Saturday 2 March 2019

Nationalist graffiti

I wonder if we'll ever cure humanities distasteful nationalist and xenophobic tendencies? If you remember 1970's Britain (and the 1980's to a lesser degree) then you'll recognize the conjoined letters carved into the tree. NF, the National Front, racist boot boy bullies, white nationalists trumpeting Britain whilst doing Nazi salutes, to put them simply...the enemy. Ignorant racists, who also enjoyed a whole suit of other intolerances, and most of whom had never met a person of differing culture or ethnicity. Periodically they returned, in the 90's as the BNP, the British National Party and more recently as the EDL the English Defence League, nearly 50 years on, although the acronyms change, the same tired right wing nationalist rhetoric and slogans endure. Currently they're the most vocal and powerful I've known them, Brexit unleashed them, Brexit is based on xenophobia, they say 'not everybody who voted Brexit is a racist, though every racist voted Brexit'. And the same shit is happening all over. Thriving on fear and disenfranchisement, inexhaustible products of our political systems, they'll always find an angry desperate ear that'll listen. Sad times. I was afforded a schadenfreude moment with the most recent immigration figures though, predominantly white Christian Europeans down, predominantly coloured non Christian rest of the world types up, oh the irony, poetic really. And the graffiti is from 1970's, I don't think they made Rays after the 70's.  

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