Dangers of the far right

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/10/2024 (709 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Any Canadian who golfs in the U.S.A. knows that it is an unwritten rule never to discuss American politics on or off the golf course.

An email chain here in Canada, of which I am a part, has the same prohibition in place. We want to avoid the acrimony which can accrue from verbalizing our diverse political opinions.

This prohibition worked well until I forwarded a video which made fun of Donald Trump. In a rather hyperbolic response, one member of our email chain replied by outlining reasons why a vote for Kamala Harris would be a mistake.

After reading this person’s broadside and watching the American presidential debates, I am rethinking our need to avoid discussing American politics.

Who knew, for example, that Trump had been endorsed by Victor Orban of Hungary? Orban has been described as “far-right, a fascist and a dictator.” Under his rule, legislative and executive power has been centralized, civil and human rights have been curbed and the independence of the press, judiciary and central bank have been weakened. Hungary is now described as an “electoral autocracy and kleptocracy.”

Do we want to see the U.S.A. move in this direction? Surely the future of democracy in our neighbour to the south is worth talking about.

The first point made in the email epistle is that unless you support Trump “you believe in censorship and no dissenting opinions are allowed on your controlled mainstream media.” JD Vance indicated in the VP debate that Harris exercised censorship during COVID-19.

It is a common far-right argument that the mainstream media (MSM) is corrupt and controls the dissemination of information. What the far right neglects to mention is that the MSM adheres to a journalistic code of ethics which requires them to publish facts vs opinions. That is why, for example, they cannot publish a pseudo-scientific piece concerning an anti-vaccine belief.

The second point made is that if you support Harris “you believe in open borders and letting anyone into your country including terrorists.” Immigrants, it seems, have become the scapegoats of the far right.

Trump and Vance have exaggerated claims about immigrants. Trump erroneously stated that illegal immigrants were eating the pets of citizens from Springfield, Ohio. Vance said there were 25 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. (that is one in 14 Americans) taking jobs away from Americans.

While misinformation is the stock and trade of the far right, it is the moralism of their beliefs that has begun to disturb me. Points three, four and five in this email reference transgender surgery, “the LGBT movement and promoting it to your children” and “abortion and even in late stages and after birth.”

As a former Employee and Family Assistance counsellor, I know righteous indignation and addiction to moral anger when I see it.

That is the problem with the far right; they are right and everybody else is wrong. Self-determination and choice are anathema to these people.

Accordingly, they want to stack the deck in their favour. That is why Trump could not admit he lost the last election. Victor Orban has engineered “elections” in Hungary so that they are undemocratic due to gerrymandering, political control over the media and questionable funding for political campaigns.

In 2021, JD Vance indicated that he wanted to fire every mid-level government employee and replace them with “our people.” Trump and Vance have been influenced by far-right bloggers like Curtis Yarvin who would like to see the U.S. government toppled and replaced with a CEO or dictator.

The misinformation, moralism and appeal to self-interest of the far right are designed to make it difficult for people to distinguish between what is right and wrong. The antidote to this strategy is to refuse to be subject to social mores which say we shouldn’t talk about politics.

Because now more than ever, we need to stand up for what is right.

Mac Horsburgh lives in Winnipeg.