirk‘s *widow, in contrast, had declared that she had forgiven his murderer.”
The MAGAts love this because then do not have to actively hate, Trump will hate FOR them.
*I do not doubt that Kirk’s widow was truly forgiven his murderer in a Christian sense but will loudly call for the death penalty.
“*I do not doubt that Kirk’s widow was truly forgiven his murderer in a Christian sense but will loudly call for the death penalty.” [BayTampaBay]
I call this hypocrisy, deception and manipulation.. hollow, and staged (on the top of it) because ‘forgiveness’ does not require a ‘big’ public announcement. It is a quiet deep, painful, private process…May be I do not understand what ‘being a Christian’ actually means? Or what meaning Christians attribute to ‘forgiveness’.
Otherwise, we do not disagree, she will likely call for the death penalty. Bottom line, if Charlie Kirk’s widow comes out to save the perpetrator from the death penalty, and/or actively ensures that the death penalty is not carried out because I assume this will be the likely outcome, then I will apologise for my statement.
I’m still interested in this issue about why people seem so gullible and get drawn in about immigration etc., when it is in reality the rich who are making us poor and endangering the human race. How some people will settle for autism or immigration or woke whatever as the problem and not go any further.
Maybe the answer is I think that it is hard to mobilise against something -wealth – that is portrayed as something to aspire to, something that is desirable and sold as beneficial to the individual.
It’s quite a poisonous cocktail we are sold on a daily basis. It drives me bonkers to be honest but we have to try to understand what is going on.
We have recorded a ten part series on Farage
Starts, I think, tomorrow, coming out in the evenings as multi-platform shortish videos
Farage does seem to have an amazing ability to deflect. If I didn’t hate everything he stands for I would have to admire his ability to ignore scandal etc. and carry on. He seems to manage to attract the protest vote despite most having idea what they are voting for. We really have to hope enough people like yourself and Zack Polanski can expose his lies for what they are before the next election as neither Labour or the Tories are interested in doing this. And it feels like many vote emotionally and don’t care about the facts, Brexit being a prime example. All the facts in the world couldn’t seem to win over this mysterious desire for sovereignty, or a nostalgic return to a world that never really existed.
As Vicky G mentioned in her post, Farage’s(and probably Trump’s) motivation is chiefly self enrichment by any means. To do that, they both need a lot of other selfish people to support them and millions of gullible people to vote for them. They also only need to win one election, so expect the promises to be off the scale. Once fascists achieve power, it can only be taken from them by force, but nobody’s going to fight them physically, so it would be game over for democracy. It seems to be over in the USA.
Today I listen to the UN. I appreciated every word spoken by Antonio Guterres, UN General Secretary, he is and was this afternoon a proponent of the Politics of Care. His words mattered and I certainly welcomed them. Suddenly after a terrible day enduring Farage’s opportunistic stunt, I was allowed a sigh of relief listening to the UN… except for Trump of course. The problem is that the man has huge power combined with a personality disorder. I am sure that psychiatrists have a lot to say on this subject. It was so evident. “I.. I … I … I …” every few words was punctuated with “I” .. gross distortion of facts, gaslighting… It was so blatant.. So much fed by ‘Hatred’… ‘Intolerance’ .. This is not what I consider a “sane mind” clinically. Am I stating the obvious? But besides this megalomaniac sociopath narcissist (I am not a psychiatrist so I will leave it to qualified professionals and wait for their conclusion!.. please come forward and speak out … loud…clear), -so many head of states, representatives, speaking today in the UN suddenly brought a sense of unexpected relief almost as if I felt a glimmer of hope. The ‘Politics of Care’ was present in the UN Assembly. It was there to be heard. I would not say so, lightly…. Is there hope for the UN if it learns from this experience and face a necessary reform process going forward? Can it survive overbearing destructive powers? Can it work through necessary institutional changes? A few days ago, I would have said, I very much doubt it… Today I want to say “yes”, I hope the answer is “yes”. ………….