With the EDL marching on our streets and the BNP on Question Time, it would be easy to dismiss this resurgence in extreme-right feeling as the product of a minority group on the fringes of our comfortably democratic, free-thinking, liberal society.
But if we really want to “Smash the BNP” or the EDL, as the banners proclaim, we need to realise that this particular form of hate doesn’t just spring up out of the ground – it has its roots in mainstream society, whether we want to admit it or not.
The EDL put a premium on explaining to wider society that they are not a racist or fascist organisation, but are, instead, dedicated to opposing all forms of “radical Islam” in our society. This is clever marketing if nothing else; effectively, they have re-branded their own special form of racist thuggery as the opposing force to something that many people in Middle England fear. This explains why the links on the EDL website are not to some niche rightwing website or a blog written by someone decorated with swastikas, but to the Daily Mail website.
Full post:
http://themule.info/article/the-edl-and-mainstream-society
The EDL put a premium on explaining to wider society that they are not a racist or fascist organisation, but are, instead, dedicated to opposing all forms of “radical Islam” in our society. This is clever marketing if nothing else; effectively, they have re-branded their own special form of racist thuggery as the opposing force to something that many people in Middle England fear. This explains why the links on the EDL website are not to some niche rightwing website or a blog written by someone decorated with swastikas, but to the Daily Mail website.
Full post:
http://themule.info/article/the-edl-and-mainstream-society
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