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Far-right politicians around the world have long leaned into ethnic, religious and cultural divides in order to strengthen their own political ingroup at the expense of targeted outgroups. In many nations, immigrants are one of the largest targeted outgroups, as demonstrated by recent anti-immigrant riots in the United Kingdom and across Europe.
Straight Arrow News contributor Adrienne Lawrence reviews far-right populist and anti-immigrant riots in the United Kingdom and argues that modern communications and social media have made those riots much worse than they might have been otherwise. Lawrence has a strong warning about the global consequences of Donald Trump regaining power if he wins in November.
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The following is an excerpt from the above video:
The United States has plenty of issues going on, such that I will sometimes forget to check across the pond. And well, I just did, and it is quite disturbing what’s going on there. There’s an astounding wave of anti-immigrant hate going on across Europe now. While I am somewhat used to France burning it all down in opposition to political measures, this is different. Citizens of the U.K. and other nations are causing mass disorder and chaos, assaulting immigrants, asylum-seekers and other nonwhite individuals.
Now, this anger appears to be fueled by scarcity mentalities among economic decline in the EU. Jobs are scarce, health care and other social services are overextended, so unfortunately, we’re seeing the far-right make immigrants an easy target.
Now, social media is also playing a big role in spreading misinformation and stoking racists, like those who attacked a Rotherham England hotel housing asylum-seekers earlier this month. Things are so bad that the EU formally asked Elon Musk to censor Donald Trump during a scheduled conversation between the two that’s running on the platform X. The EU can’t even handle divisive rhetoric from a convicted criminal 5,000 miles away.
Between white supremacists and far-right wingers rioting in the streets, torching cars and unleashing heinous attacks online, it is evident that the most vulnerable in the U.K. are not okay, and things are only going to get worse for them and other marginalized peoples across the globe if Donald Trump returns to the White House. That’s why we must vote blue.
