Just listened to The News Agents Investigates podcast on rise of far right, & I was not particularly surprised to find the left's (I think) very plausible explanation for the rise of the right got no mention at all, the issue being framed instead entirely around the collapse of centrism (centrism being good, obvs.!).
The diagnosis offered by The News Agents for the rise of the far right focuses on centre-right parties adopting the rhetoric/discourses of the far right. Why did the centre right do this? The core suggestion made in the podcast is (1) 9/11 (worries about Muslims and the threat of Islamism), and (2) the fact that centre-left and -right became very similar on economic policy, resulting in the centre-right shifting their focus/arguments to the social/cultural (and thus immigration, etc.) in order to get some distance from the centre-left.
It's also suggested that the far right thrive in times of political turmoil, and that Covid, and now the situation in Gaza, are being exploited (the far right tend to be very pro-Isreal, even while also being antisemitic). Online radicalisation also gets a mention.
No mention at all of the left, or left policies, or the left's diagnosis.
The only fairly clearly leftist voice that I could detect was, weirdly, that of a demonstrator that commented only on Israel's relationship with Geert Wilders (a 'Zionist puppet'), a comment that the presenter Lewis Goodall then took the opportunity to suggest was antisemitic (which will of course remind listeners of the (false) accusation that the left is riddled with antisemitism).
So what is the left's I think very plausible explanation for the rise of the far right? Inequality is ramping up (growing relentlessly, even under New Labour) & ordinary people's lives are getting worse and worse as the result of an oligarchy that relies increasingly on distraction by divide & rule (blame immigrants, foreigners, muslims, woke...)
The left's solution is to bring in left policies that will *significantly* redress inequality, which is something centrist politicians - sponsored by oligarchs - will not do. The result of centrist inaction is that the right will only get stronger still as frustrations and (misdirected) anger continue to grow. With the left now effectively removed from the political arena, it's just a matter of time... Eventually: 'Boom!'
No mention at all of this leftist PoV from The News Agents Investigates. Even if it's wrong, it's surely at least worth mentioning and discussing? It's a very well-known view that's been around a long time. See image for Tony Benn accurately predicting, and diagnosing the rise of the far right back in 1982.
To me, the airbrushing out of the left's views and diagnosis, plus the one recognisably left voice that was included being framed and dismissed as that of an antisemitic conspiracy theorist, makes this investigative report look *extremely* biased against the left. Most listeners won't notice though.
The irony is that, if I am correct, then The News Agents - and centrists journalists of the same stripe who habitually airbrush out or smear the left - are actually themselves contributing to the rise of the far right.
I am not suggesting for a minute that this anti-left bias from Lewis Goodall was deliberate. I just think the smearing and airbrushing out of left voices is so much a part of the journalistic culture that it takes quite a bit of effort to recognise that and not to go with the established flow.
Happy to be corrected if you feel I have misrepresented The News Agents here. You can listen to the podcast I am discussing here.
Comments