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EDL being Thugs

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Link is here...
The attacks follow disastrous election performances by the British National party, leading analysts to warn that some of its supporters may be turning their backs on electoral politics to focus on more violent street confrontations.

"The threat is that as far-right activists decide the electoral path is no longer possible ... we will see more aggressive street-based groups linking up and a rise in racially and politically motivated violence," said Nick Lowles from Searchlight.

Why do people think that organisations like EDL exist?

Is it because there are no parties who represent working class people and newspapers scapegoating Muslims?

If people now feel they have no electoral representation with the BNP, will these incidences increase?

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Because many of their members are just plain old c**ts?

    What really annoyed me a few weeks ago was seeing a supposed EDL demonstration, which was nothing more than quite a few people hanging outside a pub drinking, opposite a mosque. Many of them with EDL flags/banners. Also there was a British Army one, by all means you are free to tell people you are in the army and you are in the EDL, but dont have banners and flags which taints the rest of us that dont support the scum organisation that the EDL is.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    They're in Blackpool at the moment aren't they?

    On a demo against the police handling of somebody's murder.

    What concerns me... I have done anti-fascist campaigning. I don't wanna get the crap kicked out of me for exercising my right to freedom of speech by a bunch of pissed up men"!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    They are a bit like Al-Queda, everyone can start up their own little "branch" or franchise of EDL and just associate themselves.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I've always thought of the BNP as the lesser of 2 evils. They're still wankers, but at least they didn't go round causing riots and glassing people.

    Ultimately, as in the Matrix it's all about choice. Some people choose to be racist cunts, if given a choice of the BNP or Labour, they vote BNP. If that choice is removed, whilst they may not have been ultra-racist before, their only choice is in organisation like the EDL.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    They are just the football type hooligans of this generation.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I had a chat with an EDL bloke once; he had no understanding of economics, politics or anything else of substance. Which made it apparently clear to me that he was nothing more than a racist thug who was repeating clever sound bites that he didn't understand.

    The cleverest thought he had was realising I was taking the piss out of him, he then threatened to knock my block off. This was before he realised I was with the van full of "the boys" which was behind me.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Namaste wrote: »
    Why do people think that organisations like EDL exist?

    Is it because there are no parties who represent working class people and newspapers scapegoating Muslims?

    If people now feel they have no electoral representation with the BNP, will these incidences increase?

    I suspect the EDL exists for a myriad of reasons, some rather obvious: a gross oversimplification of nuanced, complex issues combined with the draw offered by noisy, group-based "patriotism"; trying to couch racist sentiment in political legitimacy; and fear of the Other. In and amongst it all there are certain kinds of Liberals who need to take responsibility, also; people who are too keen to quickly establish their liberal credentials by decrying anyone who is in any way critical of multiculturalism, need to take stock. They largely just lend to the frustration and disenfranchisement felt by people to whom joining the EDL may feel like a legitimate outlet.

    It always makes me twitch when the EDL and "working class" are used in the same sentence: the issue is education, not class.

    Just as with the BNP the way to tackle the EDL is frank and open discussion. Their spokespeople, and subsequently their ideas, need to exposed the the light of pubic, calm and measured disassembly.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    They're not what I'd consider a political group. I'd put them in the same category as football hooligans.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    It always makes me twitch when the EDL and "working class" are used in the same sentence: the issue is education, not class.

    Yep, let's educate them better, so that at least they can join UKIP instead, and disguise their racism behind more creative language instead.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru

    It always makes me twitch when the EDL and "working class" are used in the same sentence: the issue is education, not class..

    Some of the issue is education, but it isn't the only issue. I know a few highly educated people who are racist as fuck. I know a lot of poorly educated people who are good friends with people who aren't British and/or white.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Whowhere wrote: »
    Some of the issue is education, but it isn't the only issue. I know a few highly educated people who are racist as fuck. I know a lot of poorly educated people who are good friends with people who aren't British and/or white.

    I'm not saying a person's level of education is inversely correlated to that of racism, clearly that's not the case. I am saying when you educate someone (without accusatory tones) on immigration, emigration and asylum it becomes more and more difficult to be xenophobic. And when you raise awareness of the poor quality of thinking behind groups like the EDL, then it becomes harder and harder for them to bring people on board.

    Equally, when you dismiss people out of hand as they voice concerns they have about the effect immigration has had on their lives, you play into the hands of people like the EDL.

    IWS: I don't know if you've a sandy-vadge in need of a spin-cycle, but you're normally more engaging and measured than your last post.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Whowhere wrote: »
    Some of the issue is education, but it isn't the only issue. I know a few highly educated people who are racist as fuck. I know a lot of poorly educated people who are good friends with people who aren't British and/or white.

    It depends what you mean by education though. If you mean education purely in terms of academic achievement then you're right, but if you start to think about education in terms of life experience and exposure then you're not so right.

    People who are racist have generally been brought up by racist parents in an environment where they never meet people from other races. People who are not racist generally haven't. There are a lot of wealthy people who fit into the first category- they live in their gated communities and got to schools where the fees are astronomical. Poorer people are often likely to have more exposure to people of different races because they don't live in wealthy communities and there's more diversity in their schools.

    The towns that have the biggest race problems, like Oldham, have them because the BME children go to one school and the white children go to another, and never the twain shall meet.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    AR has given a more eloquent account of what I was trying to say. I wasn't inferring that racist idea dissipate when handed a degree certificate.
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