What Is Right Vs Left?
If you want to know the fundamental difference between those on the Right vs those on the Left, conservative vs progressive, it is a belief in a zero sum game vs the idea that we are all in this together. What is Right vs Left? The Trump led Republicans reckon that some of us are more deserving than others. Those that can afford to pay for special treatment (rich folk), white folk, men, straight people and Christian Nationalists all appear to be favoured. Indeed, around the world far right groups are campaigning on anti-immigration and refugee issues. Flag waving right wing types are marching on these national exclusivity activist grounds. It comes down to this underpinning belief that there are winners and losers in life depending upon where you were born. ICE has detained Americans and set up concentration camps to house these detainees in brutal fashion.
Right Wing Folk Reckon Some Are More Deserving
If we turn to AI, artificial intelligence, again we see a Big Tech sector ruled by an oligarchy. This billionaire class of oligarchs are firmly on the Right, some would say far right. Again, this techlord led sector, which is the beloved of the stock market on the back of huge wealth growth, is about winners and losers. AI will likely cost hundreds of millions of jobs globally. It will be the first time a new technological invention will produce less jobs than it creates. Those on the Right are OK with this, as they are happy to reap the rewards whilst hundreds of millions suffer loss of income and massive disruption to their lives. The extreme inequality, which exists in America, has prepared these Trump voters for further inequity and debasement of the losers. Segregation already exists around the US, this is a society at home with racial inequality. Remember that the stronghold of the GOP is in the South, the former slave states. This divisiveness is nothing new but a return to something that many already hold dear. White supremacists, the KKK and other militias have never really gone away in the USA.
The Right To Rip Off The Weak
American capitalism promoted by Republicans has long stressed that people deserve what they get in life. Trump represents the fact that wealth by hook or by crook is deserving of power. Dirty deeds are whitewashed and he who holds the whip hand gets the respect. Social Darwinism is another way of looking at what Trump’s MAGA coalition represents. The strong survive and thrive at the expense of the vulnerable and weak. President Donald Trump is backed by the billionaire Epstein class. Many of these wealthy men were happy to buy the sexual favours of very young girls for chump change. Where you found yourself on the food chain was tough luck in the minds of the billionaire class. If you are weak enough they will fuck you one way or another.
One Nation Is Aussie MAGA
What is Right vs Left? In Australia, a small political party led by Pauline Hanson and backed by a billionaire oligarch, Gina Rinehart, is making waves in the right wing press. The media downunder is controlled by News Corp, an American corporation under the Murdoch thumb. Rupert Murdoch, the billionaire behind Fox News, is a rabid right wing figure. The influence of the Right over the Australian media is disproportionate to the actual numbers in the extreme. Watch Sky News Australia and you will see what I mean, this is no objective or unbiased news outlet. One Nation is equivalent to MAGA, being largely supported by white, working class folk living in regional and outer suburban areas. Their platform has been anti-immigration for a long time. Pauline Hanson has been attacking Muslims for donkey years. One Nation represents Australians who want the country to be reserved for Anglo types of Aussies. The multiculturalism flourishing in our cities frightens them. The number of times I hear paranoid comments about ‘Indians or Asians taking over’ and other siege mentality views expressed by ignorant racists is worrying. Social media and its enraging algorithms have fed folk these rabbit hole extremist views to the detriment of social cohesion. Then, you look over at Trump’s America and you see the madmen are running the asylum. Pauline Hanson loves Donald Trump and his extremist agenda. The exploitation of the protest vote is something that they share. He is the master and she the acolyte.
Racism Remains A Factor
What is Right vs Left when you boil it all down to the essentials? People who believe they are better than others vs those who respect that we are all in this together. The greed of capitalism is motivated by this desire to have more than others. Money equals power in a materialist world. Wanting to send your kids to a private school to give them an advantage over other less well off families. Wanting to ensure that no dark skinned folk live in your neighbourhood. Wanting the streets you walk to be free of Asians and Arabs. People who truly believe that they are better than others on the basis of the colour of their skin and where they were born. This is the One Nation/MAGA worldview.
