Today, many feel like they need to make a choice between the left and right, though they could be outside of that arena altogether (apolitical) or “fence sitters” (centrists), which is basically the same, in choosing to judge every issue and policy on its own merits and refusing to brand themselves with a mainstream party logo.

Criticism swiftly comes from both sides.

“Oh, you just don’t have the balls to take a real stand!”

This option is as healthy as it is shamed –  there is no shame in sitting on a fence when on both sides there are maniacs looking to tear it down in order to kill each other (metaphorically or not). They are not willing to build bridges but only to tear down any existing ones.

The world is intoxicated with extremism, and each side, in order to win political dominance, is willing to make collateral victims in the ranks of those it sees as enemies.

They seem to be forgetting these truisms:

  • Populists only engage in mass manipulation – by stirring hatred on the right or giving false hope on the left;
  • Whatever agenda there is for world politics, it goes on regardless of the political spectacle and presidential elections (the wars have never stopped);
  • Nothing is new under the sun (old methods of division keep being used);
  • Ordinary people, with no political power, achieve nothing at the end of the day by fighting each other;
  • It is absolutely callous to revel in the reality of – or hopes for – collateral victims being made by any change in political power;
  • Even if a political candidate is genuine in terms of intentions – which I trust rarely happens – there is an entire apparatus at the helm of any country, well embedded, which cannot be beaten, and things overall remain as they are. Anyone who is not corruptible or who cannot be coerced into acting against their conscience/platform simply does not get into positions of power.

Choosing the left or right means putting your trust in one populist or another, after many election cycles of it all having failed. It is never about the best option but wanting to avoid the greater harm; that in itself shows the pathological nature of the system, where the only winners are those on top, and the rest simply imagine having avoided disaster, although that never happens in the end.

Right wing populism is utter bullshit

The right is about maintaining structures of dominance, as well as ensuring the well-to-do remain in that position. Right-wingers cannot talk about freedom whilst under the boot of corrupt individuals who see the world as their back yard and act accordingly. There is no “drain the swamp”. They are the swamp, or part of it, anyway. The common man is and will always be screwed over.

It is understandable that people vote for them out of desperation. It’s just how it works, unfortunately. They are clinging to a romanticised temporary phases of economical betterment under right wing leadership, although it all ultimately faded. They are also clinging to the past emotionally (“the good old days when everything was simple”), as social dynamics keep transforming, without realising that being stuck at one point in time does not benefit anyone.

Left wing populism is bullshit as well

The left is not about dismantling these power structures, but about replacing them with their own; putting their own people in place and profiting from it, under the mask of progress. It failed in the US because it was not credible – and for good reasons. The left winning would have made no difference at all – the same wars and corruption would have continued, perhaps in a more surreptitious way.

The left as it stands today is not about unity, but division, playing different groups against each other and seeking to resurrect the same old socialist “hope”. And whereas many on the left start from a point of good intentions – they genuinely want equality and humane politics – their ideological purity leaves them in a state of perpetual hysteria against anyone who disagrees with them even slightly.

 

Whoever is incapable of seeing nuance in any given issue, out of political loyalty, is a dangerous fucker, having abdicated their own conscience.

Whoever looks for enemies to vanquish, and not for a common ground, will only bring about destruction, because destruction is part of their plan to victory to begin with.

We see it with the right today (what is happening to immigrants and asylum seekers in the US leaves part of the population stone cold), and we see it with the left as well, in their outrage culture, mobbing and even imprisonment of those they see as political enemies.

And make no mistake – the oppressive apparatus established by the right today will be used by the left when they get their turn, as they always do.

 

Belonging to either camp is like putting blinders on. There is no better way to see the fallacies than to sit on that fence everyone throws rotten tomatoes at, as you plainly see the misconceptions, the hysteria, the manipulation. As a “fence-sitter” you are spat at by everyone and therefore see what you might be doing yourself if you abdicated critical thought in order to blend into a crowd.

Personally, I am regularly called a “leftard” and a Marxist by people on the right, and far right by those on the left (though most of my opinions are left-leaning). The ideological purity on the left is why I cannot trust these flower-power activists; they turn on you as soon as they think you’ve used the wrong punctuation.

You can agree with them on 90% of issues – as soon as there is an inkling of disagreement on a single one, or a refusal to take on the label of socialism, you are automatically in the enemy camp. That is why most are not to be trusted, in my experience anyway.

The attempts to silence dissenters are real, unlike what moderates on the left like to propagate. You have people from former socialist/communist countries spat at because they disavow socialism, and you have apostates from Islam painted as radicals seeking to cause harm to Muslims by criticising their former religion, regardless of the persecution they have been subjected to.

No middle ground is sought to try to understand where everyone is coming from.

Identity politics are rife on both sides.

The left is more famous for it by forming groups upon groups and subjecting every individual to a standard of proselytism. Everyone being lumped in with a group is seen as a representative of it, an emissary to the outer world, although all they seek is to live their own lives as they see fit. You have people who thought they were transgender, decided to de-transition and are now bullied for a personal decision because apparently, they feed into the idea that transgender identities are not genuine. You have gay people criticised for “homonormativity”.

The right, which seemed to oppose all this, has now become all about the so-called persecution of whites and this cretinous idea of a “white genocide”. There is no need to reiterate where that leads to, which is plain to see now, with neo-Nazis sprouting out of the ground like mushrooms after the rain. There is also a re-surging, pure and poisonous misogyny, calling for the male domination of women to be reinstated  (very popular with the religious right).

Which is why I gladly and remorselessly take the piss out of both sides. So many of these activists are simple drones, chanting slogans and regurgitating fake news as it suits them. They are all full of anger and hatred towards some category or another – all willing to cause harm to innocent people so that their “great vision for the future” can be realised.

Honestly – fuck them all, if they are unable to see what they are part of, in the long run. They are slowly turning in a stew of solipsism, naval gazing and inability to empathise with others. And it won’t change anytime soon. It appears our species has not evolved enough for all these methods of division to be consigned to history.