Identity Politics Downunder
The Labor federal government tried to facilitate Indigenous Australians getting a Voice to parliament. A referendum was held and those on the Right campaigned against it. A lot of misinformation and disinformation was thrown up, as to the nature of this empowerment of Aboriginal folk. White Australians voted it down. ‘If you don’t know, vote NO.’ This was the bumper sticker for the Right, where ignorance becomes a virtue to be trumpeted. One Nation campaigned strongly to defeat the Voice. They have this narrow concept of what being an Australian is. Their identity politics is white, none too bright, and has no room for any deeper cultural ties beyond the colonialism of Australia.
It may come as a surprise to them to learn that some people have deeper ties to more than ANZAC day, worshipping sport, beer, BBQs and making money. Respecting diversity is not high on the One Nation agenda.
Intolerance vs Acceptance
What is Right vs Left? On one side you have an intolerance for those not subscribing to their cultural perspective. On the other side a broader church respecting a wider phalanx of views. The Right regularly attack those on the Left on the basis of supporting LGBTQI folk. This lifestyle choice is beyond the pale for many on the Right. Frequently, in campaigns they wildly exaggerate stuff about gender identity issues to make out that taxpayer dollars are being profligately spent on these things. If you dig down into the facts this is nearly always a minuscule amount happening in a handful cases. Negative attack politics never lets the truth get in the way of telling an outrageous story. Most voters are disengaged from the political sphere for most of the time until elections come about. Shock tactics are designed to get their attention. Truth is most often a victim in electoral periods. Yes, you can say both sides engage in this kind of stuff during the high time of campaigning. Unfortunately, quietly sticking to the facts throughout does not win contests in the main.
Rich vs Poor
The Right has somehow made a virtue of discrimination by appealing to the underlying racist views of the dominant cohort within a populace. They have sold the idea that if the Left represents the concerns of minority groups they are not looking out for the majority. This is not true but plays well to the MAGA/One Nation faithful. The Right is now anti-science, especially since COVID. Trump disparages climate science and leads the way for global warming deniers globally. Unpalatable truths are simply ignored or challenged. Living in a fool’s paradise will cost future generations but the MAGA faithful don’t care. Saying NO to stuff revs them up, it seems. Looking at the world right now, two years into Trump 2.0, you could say the world is going to hell in a handbasket. Inflation is back thanks to Trump’s tariffs and Iran war. Affordability plagues many Americans and people around the globe. The bond market is flashing increasingly dangerous warning signs. Concentration camps have been set up all over America to hold detained dark skinned Americans. Brutality is the order of the day, as might lords it over the rule of law. Trump and Putin and Netanyahu behave like warlords rather than statesmen. Meanwhile President Donald Trump is obsessed with gilt edged trimmings in the Oval office, a ballroom for the White House and an Arch to celebrate 250 years of modern America.
Who Is Supporting One Nation?
“Here is an interesting fact. Support for One Nation is highest in areas where there are relatively few migrants living. Regional areas and outer suburban electorates, where the vast majority of populations are white bread. Why then do they go on about the issue of high levels of immigration in Australia? It is not actual lived experience. Could it be because they watch Sky News Australia and listen to reactionary shock jocks on the radio? Blaming immigrants, refugees and foreigners, more generally, is a right wing populist saw. Combine this with a general underlying racism inherited down through generations and you probably get what is really going on here. Pauline Hanson has been banging on about her white supremacist views for decades and now has Gina Rinehart to bankroll her hate speech infected perspective downunder.”
- (https://wordsforweb.com.au/support-for-one-nation/)
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of The Stoic Golfer; The AI Heresy; What Price Life?; America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump; and other titles. NOW AVAILABLE AT APPLE BOOKS & GOOGLE PLAY BOOKS. Google Play Books AUDIOBOOK
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